TUTORIAL: Waldorf Gingerbread Men

These little gingerbread men are made from pure wool felt, though they look yummy enough to eat!


A cookie cutter works great as a pattern template:



I started sewing the two pieces of felt together at the first foot, then outside of the leg, all the way around the body and finished at the bottom of the second foot.

Then I stuffed them with wool, making sure I got the stuffing right into their hand. I then finished sewing up the stuffing hole

and trimmed the arms and feet with braid. The buttons and bow tie are made from black felt. I sewed the black bead eyes, starting my needle from the side of the head and finishing at the other side. The mouth is made from red emboidery thread and I used 2 stitches to make a smiling mouth, also starting and finishing at the side of the head. Sew some gold thread for hanging on top of the head.

TUTORIAL: Hair Layering

I've been using this homemade tool, made by my husband, for the past few years. It makes the hair strands all the same length in layers, and saves lots of time. The hair layering tool is 22" in length, the pegs and 21" and 8" apart, and these 3 pegs can make 5 different hair lengths.

For a long haired 16" Child Doll, like my Radiance Child pattern, you would use 2 different layers for the hair. The first layer would be shorter and would be hooked into the crochet cap of the lower part of the head. To make these first hair lengths you would wrap the yarn around the 8" wide pegs.

Then you would cut one end:
Open them out:

Double them over and hook them into the back of the head of your doll's already crocheted cap:
Once the strands have come up to about half way or more up the head, you would wrap a second batch of yarn around the outside pegs:

Cut this batch at BOTH even ends, so you have a bunch of equal 18-20" strands:

The long strands are hooked into the top and crown of the head. Once finished, use your fingers to comb her hair so that it falls nicely. And here is the finished product! And she is available for sale either on my website, or on from my Etsy site:

Plus, if you dont' want to make one of those layering tool, then you can purchase a handmade one from me for $15.

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