The Uthando Project: Sewing Dolls for South Africa

Dolls bring many people great joy. Dolls can also bring the opportunity to spread joy. Aussie doll maker Julie Dodd became involved with the Uthando Project in 2018. The Uthando Project is a Perth-based charity that started 20 years ago.  Uthando is a Zulu word meaning love. The dolls are made by sewers in Australia and donated to children in need in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa.

The charity was founded by Julie Stone a child psychologist and early developmental specialist in Kia Zulu Natal.  Julie was working out of a clinic. In the waiting room was one plastic Caucasian doll and every child who visited wanted to take that doll home. When Julie came back to Australia she asked all her friends who could sew, to help her make comforter dolls to gift to her young clients who were suffering from abuse, neglect and malnutrition.

The charity has grown over the years and there are now groups all over Australia. Approximately 5,000 dolls are donated each year, but there are over 11 million children living in poverty in South Africa, so there’s lots of doll making still to be done.

Julie Dodd, a retired fashion technology teacher, became involved in 2018 when she met the chairperson of the Perth branch of the charity. Julie began to enlist sewers from her community in Sydney. Some of the many sewers she has enlisted are featured on her Instagram (link at the end). 

Each doll is donated with a spare change of clothes, some undies, a blanket, a handbag, and a backpack to put all the goodies in. Julie pattern makes the dolls clothes and works with a digitizer to machine embroider the dolls. Some of the garments are made in the hoop of an embroidery machine. 

Dodd says she receives so many inspiring stories and photos from the five organizations who distribute the dolls in South Africa. 

More about the dolls and the organization can be found at the Uthando Project Website. Also for heartwarming inspiration, follow Julie Dodd’s Instagram.

A Special Delivery

This summer, I was lucky enough to have an intern, Maggie Hamel. Maggie came once a week to sew and put together more doll sets to be donated to children at Shriners Burns. This past year I have taken on a number of unexpected endeavors, so the help in getting a batch of dolls together to donate was extremely appreciated.

Maggie is such a talented and ambitious high schooler and seamstress. She sewed clothes for the sets both in my studio and at home. She gave a lot of attention to assembling a color coordinated wardrobe for each doll, both boys, and girls. And then she put coordinated labels on their bags.

Each doll also came with a hospital gown (made also by Maggie), because the children at Shriners are in hospital gowns for their whole stay due to the delicate nature of skin grafts.

On the last day of summer, Maggie and I met in Boston to deliver eight dolls. We hope that each doll set brings some joy to a child in a long and difficult recovery. Thank you, Maggie! (scroll down to see Maggie delivering the dolls)

The Grace O'Malley Doll: Crafting a Medieval Heroine

As a custom doll maker, I get many requests, people like to explore what is possible. I am usually excited to take new custom challenges, and only occasionally have declined a challenge. Several because it was not physically possible for me to create that doll and once because the request was for a clown doll. Just not my thing.

I am especially excited when I get to create an historical figure or a female heroine or protagonist.

Grace O'Malley may have been intimidating in person, but to create the doll version of Grace was pure joy.

The request came from a girl in England who had first learned of Grace in the book Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. The book contains 100 short stories and illustrations of 100 extraordinary women and girls.

Grace O'Malley, the doll

Grace was born in Ireland in 1530. Her father Owen O'Malley was a sea captain from a family of sea captains, all male.  Grace traveled on long voyages with her father. She longed to also be a captain, but was told by her father girls cannot be sailors and that her long hair would get tangled in the rigging.

So she cut off her long hair and dressed in boy's clothing to prove to her family could handle the sea life. She spent many years learning the ways of the sea and grew to be an accomplished sailor and eventually having her own fleet of ships. Upon her father's death, she inherited the family shipping business.

Although this alone was unusual for a medieval woman, this is not how Grace made it into the book. Grace fought many battles to protect her family from pirates and her native Ireland from England. At 56, Grace was captured by Sir Richard Bingham, an English Naval Commander. She narrowly escaped a death sentence.

Six years later, she convinced Queen Elizabeth I to free her brother and son. She died at 72 of natural causes (considered quite the long life in 1600).

I styled my Grace after the Grace in the Rebel Girls book. I loved the book and the illustration. I loved creating her medieval gown, cloak, boots, scarf and underwear. 

I am now eager to try another heroine from history. Any ideas?

A Maker of Tea Parties and Dolls

If ever there was a doll made for tea parties, it is Sharon Rohloff's dolls. They come dressed to sip tea in a beautiful flower garden and talk about their recent trips to art museums and Europe. They are delightful, retro, cheerful and timeless.

The bright vintage style fabrics, old fashioned hats and bright hair give the dolls an ethereal charm of early 20th century paintings. her dolls can be found at Pink Ginger Kitty.

Sharon has been sewing soft toys for less than two years, but she read a lot, and experimented a lot.

"In January 2014, I found a copy of Stuffed magazine by Stampington in a thrift shop. I took it home and devoured every article over a weekend. I was amazed to see so many unique, fun dolls and read about artists thriving as doll makers. Encouraged by those artists who drew their own patterns, I decided to give doll making a try. I set up my grandma’s 1970’s Singer sewing machine and started playing around with fabric I found at the thrift store. My first toys were a wonky blue donkey and a pink cat with kittens. I was smitten with them and soon sewing all sorts of softies.

The Garden Party Girl Dolls doing what they do best

"My Garden Party Girl dolls came about because I love to mix fabric patterns and I wanted a doll I could build a story around. This doll has a ladylike style reminiscent of the 1920’s. I imagine them all as friends and neighbors that live and interact in the same small village. Their colored yarn hair, patterned dresses and bendable arms and legs was a look that lent itself to endless variations. This was important to me because I get bored without variety."

Sharon's studio

"I am inspired by many things: the seasons, flowers, colors I see in décor magazines, museums and art books, the fashions in PBS series such as Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, and pretty cotton fabrics in fabric stores. 

"I also love going to thrift stores looking for pretty items that remind me of my grandmother’s home. She was a sewer, a great cook and loved pastel colors. I like finding old notions and ribbons, floral vintage tea tins from England, vintage fabrics such as tablecloths from the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, colorful vintage hankies, toys and children’s books from the ‘50’s – ‘60’s, pretty much anything with colorful graphics. Many of the vintage tablecloths and fabrics that end up at thrift stores have light damage or staining. That makes them perfect for up cycling into doll clothes! Its really fun turning something discarded as old and tired into an elegant, cheerful toy that’s truly one of a kind.

Sharon's Doll Making Tips:

• Sew two seams all the way around your doll’s body to make a sturdy toy. This anchors arms and legs and helps keep the seams from bursting as you stuff the doll. I also use a second layer of muslin behind the face of my dolls so the knots of my embroidery thread won’t show through.
• Check your seams on both the front and back of the unstuffed doll to be sure you caught all the layers before turning it right side out.
• If you are just starting to make doll clothes, break down your clothing ideas into basic shapes. Many pieces can be developed from a “T” or arrow shape. Skirts are often a square or trapezoid, gathered at the top.
• Lay your doll down on a piece of white drawing paper and trace around it for a body pattern. I use rolls of white paper from the kid’s section of craft stores. You can use the body pattern to draw top and skirt patterns on tracing paper. Once you have a top or skirt pattern you like, cut it apart and make a mockup from inexpensive fabric like muslin or a vintage sheet. You can also try adding variations such as a ribbon tie at the neck, an elastic waist or a ruffle at the bottom edge.

Sharon and her dolls can be found:

On Etsy, on Sharon's blog and by following her on Instagram.

A Preview of the New ExtraSmall Phoebes

If you follow me on Instagram this may be old news.  But after many requests, I have finally developed a small doll. A smaller line of Phoebes.

And that there will be an ExtraSmall Phoebe giveaway on Instagram.

New ExtraSmall Phoebe is a tiny bit over half of the size of regular sized Phoebe. She is just over a foot and weighs only a few ounces and one hand can fit easily around her tiny waist. Even a child sized hand.

Each doll will come with two outfits, and a playful trench coat and the tiniest little pair of shoes just like the regular sized Phoebe's shoes--100% wool felt Mary Janes with little buttons.

ExtraSmall phoebe Sets will be in my Etsy shop at the end of the week.

And...

The Giveaway will be one ExtraSmall Phoebe set. How to enter will appear on Instagram on Thursday. Contest will close Sunday morning. Exact times to be announced later.

Click here to find me on Instagram.

One of the new ExtraSmall Phoebes

ExtraSmall Phoebe and Regular Sized Phoebe

ExtraSmall Phoebe

The "line" of ExtraSmall Phoebes

Spoonflower Doll Giveaway

For those of you unfamiliar with Spoonflower, you really should check it out. In a nutshell they print on fabric.

They can print your designs on fabric. Or you can buy others designs on fabric. and there are now so many types of fabric that they print on. Cottons, knits, linens, canvas, satin, faux suede.

I've had a number of things printed there, including Scrappy Phoebe. But I've also been eyeing other people's dolls on Spoonflower. 

I especially love the dolls of Stacy Iest Hsu, a San Francisco based textile designer, whose work includes dolls and textiles on Spoonflower and at Moda fabrics. She also designs for Janie and Jack, GapKids, Target, and Tiny Prints. She recently did this Little Red Riding Hood line for Moda, which includes a doll, clothes and a wolf.

I fell in love with a set of dolls she designed on Spoonflower that are perfect for teaching a child to sew. They are just two pieces, many with a simple pet that is even easier to sew. 

All of them are adorable.

The Spoonflower Doll Giveaway

I will be giving away three fat quarters, each with the unmade doll and kitten on them, ready to be sewn and stuffed. 

How to enter?

Comment on this blog post, but be sure I have your email. The comment form has a place for you to fill out your email, but if you want to be sure include your email in the actual comment. I have set comments to be moderated/approved due to recent spam, so if you don't see your comment up there, it is for one of two reasons. either it didn't have an email, or it is awaiting approval. If it isn't up there after a few days, you can contact  me with the contact form.

Giveaway ends March 17, 2016. I will pick the three with a random number generator

I'm the featured shop on Etsy!

I'm not a selfie taker. I don't like being in pictures, I'm more about taking pictures of my kids and my work. But I could not pass up the opportunity when Etsy asked me last November to be their Featured Shop.

The preparation, photoshoot with Cynthia August, who is fabulous, and I mean fabulous, and the interview were all fun and helped me see my business in new ways.

Here's my story on the Esty site:

Featured Shop: Phoebe&Egg

The Phoebe&Egg Studio, photo by Cynthia August

Behind the scenes at Phoebe&Egg, photo by Cynthia August

The Phoebe&Egg Studio, photo by Cynthia August

Playing with Babies

One of my goals for 2016 is to give Baby Egg a little more attention. And as luck would have it, my first few orders this year were for Eggs. One escaped photography, but the rest did not.

Although they are a lot more work, I've been focusing on fluffy haired Baby Eggs (those of you who have ever threaded hair in a crocheted wig cap know what I'm talking about). But the fluffy hair is just so...Eggy ...so cute and cuddly.

Here's a sneak peek at what will soon be listed. If you've been dreaming of Baby Egg, let me know and I can help you design your own.

Phoebe Tries Baseball

I recently had a custom request for a Phoebe for a little girl with brown hair and freckles who likes baseball and ballet.

When I asked the colors for the baseball clothing, her mother said Houston Astros. So I had two challenges—design a baseball uniform for Phoebe and make it Houston Astros.

This Phoebe is on her way to Texas. But here's how it turned out.

Pidge: A Middle Child, A Book and A Doll

I have been asked by a few authors to make dolls of the main character in their books. What a fun assignment and how lucky am I? I wrote about one of the books here. Two more are due out in the spring.

Recently I made a Pidge doll for the book “Where is Pidge?” by Michelle Grimes.

As I was emailing back and forth with the author about the details, the book arrived in the mail—it was handsome, with gorgeous typography and fun illustrations.

Pidge is a middle child, often left behind and forgotten, decided to run away to prove that her family won’t miss her. My son is a middle child, sandwiched between two daughters who get a lot of attention, so I got it.

Before I make a character doll, I mull for a bit. How do I best represent an illustration as a doll? It usually cannot be literal. There are liberties you can take with drawing that you cannot with creating a “person” out of fabric.

Pidge and her shoes

Pidge and her shoes, again

The purple night shirt

You also need to represent the clothing. Pidge’s changes of clothing seemed part of the story, so I made all of her clothing. Her clothes, her nightshirt, her brother’s football jersey and her sister’s tutu.

Pidge tries on her sibling's clothes

The author also had two requests that initially made me hesitate— freckles and lace up shoes. I had tried tie shoes before and wasn’t happy and freckles, which are central to the face, made me nervous. If they didn’t work, could they be undone.

For the shoes, I had tried to make high tops with grommets. I wasn't so happy with the results. Felt cannot support grommets, it has a tiny bit of stretch to it. This time I tried tiny button holes for the laces instead of the grommets. The buttonhole thread was just enough to stabilize the pull of the lace.

For the freckles, I first did a practice face and several floss weights and colors. And then Photoshop for trying variouis placements. This took some of the risk out of the endeavor and allowed the author to be a part of the decision.

And Pidge’s hair, well, that was pure fun.

Freckles!

Lace up shoes!