Ella's "rag doll"

Ever since we read the Little House books, Ella has wanted to make a "rag doll" like Laura's Charlotte. She has talked about it from time to time, saying things like, "Mommy! I want to make a rag doll just like Charlotte!" or "Mommy! For Audra's birthday, I'm going to make her a rag doll!" But then the idea kind of fizzles.

On Sunday, Ella came with me to the fabric store to find the fabrics for this quilt, and apparently she must have received some fresh inspiration, because she came home full of enthusiasm about making a rag doll.

And then she set about to doing it!

She got white paper and a pencil and started drawing a pattern. Then we cut out the pattern and pinned it to some white fabric. Then we cut out two pieces of that. Then she embroidered a smile and sewed on two carefully selected button eyes. I showed her how to put the pieces right sides together and then I gave her a needle and thread and had her sew her doll together. By Monday night she was stuffing her Charlotte.

I helped her a little bit with each step, but she did most of the work herself. (ie- ALL the sewing, save for some sloppy stitches we discovered when it came time to stuff the doll)and today she did the finishing work. We added hair and Ella made a dress {which is pretty unfinished, but Ella doesn't mind!} For the dress, I let her use the sewing machine because she had already done so much hand stitching.

There were some tears on Ella's part: Her timeline was a little unrealistic and she was hoping for a finished, dressed doll in one day, and she was disappointed in herself for the rushed stitching that made for stuffing coming out of the seams, but I am so pleased that she began with an idea and followed it through all the way to completed {and cute!} product!