Do I Paint Or Do I Embroider My Handmade Rag Doll's Face?

How To Create Handmade Cloth Doll Faces

Cloth dolls are soft and cuddly to children and some parents prefer cloth dolls for their child's safety over vinyl dolls. Creating cloth dolls or rag dolls are a craft or can be a work of art depending on what the intended use of the doll is. There are cloth dolls that are a collector's item such as the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls as well as a play toy for children. Some rag dolls are used as an accent to a nursery or a child's room as a display. Before there were vinyl dolls, a little girl played with rag dolls or China dolls made from china or porcelain.

Cloth dolls with happy friendly faces are appealing to children. Cloth dolls have been made and crafted for centuries. Presently, in our modern time, there are many ways to create a cloth doll's face. Some rag doll faces are made from iron on transfers or buttons sewn on, or the doll's face was embroidered on by hand or by an embroidery machine. Cloth doll faces are painted on with fabric paints or with pigma pens too.

Something to consider is a  rag doll that would be washed frequently would need an "embroidered face" on the doll so it could be washed as needed. A cloth doll with a painted face could not be washed or submersed in water without ruining the paint on the face of the doll depending on what kind of paint was used on the doll. There are some fabric paints that do not fade when washed so they could be easily used for a frequently washed rag doll. Iron on transfer doll faces can be washed gently, but the rag doll's face would soon fade after repeated washings. It simply depends on the paints and pens used for the doll's face. If a child is very young, a painted on, iron on transfer, or embroidered face may be the best choice to avoid buttons that a child could put in their mouth.

There are many rag doll sewing patterns available to make your cloth doll with including the pattern for it's cloths. You can find many great selections of cloth doll sewing patterns at Hancock Fabrics in their pattern department. It depends on your skill of sewing, but there are many cloth doll sewing patterns to choose from that will suit your needs and your taste. Most cloth dolls are made from muslin. Hancock Fabrics has white and ecru muslin by the bolt in very good prices, especially when Hancocks has a sale!  If you sew a lot of rag dolls, then the best deal is buying the muslin by the bolt. You can find muslin by bolt here.

Muslin is also used for making kitchen towels to boot! Muslin kitchen towels can be hand embroidered, machine embroidered, or painted with fabric paints so you will never go wrong with bolts of muslin.

Cloth doll sewing patterns include the clothing for the cloth doll so that your child can change it's clothes. Rag dolls are wonderful in teaching children how to button a button, tie a shoelace, taking shoes off and on,  and coordinate colors in getting dressed. What a child learns from a rag doll, they can apply to themselves as they are learning to dress themselves.

When you choose to paint  your doll's face without washing your rag doll, you can use some rich oil paints with a brush or fabric paints. You simply transfer the doll's face onto the muslin with tracing paper and a tracing wheel, then paint in the doll's face in the way you would like it in the colors you have chosen. If you are very good, you can paint your doll's face onto the muslin free hand. After you have finished painting your doll's face, you let the paint dry on the muslin. After the paint has dried,  you spray the dolls face with hair spray to seal the paint. When the hair spray has dried, apply Mod Podge to the doll's face with a brush or a sponge. You can find Mod Podge here.  Let the Mod Podge dry. You will notice that the doll's face is stiff from the Mod Podge, and that is okay. You can complete the assembling of your cloth doll's face and body, then stuff your rag doll as instructed or how you would like your doll to be with polyester stuffing. Sealing your doll's face with Mod Podge ensures the  preservation of your doll's face and keeps the vivid colors of the paint of your doll's face fresh without peeling or flaking off.  Peeling and flaking can happen over time with your doll's face if it is not preserved properly.

Below is an image of a cloth doll face that I painted on to the muslin. It is well preserved with Mod Podge. I used Pigma Pens to paint in the eyes and other facial features. I added blush to the cheeks using makeup. I highlighted the pupils with a touch of white using a thin paint brush to make the eyes seem to have a sparkle. The facial features cannot smudge off using Mod Podge to seal the face with.

I have seen some individuals make a child sized doll and put it in the passenger seat of their vehicle to make it appear as if they had someone with them while they traveled on the road. There are many different reasons anyone would craft or create a cloth doll. A serious crafter wants their creation to be well preserved and last as long as it can. If you have methods of preserving your rag dolls please comment in the comment box.