A good part of the last week has been spent tinkering away with my doll prototypes. Tinkering is a nice word for it really. It’s been more like CUT and HACK, RIP and CURSE. But I have finally made a doll that I can look at and think “yep, that’s where I was trying to get to.”

Here’s the final little sketch which I went from on Friday:

(I had to reconstruct it before I scanned it because it ended up being cut up as a pattern piece in the general frenzy).

And here she is:

All I wanted to make was something appealing, something easy and something that I could look at and see that I have left my mark on. Designing a new toy is not something I do very often. I don’t think I have done anything really new in years so it was pretty hard work for me. It was a completely creative pursuit but not entirely enjoyable.

Now I can play with the pattern – switching fabrics and giving her different hair… the fun stuff. I think I am going to change her legs a little and give her some feet, but apart from that it’s pretty much just trace and cut from now.

And just for fun, here’s the line up of rejects:

My main sources of inspiration in this project:

Rosa’s Ermelinda and Florinda (the reason I wanted to try dolls again in the first place), Fanja’s beautiful Lumi dolls, and everything Mimi’s ever made.

Thank you to the kind people who left really helpful and encouraging things in my comments or in emails last week. It helped a huge amount.