Ever since I started designing my own amigurumi, I’ve been wanting to design a simple doll pattern, and create my own style of doll, and use that as a base to create any character I could imagine! And I still do, but it’s a slow process. But here’s a design I was testing out.
Say hello to, err, well she doesn’t have a name, but I am quite pleased how she turned out, and she is one of the few dolls who’s actually been finished! She’s recreation of this doll, that I designed last summer.
I call her the 60s doll. She was inspired by the 60s, and 70s.
As you can see, I made all her clothes in the same color yarn, She even has a hat in the same aqua. And I also made two wigs, a yellow wig, and the other she is wearing, which is black.
I don’t really put eyes or facial features on my dolls. This is probably because the rag dolls that I made in the past, went without faces. At first it was laziness, and the fact that I’m terrible at embroidery and drawing faces, but who wants to spend valuable time making a doll face while you could be playing? But then features weren’t being used on my crochet dolls either. And I only started using safety eyes a couple of months ago. It just seemed more fun to leave the doll’s looks, and expressions to the imagination.
As more ideas for dolls came flowing in, the 60s doll was forgotten. And for a little while my creative juices just weren’t flowing. So I decided to try the 60s doll pattern again.
And here is the finished result! She’s a bit chubbier than the first, but she’s just a prototype, so there’s bound to be changes, especially that alien head of hers…
Red Heart Super Saver was used for both dolls. But the yarn used for the 60s doll, was thicker than the yarn used for the new doll. So that had to be considered. As a result the new doll has more stitches in her legs, waist, and head, than the 60s doll does.
The first thing crocheted was the head, and because of the yarn difference more rounds had to be added to make the head roughly the same size as the 60s doll, but the head ended having too many rounds. Which is why her head looks a bit too much like an alien’s. And the eyes are so far down, because I was going for a kawaii look, but it didn’t turn out. Hehe.
The next thing crocheted was the legs. I had a pattern for a foot that was for a fox, but it reminded me of Little Red Riding Hood. So I used that pattern for the new doll’s feet.
I tried giving the leg a simple knee with increases, but the look of it just wasn’t suiting me.
Then I tried half double crochet increases, for a more defined knee, but they still weren’t looking right, so I decided to be as simple as possible, and completely removed the knee.
These are all the leg prototypes. So many doll legs!
After making the legs, her hips and bottom were next. Started by crocheting around the legs to join them, with a white for her underwear.
After finishing the hips and bottom, it was time to join the skin color yarn, and start crocheting the body.
I was halfway done with the body, then it hit me. I hadn’t made the arms! So the body had to be frogged, and the arms needed to be made.
The thumb was accomplished with a bobble, with 4 double crochets to make up the bobble, bobbles make good amigurumi doll thumbs.
Finishing up the body with a couple more single crochet rounds. Now her body is complete!
The arms were attached by crocheting them to the body. Doing this saves you from having to sew the arms on separately. And it’s very secure, unless you cut them, they won’t be coming off anytime soon.
After attaching the other arm, the doll’s body is now officially done!
I sewed the head to the body using the mattress stitch. It’s such a simple and neat stitch, it almost makes sewing a joy!