More Holiday Spirit - Free Cloth Doll Pattern

Today I decided to do a special Holiday Edition of free cloth doll patterns. On Friday all of our family will get together for a holiday party where we decorate cookies, do crafts with the kids, sing Christmas carols, and eat way too much.

This year I thought it would be awesome to give the kids a gingerbread man that they can decorate with paint and felt pieces. So I found this great free cloth doll pattern for a simple gingerbread man.

White searching for gingerbread men patterns, I cam across a picture of a family of gingerbread garland that I just loved. So, I also used the free cloth doll pattern to make Gingerbreadman Family ornaments (see picture below). It was a super simple process.

Here's what you'll need for this holiday doll making pattern:

Materials:

• Brown Felt (enough for the family of dolls - remember each gingerbread person has 2 sides) I used Felt Squares picked up from a local craft store for .25 per sheet. I fit a big gingerbreadman and a little gingerbread man on each sheet. Then unfolded the scrap and cut out another small gingerbread (so 3 per sheet). This seemed cheeper and easier than buying a bulk sheet of felt.
• Multicolor Felt (for clothing and accessories)
• Fabric Paint
• Polyfil Sutffing
• Thread (to match brown felt and mutilcolor choices)
• Fabric Glue (for tacking on clothing before sewing)

Steps for completing your Holiday Doll Making Pattern

1. Trace the free doll pattern onto the brown felt Then cut out. Remember 2 pieces of felt for each doll you make.
   
2. Now, sew the two pieces of felt together leaving a gap for stuffing across the head. You could use brown thread for this step. However, I chose to go with White since gingerbread cookies normally have a white decor edge on them. It gave it a great contrasting pop.
   
3. Next you need to stuff your gingerbread family using the poly/fil stuffing. I didn't stuff too much as they were meant to be wall decorations during christmas - just enough to give them some fluff. Once it's stuffed to your liking sew up the open gap.
    
4. Decorate each gingerbread man/woman to your liking. I just cut out felt pieces for dresses, ties, hats, hair bows, etc. I've added some of my designed below. I tacked the clothes on with glue first, then sewed around the edges with matching thread to ensure the gingerbread family will hold up over time.
    
5. Sew the gingerbread family together. I just looped some thread through the hand edges to that they'd meet. however, I found a few paper garland gingerbread pictures online that attached the hands to hearts. I may try this on my next batch for another family member - I'll update with pictures if I do.
   
   Note: In my first go at this doll making pattern, I didn't create a way for the family to hang their garland of gingerbread. So, I'd add a ribbon loop to the back of the two end dolls for future projects...

EDITED: to add details of how we used the free cloth doll pattern to make the ornaments with kids

Gingerbread Christmas Ornaments
To make individual gingerbread ornaments using the free cloth doll pattern with kids I pre-sewed the gingerbread men before the get together. Then let the kids stuff their gingerbread men, and sew the last little gap shut (with a parents help).

I also pre-cut a bunch of clothing and accessories from felt scraps I had from past projects. The kids glued on the pieces using Elmers glue to make their individual ornament. Be sure not to put on too much glue or the cloth wont stick to each other.

Finally, I wrote each kids name on their doll using some fabric paint. We let them set out to dry over night and the next morning had beautiful new ornaments for the tree.

To get the ornament to hang - I just sewed on a loop of ribbon at the top of the head after the doll was complete, but if you wanted you could attach this inside the doll before clothing it shut when stuffing.

Hope you get to enjoy at least one of these awesome doll making projects. When you do, come back and post some comments of how well the projects went or send in pictures!