Making Fantasy Cloth Dolls

Book excerpt: Building on the success of Jan Horrox's previous book, Introduction to Making Cloth Dolls, Jan's new book focuses on her exquisite fantasy dolls, including beautiful fairies, amazing mermaids, an enigmatic witch and a steampunk doll with attitude. These magical dolls are full of character and are amazingly easy to achieve with the help of this practical book. Step-by-step instructions are provided for all the basic techniques, including how to make the bodies, heads, arms, legs, hands and feet; how to make the hair; and how to needlesculpt and paint the exquisite faces to really bring your character to life. There are instructions for making webbed fingers, delicate fairy wings as well as a mermaid's tail, and there are three easy-to-follow projects to put all your newly acquired skills into practice. Jan encourages the reader to use their imagination and create dolls of their own, and the alternative designs that accompany each project show how easily this can be done simply by changing the faces, colours, fabrics and embellishments used.