Hints 'n Tips
Heads & Hands

Faces
Practice, practice, practice!!!  Drawing is a skill - it can be LEARNED.
Familiarize yourself with the basic rules of facial proportion and you're halfway home.
Even if you want to create faces that are purposefully disproportionate, you still need to know the rules before you can effectively break them. Divide the face into a grid, and it's easy to see where features should be placed.

Some basics for adult human:

~ Eyes belong halfway between the top of head and chin. This means the middle of the eye - half the eye goes above, and half below, this line.

~ The space between the eyes is equal to the eye width. (Room for five eyes across the face at eye line).

~ Pupil is about half the diameter of iris, and iris is half the diameter of eyeball.

~ Bottom of nose is about one third the distance between eyeline and chin.

~ Mouth is halfway between bottom of nose and chin.

~ Width of mouth rarely goes beyond pupil of each eye.

Whichever medium you choose - pencils, pens, pastels, markers, paint, or a combination, know how they react on different types of fabrics. Always test a new medium on scrap fabric first.
A good exercise is to take many small squares of different fabric types and back them with an iron-on stabilizer. Practice your drawing skills and experiment with various mediums. Save for future reference.
If using colored pencils, build up color gradually in layers. Work from light to dark and blend well with a pencil eraser, tortillion, or a scrap of muslin. Avoid drawing in harsh outlines. Use the medium to it's advantage instead - blend and shade colors to indicate form.
Flip the head upside-down or look at the face in a mirror to check for symmetry. Human faces are rarely symmetrical, but we expect to see it on a doll's face.
For needlesculpting - try different threads and needle sizes to see what suits you best. Generally, you'll need a long doll maker's needle for entering and exiting the head, and an assortment of smaller, thin needles for the surface sculpting.
For nearly invisible sculpting stitches on a small head, try a beading needle and silk thread!
It will take some time to get used to the beading needle because it's flexible and difficult to hit those exit points on the first try, but the results are worth it. Silk thread is fine and strong and glides through stuffing like nothing else.

Hands
Small hands = small stitches. When sewing around the outline of a small hand, set your machine for a small stitch length: 1.0 or 1.5 mm.
Place the hand template on fabric so the width is on the bias (across the palm). If the hand and arm pattern are one, sometimes this can create a problem if this placement puts the entire arm on the bias stretch. To compensate, break the hand at wrist and sew it separately. Attach to arm when stuffing.
Take at least two stitches in the "U" where each finger and thumb meet the hand. If there just isn't enough room, go over a single stitch twice. Trim and clip seam allowances very carefully!
For hands made from woven cloth - use a fabric with a fairly high thread count. If the weave of the fabric is too loose, you're just asking for blown finger seams.
To keep hands from becoming too "fat" when stuffing, sew a dart or two in the back of hand before stitching the outline. Or hand sew a curved dart in the palm of hand after it's stuffed lightly. Follow the "lifeline" and use a ladder stitch to take up extra fabric across the palm width.
For more realistic form and proportion, break the thumb from hand pattern and sew it separately. This will enable you to create a truly opposable thumb - not one that's on the same plane as the hand itself. Stuff the hand, then stuff the thumb and attach to hand with ladder stitch.

Stuff It
Stuffing a doll correctly is an art itself, so it pays to start the job right. Use premium quality stuffing if possible - the best you can find and afford. It just doesn't pay to use cheap craft fillings that will not hold up to the demands that you must place on it.
Use wads of stuffing relative to the size of the form you're filling. Start to fill large cavities with large wads! Likewise, don't try to stuff a finger the diameter of a drinking straw with a large wad of stuffing all in one go!
Stuff from the inside out to avoid lumps, bumps, and "cellulite". Keep your stuffing tool away from the sides of the form you're filling if you can help it. Pack stuffing down in the middle of long, narrow pieces (like legs). If you use good stuffing, the negative spaces between the wads will take care of themselves. Each new wad you add should nest down into the previous one - like stacking one bowl on top of another.
If using sand as filling, make an inner bag to hold the sand and place this inside the form. Sand grains can be sharp enough to actually cut through cloth over time. Tiny plastic or glass pellets can be a good substitute.
For extra weight in an area where there's not enough room to make a separate bag - try a few "sinkers" - small lead weights used on the end of fishing line. You can add them right along with regular stuffing. Lots of sizes available! Another great material for weighting a doll is 25lb shot used for reloading shotgun shells. Sold by the sack - VERY HEAVY.


Using Glues
When I first started making cloth dolls, I was certainly a
"purist". No glue for me. If it couldn't be stitched with needle and thread, it wasn't on the doll. I had seen many an otherwise beautiful piece ruined by the use of adhesives. Soon though, I realized that to be able to create the types of figures I wanted to, glue was almost a must. There IS room for glues in cloth dollmaking IF they are used properly.
Don't use glue on any part of a cloth doll if stitches will work there instead. If it CAN be sewn - sew it. If a technique calls for glue, use sparingly. Glue should never be visible on a finished piece.
Invest in the right kinds of glue - not all adhesives are created equal. Match the glue with the application so there is no guesswork involved.
Recommended glues:     Fabri-Tac and Gem-Tac by Beacon Adhesives
                                 Instant Grrrip by Bond Adhesives.
...........and put your hot glue gun under lock and key so you won't be tempted. It might be slick and
quick, but it's a bad choice for cloth doll making.  

Miscellaneous         
copyright 2001-2010 Allison Marano/Faewyck Studios
All doll designs copyright Allison Marano
All Rights Reserved
Trim your seam allowances evenly and finger press them to one side. Seam allowances that shift from one side to another in a seam often cause bumps and can be visible under lightly colored fabrics after the doll is stuffed. This will also yield a stronger seam than one with allowances pressed open. If they shift while stuffing, snake a bodkin or thin stuffing tool inside along the seam to coax them to one side before stuffing too firmly.
For pieces that have an opening for turning and stuffing: before you sew the outline, stay stitch along the opening of each single layer. This will give you a line to follow when turning under the seam allowances. When you close the opening, the seam will be smooth - no flat spots.
Wrap smooth armature wire with floral stem wrap tape. Stuffing will "stick" to it and prevent the slippery wire from sliding back and forth through the stuffed piece.
To really enrich your doll making, take a figure drawing class! - preferably one with live models.
Here you will develop a keen sense of proportion and appreciate the nuances of form that will be a big bonus when it comes to creating any three dimensional figure. Many towns have an art center, college, or adult ed programs that offer drawing classes with qualified instructors.