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HOW TO ASSEMBLE A 1/12th SCALE HI NECK LADY ON A FELT BODY

There are quite a few ways to assemble a doll, but I have found that the best way (for me) is to sew a felt body and use pipe cleaners for armatures. I stuff with cotton batting. The felt body is 'standard', by which I mean that I cut the bodies out using one pattern for ladies, and one pattern for men, etc., and they tend to always make up to the same size. This means that I can be pretty sure that my costume patterns are going to work without a lot of adjustments.

My friend Sue Atkinson in England uses the 'winding' method. She glues the porcelain arms and legs to pipe cleaners, then makes sure they are the right length, and twists the body and arms together. When everything is the correct length (the length from finger tip to finger tip with outstretched arms is just a tiny bit longer than the height from sole to top of head), she pads the body and arms out by winding. If you have her book "Making and Dressing Dollshouse Dolls in 1/12th Scale", you can see how she does it. The last time I saw her putting dolls together she was winding with narrow strips of quilt batting. The quilt batting is glued to the pipe cleaners.

When I make my smaller dolls which do not have all bisque bodies, 1/2 scale and under, I use the 'winding' method. But I use narrow strips of very thin cheap white t-shirt fabric to wind. The cheap knit fabric is thin and that is what I need.

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