handmade gifts 2014: replacement doll for audrey

Meet Amelia. A little bird told me a few months ago that a certain puffy green doll was lost in the move and that there was sadness. Well, we can't have that. While I couldn't remake the doll to match Miss MIA, I did make her a red-haired sister. Blue, flowery and not as poofy puffy. I was excited about this at first but I hope that doesn't create more sadness. You never know with these things. There may be green terry cloth nostalgia to overcome.

You can't really tell but she also has pink streaks in her hair. I thought Audrey might like that. I tell ya, I made a royal hash of the hair at first and you can probably tell if you look closely (so don't look closely). It has been six years since I made the first doll and the instructions are a study in brevity. They don't include tips for the long hair so I have no idea how I did it for the first doll. This doll does have hair, and it is sewn on in places, so I'm calling it a win.

If you make the Martha doll, be sure to use very stretchy jersey knit for the head, hands and feet. Also it's very helpful to sew a basting circle on the feet and hand squares to use for gathering, draw them up, tie them off, and then stuff them, not the other way round. I didn't use batting to fill them as instructed, I used polyfil for the whole doll.

I think the pocket on the original doll was intended for baby teeth. This doll has a wee little pocket too, which is still good for teeth or whatever tiny treasure needs to hide there. Maybe small, folded, very secret lists.