I have had this pattern of a Tasha Tudor doll for quite awhile and never found the time to make her. The original pattern is by Leslie O’Leary, a very talented doll artist that I have admired. Her art dolls, especially the Asian dolls are gorgeous and one day I hope to make one.

During this period of time during the self isolation or self sheltering Covid 19 pandemic I decided this would be a good diversion from all negativity in the world and take me back in time when in my early 20’s I was a librarian/media specialist. My love for literature, especially children’s literature is still very dear to me and Tasha Tudor’s beautiful illustrations are a favorite.

Besides a lack of time the other reason it took me awhile to create this doll was searching for the perfect fabric for her dress. I was looking for a blue flower fabric but the print had to be small, not huge and it had to be a random pattern. I had looked at fabric stores, quilt shops, just about everywhere and could not believe it when I found it at a flea market – in a bag of quilt scraps a lady was giving away for free.

Once I got started I of course made some changes, I wanted her to be free standing so I added supports in her legs, I painted her shoes right on the fabric instead of using felt. Her dress is a little different then the pattern and instead of mixing different patterns for her scarf I used the same fabric. For her apron I found a small cloth napkin that was my mother’s and she had embroidered a small blue flower on the corner. So I wanted to highlight that little blue flower by having her hold the apron in her hand. Her head and face are totally different from the original pattern. I have not mastered needle sculpting and I really do not like cloth dolls with the seam in the middle of a doll’s face so I had add small amount of paper clay to the cloth, gesso the face a few times sanding in between until I can barely see a hint of a seam and then I paint the face using acrylic paints. The hair is wool roving and wool yarn that I felted, I decided not to add a scarf to the hair because I just loved how her hair turned out.

All in all she took about a month to create and I was able to self isolate and still keep very busy ! I really love how she turned out, I may add some little blue flowers in her other hand to make her look like she just walked out of the “Secret Garden”. Ü

Thanks for visiting my site and leave a comment, I would love to hear how you like the doll or if you even know who Tasha Tudor was… I always respond to comments. Have a wonderful day and stay safe !