Molayo & Mini-Mo
08 May 2019
Isn’t she adorable? Most of last Sunday was spent together with this lovely girl, Molayo, and her mom Nell. Molayo will soon be 16 months old and is so full of energy!
Nell was my first real friend here in London and she is truly the best and most amazing support one can ever ask for. We met at a London Craft Club meetup back in late 2015 or early 2016. Her main craft is quilting while mine is crochet. A few months back Nell mentioned it was hard to find a doll that resembled her daughter and an idea was born!
I began working on the doll in December last year, it was a very slow progress since I was making up the pattern as I went along. There was a lot of trial and error involved, it was particularly hard to get a good baby butt shape! But most painful of all was the hair, it took me so long time to crochet all of the individual curly strands, and I also decided to unravel half of it to start over to improve the hairline shape. The hair is actually made of 2 whole balls of yarns, that’s at least 100g of hair!
The material I used for the doll is Rainbow Organic cotton from Hobbii.co.uk and organic kapok stuffing. The doll dress and Molayo’s skirt are made from one of my old dresses so I spent a few evenings ripping the seams of the dress. This was super repetitive work and my hands were not happy but at least the fabric was already lined and with the frill already attached.
I crocheted the yellow cardigan for the doll, a matching bow for her hair and a matching headband for Molayo. Molayo is so cute with the headband and it turns out she has a matching yellow cardigan.
I know it sounds like it wasn’t fun at all making this doll but it’s the most challenging and ambitious project I’ve completed in a long time. Obviously I enjoyed every minute of it (except maybe the seam ripping and the fights with the sewing machine) and I must say I’m extremely proud of the result.
I have to admit I almost felt a bit sad parting with the doll but it was completely worth it the moment I gave it to Molayo. When she saw the doll her face just lit up! And Nell seemed very happy too ;-)
I would like to make more dolls with the same pattern, we'll have to wait and see if it happens or not. For my next try I would like to work on the design of the arms and hands and also come up with a better idea for the neck and head to make the doll more stable. Would you buy a custom doll for a baby you know?
The material I used for the doll is Rainbow Organic cotton from Hobbii.co.uk and organic kapok stuffing. The doll dress and Molayo’s skirt are made from one of my old dresses so I spent a few evenings ripping the seams of the dress. This was super repetitive work and my hands were not happy but at least the fabric was already lined and with the frill already attached.
I crocheted the yellow cardigan for the doll, a matching bow for her hair and a matching headband for Molayo. Molayo is so cute with the headband and it turns out she has a matching yellow cardigan.
I know it sounds like it wasn’t fun at all making this doll but it’s the most challenging and ambitious project I’ve completed in a long time. Obviously I enjoyed every minute of it (except maybe the seam ripping and the fights with the sewing machine) and I must say I’m extremely proud of the result.
I have to admit I almost felt a bit sad parting with the doll but it was completely worth it the moment I gave it to Molayo. When she saw the doll her face just lit up! And Nell seemed very happy too ;-)
I would like to make more dolls with the same pattern, we'll have to wait and see if it happens or not. For my next try I would like to work on the design of the arms and hands and also come up with a better idea for the neck and head to make the doll more stable. Would you buy a custom doll for a baby you know?
