Monday, September 26, 2011

A Needle-Felted Doll: Louisa May Alcott's "Jo March"

It's another wool doll that's finally finished. Well, she's finished as far as the felting goes. Elizabeth is going to make a small copy of the book Little Women that will go in the doll's hands. But it would be forever before I could post pictures if I wait around for that, so here they are! :)

She is the largest doll that I've made yet as she stands 8-1/4" tall without a hat and she weighs three ounces. She is made of 100% Merino roving that was felted with .40 and .42 gauge felting needles. It took approximately 56 hours of work, spread out over a period of two months, to make her. She has dark brown boots and light pink socks with dark pink wheat sheaves on them. Her bloomers are all white, as well as her petticoat which is wired along the bottom to serve as a hoop skirt. The dress is dark brown with pale yellow trim on the sleeves. The pinafore matches her socks and has a little pocket handkerchief to go with it (it has her initial on it in light blue). Of course, she had to have a patch in the back of her dress since Jo is always sitting too close to the fire.



The hair took a bit of work. I really wanted to use the hair-do that Scarlett wears in Gone with the Wind during the Christmas scene when Ashley has to rejoin his regiment. I made that one first, and it looked just like it --- the only problem was that it didn't lend itself to the lighter colored hair, so I'll just have to make another Civil War era doll with dark hair.

1 comment:

  1. Perfect! Love it!
    I love the movement of the dress, astonishing work!

    ReplyDelete