my first doll "Olive"

This was finished around February of this past year, in honor of my daughter Olivia's soon to be arrival in May. I wanted to make her first doll, not just go out and buy something and with this being my first daughter, I wanted to make it while I was pregnant so that the time waiting for her could be tangibly seen as this beautiful thing. So, even though I never really had an interest in making dolls before, I was overcome with the desire to felt this giant doll, completely using a needle, block of foam, and many bags of fiber. Overall, it took me about 4 months (resting my sore fingers off and on of course) to really get this one right and finish her (and she's still not finished in my eyes). She stands about 8 inches tall and is made with alpaca, sheep, and angora goat. There is nothing artificial on her except for her skirt, which I knitted with acrylic yarn because let's face it....it's easier to knit tiny with. Each section of her body was needle felted separately and then felted together at the joints. I reinforced her arms and legs by felting her clothing over them. The shirt is black baby alpaca and her panties are felted over the leg joints with pink sheep fiber (and black alpaca dots). The curly hair is the angora goat fiber which was hand dyed and applied and felted strand by strand so that I could build up the smooth, but curly bob she has.

Her arms and legs were wet felted (my first experience with that) AFTER I needle felted them, just to get rid of some of that hairy look. The skirt was knitted on the tiniest knitting needles I'd ever used and I sort of made up my own pattern for it, but it turned out pretty good! I didn't like the color 100%, but it was the skinniest yarn I had at the time.

A giant thank you goes out to my mother, who gave me all of the supplies for this project. She put together quite a giant box of various fiber and accoutrements for me to use for crafting. And as to whether or not it was worth it? I was very proud the day I was able to give this one to Olivia and watch her really look at it and smile. I think it's pretty cool that he first doll is one that her mama made for her and really put a lot of love into.