Choosing Fabrics for Your Doll

The fabric you choose will shape everything about your finished doll, so it's worth taking a little time to get it right.

Choosing fabric for a doll is one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole process for me. It's also one of the decisions that new makers can find pretty daunting though. Walk into any fabric shop and the choice can sometimes feel overwhelming, once you understand what you're looking for and why, it becomes second nature... and then it becomes rather addictive! The beauty of doll making is that you don't need great swathes of fabric to make something beautiful, you just need a few small pieces

Fabric choice goes beyond the obvious. Thinking about how the colours of the doll's body and outfit work together, choosing the fabric for the inner ears of a Kitty or Mouse, the shade of a pocket or a little detail, these are the decisions that really personalise a doll and make her feel considered. You can take the Blossom and Friday pattern and by making a few colour and fabric choices you have a totally unique heirloom doll!

Why fabric choice matters more than you might think

A doll made in the wrong fabric can look flat, feel stiff, or simply not come alive in the way you'd hoped. The right fabric, on the other hand, does a lot of the work for you. It gives the doll her character. A soft, muted linen says something very different to a bright cotton print, and both are wonderful in the right context. The fabric isn't just a background decision, it's part of the design itself... and choosing is definitely part of the fun!

Fabric for the doll's body

For the body of the doll, you want something with a close weave that won't allow stuffing to show through, and that won't fray excessively when you're working with small pieces. A good quality cotton or cotton-linen blend is ideal and easy to sew. Many fabric ranges offer a good variation of colours and tones too, which means you can choose something that feels right for your doll, whether you're looking for lighter or darker skin tones.

Tilda and Robert Kaufman both have lovely options. If you follow my work you'll already know that I am a devoted fan of Kaufman's Essex linen range. The colours are just beautiful and it is one of those fabrics that is genuinely a pleasure to work with... that said, your local fabric shop is bound to have some equally lovely fabric with different textures and colour to suit you.

Avoid anything too stretchy for the body. A stable woven fabric will give you much more predictable results.

Thinking about scale

This is something you'll read a lot of conflicting advice about, so let me just say this: don't worry too much about the scale of a print. If you love it, choose it. Clothing patterns for humans come in all sorts of scales, and there's no reason a doll can't wear a big bold floral if that's what speaks to you. It's part of your personality reflected in the making, and that's a good thing. You may naturally be drawn to smaller, ditsier prints that feel more in proportion, and that's equally lovely. But please don't feel you have to hunt for tiny patterns. Trust what you're drawn to.

Natural fibres vs synthetic

Natural fibres, particularly cotton, linen and fine wool, tend to be the best choice for handmade dolls. They press well, sew beautifully and age gracefully. They also feel lovely to touch... genuinely sometimes I find myself just touching fabrics in my sewing room and dreaming up what I am going to make. The tactile nature of the fabric matters, especially when the doll is going to be held and loved.

Synthetic fabrics can work well in certain situations. Felt, for instance, is a brilliant choice for small details and accessories because it doesn't fray at all. But as a general rule, if you're choosing between a synthetic and a natural option and the price difference is small, go natural. The results will almost always be better.

Your fabric stash and where to find it

I look for fabric everywhere. Charity shops (thrift stores), antique stalls, bedding and homeware shops, all of them are worth exploring with doll making in mind. Just yesterday I was in Dunelm (a UK homeware shop) and spotted a pure cotton William Morris pillowcase on the sale shelf, reduced from £20 to £1. Of course I snapped it up! That's enough fabric for a few projects, in a beautiful print, for a bargain price.

Tea towels are another brilliant source that people often overlook. If they're cotton, woven and textural they can make wonderful fabric for doll clothes and have a lovely weight and character to them. Do go for the thinner kind though, more like linen in weight. The thick, bulky ones are too heavy for small pieces and won't give you a neat finish.

One of the great joys of doll making is that you need so little fabric for each project, which means your stash goes a very long way. A fat quarter is often more than enough for a doll's outfit, so even the smallest remnant is worth keeping. I keep a little box full of scraps for exactly this reason. You never know when you might want to make a cute little pocket or a bow.

And then there are the sentimental fabrics, which are perhaps my favourite of all. My daughter had a beautiful blue floral dress that got damaged. Instead of throwing it away I kept it, and over time it has become part of a patchwork cushion, a doll's dress, and I still have enough left so that one day, if she has children of her own, I can make a doll with a little outfit sewn from the very same fabric, or at the very least a sweet patch pocket that carries the memory of it. Fabric can be so cherished and so meaningful.

Trust your eye

All of the above is useful guidance, but here's the thing about fabric: you will develop an instinct for it. The more dolls you make, the more you'll find yourself drawn to certain weights, textures and colours, and that instinct is worth trusting.

Something I always do, whether I'm in a shop or in my studio, is place fabrics together. I'll put the body fabric for a Bunny down and then lay possible outfit choice fabrics alongside it to see how they work as a whole. It's such a simple thing but it makes such a difference. If you're buying fabric online, you can do something similar by creating a Pinterest board of your possible choices and seeing how the colours and patterns sit together. It's a lovely way to audition fabrics before you commit.

Start with the guidance, then follow your eye. That's really all there is to it..d and most important of all... have FUN!