Stump dolls

Stump dolls are figures without legs or feet -- normally the 'costume' creates the bottom of the doll. Here, I used two layers of fabric as the figure's bottom half -- the brown/tan underskirt with a green lace overlay. Upper arms are of the same fabrication, and the lower arms and hands are the same pink knit as her neck and upper chest. I used the scalloped edge of the green lace to create the neckline and sleeve ruffles -- it also serves to cover some not-so-pretty construction details. A lady needs her dignity!
I placed her hands together so she can hold small objects. Below it's a heart necklace, but it will ultimately be small white 'meadow flowers' in keeping with my current forest/nature theme.

Most figures need to be weighted to keep them steady -- this one has a ziplock baggie with a few handfulls of beans inside.



Art Figures (NOT dolls)

I've found a new type of textile 'fun' -- creating art figures. My first 'cloth doll' used a pattern by Cindee Moyer from joggles.com that I modified as I went along. I find that there are multiple ways to make cloth doll faces. This used a technique called 'skinning' where you make a 3-part head (creating a line down the center of the face) and then cover it with another layer of fabric ('skin' the face) to eliminate the line. In this case I used a stretch fabric for layer #1, coated it with fabric stiffener, and then with white glue. I used cotton gauze as the final layer, which I did not like particularly much. Too rough for my lady.

Next came the details -- creating faces can be FUN! It's all about proportion. This face was colored with Prismacolor pencils. The hair is some very soft felting wool, with green mohair added just for fun.