New Crochet Doll

Now that the school year is coming to a close, I’ve stopped taking requests for making rag doll characters from my students (I don’t want that kind of pressure!). I still find myself itching to make something, as well as continuing to crochet to encourage them to continue crocheting. When they see me crochet, they almost always ask if they can crochet too.

I decided to make crochet doll that would represent our after school program (World Academy). I wasn’t sure if the doll was going to be a toy the kids could play with or a decoration for our room but the kids, mainly the girls, kept asking me if I was going to let them play with her.

I got to work figuring out what she would look like. I wanted her to represent all of us in the program and she was loosely based on me. The staff wears a World Academy t-shirt as part of our uniform. I have several colors but the one I was wearing that day is a bright pink and we had pink in our cupboard so pink was the choice for the shirt. I was going to give her blue pants (I’m always wearing jeans) but the kids wanted a skirt so she got a skirt. I gave the doll brown curls made out of spirals. The kids pointed out I had black and white hair, not brown! They didn’t even comment that my hair is definitely not curly.

By the time she was done, she didn’t look anything like me but that didn’t stop the kids from thinking she was supposed to be me. The kids were very anxious to play with her so I decided they COULD play with her (it would be a bit cruel not to let them play with her) if they were careful. They said yes of course but I know it won’t be long before one of them is tossing her around by the hair and shoving her in a suitcase. Ok, that already happened. It was a pink princess kids suitcase and she was taking a nap! She ended up back on the shelf safe and sound the next time I  looked for her so I guess the kids can be trusted with her care 🙂

I still want to make another doll that represents my boys. I only have two weeks left so I better get on it!

A bit of my process

For the face, I made a triangle shape using Tunisian knit stitch (this is still crochet). Then, I single crocheted in the round around the triangle, decreasing after a few rounds. I then stuffed and closed.

The body came next. I crocheted in the round with some decrease rounds in the waist area and increases back up to the top of the body. I attached it to the head. Sometimes I make the body parts at this point but I started on the hair instead making spiral curls. I chained 30 and placed 3 single crochets in each chain. I attached the spirals around the head leaving the tails to hang, giving the hair some texture.

The arms and legs came next. I gave her little fingers this time. Arms ended up being shorter than I normally like but hey, it’s a doll. The kids didn’t notice. The legs were a bit skinny but fine. Both arms and legs were made in the round and then stuffed and attached to the body.

For the t-shirt, I made two pink squares using single crochet, chain one, skip a stitch, single crochet. The next row had a single crochet in the chain 1 space, creating a stretchy material.

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