My little Mimi

Last April, I came across Mimi Kirchner's Hand-Sewn Felt Doll on The Purl Bee blog. I fell in love! How darling are these little ladies? I printed out the template and went out to find felt.

Now, I need to explain the felt situation here in the Philippines. This type of material seems to only come out of storage right before the holiday season. and only in bright red or green. I went to several shops and only one of them carried felt. After digging through the rolls of felt that they had, I found a few yards of non-holiday colors. But the elusive people colors (flesh, tan, beige) escaped me.

After months of scouring the shops, my suki (the person I buy from regularly) at Carolina's in Glorietta 5 proudly showed me a huge roll cream felt that had just come in. They were not going to put it out on the shop floor, but since I'd been so persistent, they brought it out. I was flattered, but embarassed since I only bought a few yards of the stuff.

Finally, I'd assembled all the colors I needed.

But I found myself looking at the pattern, and looking again. Terrified of that first *snip.*

Don't get me wrong, it's a very simple and straighforward pattern. There is a step-by-step photo tutorial too. I just didn't know if I could do it. But after being teased by our yaya that I was just hoarding supplies and did weren't make anything, I just went ahead and DID it.  as the kids napped one afternoon (about 2 weeks later) I pinned, I traced, I cut and there I was... sitting on the floor with a complete set of doll parts around me. No excuses. I had to make it.

I started with an arm, as it seemed the easiest to do. Then the head, and then the legs. I grew confident and embroidered the face. My confidence waned after three attempts. I just could not get the mouth right. So I repeated the entire head. The second time around was easier, as I embroidered the face before stitching around the head.

The rest came farily easily. Connect here, stuff there, sew shut and connect parts! Sorry, no pictures of this as it did go fast!

Here is little Mimi, sitting on the shelf in my classroom.

The dress was the most difficult part, really. I had a hard time deciding how to decorate it. It was, after all, the only part of the doll that I could really design. I'm still pretty stumped, but I put a turquoise running stitch around the hem and the collar. I'll add a belt one of these days. And embroider some flowers too.

Some of my co-teachers saw me making felt food the other night as I waited for parents to come in for PTCs (I'm not going to BS and call it by it's official name). They asked me to bring in Mimi, and that's why she's in my classroom. :)