This is a project I’ve been meaning to get around to for a long time. I started with a Patti Medaris Culea pattern (well, a combination of two patterns), enlarged from A4 to A3 on a photocopier. I’d already worked out that this would result in a doll that was about three feet tall, which seemed about right for the scale I wanted to be working at.
This still resulted in some of the trickiest sewing I’ve ever done – and you can see that I wasn’t totally accurate! I used the hand wheel a lot to manoeuvre the needle slowly around the fingers, which seemed to work pretty well. The fabric is silk noil that’s been dyed with tea, and it was absolutely perfect for this project. Nice and soft, easy to sew and sculpt, and not in too much danger of unravelling along tiny little seams.
I started with the most fiddly part of the doll – the hands. I don’t have haemostats or tube turners, but at this scale the fingers were easy enough to turn through with ordinary tweezers. I made a pipe cleaner armature for each hand, which fitted into the fingers perfectly. I still needed to add a little bit of stuffing, which was quite fiddly, but I’m really pleased with how the hands came out. They’re just poseable enough, and I kind of wish I’d been brave enough to go with the option that had all five fingers sewn separately. (Next time.) I’m pleased I decided to go with this enlarged version of the pattern though – I really don’t fancy making these little hands at their recommended size!
Limbs and body made, I had a momentary crisis when I came to the end of my bag of toy stuffing with one lower leg left to fill! Thankfully, being a ridiculous hoarder who used to work in a fabric shop, I knew I had another half bag lying around somewhere in the back of a cupboard. It’s a slightly different texture and density, but as this doll’s most definitely not for sale, it doesn’t matter too much.
I also had another minor crisis when I discovered that I’d completely failed to read the instructions for the elbows and knees correctly before I sewed them closed. So the arms and legs are jointed in a somewhat experimental manner, but again, it works for me and my plans for the doll, so it won’t be a problem.
And here she is, giving us a little wave! I do love those hands. You’ll notice that she’s missing one rather vital body part – her head! As you can see, it was rather late at night by the time I got to this stage, so I decided to go to bed and think about her head the next day.
And here it is! I spent a long time looking up pictures of wood mice from lots of different angles, which I then tried to translate into a three-dimensional pattern. Spatial awareness is really not my strong point, so it took a lot of scribbling and crossing-out and trying again before I got to this stage. I’d anticipated having to make three or four heads before I got the pattern right, but I’m very pleased to report that this was the first one! Her nose is perhaps a tiny bit over-pointy, but I’m very pleased with how she’s come out.
And here’s the completed Miss Mouse, relaxing in the big armchair. Doesn’t she look sweet?
And to give you a sense of scale, here she is relaxing on the sofa with Paul.
(They were watching Terminator. I think Miss Mouse found it a bit scary, but at least she’s got her own little Universal Aunt to cuddle.)
The markings on her upper arm and foot are from the tea-dyed fabric. She has more on her back. I’m slightly disappointed that she doesn’t have more staining, but I somehow managed to avoid the most mottled parts of the fabric.
Of course, what Miss Mouse needs now is a little outfit. I don’t know yet exactly what she’s going to wear, but I do know that she needs a lacy shawl. This led to a long search through my knitting magazines to find a pattern that I could scale down to fit a doll. This is Leona by Anniken Allis, designed to be worked in a 4-ply yarn on 3.5mm needles. I’m making it in lace weight on 2.75mm needles, and I can reduce the number of repeats in the main section without messing up the border if it starts to look a bit big. It’s going to take flipping ages to knit though…
…wouldn’t it be so much easier if Miss Mouse could knit it herself?
Oh look! She’s found a perfectly mouse-sized sketchbook on my desk! I wonder what she’s going to write or draw in it?
I’d been thinking about mouse-shoes as I was making her (as you do), but it wasn’t until I started knitting the shawl that I realised she’d need socks as well. Obviously. Because mouse-feet aren’t the same shape or size as people-feet, I’m working out a pattern from scratch as I go along. The handy thing about toe-up socks is that you can try on your work in progress!
I still haven’t decided what the rest of her outfit’s going to be like, but at least she’ll be well-served for knitwear…