Dammit Doll Tutorial

I've been making a few of these for friends and neighbors who are having a frustrating time this winter. It's brought a smile to almost everyone's face!

You can purchase them on a number of sites on the web, or you can make your own. You can do a google search for the poem, too, although I've included it at the end of this post to make it more convenient.

This one is for my sister, she asked for a red one!

Print out the pattern above. There is a 1" test square so you can adjust your printer, but it doesn't matter that much. The dolls can be any size.

If you normally sew alot, the pattern is probably all you need. If you want to see how I do the hair, it's shown at the end of the post.

Pin your pattern and cut out with scissors. I'm a fan of rotary cutters, but not when the curves are this tight!

All cut out. Transfer the marks to the upper arm so you don't sew there.

Dammit! I forgot to sew on the face before I started sewing! It's easiest to sew the eyes and mouth on before you sew the doll together. You can do it after, no worries, but it's easier when you don't have to bury the knot.

Set your stitch length to 1.5 (or whatever a small stitch length is on your machine). It makes it easier to sew around the curves smoothly.
Sew all the way around the doll and clip the seams. You can see the little clips on the inside seams. I clip everywhere there is an inside seam so rounded seams are smoother when you are done stuffing. I also trim really close to the outside curving seams (you can see how close I clipped the seam around the head.)

Turn it right side out. I use a tube to help turning it right side out, but using a dowel or the eraser end of a pencil works fine, too.

Stuff! I use some poly fill, but you can take apart an old stuffed animal and re-use the stuffing, or use pieces of quilt batting.

The photos I took of stitching up the open seam were terrible! Sorry about that. Do the neatest job you can sewing up the seam.

Now for the Hair

Wrap about 10 wraps of Lion Brand Fun Fur (or whatever yarn you have in your stash) around you hand. The more open your hand is, the longer the strands of 'hair' you will have. 

Slip the yarn off your hand and use your sewing machine on a straight stitch to sew right through the middle of your yarn.

Sorry about the fuzzy photo, if you look closely you can see the white stitching line that goes through the yarn to secure it.

Hand stitch the hair in place along the stitching line on the yarn. This isn't some wonderfully, fantastic doll, it's supposed to be whacked! Don't worry about perfection on this one!

Sometimes I trim the hair, sometimes I don't. This doll's hair was sooooo wonky and long that I trimmed it to make it look better.

 The Poem Tag

Crumple up a piece of paper bag.

Iron it flat, but not too flat.

Print out the poem, rip around the edges (poem is below).

Coat both the paper bag and the poem with a thin layer of rubber cement and let it dry.
Then put the poem on the rubber cement.
Rub the extra rubber cement off the brown paper bag.

Rip close to edges of the poem, punch a hole, add some twine, and the tag is done!

Click on the photo, then download and print.

I took longer to take the photos and write the post than it did to make the doll. It's a pretty quick project.

Honestly, I hope you don't need one! And that no one you know needs one! But just in case you do, it's a fast, fun project to make.