Turn your doll pattern into an alien

I'm going to show you how I turned a regular doll pattern into an alien just by adding different ears, bulgy big eyes, fingers/toes and using some fuzzy green fabric.

You can use any Waldorf style doll pattern you have to make an alien baby. I used the Cupcake doll pattern to make this one. I also created a coat pattern for him, now available in my shop. The coat fits the 10 inch cupcake dolls, so if you're using another size doll pattern, you may need to resize the coat.

To make an alien, you can follow the instructions to make your doll as you normally would but with a few changes.

---Click to open PDF THIS IS THE PATTERN FOR THE EARS AND EYES----

* FABRIC I used organic cotton sherpa knit fabric for this guy. I thought it would be a good choice for him, since he has no hair.  Fluffy fabric is great to hide seams on the head. It's only available in a natural white color, so has to by dyed. For my alien, I used Rit brand fabric dye. Kelly green, mixed with a small amount of teal gave me the color I was going for. Sort of a gray/green, almost sage... We do sell the white fabric. I may try to get some of the green color pre-dyed. When I use this fabric, I like to line it with regular doll skin fabric to make it stronger. So when I make this doll, all of the pattern pieces will have the green sherpa cut out and lined with the doll skin fabric (I do not line the ears with doll skin). I also used the sherpa fabric for lining the hood of the coat I made for him. You can use taupe or a light tan dye to get the color I used. Perhaps buy your fabric for the jacket first so you can match it up to your fabric.

STUFFING The head of the doll, is made like any other Waldorf style doll head. Since the doll is lined with doll skin fabric, I like to use poly or glass pellets to stuff the arms, legs, and body, instead of wool. You can definitely go with all wool. I just personally love the feel of them with the pellets. They are floppier, heavier and just nicer to hold and because of the lining, you won't see lumps from the pellets either.

*EXTRA THINGS NEEDED The Sherpa fabric and dye, poly or glass pellets, Black wool felt, black embroidery thread, green sewing thread. The other supplies needed are the same as making the doll normally, doll skin fabric, wool head etc.

*ALIEN FEATURES Before you cut out the arms and legs of your doll, you can add on three toes/fingers to the hands and feet. That's really the only thing you'll be altering about the original pattern.

I'm sharing the ear pattern that I use, so you can print it out and use the same pattern. It's one long piece which you fold in half and then sew together.

Now the ear is sewn closed, you can cut a small hole in the folded end of the fabric so it can be turned right-side out.

Turn the ear right-side out. You do not need to sew the opening closed since this end will be attaching to the doll's head.

Pin the ears to the sides of the head to hold in place as you sew them to the head. As you can see, I've also pinned the eyes in place at this point. It helps me place the ears how I want them. I will share the pattern for the eye shape I use as well.

I like to bend the tops of the ear inward slightly. Not that they all have to be the same. You can play around with it and see how you like them to look.

I've also blushed the insides of the ears with beeswax crayon, just as you would doll cheeks. I blushed his cheeks too of course.

For the eyes, I chose to use black wool felt because the eyes are quite large and also because I wanted the eyes to be be somewhat bulging, like an alien... Pin the eye all the way around. Pull one single string of black embroidery thread to attach the eyes in place.

To get the puffy eyes, I put a very small pinch of wool behind the eye.

To attach the eyes, use the embroidery thread (the string ends will be hidden at the top opening of the head, just as the doll pattern would be. Notice from the photo below, the needle is very close to the edge of the felt, less than 1/8 inch from the edge. You wouldn't want to get much closer than that in case the thread would pull through the felt fabric. Insert the needle into the face fabric and then into the back side of the felt. Repeat that all the way around the eye. The stitches are about 1/8 inch apart. I prefer to use a curved needle for this job usually. It'll make it much easier to sew the eye on.

Oh here we go, I did end up with a curved needle! This photo is showing the eye almost completely attached. I remove the pins as I go. When you get to the very end, decide if the eye needs more stuffing, if so you can still add more at this point. If not, sew the rest of the way around. Pull the thread to the top of the head opening and secure the knots. I also added a small white speck on each eye for the appearance of light. I used a full thickness of white embroidery thread for that.

The smile is done as a standard Waldorf doll mouth would be done. I wanted him to have a decent size smile for a really sweet and innocent look. 

Once you're happy with the eyes and mouth, you can close the head fabric and hide all those thread tie offs. Tuck the raw edge of the fabric in toward the back of the head.

Once the fabric is tucked in nicely, sew it closed. *The thinner the thread you use, the less of a seam line you will see. You can sew first with stronger thread and then sew over it again with green regular thread.

Once it's sewn closed, the fuzziness of the fabric really hides the seams well.

I designed this coat especially for this doll size. It's available now on my site shop as well as my Etsy shop.

And he's just kind of irresistibly cute in this coat!

I also made him some undies with baby yoda print on the fabric ❤️❤️

I hope you all enjoy making this doll as much as I did. Xoxo