I’ve made a lot of dolls this year. But this was the first one and I made her back in January.

But there’s more to the story….

Let’s take a little trip in the way back machine.

Set the dial for 1985 (or maybe 84 or 86) I made my very first doll and it was for my little daughter Jessica for her Christmas gift. I had one hour a week—while she was at Sunday School—to secretly sew. And I seem to remember that she was thrilled with her gift.

Now we are going to move the dial up almost three decades. I was visiting Jessica (she’s a lot older at that point you might realize.) I think she was living in New York City at the time. And she came out with that same doll but she had seen some wear. (Not Jessica—she always looks great!) The years had not been good to her. Seams burst. Hair hanging by a few strands. Eyes lolling out of their sockets. But Jessica still had that doll.

Jes also had the pattern. Some of the pieces were gone but I went online and ordered an unused pattern from an Etsy shop. (You can get just about anything on the Internet–sometimes a good thing, sometimes not such a good thing!)

Now we are moving up to 2012 in the way back machine and I had four little granddaughters and I thought these dolls would make excellent gifts for Christmas. Just like those decades before for Jessica. Maybe they would love the dolls, too.

And that’s where it all falls apart.

I made the first two dolls and thought something is really wrong here. This is not how I remembered Jessica’s doll! Besides their arms being WAY TOO LONG, when stuffing them they ended up very lumpy. Are dolls supposed to have cellulite? I ordered different fabric and cut out the next two dolls and made one of them.

The new fabric for doll three made a huge difference and I was able to finish her for the oldest granddaughter before Christmas. (You can hardly tell that her hands go beyond her kneecaps!)

And, as I already mentioned, I did cut out a fourth doll. Which I immediately put into a box. (A very pretty box.) And I also put her away from my brain, too. Cause I totally forgot that she was in that box! (Albeit a very pretty box.)

(If you are concerned if the other three kids got gifts for Christmas in 2012, yes they did. I can’t recall what Addison and Kendall were given but I believe that Piper got a little piano—much to her mom’s dismay.)

I did put hair on the other two and the granddaughters played with them when they visited. They even put the dolls in dresses that they had outgrown.

And three of the granddaughters got to the age that they didn’t really play with dolls and one day while I was in a clean out/throw out mood, they got tossed. (And I still wonder why I didn’t salvage those expensive button eyes and pull out the polyfil before they went out on garbage day!)

You can read more about my doll making journey here.

OKAY….and where is this going? We are now going to set the way back machine to the present day. Well, maybe 5 months prior to start with.

When I was doing my organizing and clearing out back in January, I found the pieces of the fourth doll hidden in that pretty box.

And I felt bad for her and put her together. (Besides I was in the mode….“it’s the New Year and I’m going to finish every unfinished project before I start something new”!) (by the way, I did not meet that goal!)

Someday I’m going to put a tutorial together how I put hair on the dolls. As soon as I figure out the best way to do it! It’s very time consuming because it’s a lot of hand sewing. On this doll I wrapped the entire head with yarn first, tacking down at regular intervals.

Then added a layer of long hair…

And another layer of long hair….

Followed by a third long layer. Thought bangs would be cool so I did some chopping.

Then the doll sat in the grandkids bedroom until last weekend. I was between projects—waiting for the arrival of fabric—and thought it was about time to give the doll a personality with some clothes and a back story.

Meet Emily. Turns out that she’s a folk singer. With a ukulele. Very bohemian. I used some of my “English Garden” fabric from Cotton & Steel for her peasant top. Finished off her look with blue jeans….

and a head band. I was ready to make boots but I got some vibes that she’d rather be barefoot. And it’s too hot in Florida for boots right now.

She looks remarkably better with clothes! Don’t even notice those abnormally long arms. And she made friends! The bears came out to play. And they all wait for a small grandchild or two to join them.