Freebie Friday – Completed Rag Dolls

I finished my first rag doll at work and it was a huge success. The kids were very curious about what I was making. When I told them, they were all very excited. I told them I was working on something I thought they could all make once they learned the single crochet. I just grabbed some random colors we had in our yarn drawer. Another student was using the tan color so I grabbed yellow because it was lighter than the other colors we had. Another student recommended the blues for the body. What I didn’t realize was that the students would see Spongebob Square Pants and Steve from Minecraft. One kinder kept telling me I should make princess Jasmine from Aladdin because of the light blue I was using. Meanwhile, I was just making something random but it definitely got me thinking about future rag dolls and what characters it easily lends itself too. The doll didn’t take me long to make so the whole project was a winner. I can make them quickly for the prize box, I can teach the kids a project they can finish and it lends itself so easily to characters the kids already love.

Here’s my first attempt. I used very little stuffing which made it soft and cuddly (and also easy to make). A fifth grade student kept telling me he really wanted it. I told him when he made it to the prize box, I would give it to him. I was going to add hair but my student wanted it just like this so no hair :-).

The second one was inspired by my Minecraft loving students 🙂 My daughter, ever the faithful critic, thought the body was too long for the first doll so I shortened it by a few rows for this second doll. Haven’t decided which one I like better. I intended to make Steve’s feet with black or dark grey yarn for his shoes but I forgot so I will probably attach a pair of black shoes after.

How I make them

The head is made up of 2 squares sew together with either a whip stitch or with single crochet. I make a square by making an equal number of rows as the stitches in a row. For example, if I use 7 stitches of single crochet, I make 7 rows. I create the face on one square and then put them together, crochet or sew around them leaving an opening for stuffing then sealing it closed.

The body is slightly wider than the head. I do about two or three more stitches than I do for the head. In the example for the first doll, I started with 7 single crochet per row so for the body, I did 10. I wanted a rectangle for the body so any amount of rows that were more than 10 would work. I decided to double the amount so I did 10 rows in the light blue, changed color and did 10 rows of the dark blue. As with the head, I single crocheted around both pieces, left an opening for stuffing and then single crocheted closed.

The arms and legs were done exactly the same for both dolls. I did  2 rectangles with 10 stitches wide and 10 rows of turquoise and the two more rows of the skin color. I did the same with the darker blue. I folded each piece over and whip stitched along the side and bottom. Since I folded the piece over, I opted to use a whip stitch instead of single crochet to edge it closed. I sewed all the pieces together and a doll was born :-).

I made a pattern in case anyone feels they need one. Hopefully there aren’t any mistakes in it since patterns aren’t my usual thing but hopefully I’ll get better at creating them.

Pattern for the Steve Rag Doll

Hook: H

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver Turquoise, Blue, Tan, Dark

Head: Make 2 squares

Color tan

Chain 9, turn

Row 1-8: sc across (8 sc), ch 1, turn

Fasten off

Make a face on one of the squares.

With face facing out, stack the squares and single crochet the edges together (placing 2 sc in the corners)

Body: Make 2 rectangles

Color turquoise and Dark blue

Start with turquoise

Ch 12, turn

Row 1-7: sc across (11 sc), ch 1, turn

Row 8: sc across 10 sets, change color (dark blue) on last (11th) st, ch 1, turn

Row 9-16: repeat row 1

Fasten off

Stack the rectangles together and single crochet the edges together (placing 2 sc in the corners).

(If you liked the longer body of the first doll better, do 11 rows of each color.)

Arms and legs: Make 2 of each color

Turquoise (arms): make 2,

Ch 11, turn

Row 1-9: sc across (10 sc), ch 1, turn

Row 10: sc across 9 sts, change color (tan) on last (10th) st, ch 1, turn

Row 11-12: repeat row 1

Fasten off

Dark blue (legs): make 2

Repeat the same pattern for the arms but for the feet, instead of tan, you can use black for the shoes.

Sew the edges together with a whip stitch. Here is a YouTube video tutorial for the whip stitch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZS5Rbp2tMw

Advertisement