The pattern and directions in this tutorial are intended to serve as a companion/supplement to the dollmaking directions in Edith Flack Ackley's Dolls to Make for Fun and Profit, a famous and readily-available dollmaking book, with directions that nevertheless can be difficult and cryptic for the modern dollmaker. This project may not make sense on its own, but should clarify and expand on some of EFA's original methods and patterns.

DTMFFAP is still protected under copyright, and while other of EFA's patterns and books are no longer protected, it can be very difficult to determine which are in the public domain, so I am not reproducing any of EFA's original materials on this page. I am providing my own adapted EFA-type Dollhouse Doll pattern for a six-inch doll to get you started on this project, and you can visit my EFA Galleries on Sara Cole Studios to see many inspiring pictures of miniature Ackley-types I have created.

It may be possible to create your own EFA-style dolls just with these patterns, directions, and pictures, so if it seems like a fun, one-time project, knock yourself out! But if you find you're really interested in Edith Flack Ackley dolls, or don't understand the directions, I STRONGLY recommend you obtain a copy of Dolls To Make For Fun and Profit, or consider studying other of EFA's patterns, such as "To Greet a Little Girl" or "For a Little Girl's Christmas." You will need a true EFA book or pattern if you'd like to dress your dollhouse EFA in a miniaturized version of EFA's original clothing designs. On the other hand, you can create your own clothing patterns based on the EFA 'look' as it appears in my picture galleries. Creating your own new patterns to make miniaturized Ackley-type clothes may actually be easier than using her real patterns, shrunken-down! Remember that EFA always encouraged dollmakers to do their OWN thing, so try using our traditional EFA pattern as a base and create your own original ragdoll companion, or consult DTMFFAP or EFA's other books and patterns for many doll variations.

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EFA's dollhouse dolls in DTMFFAP tend to be much simpler versions of her full-size dolls. In this project, we are endeavoring to make a miniaturized, dollhouse/Hitty-size version of a traditional EFA doll, with all the details of the full-size dolls, like slender limbs and removable clothes. I always try my best to make each doll a perfect miniature replica of a full-sized EFA doll.

For the doll's body, the "Little Girl Doll" dollhouse doll pattern in Dolls to Make For Fun and Profit is easiest, since EFA designed it as a miniature doll. For the look of the larger dolls, I use a shrunken version of the "Little Girl Doll" or "Large Doll" pattern from the same, or a shrunken version of the doll body in "To Greet a Little Girl." Over time I have adapted these into my own Ackley-type miniature pattern, which makes about a 6-inch doll.

Start with 200-thread count unbleached muslin. I've tried to make some of these dolls with lower-count muslin and it is much harder, even if the muslin is very good quality. I just can't keep the tiny threads from popping out at the places where I clip the curves. I recommend using the best muslin you can find. Highest-quality muslin can be expensive, but you need very little for these dolls. Use unbleached muslin, and you can tea-dye it with ordinary black tea or coffee, longer for darker skin tones, shorter for lighter. If the fabric is not the shade you want when it's dry, you can always toss it back in for more, or try a stronger dye such as RIT. The fabric color will appear much lighter on your finished doll than it did when it was just fabric. I recommend using very tiny needles for the miniature sewing in this project. I use a size 12.

Trace the doll outline onto your fabric with a water-soluble pen or light pencil. Because I stuff the dolls fairly hard, the pencil tends to show at the seams, even if I try to stitch inside the outline, but pencil can be used if you're careful. EFA recommended pencil.

Stitch the outline of your doll using a very low stitch length on the machine-- a 1 on my machine. It should be about 25 stitches per inch. I walk the machine around the neck, hands, feet, armpits and crotch to make sure the stitching is perfect. After sewing around once, reinforce the neck, armpits, and crotch by sewing right on top of the first seam, about 1/2 inch on either side of the curve. I do not leave an opening at the side of the doll at this time, as is recommended in the original patterns.

Rinse the doll to remove the outline (if you've used water-soluble pen), and let it dry. Then treat the fabric around the outside of the outline with Dritz Fray check. I know there are several other good fray-stopping substances you could try. I like Dritz because it's inexpensive and readily available in my area at Wal-Mart and JoAnns, and it's quite strong. If you prefer, you can use watered-down tacky or white glue, just make sure it doesn't soak beyond the stitchline over onto the doll. Most fray-check substances will be invisible if they accidentally spread too much outside the seam, but glue will show. If you do it carefully, though, glue can be the strongest option.

After the fray check dries, cut around the outside of the doll, leaving about a 3/16 seam allowance, but cutting closer around the hands and feet to make turning possible. Clip the curves at the neck, wrists, ankles, armpits, and crotch. Clip in to either corner between the legs, and under the arms if they're constructed that way, to make the squarish look you see on the EFAs. I cut about 1/8-inch above the line at the top of the head, just in case the top opening gets frayed a little bit in turning and stuffing.

When ready to turn, I use my seam ripper to pick out some of the stitches at the side to make an opening. This may seem like a pain, but I think it's worth it because by sewing the seam and fray-checking it, and then picking it back out again, it leaves tiny holes in the fabric where the original seam was, which serves as a perfect guideline of where to sew when stitching the opening back up. Start the opening well below the armpit so as not to ruin the curve in the armpit; don't worry if the opening goes down on to the side of the leg a bit. It helps to have this opening when turning the doll right-side out, so if you don't wish to create the opening at this stage, remember to leave the side opening in your original stitching.

T he seams have to be cut close to the hands and feet for turning. To turn right-side out, you can start by using tweezers to poke part of the hand or foot toward the inside, and then pushed it right-side out with a chopstick or knitting needle. My preferred method on all of my dolls is to I use a hemostat I ordered from Gail Wilson. You have to be very gentle even with the hemostat because it take some force to turn. Alternatively, you can use Edith Flack Ackley's traditional method to turn each limb with a darning needle and crochet cotton. Thread the needle with the cotton and knot the end. Insert the needle in through the toe, hand, or shoulder, through the inside, and out through the opening, then tug the string very slowly and gently to draw the piece right side out. The drawback to this method is that it can create holes in the tips of the doll's hands or feet where the fabric is distressed.

When the doll is right-side out, begin by stuffing the feet up to the knees. EFA recommended stuffing dolls with hospital cotton, which is most readily available to us today in the form of cotton balls. Consult DTMFFAP for more details on stuffing with cotton. Cotton is most authentic and will make a very interesting hard, light doll. High quality polyester or wool stuffing can be used for more ease of stitching for hair and features, but your doll will be softer compared to a traditional EFA. Leave the ankles a bit floppy to make them easier fold up to stitch into feet later. Stuff up to the knees, then hand-stitch the joints at the knees. After stitching each knee joint, run the thread down through the leg to stitch the foot. To make the foot, bend the ankle around a darning needle, to help push the extra fabric out of the way and make a neat fold. Then blanket-stitch, just two stitches, straight across and back again. I do this several times until it is very tight, and make the tiniest knot I can to finish it off.

Then, if you have left the side opening open partly down onto the leg, begin stitching that closed with a blanket stitch, stitching directly in the seam-holes that are already there from the picked-out seam. Stitch the side opening closed up to the crotch level, then leave the needle and thread dangling. Stuff the thighs from the knees up to the level of the hip joint, and using a second needle and thread hand-stitched the hip joints. Cut off the second needle and thread when finished with the hip joints, but still leave the first dangling, as the opening is not finished yet.

Stuff the arms next. Insert the stuffing up through the side opening, but put your stuffing-stick or hemostat down through the head and neck to stuff it down into the arms. After stuffing the arms up to the shoulders, hand-stitch the shoulder joints with a separate needle and thread. Then stuff the body, firmly, but not so much that it is hard to close the side opening. When the stuffing is finished, stitch up the side opening with the needle and thread that is still attached to it, again using a blanket stitch exactly in the holes of the original machine-stitched seam. Remove the needle and thread when the side opening is done.

Continue to stuff the doll down through the neck, a little at a time, to make the body firm. At some point in stuffing the body and head, I insert half of a plastic q-tip, with the cotton part in the head. I used bits of wooden dowel on my earlier dolls, but liked the plastic-shaft q-tip better on later ones. The q-tips are strong enough to stiffen the neck but harmless if they were to come out of the doll. Continue stuffing the body and head up to the top. I try to stuff very firmly, but not to make the head too round. The flatter EFAs look more authentic to me, and the EFA design is a pancake doll. Most of EFAs basic body design will round out nicely, but if the head is made too round it can cause a kind of stretched groove extending up through the face on either side where the head meets the neck. Best to keep it flattish!

After stuffing, clip off any extra fabric that was left on the top of the head, and stitch it shut. Start in the middle and worked out to one corner, then go back to the middle and stitched from there out to the other corner. It is easier to get the top of the head even that way, than stitching from one side to the other.