This is a good story. I took a few days off from quilting at the end of February to make myself a new Waldorf Doll.
For a while I owned a Bamboletta Forever Friend. She was a lovely doll, but that particular style of Waldorf Doll is just too gangly for me. Seems like they are all arms and legs. That’s just me. However, I had made that doll a wardrobe of beautiful dresses. When I re-homed her, I kept the clothes, even though I no longer had a doll they fit.
So the task at hand was to make a new Waldorf doll who could wear the clothes! Sort of backwards, but there it is. I knew the pattern for the classic Waldorf doll in Maricristin Sealey’s Book Making Waldorf Dolls had the right size torso for the dresses. It that doll just wasn’t long/tall enough and it’s legs are forward facing and don’t have feet. So I altered that pattern taking some ideas from the Olga/Ollie Doll in Karin Neuschütz’s book, Sewing Dolls and drafted a new pattern for a lean 18 inch doll with actual feet.
This doll is definitely not gangly!! In fact, I had to go back and resew both her arms and legs to make them a bit leaner. If I ever make another doll using this pattern, I’ll shorten the arms a bit and lengthen the legs about half an inch.
The pupil in each eye, a French knot, is a new feature for me. I think I like the pupils, but still not positive about them!.
Anyway, designing a new pattern for this doll was a really fun challenge I’m really happy with this new doll.