Rock and Sew

I thought i’d introduce you to a tiny felt fan doll in this post. One of the prompts from the #Marchmeetthemaker Instagram challenge I’m taking part in at the moment was ‘your favourite make’.

I have plenty of candidates to choose from as I love what I do. In the end I used a photo from my most recent custom order – a tiny 10cm high Paul Stanley felt fan doll. ‘Paul’ went off to join his equally tiny Jon Bon Jovi friend.

Sometimes people ask me to make variations of my existing makes – a different colour hair, adding a name to the front of a doll’s outfit. I really enjoy being able to give people the opportunity to have things just the way they want them. How good would it be if high street shops could change the colour of that otherwise perfect outfit?

However what I really love is when someone gets in touch and asks me to make something completely new. When I first get an enquiry I find myself immediately coming up with ideas, then I have to try and get them down on paper. Sometimes just drawing out the concept can help me see how it would work (or not) in reality.

From the sketches I can narrow down what I’m going to do and develop paper patterns for the doll. Then its time to get sewing! There are times that my plans don’t quite work out. These dolls are much smaller than my usual makes so working with the denim and leather I chose for their clothes became a lot harder than it would in a larger size. But hey, that’s all part of the challenge. I think the last time I made tiny clothes was for some Sylvanian Families but they were a little different in style!

Once I have finished making a doll it’s time to show some pictures to the customer. That’s when my nerves kick in. My dolls are not exact images of a person or character. After all I’m creating a felt doll not a photograph, so they are my interpretation. When I come to send off photos I always worry that the customer might have a different interpretation. Its always good to hear from customers that they are pleased with what I have done for them.

I’ve made so many custom orders in the past and haven’t taken any decent photographs before I posted them off. These days I always make sure my finished makes have their photo shoot before they are packaged up.

Here are a few shots of Bon Jovi and Paul Stanley before I posted each of them out.