A long time ago, back in 2007, I was playing around with making a weighted baby doll with limbs. I had been making weighted dolls for our local Waldorf school for them to use in the classrooms and really fell in love with the concept. Those dolls were essentially a head with a sack full of millet . Weighted dolls are sometimes used in therapeutic environments as they are thought to comfort and ground a child (and adults, too!). Anyhow, I’ve been wanting to create something for a while now, it’s always been at the back of my mind, but that pesky lack of time kinda got in the way.
A few months ago Jes came to me with a baby design she’d been playing with – it was amazing – my doll dream had come to life! Jes is one of our lovely ladies who sew our Cuddle Dolls and she used construction techniques from those to make the baby. When I tried working on the pattern, I always got held up in the limbs area but now with our new pattern Jes figured it out in a snap! It is so awesome working with this group and watch how ideas are hatched, incubate and come to life. It’s like a beehive of creativity.
So, this is our new baby. I don’t think I’ve fallen in love with a doll this much – I LOVE them. Originally we weren’t going to do hair but when we put pics up on Facebook and Instagram we had quite a few comments asking about hair. Again, here’s where our creative flow comes in because it comes from all of you too. After a conversation with Leola, we brainstormed on making a little crocheted cap with boucle or mohair to give the baby a little fuzzy hat. It’s just so cool on how these things evolve. THEN just this week we started really trying to make an indent in the top of the head (this is where I put the threads through to make the eyes) so it would feel like a soft spot on the dolls head. This only works on some of the dolls though, depending on a few factors on how John makes the heads. Ohhh, how I love handmade!
Then there was the weight issue. I didn’t want to use any sort of foodstuff, like millet or rice. And I totally didn’t want to use those poly pellet plastic weight things – that just seems totally wrong to put in our dolls. I’ve always loved crystals, seems like there’s a bit of magic whenever I go into a crystal shop. My kids are so drawn to crystal shops and are constantly collecting different stones – I think there’s something to it that they can feel. So, crystal chips are what we use inside the doll to weight them. It’s mainly Rose Quartz, which is thought to be the stone of love, and Amethyst which is supposed to assist in calmness. We put the chips into a bag that’s sewn up nice and safe and then wrap it in wool and put it in the doll. It gives such a lovely feel to the dolls. Those little round bottoms are kinda the best!
We are doing some dolls with the regular open eyes and some with a sweet sleepy eye. I wanted to do them all with a sleepy eye (I love the look of the sleepy baby) but got a bit of feedback from people wanting an open eye, so I decided to do both. Jes then designed a sleeper, diaper, cap and swaddle to complete this sweet little package. They are about 14″ long, perfect for little mama’s. I hope that you all will love them as much as we do here!
Leave a Reply