Swaddle Baby

When I stumbled across BeccaMarie's tutorial for a swaddle baby, I knew I had found not only the perfect gift for my just-turned-one-year-old niece, but also another idea for Operation Christmas Child boxes! It's a little more involved than the Nubbie dolls, but it's still pretty simple. I made it more complicated by adding arms.

BeccaMarie also has a wonderful tutorial on how to paint the face. I went with a more anime style eyes but I think I'll try the smaller, round eyes next time.

See the cute little arms? I totally cut those out free-form and they turned out great. I don't recommend doing that, but it worked this time.

The back.

And the layers still separate!

If you haven't done yarn hair before, then BeccaMarie also has an awesome tutorial for that! I've looked all over the internet for simple tutorials on sewing on doll hair and this is one of the best I've seen. :)

Hope this gives someone some good ideas for crafting!

~Regina

Nubbie Doll

The baby is 6 weeks old, guess maternity leave is over! ;)

Before our little guy was born, I spent some time looking at the wide variety of loveys available on the market. I loved how the Cuski looked, but not the price tag, so I set out to find something similar. I found the Nubbie Doll at WeeFolkArt.

I had decided I was going to make two of these as stocking stuffers for our kiddos. Then our church started the drive to collect Operation Christmas Child boxes and I realized that one of these would be a perfect little doll/lovey/thing to include in a box! Actually, I have to thank my mother in law for really being the one who gave me this idea since she had mentioned including simple hand-made loveys in boxes in years past. I just hadn't thought about it until I was looking at the tutorial for this little doll.

This little doll is super easy to make. I made it more complicated by using two fabrics rather than just one, but it still is super-duper easy. I loved the bright pink flannel and I backed it with the deep purple corduroy. The fabrics are sooo nice and soft. I hope they hold up well for whoever gets this gift!

I had fun with the decorative stitches on my machine. I hadn't had a reason to use them yet (I've had the machine for only about a year), so it was great to have a reason to flip through all of them.

The head itself is pretty easy and not too big. The doll is the perfect size for little hands and will pack nice and compactly in the shoe box! I may experiment with the shape of the doll with the ones I make for my kiddos, but I really like the way this doll turned out. It's perfect for a Christmas shoebox.

I decided just to show my little doll off rather than writing up a full tutorial since the WeeFolkArt one is nice and clear... and I have a fussy baby on my lap.

~Regina