Doll Diaries, Chapter 1 : Making Hikari, A Felt Doll Tutorial

Happy weekend fluffies! I hope all of you are feeling fab today. When I was young, I loved Barbie dolls, but what I loved even more were homemade vintage dolls my aunt used to make me. They had pretty little changeable dresses and dainty little doll houses made out of recycled cardboard. Oh bliss.

I have been planning this tutorial for a long time now, but never got to it due to time constrains and such. However, I will be pretty free this month and that would only mean more fun tutorials and DIY projects. Gleeeee!

So fluffeteers, we will be doing a series of doll making for the next 2 weeks or so, and I am naming this project, Doll Diaries. As you probably know, I am a sucker for stories and decided to make this little series of mine somewhat story like.

Doll Diaries : Chapter One, Making a Felt Doll
Meet Hikari , The Felt Doll
The first chapter to Doll Diaries introduces you to Hikari. She is a sweet doll who loves nature, homemade food and adores animals. I will be showing you how to make her today from felt and this pretty much covers the basics of felt doll sewing.
Hikari is a tall and slim doll with short brunette hair. I guess being self indulgent, I wanted Hikari's hair to be a reflection of mine. LOL! Don't judge me (cute face?). Her eyes are embroidered on using a piece of felt covered with felling stitches. My all famous fake embroidery tutorial can be found here
As for Hikari's lower body, I sewed on the upper legs unto the body piece using back stitches. You will need to do this magic stitch to sew around the legs when you are closing up the plush with blanket stitches.
I hope you liked chapter one to Doll Diaries. Do let me know in the comments what costumes you would like to see on Hikari next week. Chapter two continues with felt doll costume making and shoes if we have more time during the tutorial.

Hikari's Story:
Hikari (Japanese) holds the meaning of Light when translated to English. I  named her Hikari as she is a Mori Girl inspired doll who loves being around living things, nature and lives in a cute cottage in the woods. Hikari loves sewing, painting and collecting wild flowers to decorate her petite looking dining table. She has a pet rabbit named Momo and  little birdies named Flora and Fauna who visit her cottage every morning for bread crumbs.

P/S: I made this for a very inspiring friend of mine, Van from Yuki no Kokoro. I hope she will like Hikari. and take good care of her.

I hope you enjoyed the video tutorial on how to make Hikari, the felt doll. Do send me pictures if you ever make this and don't forget to send me costume requests! Template can be found below. I uploaded it on dropbox for the original scale of the doll. Have fun and good luck fluffies!

Doll Diaries Complete Felt Doll Making Basics: 
Chapter 2: Making Hikari's Felt Doll Dress Tutorial
Chapter 3: Making Hikari's Felt Doll Shoes Tutorial
Felt Doll Template
To save template, Right Click and choose 'Save As'

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24 comments:

  1. Wow! So cute!

    xx,
    www.mellowyellowblog.com

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  2. This is one of the cutest plush tutorials i've ever seen! I was wondering where you buy your felt, because you always have the cutest, most perfect colors. I buy mine from craft stores like Michaels, but i never see colors like the ones you use.

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    1. I get my felt from good ol'daiso :D

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    2. daiso is a japanese store where everything is around 2$. They are usually only found in asia.

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  3. Aiko, thanks for another wonderful doll and tutorial. I'm really excited to see what you have planned for us with this series. Also, when I upload the file, it's a webpage. I clicked to open in another tab and it still is saving as a webpage. I can't open the file without opening it in a browser. Thanks : )

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    1. Right click and choose save as :) It should download the JPG version of it :) HUGS

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  4. Hi Aiko, thank you for the wonderful tutorials. I really want to make the doll, dress and shoes for my daughter and nieces but unable to download the templates. Could you change the templates to pdf file. Thank you in advance.

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  5. Hi im a bit stuck on the neckline could you please tell me what stitch you used snd how to do it, thanks xxx

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    1. The neckline is pretty simple, all you need to do is attach 1 head piece each to the body using a fell stitch :) Makesure they are tiny and small though so it goes pretty much unnoticeable

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  6. gracias, para mis niñas de la clase de virtudes.

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  7. How big is she

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    1. I enlarged mine because the original pattern is pretty small

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  8. super cute! couldn't decide between a gingermelon doll and this. gonna do gingermelon head & body and Hikari's arms and legs.lol! hope it comes out ok!

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  9. Make everything by hand?
    I fastened the components on the machine.
    Then turned to not see the sewing line

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  10. Such a lifesaver tonight! I promised to work on a special doll for my son to give as a gift but only have scraps of felt with me. Luckily your pieces fit those scraps perfectly!!!

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