July 16, 2025 - July 20, 2025(9am - 5pm)

Design Your Own Cloth Doll

Workshop Fee: $700.00

We will begin by creating a head by stitching knit fabric, hand needle-sculpting features, and finishing the detail with pens and pencils.   Once students are satisfied with their faces, we will develop a torso, arms, and legs.  The doll might be male or female, young or old, thin or fat, sitting, standing, or flying.  It might be realistic or fantasy. The choice will be yours! Then we will finish our doll by creating clothing and adding hair. The dolls we make will be between 14” and 20” tall if standing.

This workshop requires the use of a sewing machine (basic skills), stuffing, and hand sewing.  No doll-making experience is required.  No drawing/painting experience is required.

Skills and Techniques:

  • Design body parts and create patterns
  • Machine stitch utilizing freezer paper patterns
  • Stuff body parts
  • Assemble and hand-stitch body parts
  • Create yarn hair and apply
  • Design, create, and construct clothing, including shoes

 

Materials Fee: $20 – $25 kit fee paid directly to the instructor at the time of workshop. The kit will include fabrics for bodies, heads and hands (flesh colors), stuffing, yarns for hair, felt for hats and shoes, a small selection of buttons, beads, hand-sewing needles, upholstery thread, and machine thread to match body fabric. Wooden base and items needed for making standing dolls.  You will bring the fabrics for clothing, see below.

Special Tools or Equipment:

  • Sewing Machine* – including small needle and extra bobbins
  • Scissors (large and small)
  • Straight pins (strong and applique if you have them)
  • Pen
  • Favorite stuffing tools (if you have any) – hemostats will be provided for use
  • Small iron and pad (if you have them)  –  studio will have these items to share
  • Fabrics for clothing: Thin fabrics such as cotton, silk, other drapey, soft fabrics.   Fat quarters, scraps from other projects, ¼ or ½ yard pieces.  Trims and embellishments to coordinate with chosen fabrics.
  • Poly thread to match.
  • Charlie will be happy to discuss amounts before class if you have ideas of what clothing you are hoping to create.   Contact her by email CharlieClothDolls@gmail.com
  • If you have ‘props’ like baskets or other things you hope to use or if you plan to have your doll sit on a specific chair, bring these items.

A small selection of clothing fabrics will be available.

Students will be able to use hemostats for stuffing, pens and pencils.  These items will also be available for sale.

*Sanborn Mills Farm has 2 sewing machines to loan out on a first come first served basis. Email marsha@sanbornmills.org to reserve.

Workshop Policies: Please be sure to read our 2025 policies before you register for a workshop which can be found here Workshop Policies

12 in stock

(please choose all meals if you are staying on campus.)
We ask students to purchase a meal plan. Our chef can accommodate most dietary needs so please note any restrictions you want us to be aware of on the checkout page.
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