my take on Emily's doll

I decided to tackle a tute that's been on my list for ages, Emily's cute little Black Apple doll. I have a friend who just gave birth to twin girls, and I thought a pair of dolls to sit on the nursery shelf would be just the thing.

So of course I can't do it exactly how it is supposed to be done. Impossible. I'd feel cheated somehow if I didn't run into a major snag caused by my own doofusness.

I thought it would be neat to add pigtails. Plus elongate and curve the bodies to make them lean into one another. While I was at it, I thought it would be nice to have sleeves, and then I thought it would be even nicer to make the sleeves already part of the body/dress pattern piece so they wouldn't have to be tucked inside the body when I sewed it.


I got both dolls cut out (thankfully remembering to reverse one) and sewed up the first one and it was not good. She looked like she had these tiny, shriveled T-rex arms. And they weren't even the same length, thanks to my hurried pattern drawing. I kept pitching it to myself as adorable handmade quirkiness, but I just couldn't swallow it. I could see no way around a radical double amputation. Poor dolly.

So then I had to remake the arms and attach them to the outside, and this time I used the same pattern size as for the legs to avoid Shrunkenappendageitus, and this worked fine. And then of course I had to make the other doll to match, so it would look intentional.

I think somewhere along the way I must've missed the fact that the Black Apple doll pattern does not include seam allowance? Mine looks skinnier than some others I've seen posted, and I was using like barely 1/8th" seam. But I still love them. I'll be making more in the future. Thanks, Emily!