Felt Paper Dolls

I made the girls this set of felt paper dolls.  Madeline loves dressing and undressing her dolls, so these are perfect for her.   

I drew out my own patterns, traced them on to felt, embroidered their faces, and used my sewing machine to piece them together.  The dresses are made out of various scrap fabrics I had in the house, backed with felt and a circle of Velcro to help keep them in place.  The girls can pick the dolls up to play with them without their clothes falling off.  

There's a Madeline doll:  

Complete with Olaf Bear.  Obviously.  

Then I made her some friends:

And a whole mess of clothes:

Funny story about these dolls.  They were a long time in the making.  The summer I was pregnant with Vivienne (nearly two years ago), Madeline spotted some fabric paper dolls at a craft fair.  I felt that I could easily make her some using materials we already had at home, so I busily got to work that very same afternoon.  They came together over the next few days, and Madeline loved them, but I neglected to finish them.  The dolls were mostly complete, but there were little things like a missing piece of Velcro and unlined dresses that I just never got around to.   

This is why it's almost always a better idea to just buy something somebody else already made.  Cause sure, I could make my own, but will I ever finish it?   Iffy.  

Madeline recently dug the dolls out from the bottom of her toy box and asked me to finish their dresses.  I figured it was about time those poor dolls had some decent clothes, so last month I finally made it a priority to get them done.   

Now that Vivi is older, she really likes playing with them too, so I've got a Vivi doll waiting to be finished.  Hopefully it doesn't take me another year to get around to it.