Muslin Rag Dolls

A retired child care provider brought her great-grand daughter to a play group recently and gave us this.....

Long before the internet was in full force, and probably well after it was widely available in urban areas...it took rural areas like our much longer to get DSL :( our agency used to create a photocopied packet of children activities. This served as a way to bring new activities to our providers and the children they served. Once DSL was available in our area, we created this blog to serve the same purpose. What you say?! This blog is only 3 years old! We did mention it took a long time for rural areas to get high speed internet.
So in homage to our old way of sharing new activity ideas, we pulled out an activity from our Winter Wonders 1992/1993 packet.
Muslin rag dolls...which in 1992 was a nod to "old times" and we continue that nod....

You will need: 
muslin (any color)
print fabric
scissors
measuring tape
batting or other item to stuff head
markers or paint for face
yarn and felt
hot glue gun

The original activity had 3 sizes of dolls. If you want to make a smaller doll, the sizes are in the photo to the right and you will follow similar directions. We made the "tree top" doll because it called for a colorful pinafore. This can serve as a play doll rather than using for a holiday decoration, which is what we chose to do.

Begin by cutting a 21" x 24" piece of muslin. We only had cream but muslin comes in a vast array of colors and you could most likely find various kinds of natural skin tones at your local fabric store.

Fold the long edge (24" side) of the muslin over 5".

Stuff a head size amount of batting or other soft material in the middle of the fold. (We used some saved bubble wrap we had on hand). Tie with a string that matches the color of your muslin.

Take the corners on either side of the head and tie a knot- as close to the head as possible.

Now it looks like a very simple doll.
For the pinafore, cut a 10" x 18" rectangle of fabric and fold it in half on the 10" side
so it is a folded rectangle of 10" x 9"

On the folded top, make a mark every 2 1/2 inches. You will need to cut a line from each of these marks. 2 1/2 inches from the marks on the outside and 1 1/2 inches from the center mark.

Slip the pinafore over the doll. The 1-1/2" slit is for the head and the 2- 1/2 slits are for the arms.
Fold the extra fabric in back.

Tie a ribbon around the pinafore if you like.
To finish off, make hair and a face. For the hair cut strands of yarn and lay flat on a piece of parchment paper. (In the picture we have a plastic bag but the glue stuck to it). This way you can apply ribbons of hot glue over the yarn and press a piece of felt on top of the glue. This will help you avoid a possible burn with hot glue (trust us) as you won't be handling the item with the hot glue. Needless to say, this is a job for the adult.

Once the glue has cooled. Peel the yarn hair from your parchment paper. Apply more hot glue directly to the doll's head along the middle and press the felt side down.
The muslin will be quite a bit longer than the pinafore. We opted to trim ours.

Draw a face and voila.......

If you look closely, this hip little doll has pink strands in her long brown hair. Old meets new!