Have you seen our new book, Cupcakes! (30+ Yummy Projects to Sew, Quilt, Knit & Bake)? We’re kindred spirits with all the cupcake fans out there, so we’re bringing you yet one more cupcake project: a “Cherry Cupcake Dolly” from Gladys Love! Check out the book for another project by Gladys: the “Eat Dessert First Postcard.” Happy creating!

Cherry Cupcake Dolly

Made by: Gladys Love
Finished size: approximately 4 1/2″ tall

Cupcake Ingredients

• Cotton fabric: 1 strip 3” x 12” for cupcake cup
• Cotton batik: 1 strip 6” x 12” for arms, legs, and head
• Cotton fabric: 1 circle 6 1/2” in diameter for cupcake top
• Lutradur (or other medium-weight stabilizer): 1 circle 2” diameter and 1 strip 2” x 7 1/2”
• Quilter’s Freezer Paper: 1 sheet, 8 1/2” x 11”
• Plastic beads: 1/2 cup
• Turning tool
• Open-toed appliqué foot for sewing machine
• Thread to match each fabric
• Seed beads (optional)
• Black, white, green, and red acrylic paint
• A fine paintbrush
• 4 curls of nylon doll hair
• Long doll needle
• Twin needle (2.5/80)

Preparing Head, Arms, and Legs

1.     Trace the template patterns onto freezer paper. Trace 1 head, 2 arms, and 2 legs. (Click here to download the PDF)

2.     Cut out the freezer paper patterns.

3.     Fold the 6” x 12” piece of batik in half right sides together, and press the freezer paper templates onto the surface. Be sure to leave enough space between the pieces to allow for a 1/8” seam allowance around each piece.

4.     Stitch all around each template using a very tiny stitch, starting at an X on the pattern and stopping at the second X. The opening will be for turning and stuffing.

5.     Cut out each piece with an 1/8” seam allowance outside the stitching. Carefully snip inside corners of the elbows, knees, and neck.

6.     Turn each piece completely right side out.

 7.     When all the pieces are stitched and turned, twirl small bits of stuffing and push them down into the tips of the hand or feet. Continue in this way until the arms and legs are stuffed to within 1/2” of the opening. They should be stuffed reasonably, but not too tightly.

Stuffed arms

8.     Paint a face on the stuffed head with a dry brush and acrylic paints. Set aside to dry.

Stuffed and painted face with hair ready to be applied

Preparing Cupcake Cup

This method is designed to imitate the pleated appearance of a paper cupcake cup. A slight adjustment in your tension will allow for obvious pleats. It also shortens the strip of fabric, which is why you need a strip that seems longer than necessary.

1.     Insert the twin needle into your sewing machine, and thread the machine with coordinating colors of thread.

2.     Use an open-toed foot, and, starting 1/2” from the end of the 3” x 12” piece of fabric, stitch from edge to edge across the width, making 3”-long pintucks with the twin needle. Continue stitching from side to side, turning the piece and stitching again until the pleated section of the fabric is 8” long. Use the presser foot as a guide to space your pintucks by placing the side of the foot right next to the pleat just completed and stitching the next line.

3.     Cut off the remaining fabric, allowing for 1/2” on the end past the pleating.

4.     Cut out a 2 1/2” circle from the remaining fabric. This will form the base of the cup.

Pleated fabric with circle cut from remaining strip

5.     Fold the piece of pleated fabric in half pleated sides together, and stitch together, using a 1/4” seam allowance.

6.     Pin the 2 legs in place on the bottom circle, with the legs folding back over the piece so that they are inside the cup at this time. Stitch the bottom circle to the pleated sides of the cup, catching the tops of the legs in the seam. Turn the cupcake base right side out.

 7.     Stitch the edges of the Lutradur strip together to form a circle.

8.     Place the 2” circle of Lutradur down in the base of the cup. Push the stitched circle inside the cup as well. This will give the cup firmness so that it sits nicely.

Sew pleated cup, stitch legs in place, and add Lutrador.

9.     Pin the arms in place so that the hands can touch when the arms are stitched into place. This allows the doll to hold something if you wish. Place a few hand stitches to hold them there, and remove the pins.

Pin arms in place.

10.     Pour in 1/2” cup plastic beads (for weight). Top off the fabric cup with polyester stuffing to hold the beads in.

Fill cup with plastic beads for weight.

11.     Thread a needle with a double length of quilting thread. Knot the ends together. Run a gathering stitch around the paper cup, and tighten so that it is closed over the polyester stuffing, but not so tightly that it distorts the shape. Set the cupcake cup aside to work on the cupcake top.

Preparing Cupcake Top

1.     With your sewing machine, stitch a line around the 6 1/2” circle of cupcake top fabric, within 1/4” of the edge. Use the largest stitch possible, as this will be your gathering thread.

2.     Gather the edges of the circle in until the opening formed is approximately the size of the top of the cup you’ve just filled and closed.

3.     Thread a needle with thread to match, and stitch a bead here and there all over the circle. You end up with what looks like a beaded shower cap. In the finished sample a bead was placed in the middle of each little star shape. Leave the thread between beads a little bit loose so that it doesn’t distort when this piece is stuffed. (Note: This beading step is optional.)

4.     When beading is completed, take a fistful of polyester stuffing, and stuff the top so that it is soft, but so that the edges are held out over the edge of the cup. Do not stuff it so tightly that the gathers are gone, but tightly enough to keep its form.

Completed cupcake top

6.     Set the beaded and partially stuffed top on the filled cup. Pin loosely in place. With a needle threaded with matching thread, doubled and knotted, stitch from the cup to the gathering seam line on the top and back into the cup. Work your way around the top in this manner, catching the arms in the seam as you go by them.

7.     Before completely closing the seam, check to see that the top is filled out enough—not lopsided and not overstuffed. You can work through the last little opening at this stage to make sure it’s exactly what you want, and then complete the closing seam.

8.     Add the head, or cherry on top, by stitching it to the center of the beaded and partially stuffed cap with a ladder stitch, catching some of the internal stuffing in order to hold it upright. When the head is firmly in place, use a long doll needle and a very strong double length of thread, and take a stitch down through the bottom of the cup and back up again. Repeat this step. This pulls her head down into the topping and makes it look more proportional. When satisfied with how deeply you have secured the head, end your stitch behind a leg on the bottom of the cup.

9.     Using matching thread, hand stitch your dolly’s hands and feet into position. In the finished sample, her hands are joined over her knee, and her ankles are stitched together.