How to make pretty doll hair with yarn from the book Cloth Doll Workshop

This page from Cloth Doll Workshop shows a great technique on how to make doll hair. I have lots of pretty yarn and it got my wheels turning on how I could use it to make hair, specifically wild plumes of fun on my plushies.

Like this tutorial on how to make doll hair with yarn? Well then I bet you will love:

Cloth Doll Workshop

By

elinor peace bailey

Patti Medaris Culea

Barbara Willis

Patti Medaris Culea, elinor peace bailey, and Barbara Willis are three of the leading doll artists and teachers in the country. They are also friends. Each of these artists has her own distinct approach to the design and development of a cloth figure. In this book, each artist's process comes alive through their choice of fabrics, sketches, simple patterns, and skill-building variations. The book is oriented toward beginning doll makers, but offers unique variations and embellishments to please even more experienced doll designers. Two introductory chapters cover basic materials and techniques. Each artist's chapter includes step by step illustrations, instructions, and patterns to make a complete doll, plus variations that create completely new figures. Readers are treated to full color photography and a look inside of each artist's workspace. A gallery of additional creations by each artist, along with commentary on each work completes the collection. This is a must-have book for any aspiring or experienced doll making.

elinor peace bailey is a trained artist, and discovered stitchery as she was raising her family. She travels and teaches, has designed fabrics, and has worked as a creative consultant for several companies. She is the author of Mother Plays With Dolls, and The Rag Doll From Plain to Fancy.  She has self published books, quilt patterns, craft projects, and dolls, which she sells online and through quilt shops.

Patti Medaris Culea combines her love of silk and dyes by creating extraordinary fairies, mermaids and other one-of-a-kind dolls. She has a full-line of cloth doll patterns and her work has appeared in books, magazines and galleries. In demand as a teacher, she travels throughout the world. She is the author of four books on doll making, all by Quarry Books.

Barbara Willis is a doll artist and teaches doll making in many parts of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and England. Barbara's work has been widely published in magazines and her dolls have been included in special exhibits, galleries, and books. She resides in Northern California in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of Cloth Doll Artistry (Quarry Books, 2009).

 

Comments

[Eileen]

We made doll hair like that when we were kids. I recall that you also have to fray the yarn sometimes to make it look like fuller hair (as in the photo).

[Tammy]

This is a nice way to use leftover yarn bits.

[Pat Pfeiffer]

Wool yarn hair can also be dampened and curled. My mom made "pincurls" by forming a curl of the yarn held in place with a small square of cardboard held in place with a straight pin poked into the doll's soft head and left to dry overnight. Try rolling the strands around a tube of suitable size, and maybe holding these curlers in place with pins, too.