Designed by Lesley Cuming

Materials: All available from Pollika

Rope Doll Bases: 2 x 6inches/15cm,  1 x 4.5 inches/11 cm
Fresco Felt:  I sheet each, Sky, Marble, Spring,
True Felt: 1 sheet color #643
1 pack Bhedawool -Brown
Pencil Crayons in eye and mouth colors
Needle and Thread
Glue
Gold Wire
Brown Cord
Brown acrylic paint

Jesus, Mary and Joseph Pattern pieces: Download the Pattern here.

Mary and Joseph Dolls

Step 1: take a very small amount of brown acrylic paint, watered down. Paint Joseph’s face, feet and hands.

Step 2: using pencil crayons, draw on Joseph’s eyes, nose and mouth.

Step 3: position small amount of fleece wool on top of Joseph’s head, making sure not to cover his eyes. Shape a small triangle of fleece and glue to Joseph’s chin for a beard. Roll a very small amount of fleece into a mustache and glue above beard and mouth.

Step 4: cut out two tunic pieces, a front and a back, for Joseph’s tunic using Fresco Felt Spring,

Step 5: placing front and back together, sew from bottom hem to end of sleeve using running stitch.

Step 6: Using running stitch, sew from sleeve edge to neck.

Step 7: starting on opposite side, using running stitch, sew from hem to sleeve edge.

Step 8: place rope doll in tunic before sewing top edge of final sleeve. Using running stitch, carefully sew the final sleeve together

Step 9: tie cord around waist

Step 10: cut out scarf for head, using True Felt color #643.  Fold in half-length wise. Using running stitch sew along longest curved side

Step 11: turn head piece inside out, and position on Joseph’s head. Tie a brown cord around head and scarf to secure.

Repeat these steps for Mary, with the following changes:

For Mary’s hair, position fleece wool on top of Mary’s head, making sure not to cover her eyes or face too much. Glue into place. With a small amount of thread tie excess fleece at back like a pony tail.

Use Fresco Felt in Sky for her Tunic, and Fresco Felt in Marble for her cape.

Add Mary’s Halo: Using gold wire, wind in circles leaving small tail. Poke tail down seam of head dress to secure.

Baby Jesus Doll:

Step 1: using smaller rope doll, remove legs.

Step 2: with watered down acrylic paint add light color to baby’s face and hands

Step 3: with pencil crayons add eyes and mouth

Step 4: wrap baby in  Fresco Felt in Marble.

Step 5: sew halo on back of child’s head, sew bottom flap of blanket up. Place Baby in Mary’s arms.

GIVEAWAY

Pollika is generously offering four lucky readers each a complete kit to make the Jesus, Mary and Joseph dolls in this tutorial.  Each kit includes rope doll bases, wool felt sheets and wool batting for hair. For a chance to win,  please leave a comment on this post by 12/26/11.  Good luck!

I thought you may fall in love with this knitting Grandmother Winter by Suzanne Down like I did, and be inspired by her. Your doll figure could be doing a variety of jobs, but knitting is so perfect for this season. Also note Suzanne’s February workshop.

Wee Wonderfuls
24 Dolls to Sew and Love
By Hillary Lang
(Stewart, Tabori & Chang)
The dolls and animals in this book are very unique. The author lovingly names each of her creations and offers several different original styles all in one book. Refreshing and ultra charming, this one is a keeper and well worth the investment.

Here’s a video on the book:

Please leave a comment here to enter the drawing. Comments will close Thursday, December 30th, 8:00 p.m. EST and the winner announced the following morning.

Update: The winner for the Wee Wonderful book is Tracy Lanzon-Holman:  ”Thanks for offering this book! Hope helpful this would be to my creating. What a wonderful commnity that has developed from your magazine.  Tracy from Guelph, Ontario, Canada”

When I asked Laura Lee Burch, author of Sew Magical for Baby (reviewed in Living Crafts Fall 10 issue) and Sew Magical for Kids (reviewed in the current Winter 2011 issue), to design a needle felted doll with moving limbs, she immediately came up with the idea of a Nutcracker, which I loved, of course. Having seen her website, and adoring everything in it, including her logo I knew it was going to be good, and it was! When I met her Nutcracker, I immediately fell in love with how warm and cushy and beautiful he was.   We found our Clara model in New York, and asked April Cornell to send her a petticoat as her nightgown. I absolutely love these petticoats, which come in both White and Ecru. They used to come both in long sleeve, and sleeveless, but now they only carry them in long sleeve. I wish every mother would buy (or sew) them for their girls, and make them wear it until they go to college!

Laura Lee Burch Logo

Here is a peek at the nutcracker Laura Lee Burch designed exclusively for Living Crafts in the current Winter 2011 issue:

He has moving limbs and it is easy to make with basic needle felting skills.  You can make him in a mini size as an ornament for your tree, or for your children’s dolls as gifts! 

But recently I discovered a mini felt nutcracker online designed by Hillary Lang, the author of Wee Wonderfuls, another book reviewed in the Fall 2010 issue of Living Crafts:

Hillary has designed her own Clara doll, and Nutcracker, and I thought you might enjoy the tutorial. Her nutcracker, like Laura Lee’s can be made into an ornament in a smaller scale. Here’s her tutorial for the Nutcracker. Be sure to download the pattern for all the pieces you need to make the “basic” doll into a nutcracker.  Also check out how she curls her Clara’s hair. It is a great technique for using on other dolls you make.