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Waldorf Dolls - The Most Cuddly Doll Your Child Will Ever Love - Make One!
By Margaret Lunn
Making Waldorf dolls for your children is a wonderful way to say, "I love you." Waldorf dolls are soft and huggable, ideal for children to carry around as a special lovey doll. If you make them yourself, Waldorf dolls can be easily customized to look like your child. Because the facial features of Waldorf dolls typically are only very minimally indicated (just dots for eyes, and a simple little curve for a mouth), all you need to do to create a portrait doll is to match the eye color and hair color and style.
What distinguishes Waldorf dolls from any other dolls? There are really only a few basic requirements:
Waldorf dolls should be hand crafted, of all natural materials.
Ideally, the creator of the doll should craft it with love, as the doll will be imbued with the maker's spiritual state.
Materials for Waldorf dolls include 100% cotton fabric, and pure wool stuffing.
Using natural wool stuffing makes the doll feel warm and slightly heavy, for a cuddly, life-like feel.
Making Waldorf dolls is not at all difficult. Really!
Clean, carded wool is actually easier to work with and stuffs more smoothly than polyester fluff (and
because of the natural lanolin in the wool, handling it will soften your hands!). The soft cotton knits used for Waldorf doll skins are very forgiving and easy to sew, as they readily conform to the contours of the head and body without forming unwanted pleats and puckers. What's more, the simple designs of Waldorf dolls are readily achieved with modest sewing skills.
There are many different types of Waldorf dolls, from the simplest bunting babies to fully articulated dolls with button joints. The simplest Waldorf dolls, suitable for infants and very young children, don't even need to be dressed, as the body is made from colored fabric which does double duty as the doll's clothing.
The most basic doll design is the bunting baby, which can be made very quickly. This doll consists of a round, stuffed head, attached to a floppy, nearly shapeless bunting body of colored fabric.
More advanced, but still very simple Waldorf dolls can be made with a round, stuffed head attached to a rag-doll type body with arms and legs, but no joints.
The traditional construction method for the head starts with wool batting wound into a ball and covered with tubular cotton gauze. Strong thread tied around the center of the head creates the eye line. This is then covered with the doll skin fabric, with just a few embroidery stitches indicating eyes and mouth.
Wigs in many styles can be made from wool or mohair yarn, attached to a fabric or crochet skull cap.
When the head is attached to a rag doll body sewn from colorful cotton fleece, you have a doll all ready-dressed in pajamas.
Whatever doll type you choose, you're sure to fall in love with these charming dolls.
Margaret Lunn is an educator, doll artist, and puppeteer. For more detailed instructions and patterns for making Waldorf dolls, be sure to visit http://www.softstuffedtoys.com.
related:
Waldorf-Style Doll: Part 1 Forming the Head
Waldorf-Style Doll: Part 2 Sewing & Stuffing the Body
Making Waldorf dolls for your children is a wonderful way to say, "I love you." Waldorf dolls are soft and huggable, ideal for children to carry around as a special lovey doll. If you make them yourself, Waldorf dolls can be easily customized to look like your child. Because the facial features of Waldorf dolls typically are only very minimally indicated (just dots for eyes, and a simple little curve for a mouth), all you need to do to create a portrait doll is to match the eye color and hair color and style.
What distinguishes Waldorf dolls from any other dolls? There are really only a few basic requirements:
Waldorf dolls should be hand crafted, of all natural materials.
Ideally, the creator of the doll should craft it with love, as the doll will be imbued with the maker's spiritual state.
Materials for Waldorf dolls include 100% cotton fabric, and pure wool stuffing.
Using natural wool stuffing makes the doll feel warm and slightly heavy, for a cuddly, life-like feel.
Making Waldorf dolls is not at all difficult. Really!
Clean, carded wool is actually easier to work with and stuffs more smoothly than polyester fluff (and
because of the natural lanolin in the wool, handling it will soften your hands!). The soft cotton knits used for Waldorf doll skins are very forgiving and easy to sew, as they readily conform to the contours of the head and body without forming unwanted pleats and puckers. What's more, the simple designs of Waldorf dolls are readily achieved with modest sewing skills.There are many different types of Waldorf dolls, from the simplest bunting babies to fully articulated dolls with button joints. The simplest Waldorf dolls, suitable for infants and very young children, don't even need to be dressed, as the body is made from colored fabric which does double duty as the doll's clothing.
The most basic doll design is the bunting baby, which can be made very quickly. This doll consists of a round, stuffed head, attached to a floppy, nearly shapeless bunting body of colored fabric.
More advanced, but still very simple Waldorf dolls can be made with a round, stuffed head attached to a rag-doll type body with arms and legs, but no joints.
The traditional construction method for the head starts with wool batting wound into a ball and covered with tubular cotton gauze. Strong thread tied around the center of the head creates the eye line. This is then covered with the doll skin fabric, with just a few embroidery stitches indicating eyes and mouth.
Wigs in many styles can be made from wool or mohair yarn, attached to a fabric or crochet skull cap.
When the head is attached to a rag doll body sewn from colorful cotton fleece, you have a doll all ready-dressed in pajamas.
Whatever doll type you choose, you're sure to fall in love with these charming dolls.
Margaret Lunn is an educator, doll artist, and puppeteer. For more detailed instructions and patterns for making Waldorf dolls, be sure to visit http://www.softstuffedtoys.com.
related:Waldorf-Style Doll: Part 1 Forming the Head
Waldorf-Style Doll: Part 2 Sewing & Stuffing the Body
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Replies to This Post
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Permalink Reply by memasanders on -
These are darling Since I have 2 small grandchildren I'm gonna have to try these thanks
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Permalink Reply by marietweet on -
I saw this post & had to add that these dolls are sooo much fun. When you make one, your love transfers into it. My son attended Detroit Waldorf school, in the 60's for 3 yrs, until we moved. If you don't know about the Waldorf concept, it's worthwhile to learn about it. But anyway, I made several of the Waldorf dolls, for my son & later, my daughter. Those were the one's they played with the most (of all the dolls that I made for them).
A funny side note - I made my daughter a Waldorf doll, with out a face...I molded a face, but didn't add eyes or a mouth. I molded the nose. Anyway, after playing with her doll for over a year, my daughter went in my makeup and got lipstick & added lips to her dollies' face. She said she wanted her(dollie) to look like "Mommie". After I got over the shock of the "lips", I got a great laugh, as did her Daddy. -
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