Freebie Friday - Doll Jointing

Today you get a two-fer!  That is, you get some Freebie Friday action, combined with an update on Rainbow Dolls.  I demo-ed for the group on doll jointing.  I focussed on moveable joints, primary button jointing, bead jointing and commercial plastic jointing.  It rurned out that a few members have been dabbling, or in the case of Karen been mastering, teddy bear making and so didn't need much help with plastic joints. 

Mavis made this gorgeous teddy, who is still in progress, if you can believe it:

And Stella had a go with crocheting a tiny mini teddy:

Karen, whose forte is teddies brought her cute "in progress" elf from Janet Clarke's course:

So that lot didn't need much help with commercial joints, but in case you do, check out Mimi Winer's tips on using commercial joints here. The only thing that I'd add to this, is that I find it helpful to interface the area with a lighweight fusible interfacing before snipping the holes for the joints.  And adding a little fray check to the snipped area too, for extra insurance.

We focussed more on button joints and beaded joints.  I showed Barbara Willis' method that I've learned from both her patterns and her classes (with her permission, of course). And Judi Ward's method.  Judi kindly also gave her permission to share her fabulous technique. I then moved on to bead jointing.  Download this free tutorial that I shared at the meeting, made up of all these great methods for doll jointing.  Download doll_jointing_tutorial.pdf.  If that wasn't quite enough info, check out this free tutorial with great visuals for Judi's doll jointing method as presented by Mimi Kirchner.

Well, the members always esem to put to use whatever info is passed on, so no doubt we'll see some fabulous doll joints in the near future.

After all, here's what Stella's been working on using the doll armature demo I gave a while back.  Go Stella!

   

Comments

[Karen Mallory]

Looks like another great meeting Colleen! Love the bears and the elf! Thanks for the jointing freebies. That is one place I always have trouble. I think I learned a few new things about jointing from your links.
hugs Karen Mallory

[Kay Susan]

Love your friday tips. As usual, these are super.

One extra tip for commercial safety joints (thanks for the interfacing!). For a really tight fit, I put a 'washer' made of felt or washing up cloth around the hole in the fabric before I put in the body part of the joint.