Making a Custom Character Doll From Scratch - How I Made Lisa Rae Robbie of the Agaped Bearer Bookseries

This doll is of Lisa Rae Robbie of The Agaped Bearer bookseries by Hannah Lindsey. I originally made this doll of Lisa to be a little companion to a Gaius cosplay. For those of you who don't know, Gaius is Lisa's mentor after she is chosen to be the Agaped Bearer. This took me several months to make but I enjoyed it. If you do this I'd recommend listening to music while you do it. It helps make things fun.

This is made of wire, primarily twist ties. Probably very customizable.

Tools:

1. Writing Materials
2. Sharpie
3. Pins
4. Scissors
5. Pliers (jewelry making works best)

Supplies:

1. Twist Ties
2. Pipe Cleaners (wire)
3. Fabric
4. Yarn
5. Cotton stuffing
6. Thread
7. Paper

Having a solid idea of where one is going, especially in a long-running project like this, is really helpful. I started with gathering reference drawings and making my own reference sheet. I wanted to base the doll primarily off of book one, or 13ish year old Lisa when she is just starting out as the Agaped. I first drew the clothing and accessories and then a concept of what they would all look like together. It doesn't need to be perfect, just give a clear idea of what you are going for.

I started out with a pipe cleaner base. I twisted two pipe cleaners together into a basic arm-trunk-legs form, and then built onto it with twist ties, so many twist ties. This is a great way to use up those hoarded twist ties left over from bread bags. I did make the skeleton a bit wonkily long though, so maybe take a bit more care than I did when considering length/size/all the dimensions.

I then bent the wire frame into the shape I wanted the head to be and built up the structure. You want to weave and loop the twist ties around the supporting frame, being careful not to bend the frame out of the desired shape, and make sure that the result is rather compact and firm while still leaving spaces to help secure the future fabric in place. Once I was almost done with the head, I filled it with tissue paper so that it can hopefully retain it's shape when pressure is placed on it. Looking back, I probably should have used some tough fabric scraps to make the doll washable.

Before we can start adding the stuffing, we need to make sure we have our doll roughly the shape we want it to be once padded up a bit with cotton. To achieve this end I used a few more twist ties and some fuzzy pipe cleaners to add volume and definition.

Using normal cotton stuffing, the kind used to fill a stuffed animal, wrap the doll's frame until there is cotton enveloping it. It's best if the cotton stuffing is in thin sheets as that makes the job easier and it's less likely to have random unwanted lumps and bumps.

We now have to sew the cotton stuffing onto the wire frame. It can be both simple and tricky, it is very helpful to wrap/loop the thread around when sewing the limbs along with the normal in and out stitch through the frame. Wear or keep a thimble handy, especially when poking the needle through the wrapped twist tie skeleton.

It's now time to pull out the fabric! I used material of an old pair of ballet tights for the skin, it may not be the most accurate shade in regards to Lisa but it's what I had. The magnetic dart is there to hold the needle as I work.

Wrap the fabric around the head and then cut off what isn't needed while leaving a little extra. Don't forget to make it enough so that there is a neck. It is going to look a bit Frankenstein-y during the process but hey! Art always has that ugly phase, plus the stitches are going to get covered with hair. If you are using this to make a different character who is bald... I don't know how to help, at least not yet. That is a question the answer to which I am yet pondering. Once you are done sewing the fabric around the head, trim off the excess and sew any loose ends that are sticking out onto the head so that it is as clean as possible.

I used a pen that was slightly thicker than the arms to stretch out the fabric I was using for the limb skin and kept it in place with pins. I then sewed a sleeve of sorts, removed it when finished and turned it inside out to hide the stitches. It was easy enough from there to just slip the "skin sleeve" onto the arms and legs and then sew them into place. I also wrapped a loop of thread around where the base of the hands are to help accentuate the wrists.

I finished the basic doll part with a leotard made of black fabric scraps. After sewing that on we are ready to get onto the customizations. Let's turn this long-limbed, faceless doll into Lisa! (or if you are making a different project you can turn aside here for your own customizations. Please just don't make Vilmad... or maybe do because that'd be pretty funny.)

For her hair I went with brown yarn. I originally was going to try to comb the yarn out to fluff it and make it possibly look more like hair but I realized that would leave her with frizzy hair that is a far cry from her own. I then figured the traditional yarn-haired doll look would do just fine.

Put the yarn on top of your dolls head to make sure you like the color after all. Once you are sure you wish to proceed, decide which length you would like. Cut out a model strand and use that one as the basis for the rest of your yarn strands. Make the strands into little bundles and tie each bundle in the center with some thread of a matching color. Once you have enough of the bundles, tie the bundles together. Make sure you are attaching one to the other into a sort of wide, flat bundle and not just squishing them all together into one big bulky bundle. Once they are together, lift up the yarn hair and set on top of the head. Secure in place.

I used flat, circular, white sequins for the eyes by using a sharpie to draw on the comically large pupils. I sadly did not have a blue sharpie available to give her her proper eye color but we'll just say that she's using colored contacts for whatever reason (maybe to see if using large pupil bambi eyes would be more effective in convincing Gaius to let her have some more dessert... I think he'd still prefer her natural eye color).

Her freckles were dotted with a marker (or maybe it was a sharpie). No pictures here, freckle reveal later mwahahaha.

The mouth was supposed to be a smile made with a white cloth scrap but I later changed it to be a drawn on little smile. No pictures of that change sadly and I misplaced the doll about a week ago so I can't find her to take a picture. Maybe she forgot to leave her doppelganger here (iykyk). I'm sure I'll find her eventually... just maybe not with Zephan's help. :P (Gaius and Zephan need to learn to get along first)

For her shorts I used some gray cloth, cut into a rectangle. I then stretched out a piece of elastic, lined it up over the cloth and sewed it so that when done the waist scrunched into place. Then I cut into it to make the legs and sewed it normally. Sew normal. Then turn inside out and voila! Don't sell yourself short if you think you can't do this.

I have to admit, I still haven't quite finished the shirt as I want to add the star but haven't gotten around to it. That disclaimer aside, I used a no-show sock with no match to make the bottom half of the shirt. Once again, just using what I had so the color is slightly off from what I was hoping for. I made this part in two halves for ease of removing in case I wanted to make a larger wardrobe at some point... or maybe because I was being lazy... or both. In any case, I like the look of the sock - turned- shirt.

Just a normal shirt top. Nothing to see here. Nothing interesting anyway. Just shirt the interest factor I'm afraid... no cool designs or new methods.

Okay, I guess I have to be more useful than that. Draw a sleeveless shirt pattern, the one I did was basically a square with a rounded edge on the bottom, and a little scoop at the top for the neck... not really much of a square then I guess, but moving on. Cut it and a matching piece out and then get two small, rectangular strips of the cloth to fold over into a tube shape for the sleeves. Sew the edges of the sleeves to the shirt pieces, be careful not to sew the shirt closed accidentally (It needs to be open in the top (for the head), the bottom (for the trunk of the body) and it needs to have functioning arm holes aka sleeves), otherwise the shirt won't work. Once that is done just sew the bottom part of the sleeves shut so that it finishes forming a proper tube. Turn inside out when finished.

I made an attempt at Tuff, Lisa's little Glanie aka Memory Sprite, using two beads. A round bead and a little bead on top to be his little "hair" fluff thingamabob. I sharpied on his face, and his diamond on his back. I used a flat top pin bent at the bottom to hold him together and so that I can attach him to Lisa so that she can carry him or have him ride on her shoulder etc.

I never finished the other accessories but hope to get back around to it one day. This took me quite a while and was the first time I'd made something of this sort, so although I technically have more to do in order for it to be all I'd hoped it would be, I'm still really proud of what it currently is. Lisa successfully was my little companion when I did my rough cosplay of Gaius (It was more of a Gaius-inspired costume than anything else. So much of my time and energy on that project went into making this brute gardener's pretty-much adopted daughter. Which you know what? I'm ok with that.) I already have a bead ready to be made into her orb-kit and I'm currently thinking up a way to try to use hot glue as her Eternling Band. In the final pictures, Lisa sits on the shelf above where her books are kept - although at this point in time she is pulling an elf-on-the-shelf... I have really got to find her and Tuff. They are probably off monster hunting again... *sigh *

Anyway, I hope that you found this at least a little interesting and helpful! Good luck on your own projects and take care of yourself. If you haven't read The Agaped Bearer, maybe think about it? This whole thing would make so much more sense with context I'd imagine.