I remember the first time I heard someone mention Waldorf dolls way back on Loobylu’s blog (she’s since up and moved to Canada and barely blogs any more). They are a type of doll made from wool and cotton using some traditional European doll-making techniques, and are used in Waldorf education. The idea is that they’re very simple with basic faces so the child playing with them can let their imagination run free.
I recently fell in love with a few I found while wandering around on that vast online hippy market that is Etsy. And seeing as I’ve got a sewing machine these days, and time at home, I thought I’d try to make one. This is Sarlah, and she’s actually my second attempt, created from a made-up pattern and information gleaned from the internet (hoorah for the internet, as I’m still in the queue for the library book on the subject I tried to borrow).
Styling in fancy Thai Fisherman’s Pants – just the thing for working on her latest beach-side project… not so much for walks in the snowy mountains. Making miniature Fisherman’s Pants seemed like a great idea when I started, less so after many many attempts at creating a pattern that would work on that scale, it was just so fiddly! On the plus side I’ll be able to whip up an adult-sized pair easily now.
She’s even for sale on my Etsy site – yes I have one now – at Adventures with Moosling (I’m still getting the shelves stocked, so far there’s mostly just a lot of photographs. But hopefully Sarlah will soon be joined by some other adventuring hippy doll friends, as making dolls is strangely relaxing and enjoyable.