Handmade Holidays- Sleepy Crocheted Baby Doll

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This year I am doing a series leading up to Christmas of 12 Weeks of Handmade Holiday Gift Ideas. This week is the 4th of the 12 weeks. Each week I will be sharing 2 different projects that can be made as holiday gifts- 1 crocheted gift idea, and 1 gift idea that is a craft other than crochet. For this week's projects I wanted to do something geared more towards kids, so for my crochet gift idea I made a little baby doll. 

I have a few projects I plan to include on the list that will be gift ideas for kids and I knew that for one of them I wanted to make some kind of stuffed animal, or other stuffed toy. I couldn't decide on which animal to go with, but then I thought maybe instead of an animal I would make a doll. I did decide on an animal too and it is possible it will show up later in the series, but for now we have a little baby doll.

I have actually made a baby doll before, not just a baby doll, but a whole baby doll set. It was a baby doll, a little blanket, a pillow, and a Moses basket style bed. This one has some similarities, mostly in that they are both wearing little hats, but it is a little bit different in style and size. 

I wanted to make a little baby that looked like it was wearing a little sleeper so I made the body, legs, and arms (minus the hands) all in one color. And then I also made it a little matching hat. I chose just a solid color, but I also think it would look cute in either a speckled or self striping yarn too. or even creating stripes yourself by changing colors. You could also use a different color for the hat, but I decided to keep them all the same. Then I used a peach color for the head and hands, again you could obviously use any skin tone shade, peach, tan, brown, etc. I had the peach, and the purple actually, out from making my little witch pattern so I just used the same yarn. 

I typically like to use safety eyes on my stuffed, crocheted animals and other things, but in this case in intentionally chose not to use safety eyes because I wanted to make something that could be given as a gift to a small child. Although they are called "safety" eyes, they can be pulled out and be a choking hazard for little kids so if you are making something for a child it is always best to embroider the eyes on. I originally stitched on a face with yarn making round black eyes (that kind of looked the way that safety eyes would have looked if used), a little nose with the skin color yarn, and a mouth with pink yarn. I personally hated the way it looked so I ended up pulling it out and redoing it, I left the nose, but pulled out the eyes and mouth. Then I stitched little sleepy eyes on with embroidery floss as well as a little smiling mouth. I liked the look of the embroidery floss better than the yarn, and I was happier with that look. You can stitch the face however you prefer, open eyes, closed eyes, yarn, embroidery floss, whatever you like. I have seen super cute stitched faces, but they have never been a strength of mine. 

The finished baby doll is about 10 1/2" long, from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head. I think it is a nice size for a little baby doll for a small child. That makes 4 crocheted gift ideas that hopefully will inspire you this holiday season, as well as 3 other crafty gift ideas. Tomorrow will be another non-crochet gift idea for week 4. 

How to Crochet a Sleepy Baby Doll

You will need:

• medium weight acrylic in 2 colors- skin color and clothing color (samples made in Loops & Threads Soft Classic in Peach and Amethyst)
• G crochet hook (4/4.25 mm)
• embroidery floss in black (you could also use pink for the mouth if you prefer)
• yarn needle
• scissors
• stitch markers

Instructions:

Body/Head

Begin with clothing color yarn, starting with a magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)

Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)

Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)

Round 4: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (24 sc)

Round 5: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (30 sc)

Round 6: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (36 sc)

Rounds 7-14: 1 sc in each st (36 sc)

Round 15: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (30 sc)

Rounds 16-18: 1 sc in each st (30 sc)

Round 19: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (24 sc)

Rounds 20-21: 1 sc in each st (24 sc)

Round 22: sc2tog, repeat around (12 sc)

Switch to skin color yarn (peach)

Begin stuffing body and continue stuffing as you work

Round 23: 2 sc in each st (24 sc)

Round 24: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (30 sc)

Round 25: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (36 sc)

Round 26: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 5 sts] repeat around (42 sc)

Rounds 27-33: 1 sc in each st (42 sc)

Round 34: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 5 sts] repeat around (36 sc)

Round 35: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (30 sc)

Round 36: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (24 sc)

Round 37: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (18 sc)

Round 38: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (12 sc)

Round 39: sc2tog, repeat around (6 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn, use tail to weave around opening to close, weave in end

Stitch face onto the head- use skin color yarn to make a nose by stitching several times over 2 stitches around round 29/30, use embroidery floss to stitch eyes on either side of the nose (about row 30) by making a curved line over a couple of stitches, add a couple of eyelashes to the outside edge, stitch a mouth under the nose (about round 27/28)

Arms

Make 2 starting with skin color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)

Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)
Rounds 4-5: 1 sc in each st (18 sc)

switch to clothing color

Rounds 6-7: 1 sc in each st (18 sc)
Round 8: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4] repeat around (15 sc)

Rounds 9-10: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)

Round 11: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3] repeat around (12 sc)

Rounds 12-15: 1 sc in each st (12 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing

Add a little bit of stuffing to the end (hand area) of the arm

Sew the arms to the sides of the body

Legs

Make 2 with the clothing color, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)

Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)

Round 4: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Rounds 5-6: 1 sc in each st (24 sc)
Round 7: 1 sc in first 6 sts, sc2tog 6 times, 1 sc in last 6 sts (18 sc)
Round 8: 1 sc in first 6 sts, sc2tog 3 times, 1 sc in last 6 sts (15 sc)

Rounds 9-13: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing

Add stuffing to the end (foot area) of the leg

Sew the legs to the bottom of the body

Hat

Make 1 with clothing color, beginning with magic ring, beginning ch does not count as a stitch

Round 1: in mr, ch 2, 10 dc, sl st to first dc to join (10 dc)

Round 2: ch 2, 2 dc in each st, sl st to first dc to join (20 dc)

Round 3: ch 2, [2 dc in first st, 1 dc in next st] repeat around, sl st to first dc to join (30 dc)

Round 4: ch 2, [2 dc in first st, 1 dc in next 2 sts] repeat around, sl st to first dc to join (40 dc)

Rounds 5-7: ch 2, 1 dc in each st, sl st to first dc to join (40 dc)

Finish off and cut yarn, leaving long tail for sewing

Pull the hat down on the head so the back is all the way down and the front is just above the eyes and stitch in place