GiggleBugs Š Kate Erbach 2007
Supplies:
j 1 fat quarter for body j scraps of woven cotton for wings, bows, band (I use contrasting and coordinating patterns) j scrap of brown wool felt for hair (or hair color of choice) j scrap of skin tone woven for face j scrap of pale peach wool felt for hands j scraps of Warm & Natural or thin batting
j Fabric glue stick j Polyfill stuffing j threads to match fabrics j black paint pen, brown gel pen, white paint pen or gel pen, peachy pink crayon, raspberry colored pencil, lt. brown colored pencil j And of course, your sewing machine and your sewing and stuffing tools.
GiggleBugs are simple little dolls meant for small children. They would be perfect for Easter baskets, Christmas stockings or baby showers. I will show options to make your GiggleBug a boy or girl along with a few extra faces. Sewing is done with a small stitch on your machine, 1.5 and satin stitching is done at a 3.0 width and a .5 length. This pattern assumes you have basic sewing skills.
The Face: Cut one face from the skin tone woven. Using a lightbox, trace the face onto the fabric with a mechanical pencil or light brown colored pencil. If you don’t have a lightbox, trace using a window behind the fabric so the light shines through. Go over the traced lines with a brown gel pen. Fill in the eyelashes with a black paint pen, also fill in the open mouth with black. Color the teeth white with your paint pen and lightly outline with the brown gel pen. With the raspberry colored pencil shade in the tongue, keeping your shading darker around the edges and lighter towards the middle of the tongue. Using your peachy pink crayon blush the cheeks, nose and chin.
The Body: Cut out a body front and back from your woven fabric, this has a 1/4” seam allowance included. If you want to make a boy doll, cut the Body B pattern from a contrasting fabric, seam it to the Body A pieces and continue. Also cut one hair appliqué from the brown wool felt. Apply glue stick to the back of the head and the backs of the hands. The head appliqué is centered on the body head area, the hands are put in the position that is noted on the pattern piece. Allow glue to dry. Set your machine for the satin stitch described above. Satin stitch (zig-zag) the hands to the body starting at one side of the wrist and ending at the other side of the wrist. Satin stitch the head 2/3 all around starting at one side and going down around the face and up the other side. The top of the face doesn’t need to be stitched as it will be covered by hair. Apply glue to the back of the hair appliqué and lay on top of the face with the top edge of the hair about 1/4” away from the edge of the body. Stitch the hair on with a straight stitch VERY close to the edge of the hair.
Place body pieces right sides together and stitch from the opening at the bottom all around to the other side of the opening. Remember to backstitch when starting and stopping. Bring the side and bottom seam together to form a triangle, sew straight across the triangle approximately 3/4� in from the tip of the triangle. Clip the excess off. Turn body right side out through the opening. This method creates a paper bag bottom that is relatively stable. Stuff the body through the opening making sure to make the neck area very firm and fill out the head smoothly. Close the opening with a ladder stitch.
The Wings: The wings are a template and should be traced to freezer paper and then ironed onto the wrong side of doubled fabric. Layer a piece of batting or Warm & Natural under the fabric and stitch all around the wings next to the template. Cut out with a small seam allowance. Make a small vertical slit on the fabric side, going through only one layer of the fabric. Turn right side out and press. Quilt the wings following the curves of the piece. To attach the wings, pin to the back of the doll and ladder stitch from the side against the doll to the back of the doll.
The Bows/Bow tie: Using the same methods as on the wings make two bows for the girl doll or one for the boy doll. On the top of the bow, (the side without the slash) topstitch lines in to look like folds in a bow. The bow tie is attached just below the face on the boy doll using a ladder stitch. For the girl, attach one bow in her hair and make a sash using the waistband guidelines on the pattern page. Sew down one long side of the sash, turn right side out, press. Wrap the sash around the doll and stitch to secure in the back. You may want to use some fabric glue also to secure it around the doll’s body. Attach the other bow slightly off center on the sash in the front.
Optional Stinger: The stinger is an optional piece. Trace the pattern to freezer paper, iron to the wrong side of doubled fabric, sew around leaving open where indicated. Turn right side out, lightly stuff, turn raw edges under 1/4� and with small stitches attach to the back of the doll. Wrap the stinger with decorative gold thread.
Copyright 2007 Kate Erbach