Best Friends with a Norwegian Forest Cat

This is the doll I’ve been dreaming about for a few weeks. I’ve finished sewing the body and the arms, and all have been tightly stuffed with a non-allergenic doll filling. I need to stitch the fingers and wrist dimples, then attach arms to the shoulders at each end.

The face masks for a young girl and a long-haired cat have been cast in Paperclay, cured and had organic cotton jersey stretched over the masks for ‘doll skin.’  The masks are attached to the body and ready to have a skull created from the excess cotton jersey. This is stuffed to give the dolls a more lifelike profile. I usually prime and seal the cotton jersey before I attach the face mask to the doll, but today I’m getting all of the stitching done before I begin any of the wet processes.  I’m always trying new things and changing up my production process to see if an innovation gives me a better end product.  

I just finished stitching and stuffing the ‘skulls’ and decided to attach the arms now, too. I’ll be honest; there’s a very good chance I’m going to regret that decision. The arms may end up in my way while I’m painting but they may give me a more secure ‘hold’ for the more delicate features.  We’ll see. The benefit I’m assessing by attaching the face masks before I begin painting them is that the cotton jersey becomes like fine glove leather after it’s been primed.  This makes it paradoxically tough to sew through yet easy to tear when I sew it onto the doll’s body. I’ll let you know on a future post how these experiments in production turns out for me. 

I’ve shown this photo on an earlier post. These are the textiles I chose for dressing this doll.