Free Project!

Pattern/Directions Below.
Also Available in PDF Format --> Click Here!

Materials Needed:

Annie La Bouche

Basic Instructions

Read through this pattern book to familiarize yourself with the preparation, tools and construction of these dolls. If you have questions that you can't find an answer to, please feel free to email me at: phatphaerie@sbcglobal.net

You should have knowledge of basic sewing and dollmaking skills to complete this pattern.

Doll body pattern pieces are templates except for the feet. I recommend tracing the pieces to freezer paper and ironing them to the wrong side of doubled fabric. I also trace the feet patterns onto freezer paper to make it easier to cut them out. The feet have a 1/8" seam allowance included.

Clothing pattern pieces have a 1/4" seam allowance included unless otherwise indicated.

Stitch all body parts with a small stitch. I use a 1.5 on my machine. Back tack when starting and ending a seam. Clothing can be stitched with a normal machine setting.

Illustrations are provided for ease in construction.

Annie's Body: Iron your template to body fabric. Sew around body leaving open where indicated on pattern piece. Cut out using pinking shears leaving a tab at the opening. Match the bottom seam to the side seam forming a triangle, stitch 1" in from tip of triangle in a straight line. Trim excess from triangle. Repeat for other side. This creates a box bottom for the doll to sit. Turn body RSO. Fold the 6" covered wire in half and insert up into the neck. Thread a needle and secure the bend of the wire to the top of the neck. Stuff firmly around the neck wire and the entire body. Ladder stitch the opening closed.

Legs: Iron templates onto body fabric and stitch around leaving open at flat end. Cut out with pinking shears close to stitching. Turn RSO. Stuff upper leg to about 4" down from curved top. Take a barrel bead and thread onto leg on outside, snugging up against the stuffing. Continue stuffing the rest of the leg to 1/4" from the bottom. Set aside.

Feet: Iron pattern template pieces to doubled fabric and cut out along edge of pattern. Stitch dart at bottom of both feet, making sure you have a right and left foot. Place RST and stitch bottoms to tops, leaving open at ankle. Stuff firmly.

Bead
over
fabric

Joining feet to legs: Thread a needle with upholstery thread and attach at the seam of the leg 1/4" up from open edge. Butt leg opening against opening of foot and ladder stitch foot to leg using small stitches. Arms: Iron templates to doubled fabric. Sew around leaving open where indicated. Cut out using a pinking shears and turn RSO. Stuff the arms for about 3". Insert end of arm into a barrel bead and slide up to the stuffing. Continue stuffing arms to within 1/4" of edge. Set aside.

Hands: Iron hand template onto doubled fabric. Sew around template leaving open at wrist. Cut out with a scant 1/8" SA on hand. Turn RSO. Iron thumb template to doubled fabric. Stitch around template leaving open at bottom curved edge. Cut out with a scant 1/8" SA. Stuff hand firmly to within 1/4" of open edge. Stuff thumb firmly. Gather open end closed with a 1/4" SA, place thumb on bottom of hand with bend of thumb facing outward and using a ladder stitch, stitch with small stitches the thumb to the base of the hand.

Joining hands to arms: Butt the opening of the arm against the opening of the hand and using small stitches, ladder stitch all around to join.

Head: Iron head template onto doubled fabric. Sew completely around and cut out with pinking shears. On one side only, snip a small T shape at the lower end of the head for turning. Turn RSO. You may want to apply Fraycheck on the edges of the T slit to fortify this area. Stuff head firmly.

Ears: Place ear templates on fold of fabric. Stitch around and cut out leaving a 1/8" SA. Cut a small slit on the back of each ear close to the fold, (remember to have a right and left ear) for turning RSO. Lightly stuff ears. Topstitch 1/8" from edge on curved side of ear.

Joining the body: The legs and arms are attached to the body with buttons. I like to use decorative buttons on the arms since they will show. Arms are attached at the shoulder approximately 1/4" down, and legs are attached at the sides about 1/2" up from the bottom of the doll. Thread your joining needle with doubled upholstery thread and go in from the back side of the arm to the front, through a hole on the button, back through the other hole on the button through the arm, through the body and out the other side, through the other arm, through a button hole and back again through the button hole and back into the body to the other side. Repeat this process a couple times, pulling snugly on the thread to tighten the arms close to the body. Do the same process for the legs.

Annie's face: Annie's face is her defining feature as is true for all Raggedy Ann dolls. It is simple and charming.

Using a brown gel pen and a light touch draw an elongated triangle for Annie's nose. Color in the nose with the crimson red pencil. Use a heavy touch when doing the outline of the triangle and lighter as you get to the center of the triangle. With a black gel pen, lightly draw small stitch lines all around the nose. Annie's eyes are circles drawn with the brown gel pen, slightly smaller than a dime. The pupils are drawn with a black gel pen with a small triangle out of the side of the pupil so simulate a highlight. Fill in the whites of the eyes with a white paint pen, two coats should do it. Fill in the pupils with the black gel pen leaving the small triangle painted white. Draw three black eyelashes out from the side of the eyes.

Two small curved lines 1/2" above her eyes for eyebrows. The mouth is first lightly drawn with a brown gel pen, a deep swooping curve. Lightly shade over the drawn line with the burnt ochre pencil. The cheeks are circles first done with the blush pink, about the size of a quarter and touching the upper edges of the mouth. Shade in the center of the cheeks with the carmine red and blend till colors fade into one another. Seal her face with either a workable fixative spray or a painted on textile medium.

I have found that if you iron the face after the textile medium is dry, any discoloration will fade and the face has a nice smooth finish.

Attaching the head: Insert the neck into the opening at the back of the head. Ladder stitch the head to the neck with small stitches.

Attaching the ears: Run a small line of glue close to the fold on the ear. Place the ear on the side seam with the top of the ear even with the top of the eye.

Hair: Annie's hair can be done two ways. Either using crepe wool available from One and Only Creations: www.oneandonlycreations.com/online_store.php# or using cotton rag hair that can be made (I have also used wool fabric for rag hair with huge success). If using crepe wool hair, cut three sections off the braid in 35" lengths. Gently pull the sections apart spreading out the fiber. Take a section and lay it on the back of Annie's head about 1/2" above the neck join seam. With your felting needle felt the fiber into the head at the MIDDLE of the section you placed. Then, fold down the top of the section over the felting and felt at the fold. Apply another section of fiber to the head 1/2" above the last section and repeat the process, felting, folding, felting again. Take the final section and place it at the top of Annie's head with one third of the section hanging over onto the face from the head seam. Felt at the head seam and random felt the rest of the fiber to the head back. Fluff hair as you go to get a nice full head of hair effect. Add more fiber if you think she needs more.

Making cotton rag hair: I find that using a batik fabric for this kind of hair gives the best results (wool fabric is also excellent). The cover doll's hair was made using a patterned fabric that gave an added layer of texture to her. You may also hand dye muslin with scarlet dye with maybe a dark tea wash after dyeing to give an aged effect to the fabric.

Take your fat quarter fabic and cut 4 strips 3" to 5" wide (depending on how long you want the hair) by the length of the fabric. Layer the strips on top of each other and stitch down the center, repeat the stitching again back the other way. Cut in 1/4" increments from the raw edge of the fabric to the center stitching on both sides. Take this strip to the sink and get it wet, not sopping but dampened through. Place the strip in a fluffy dry towel and rub, rub, rub. .This will rag up the egdges of the fabric and help to start the drying. Toss the towel and the ragged hair into the dryer until dry Cut into strips the head width of Annie and hand sew to head or use fabric glue.

Now that Annie is put together let's get her dressed. Annie's clothes are a mixture of new fabric and vintage pieces. You may also choose to just do fabric and not use vintage textiles. No problem, she's YOUR doll.

Shoes: Trace and cut 2 soles of heavy cardboard and thick leather (remember to reverse your tracing for a left and right shoe). Trace and cut two heels from thick leather. Trace and cut 2 shoe uppers from leather/suede. Glue or stitch center back seam of shoe upper with a 1/4" SA. If stitching open up SA and apply glue to back side and glue to shoe back to flatten seam. Make 1/4" clips around rounded part of shoe upper and a few clips at the heel. Apply tacky glue or FabricTac to underside of cardboard sole around the edge. Allow to tack up. Gently ease the shoe upper over the sole so the clipped edges go to the underside. Push the clipped edges and the flat edges into the glue on the underside of the sole, easing where necessary. I usually use small clamps to hold all in place while waiting to dry. Place shoe on Annie's foot and wrap the shoe strap over the foot and glue to the bottom of the sole on each side. Apply FabricTac or tacky glue to the wrong side of the leather sole (the rough side), and glue to the bottom of the shoe. Do the same with the leather heel. Repeat the steps for the other shoe.

Bloomers: Cut two on fold. Place RST and stitch the entire crotch seam. Turn up 1/4" on hem and stitch. You may want to add lace to the hem if desired. Meet leg seams together and stitch. Turn under 1/2" at the waist and using a decorative ribbon or embroidery floss, run a gathering stitch around the waist. Do the same on the legs with the gathering thread running about 1" above the edge. Place bloomers on doll and pull up gathers to fit on legs and at the waist. Tie off securely.

If using a vintage textile for the bloomers, I like to use a finished edge whenever I can. When cutting out the bloomers place the hem on the finished edge of the vintage piece. This saves doing a hem and your vintage piece may have a decorative edge already.

Petticoat: Cut your fabric for the petticoat and seam the short side with a 1/4" SA. Run two lines of gathering stitch es around the top edge. At the bottom edge, make a small hem or finish with lace or trim. Place petticoat on doll and pull up gathers to fit the waist. Tie off securely.

The petticoat is another place I like to use vintage pieces. An old tea towel or dresser scarf makes a wonderful petticoat. Embroidered edges of pillowcases make perfect petticoats. Just cut and seam as above.

Jumper: Cut four bodices from jumper fabric (2 are for lining). Also cut skirt from jumper fabric. Stitch side seams on jumper top and lining. Placetop and lining RST and stitch completely around, starting and ending at side seam. Turn RSO. Press. Staystitch the bottom of the jumper top. Stitch the two short sides of the jumper skirt together. Stitch two lines of gathering stitches around the top of the skirt. Pull up gathers to fit jumper top. Place skirt and jumper top RST and stitch, adjusting gathers if necessary. Turn up a hem at the bottom of the skirt and stitch. The hem width is personal preference. Also, the length of the skirt can be adjusted to your preference. For the band on the jumper place the band long side with RS facing the WS on the bottom of the jumper. Stitch a 1/4" seam, press up and over onto the top of the jumper. Stitch 1/4" in from the raw edge on the top of the jumper. I like to leave the edge of the band raw since Annie is, after all, a raggedy doll. Stitch a jumper tie to each of the shoulders of the jumper top. Place the jumper on the doll and tie the jumper ties into bows at the shoulders. Stitch the heart button to the jumper top on the left side.

Other embellishments: Wrap the wrists with lace and secure. Gather a 10" length of lace or trim to fit the neck and secure with glue or stitches. Tie a small ribbon bow around her neck.

Hat: Wrap a ribbon or strip of fabric around the crown of the hat and secure with glue. Add some velvet leaves and warm and natural flowers. Place on doll's head.

Warm and Natural flowers: Cut a strip of Warm and Natural batting 3/8" x 15", 20", or 25". The length of the strip determines how big the flower will be. Roll up the strip until you have a large circle of fabric. Thread a needle with strong thread and anchor on the backside of the cir

cle. Bring thread up through the center of the circle, wrap to the outside and bring the thread up through the center once again. Repeat pulling the thread slightly to indent at the outside edge. Repeat this process 4 more times creating 5 petals ending with thread at the top of the flower at the center. Thread on pearl bead and return thread to the bottom of the flower, repeat going through the pearl. End with thread at the bottom center of flower, secure.

Click Below To Print Patterns.......

Click HERE to find more cloth doll patterns by Kate.

.