Starting your doll making adventure.
A brief look into Waldorf-inspired dollmaking, natural fiber art dolls, supplies needed to get started, resources and more.
Let me start my doll making series with trying to define to a degree what a Waldorf doll might be, and what it is not. Waldorf dolls are called like this because they were adopted by the Waldorf education system and have now become mainstream in the world of natural toys and dolls.
What is a Waldorf doll?
Just briefly, Waldorf education speaks about the development of the child as a whole: mind, body and soul.
Children under seven years of age are considered to live in a dream-like state, a realm of fantasy, as their souls are anchoring more and more into their physical bodies.
As their internal organs are growing and their brains developing, they take impressions from the world that surrounds them: the music, the light, the food they eat, the toys they are surrounded with, the harshness of the world we live in, etc.
That is why Waldorf education promotes and encourages you to surround your child with natural materials, that speak closely to the soul of the child; with colours that are soothing, not screaming; with less media exposure to allow their young brains and bodies to first process the real world before diving into the virtual one; with music of the heart, instead of the strident noises of high-pitch machines, etc.
Providing your child with simple, and few, toys that encourage their imaginative muscles to work, to enliven their toys, to create worlds of their own.
Stuffed animals are meant to represent real animals, not caricatures or anthropomorphic characters, but to connect children to the world we live in through truthful representations of their environment.
The truthful representation of humans is therefore extremely important.
Doll play is believed to enhance nurturing characteristics in children, and help them mimic healthy ways of interacting with others, while also helping them overcome painful or confusing experiences through their doll play.
I believe doll play is cathartic, not just to children but to adults as well.
Providing children with a doll that represents them, I would say, is one of the main characteristics of a Waldorf doll.
The doll can look like them physically but this is not entirely needed. The doll represents their inner world.
The doll is a mirror image, so to speak, of the child: with same body proportions, a blank expression (to allow imagination to make the doll alive) and made of natural materials that speak closely to the inner world of the child.
The doll is meant to be a simple toy, that the child can approach, that is suitable for their developmental stage.
If the child is very young, and just starting doll play, a fully dress-able doll might not be appropriate for them.
If the child is older, and requires more interaction with their doll, accessories, play food, or even other dolls to play with are therefore required.
I would say that the three main characteristics, aside construction, of a Waldorf doll are: a genuine representation of human body proportions, a blank expression, and made of all natural materials.
The techniques that are most widely associated with waldorf doll making are not Waldorf.
They were prevalent at the time that Waldorf education came around and were appropriated by the many doll makers who started creating dolls based on these education theories.
These are techniques for cloth doll making, that had been around for many years before the education movement arose.
Construction of the Doll
Now, the most prevalent/common way a Waldorf doll is made consists of several steps:
1. Head
Rolling strips of wool to create a ball, that then it’s covered with tubular gauze or stockinette, to be sculpted with needle and thread, aquiring its “characteristic” soft shape: an eye line, a nose, round cheeks, and most importantly the shape of a human head.
2. Body
A body pattern that resembles the proportions of a child. Age varies the proportions so here you have to pay attention to the head to body ratio.
More or less, the arms reach as long as the hips, with the thumbs positioned at the seam where the legs join to the torso.
Feet and hands are proportionate to the overall body, and the head, VERY important, is not too large or too small compared to the body length.
I cannot stress enough the importance of the head size. If you are making a baby, then the torso and legs and head are about equal in size. If you are making a child over 1 year old the proportions start to change quite a bit.
I mostly use the proportions of my daughter when she was about 5 years old. Look at your children and you will see that their heads do not go over their shoulders.
Another way of deciding the proportions is to picture your doll inside a pentagon, with head, hands and feet at each vertex. Therefore, when the doll has her arms stretched out and her legs, all distances from each point are equal.
3. Fabric
Most waldorf dolls are sewn with European-made fabric, since that is where this educational approach originated.
It can either be a cotton interlock (both sides look the same) or a cotton jersey (one side looks knit, the other one has a purl). You could also use wool jersey although it is less common.
The cotton interlock most commonly used is made by De Witte Engel (DWE) and the cotton jersey is made by Laib Yala. There is a list of suppliers at the bottom of this post that can help you in sourcing these wonderful materials.
This fabric is made specifically for doll making, so it is very sturdy, has low-pill action, and it comes in a variety of shades that resembles skin tones. Please bear in mind that once you stuff the doll, the fabric stretches and lets through the colour of the white wool, therefore all skin tones of fabric will lighten up once stuffed.
4. Wool Stuffing
The stuffing used for this kind of dolls is always wool.
I have heard people using bamboo and claiming is a natural product, which in fact is no different than rayon. It is made with a natural resource yes, but the fabrication of said product is so toxic and so far removed from the initial fibre that it is mostly a rayon-like product.
Wool has many properties, and I am not going to elaborate here, but only from a doll making point of view: this stuffing is the BEST.
It retains its shape, it is easy to tear into small pieces, it has loft, and it can be compressed and you can wound it into an extremely firm head, and if you breathe small particles nothing will be too bad for your body.
It can also be felted, and if you want to experiment with needle-felting you need to use wool to achieve the best results, in my humble opinion.
From another perspective, wool retains heat, it is a biodynamic fibre that reacts to its environment and has memory. I could go on and on, but I will spare you.
If you are interested in checking the many properties of wool and would like to learn more how it is used in dollmaking or where to buy it, head to this post:
So from these basic tenets, most waldorf-style dolls are made. Now we go deeper. I do not create Waldorf dolls, I stopped doing so a long time ago.
At least I thought that initially my dolls were to be presumed in that category because I consciously prescribed to the tenets of Waldorf education, in creating a doll that spoke to the child, and that had no expression, made exclusively with natural materials.
But doll making turned into an art form for me, it gave me a fantastic medium to exercise my creativity and I was blessed with the opportunity of expanding my skills and knowledge of doll making by leaving the realm of Waldorf-inspired dolls.
I would say my dolls still hold some of the simplicity, at least to an extent, of Waldorf dolls, however they are much more elaborate, they do have expressions, I not always use natural materials for their clothes, and there are definite personalities coming to life in my dolls.
While I still try to make my dolls accessible to a child if they were to play with it, I firmly believe the majority of my dolls are more suitable for much older children, or children at heart.
So even though the vast majority of the dolls out there are not really considered Waldorf dolls, we have to call them one way. A doll with a simple expression, made of natural materials, with a rolled head, lightly needle sculpted, is not a Waldorf doll… but it is the closest approximation of a category.
Do not get hung up on titles, I lost them a long time ago and I am glad I did.
Calling my dolls Waldorf dolls always felt a bit of a constraint, like I wasn’t allowed to grow from there, to experiment, to give more life-like characteristics to my dolls because in the realm of Waldorf education more is not needed.
The less you add, the more the child has to put in, which is the aim of the toy: to help them construct their own world.
The less you add, the more the child has to put in, which is the aim of the toy: to help them construct their own world.
I went from creating a simple doll, sturdy and not too heavy, with very simple clothing that could be easily changed by my then very young children, to dolls with ears, bums, knees, belly buttons, lips and what not.
While my dolls are in no way appropriate for a small child, creating them gives me a satisfaction beyond compare. In a way, I am happy to have strayed so far from the realm of Waldorf doll making.
I have been calling my dolls Natural Fiber Art Dolls for quite a while now and I feel this title best describe them though it is a bit of a mouthful 🤓.
You probably just want to get started. So here we go!
The best advice I can give you is to buy a pattern from a reputable doll maker.
If you are a VERY beginner dollmaker, i.e you have never made a waldorf doll, and you are intimidated by all there is to do, I suggest you start simple and easy.
Back in 2017 I released a Beginner Dollmaking pattern called the Wee Baby Doll. It is a 9" tall doll, made with repurposed cashmere body. You will learn to sculpt a little head (the 'Waldorf' way), to embroider a simple face, basic body proportions, and in the end you will accomplish a cute little doll with very little cost in materials and time.
Later that year I released a second pattern, called the Little Fig. As you might be able to notice, I published my patterns in order of difficulty, so that you can learn with each and every single one.
The Little Fig doll pattern helps you create a 14" tall doll, you can learn to add more facial features with needle sculpting, how to create a wig out of mohair yarn, and how to construct a doll with very pleasing toddler/small child proportions. That pattern comes bundled with a set of clothing to help you save some money, better used in buying the supplies to make it.
In 2018 I released the Baby Fig Doll Pattern. This one is a bit more intense, both in construction and sculpting. I introduced you to the technique of needle-felting to add more depth to facial features, giving you two ways to make hair, and the pattern comes with instruction to create a diaper, bib and a sweet little headband. So you can partially dress your baby as soon as you are done. Make sure to check around the store as there are two layettes that fit this baby perfectly, and even some bundled patterns for you to save money.
In 2019 I released the Big Fig Doll Pattern, which is inspired in the proportions of my then 5 year old and the doll style I call Figlette. This lengthy doll pattern will teach you many design details for larger dolls, construction, how to use weft to create hair style and add more details with needle-felting. I have published over the years several knitting and clothing patterns that this doll size can wear with ease so you will be able to dress your doll accordingly.
In 2022 I published Little Penny Doll pattern, which teaches you how to add more facial detail, how to add weight and the rolling wool technique to stuff very firm legs and arms. This pattern helps you make a young 16” doll and you can find a set of overalls and tshirt created with this name as well.
In 2023 I published Tuppence Doll pattern, this is the most advanced of my patterns so far. Once you dominate needle felting, it becomes more difficult to do it on minute dolls. So this pattern helps you to achieve nicely felted faces but on an 12” doll and it teaches you how to create dolls with a moveable head by using wire armature.
I have received wonderful reviews on all my patterns so far and I am deeply grateful to each and every one of you that has decided to spend your time creating dolls with them.
I know my patterns are a little bit more pricey than most, but I do believe they are currently among the best out there. Not just in design, on which I spend ridiculous amounts of time, but they are backed by more than 15 years of experience making and teaching others how to make dolls.
If my patterns are not what you are looking for, I encourage you to look via Etsy for the ones that most appeal to you.
I am sure you will find one that comes close to the vision you have in your head, and that it will get you started in creating a doll and teaching you a few new skills.
It doesn’t matter if the pattern is nowhere close to your approximation of beauty, as long as the end product looks of extreme high quality, I would recommend to you to start this way.
I have never in my life used a Waldorf doll making pattern, but it would have come in very handy when I started.
I believe using a pattern will give you an idea of the body proportions, of the amount of materials you need (instead of trying to figure it all out), and also walk you step by step though the construction of a doll.
I really wish I could have some magic, to make myself real tiny and go and peek on you while you make your first doll.
I still remember my first one, and my second one, and my third...doll making is one of the most magical things I can think of, and I wish you all the luck in the world embarking on something that can turn your whole world around.
Resources
You can find a lot of articles on doll making here on this site, by checking out this page: Doll Making Resources by Fig and Me. Anything from how to add a belly to your doll, how to stuff dolls and some of my deeper thoughts on this beautiful art form.
If you have made a few dolls and want to expand your knowledge, keep up with your techniques and join a community of dollmakers of all levels, you can join my Patreon channel.
I have many articles there to keep you reading for ages, dressmaking and dollmaking tutorials to help you learn new techniques as well as vlogs that show you behind the scenes on how I design for my dolls and make choices in my work process.
Patreon works as a monthly membership and you can cancel it whenever you need to take a break and come back when you have more time again.
Doll Making Supplies
Remember you will need quite a few things to get started: a basic sewing machine, matching sewing thread, scissors, marking utensils, etc. Plus the more specific doll making needs: doll skin fabric, wool batting, the inner cloth to hold the wool and sculpt the doll's head called 'stockinette', long doll making needles, embroidery thread, etc.
You can find a list of everything I use and some recommended online suppliers on this post: Dollmaking Tools and Supplies for Natural Fiber Art Dolls.
Further learning
I also teach online and in-person workshops, so if you feel you need more help in learning doll making you can always try there.
Please check out my current schedule and online class offering here: Learn Dollmaking with Fig and Me.
You can also check out my YouTube channel, so if you want to subscribe for free video content, that’s the place.
I published a long free dollmaking series, through step-by-step videos, on making a set of waldorf-inspired dolls called Hansel and Gretel. That’s the best place to start, in my opinion, if you have never made a doll in your life but are extremely intrigued and willing to get started!
I now wish you the best of luck and I am ever so excited that so many of you have started making dolls because my dolls have inspired you, or that write me interested in making a doll for your little ones.
I can honestly tell you doll making is not just a wonderful hobby, but it can also provide with so many creative opportunities while giving your loved ones thoughtful toys to play with, and maybe even become your profession one day!
It’s just what happened to me 😍
I hope this can get you started and give you a better grasp of some definitions and places to go and check out. Absorb as much as you can, grab a sketch book and get started.
If you have questions, feel free to write them here on this post or write me via this form.
