Waldorf Inspired Mushroom People

I fell in love with making these when I was thinking about Waldorf playscapes and little dolls that my daughter could play with on her playscape. I made her a little mushroom person, and he was an instant hit-- everyone wanted one.

They are fun to make, and I'm happy to put to use my collection of felted wool sweaters. I'm also having a great time making different varieties of mushrooms.

You can see more pictures of them in my Etsy shop!

Waldorf Blanket Doll

While I had all of my doll-making supplies out, I decided to make the new baby a birthday gift of a Waldorf blanket doll/star doll. 

His head is made in the traditional waldorf-doll style with wool fleece stuffing and a minimal embroidered face. He has a bit of embroidered mohair yarn hair and a sewn on cap. 

His body is made of a striped organic cotton knit on one side, and organic bamboo fleece on the other side. 

I couldn't find a free pattern, so I just made it up as best I could!

Tiny Waldorf Baby Doll

On my list of things to make before the new baby comes was something special for my 3 year old, to be given to her shortly after the baby was born. She is already obsessed with dolls and is constantly labeling them babies and mamas, so I thought a tiny waldorf baby doll, a doll for a doll, would be perfect for her.

Strangely, there seem to be very few of these around. The most popular ones are heads with little pillow bodies, and I really wanted to make something that was more doll-like.

I ended up adapting the pattern for the button baby doll that I had made in the 16-inch size previously. It took a number of tries to get the proportions right... just scaling down the pattern resulted in what looked like a disturbingly malnourished premie!

I ended up with a doll that is about 6 inches. The head size is pretty realistic in proportion to the body... about 1/3 of the height, which I think I've decided that I like. The other alternative would to be to make the head more like 1/2 of the height of the doll, which would have resulted in a more cartoony, perhaps "cuter" doll... but I didn't go this route, at least this time!

For the hair, I usually crochet a cap, but that looked out of proportion on this doll, so I ended up embroidering the head with mohair wool yarn.

Making the clothes for the doll was really difficult... the proportions were difficult, and I just couldn't convince my machine to sew such tiny seams. I had to hand sew, and I never hand sew! But it came out pretty cute. I used a tiny bit of leftover Birch Organic knit fabric along with some matching cotton knit for the top, and bamboo interlock with velcro closures for the diaper.

I deliberately left the gender a bit ambiguous. I wanted to let my daughter choose... she could see the doll as a representation of her new brother, or she could choose to read herself as a baby into the doll. I sort of can't help seeing it as a girl though, but I think that is just my bias.

I also created a sling for the doll, to be worn by her full-size Waldorf doll that she already calls "the Mommy doll." It is just a tube of woven fabric. There is 1/4 inch elastic sewn in a circle to create a depression for the baby doll, and 1 inch elastic sewn into the back of the sling to fit over the larger doll's shoulders.

Turtle Stuffies- Purl Bee Turtle Pattern

Little Bug is soooooo into Mommies and babies, so for her birthday I decided to make her Mommy and Baby stuffies. I came across the Purl Bee turtle pattern, and which is totally free and just super cute.

I used materials I had on hand... some quilting fabric in a fun print, plain washed muslin for the head and feet, and some felt made from felted sweaters for the underside.

For the baby, I just had to sort of wing it. I sized down the pattern as best I could, trying to keep the proportions baby-ish.

It is a super easy pattern, so it came together very quickly!