A Little Lolita Dolly

I have had a craving to make dolls for a few months now! Every time I see a really great cloth doll or art doll my fingers get itching to try it myself. The kind I usually like, and am familiar with (although I haven't made anything in years!) is the kind that involves clay, but despite my itchy fingers I've been a bit too lazy to bust out some clay. But, while browsing around the other day I was lead, once again to tanpopo0118's DeviantArt page. Now, I've been to her gallery before and admired her work, but this time it really inspired me to bust out some material scraps and get to sewing! So, inspired by her little Lolita dolls with painted faces and real hair, I made my own sort-of-version of her dolls. I ended up going with a blobby chibi body because that looks more like the big eyed, big headed, Lolitas that I like to draw. In comparison to her dolls, mine looks like a really lame copy XD But, really, I wasn't trying to copy her dolls, and I hope it doesn't look like I was.

She has a stray thread on her face!

Some changes I will do when I next attempt to make little Lolita dolls? Because oh yes I do plan on it! First, I will pick a different fabric. This little girl is about 3" inches tall, so I made her out of felt, which is a pain to paint, and impossible to paint smoothly on. So, next time, I'll probably try flannel. Next time I'll also nix the mohair hair. I haven't used mohair since I got into BJDs several years ago and I forgot how much of a pain it is! It gets everywhere and sticks to the felt like crazy, next time I will probably use felt, embroidery floss, or maybe even hair wefts like tanpopo0118. I'll also probably make her a bit bigger and make her some simple clothes out of something that isn't lace scraps! But overall, I'm pretty happy with this little dolly, mostly because it felt really good to finally get around to making a doll!