Today I worked on an idea I had for a Pumpkin Dotee doll.  Here is the result:

Here are some instructions if you would like to try one yourself.

1)  Prepare fabric for face by cutting a piece of muslin fabric and then painting it with Gesso.  This will give the fabric a nice surface for the markers.

Let the fabric completely dry.  While it's drying though, you can work on the body.  Below is a page of patterns I used.  The top two are for the dolls on yesterdays post.  The difference between the two is one has a flat bottom and the other one has a curved bottom.  I think I generally prefer the curved one but that just a personal preference.  For the pumpkin doll.  I wanted a round body that looked like a pumpkin so, I used the bottom body fabric.  Cut two of these.  There is already a 1/4 inch seam allowance included in the pattern.  Leave an opening at the top and sew right sides together, turn it, stuff it and slip stitch it closed.  It should look like this now:
The fun part begins now so, just use your creative imagination.  I used embroidery thread to simulate the lines of a pumpkin, I added some leaf like fiber around the neck and some small maple leaves.  The fiber and leaves are attached by hot glue.  Now, we are ready for the face.

Face:
Cut a circle in the dried muslin.  It should be about 1 inch in diameter or slightly bigger.  I just used the bottom of a thread spool and traced around it.  Cut out the circle and lightly pencil in the features of the face.

Once you are happy with the face, trace over the features with a fine black tip permanent marker pen.  I used a Micron pen with an 03 tip.

Color in the features using Copic markers.  Other types of markers should be fine but test it first some scrap fabric.  Any type of marker that can blend should work great.  I put a tiny touch of blue on the eye lid, dark pink on the lips, light pink on the cheeks and flesh colors over the whole face.  Once it dried, I just hot glued it in place.

The finishing touches were a little green hat and buttons for the hanging "tail" which is a typical feature for Dotee Dolls.


Enjoy and let your creative juices flow!





Patterns: