Various Sewn Items
Sometimes I sew! I started sewing dolls as practice, but it all just got out of hand. I absolutely enjoy making dolls and I am constantly thinking of new ideas! I really hope you think the dolls that I make are cool and maybe they'll inspire you to start making dolls of your own. I also really want to start making clothes for myself. Sometimes I see a pattern and wish I had a shirt with that or pants of that pattern and maybe one day I'll start. There are also things that I'd like to recreate for myself! I also want to try to create pins, earrings, necklaces, and other things similar to that. I think those would be fun and interesting.
Dolls
This is the first doll I've made. She's a bit taller than three feet. I only wanted to use fabrics I already owned and I wanted her to be some sort of a ragdoll with the mismatched patterns and fabrics. She took me two days to finish. I like her a lot. I think she's very pretty. I also have this box of buttons that I want to use for something so that's why her eyes are like that. I have decided to keep her since she is the very first doll that I've ever made. I keep calling her Too Tall Girl since she is quite a tall doll. I think she's the tallest doll that I own.
This is the second doll I've made. I made them right after the first one. I wanted them to be a lot smaller and I wanted to sew the whole thing by hand. I messed up a bit on this one, but it doesn't matter. I also gave the necks some nice necklaces. I wanted this doll to match more and be more consistent than the last one. This doll ended up with a friend of mine and he named the doll Ajay. He picked this doll because they look similar to a turtle and my friend really likes turtles.
This is the third doll that I have made. I wanted this one to have a belly kinda like a bear. That part was difficult to do and I did it by hand, but I think I now understand how I would be able to do it with a machine. I also wanted the fingers on their left arm to be similar to how I draw fingers like shown in this one drawing. I also had some trouble attaching the feet to the legs, but I think I got it. I wanted to only use clear buttons for their eyes because I thought that would have looked cool. I have decided to keep this guy and I named him Ezra.
Here is the fourth doll that I have made. This one was difficult to make because the grey and red parts are made of polyester and that material is very hard to work with since it is very stretchy. Those parts are made of old shirts that my brother used to wear. I wanted to make a doll with a really long neck and have a long snout. The tongue didn't end up how I wanted it to be, but I think it looks fine. This time I used beads for their eyes instead of buttons. I have a bunch of these tiny beads that were in a friendship bracelet making kit and I never used them for the bracelets so now I'm using them for eyes. I also bought some new fabric and used it for underneath the body. This doll was claimed by a friend of mine and was named Kipper.
The fifth doll that I made right after the fourth doll. I surprisingly was able to finish this doll in one day. Most of the other dolls took about two days. I also bought new fabric for this one which was the dotted fabric. I'm not so sure why I bought this pattern since I don't like it so much, but I guess it can fit with some dolls. The main thing I wanted to create with this doll are floppy ears. I wanted the doll to have longer legs in the back so whenever they're on all fours their butt is up in the air, but that didn't work so well with this doll. I didn't plan it out so thoroughly. I didn't plan out any of these dolls that thoroughly. I really messed up on that left arm. It shouldn't be caving in like that, but not all of the arm got underneath the initial seam so I had to keep sewing over that one part until it was closed. Oh well! I used beads for eyes on this one, too. I think I'm going to use the beads only for much smaller dolls. This doll was claimed by a friend of mine and was named Ray.
I made dolls of John Linnell and John Flansburgh for some reason. These men have been in progress for months. I really want to make at least one outfit for both of them. I plan to use them for a video for the song "Oh You Did" and put wires in them so they're poseable. These dolls could have been a lot better, but I did the best I could at the time. Everything is done by hand even their clothes. This was my first time making humans and it was my first time using yarn for hair. I don't remember how I figured out how to do their hair, but I did it. I think I could have cut their hair better and overall planned it out better because it doesn't look that good, but it's whatever. I can easily change it if I wanted to. It was rather difficult to do their hair since it's so short. They shed a lot, it's annoying. They're fun to play with.
This is the eighth doll that I've made. I wanted to redo the design for the third doll that I made. The belly is so hard to do. I need to practice that more. I messed up on the positioning of the two arms on the left, but I didn't feel like removing all of the stitching so now they're overlapping each other. I wanted them to go out away from each other. Since this was another practice doll, I used more of these fabric samples that I've used before. This little guy has been named Dmitri. He is the little brother of Ezra.
This is the ninth doll that I have made and my first commission!!! My mother showed her boyfriend the doll that I made before and he asked me if I could make one for him. He said I could do whatever I want, but the doll should be at least blue and green. I wanted to revisit that fourth doll that I made in a way. I didn't reuse the template from before, but I wanted to have another doll with a long snout. This doll was named Durante because of his huge snout (if you look up Jimmy Durante then you'll understand why he was named that). How come all of the smaller arms end up on the same side of the doll?
WHOO! My tenth doll!!! I made this little baby on a whim. I wanted to make something by hand again and something small so this small one was created. I also love this fabric and would love to have more of it. It's such a cool pattern. I also love it combined with the clear glitter buttons used for the eyes. It also went so well with the sun button that I had. This doll looks so good!
This doll was commissioned by a friend of mine for a friend of ours. This character belongs to Eddie (alltimewhat on tumblr). His name is Leslie Down and is based off of the They Might Be Giants song "Hide Away Folk Family." He was rather difficult to finish. I was having so much trouble making a necktie and a blazer for him. At first, I made the necktie the way you're supposed to, but it ended up being too short and too thick for him. I had to redo it and use up more fabric that I don't even have a lot of. It was such a sad time. Making that blazer was so confusing. I don't understand them that much. I chose that fabric for his blazer because my friend was also getting the doll above so I wanted them to match. They're best friends.
Here is the Two Headed Johnster! I wanted to make a doll of John Flansburgh and John Linnell for my good friend Greg (he hosts This Might Be a Podcast, you should totally listen to it), but I didn't want to just copy my John dolls so I made something quite interesting. I actually didn't plan on making these dolls for him, but on the first episode that I appeared on, he randomly said something along the lines of, "yeah, I'm just waiting for Seymour to make dolls of the Johns for me." Afterwards I thought to myself, "well, I guess I have to." Funny how he says things and I just make them afterwards. Even my first John dolls were made because I tweeted out I was going to make a doll whenever I woke up and he asked me if it was going to be a Linnell doll or a Flans doll so I just had to make them later on. Okay, back to serious business. This was my first time using felt for hair and I have decided that I hate it, but I will continue to use it. My brother said he liked it better than the yarn hair on my John dolls because there's a more defined shape. I do like the more defined shape, but I hate how felt feels. I guess me not liking felt doesn't really matter because I'm not keeping these dolls and don't have to touch them every day. Anyways, I did all of this by hand because it's easier to fix your mistakes that way. I hate how their eyebrows look. I fucked up on them. I used my new fabric markers instead of my old ones and that was a terrible mistake. There are a bunch of other mistakes, but that's just the one that bothers me the most. I hope he's doing well with Greg.
This one looks so cool! I used a bunch of fabric scraps and I think they ended up looking so awesome. I had a lot of fun making this doll and was so happy to use my sewing machine again. I also had this idea to place a button on top of another button and was so excited to implement that idea onto this doll. I would like to make more dolls like this in the future.
I had this idea to use beads for limbs. I should probably do some research on beadwork and how kandi bracelets are made since that's what I initially imagined how the limbs would look. I do like how this doll turned out, but I think I don't use bead limbs for necks anymore. I really like the face on this doll. I will definitely use buttons for mouths again. I also put buttons on top of other buttons for the eyes again. I think that's a super cool look and the button on top is like a pupil!
I messed up on this doll. I really did not want to undo my stitching so I just continued on. The head was sewn on backwards so the seam on the body is on the front instead of the back. This is why those buttons are there. They're supposed to hide the seam a bit. I also like the face on this doll! I was really missing adding a ton of eyes onto a doll and I tried to embroider the mouth on again.
This doll is so huge! I did not mean for this doll to be this large, but it just happened. Making this doll taught me that I really don't like using white buttons for eyes, but I have so many white buttons so I need to use them sometimes. At least it goes with this doll. I also wanted to use the bead idea for other things besides as limbs so I added some strings of beads to the ends of the pegs on this doll.
They look like a little froggy. I really like how this doll turned out. I like the string of beads on each side of the bottom of their head. It reminds me of bead curtains. I think this doll is also a really great size for a doll. It's not too small and and it's not too big. I also like how the bottom and the sides of their body are solid colors while the rest of the body is that plaid pattern. I really want to do more color blocking like that.
Tongue out! I wanted to make eyes out of fabric and so that's what I came up with! She's winking at you. I like the extremely thin and long neck that this doll has. You can easily grab onto it. The one outstretched arm is there so you can give her a high five every day. This is my first doll with no beads nor buttons. She was gifted to a friend and was named Plootie.
My, what many eyes they have. So many different angles to see all at once. They're just a purple blob with a tail and legs. I haven't brushed out yarn yet so I tested it out with this doll. I do like how it looks. I'm sure I'll use incorporate that into another doll in the future.
Multiple heads! Oh, how I missed making dolls with multiple heads! I went so long making dolls only with one head, but now I have made something special. Three perfect heads! I used metal buttons for two of them. I wanted them to have interesting buttons for eyes since I felt like the dolls before had much more simple buttons for eyes. I also gave them necklaces to wear! By the way, those are tongues coming out of their heads.
I was commissioned to make another one of these dolls. I changed the template a little bit from the last one, but I think I want redo this altogether. I don't like how they've been turning out and I think I can do so much better. I still think this concept is really cool and I think I did well the first time around.
I'm expanding upon the bead limb thing. I did say I wasn't going to use it again for necks and so I didn't. Also, I got stuffing pellets so I was able to fill the bottom of this doll with that. I like the added weight of it. I used a bunch of old shirts for this doll. It's rather difficult to sew such stretchy material, but it all turned out fine for me. I like how this doll looks a lot. I would like to make more similar to it.
This doll was made completely out of fabric scraps. I was able to stuff them with whatever I had left over. I really wanted to clear out my bag of fabric scraps, I HAD to get rid of them! They are not soft at all, but I enjoy their company. I've named them Chauncey because they remind me of a horse a bit and that name reminds me of horses for some reason. I really like the handle on their head. I would like to incoporate that into more dolls in the future. I also like that they have two faces. I should incorporate that into other dolls in the future, too!
This doll ended up being larger than I thought they were going to be. I wanted to work with the bead limbs idea again and I'm kind of not liking it anymore. I absolutely hate sewing it down, it always ends up being a struggle. I just might have to plan it out better because all of the bead limbs stuff is made before I even have the whole doll planned out so ... it's just kind of not thought out well enough. I also feel like they don't look that cool. Maybe I just need to figure something out in the future and design them in a way that makes them look better and more like how I want them to be. One thing that I did with this doll is I actually gave them a nose and a mouth. I've given dolls mouths before, but never noses. I think I just need to practice embroidery more. This doll was also inspired by that blue doll above. I added a little collar on them because I felt like I should add more decorative details to my dolls. I think it looks super cool, but it's not as gathered as I would want it to be. I could have either made it longer in length or shortened the width a bit. Oh well! They've already been made. Overall, I think they look super awesome. This doll was named Jonesy.
I was working on something very important and wanted to use up the scraps for dolls so I made this little thing. Most of my dolls are quite large so I had to make something small this time around. This little guy almost had legs, but then I decided against it. I think the legs would have looked awful on them and I didn't want to deal with having to sew them on so they ended up with only one arm. I don't think I have done a sewn on face that much before so I did that again with this doll. I like how the face looks and should totally do more stuff like this especially when I don't have any buttons that I feel like would fit the doll. I can give them interesting expressions and it's a nice technique to use when I don't really know how to embroider.
What an octopus! The legs were going to be sewn into the seams at first, but I kind of hate doing that so they ended up being separate pieces attached by buttons. If that had been my original plan then I would have made the legs a bit longer. I enjoy the button idea and have been wanting to do it for awhile, but I don't like a few of the buttons that I used here. I went through a few of my bags to see which color had enough types of buttons that I needed. They had to have two holes and be of similar sizes and the blue bag had the most of that so that's what I ended up with. I wanted green, but that bag didn't have any buttons that fit what I needed. I finally figured out how to sew squares so the bottom of this creature looks pretty good, but the top isn't all that great. As you can see above the face the fabric is folding over which is not a good thing. Hopefully ones that I make after this one don't have that problem since I know what to do now. This little guy is stuffed with fabric scraps except for the legs.
My friend sent me a few things so I created two younger siblings for Jonesy so they'd have something in return. I wanted them to have that classic dynamic of one being fat and short with the other being skinny and tall. I tried to make both of them look similar to Jonesy by using the same fabrics, but changing them around so they're not exactly the same. I gave this one no arms since Jonesy only has one. He still has two legs, though. This little guy is named Jasper.
Here is the second sibling that was created for Jonesy. This one is named Jubilee. Here is all three of them together. The thing that I dislike about Jubilee and Jasper is that the fabric used for their bodies blend in together unlike Jonesy's stripes. I liked his mismatched lines a lot and these two don't have anything like that. I tried to make the legs on Jubilee be different lengths as if he's still growing, but they ended up being similar in length. I intended for his arms to also look like they're still growing and those came out quite well. I really enjoy the different expressions on the three dolls.
I wanted to try out the fabric face idea again so that's what I did here. I have a few old shirts in my fabric collection so I'm trying to use them for faces. Shirts are quite stretchy and I dislike sewing stretchy fabric and they aren't ever what I want to use for body parts since the shape that I am going for won't be able to hold if it's stretching out so much. I need to figure out how to make the legs look less odd in the crotch area. It's all bunched up and the legs tend to curl inwards, but I have an idea on how to fix that. I decided to give this doll hair because I need to do something with all of the yarn that I have. I like this little guy. They look so cute. They were named Coral.
A literal kitty cat. I have this onesie that I got from a friend years ago and would never actually wear it so I thought to use it for my dolls. The fabric doesn't seem to fray, but sewing it is weird. I would need some sort of stabilizer for next time. I should also use a stabilizer for the next time I embroider something on them so it's not bunching up like on the doll's eyes. I accidentally sewed the legs onto the wrong side, but I kept them like that because I think it gives the doll some character like as if they're looking at you in disdain.
This one reminds me of the octopus from Shark Tale for some reason. I wanted to do something simple for this doll and to use these two plaid shirts that I don't wear anymore. I probably could have designed this better so the bottom part didn't look so odd. They're just a simple doll, quite small, too. I wanted to resuse my idea of buttons for a mouth so that's what I did here. I think it's a cool look. I should use it for more dolls in the future.
This doll has done for a commission. I actually went out and purchased new fabric for this doll. I really like this pig pattern on them. It looks so cute. The person who commissioned me wanted the doll to be pink and the store didn't have many patterns that had pink in them so I went with the pigs. I went with the brown to go with the mud that is in the pig pattern. The wings were added at the last second because I realized that I had made the ears white so I needed some other appendage that was white since the arms, legs, and tail are all pink.
Pins
Here are some John head pins. They're a bit large. I made the ones on the left first. I don't like them that much mainly because of Flans. I feel like his glasses are too far up. His forehead just seems too small compared to his actual forehead. I also do not like how his nose turned out on that one. I also don't really like how his beard turned out, but I just feel like I didn't plan things out very well. I think the Linnell one looks rather cute, though. I also really like the buttons that I used for their eyes. The ones on the right look much better to me. I threw away the template that I made for the ones on the right after I finished them so I had to make them again from scratch. The only thing that I don't like that much about the second ones is Linnell's hair. His hair looked better to me before. Overall, the second ones look a lot cooler and they're also a bit smaller. These don't take as long to make compared to other things I've made which is awesome. I would like to make more things similar to this in the future.