17 Inch Alice in Wonderland Ragdoll Instructions and Patterns

I Make Rag Dolls. Face Pattern Body Pattern

Meet Zadie. 

Doll making is a true love for me. I didn't realize that I even could make dolls until covid hit. I needed something to do with all that time home alone and JoAnn Fabrics was about the only store left open, for a good while there anyway.

I was diving into hobbies. I started off making some stuffed animals and they were cute. Then I made a sock puppet and that was really adorable. Next, I found myself looking at rag dolls. It never had occurred to me before to make a doll. I truly loved dolls growing up and I guess I just never grew out of it because here I was, in the midst of a national crisis and seeking comfort from dolls. 

I got busy with the Internet University and figured a few things out with some random guidance. I looked at some rag doll designs on the web, clothing patterns, a few doll and sewing books on the shelf at JoAnn's and also watched how-to videos.

With much love and determination, I ended up piecing my own rag dolls together. Sometimes, Id take things apart, even a few times, trying different ideas, just to get the doll as perfect as I could. Trial, error and just feeling my way through it was the way, and I certainly had the time to fiddle with my hands and chat with my angel guides.

This Zadie doll, my sweet Zadie, I gave her two outfits. One is an Alice in Wonderland playful dress (above) with accessories from Hobby Lobby and the other outfit is a pretty and more dressed up look (roses). Both of the dresses are cut from the same pattern and I simply trimmed them differently.

This is not the first Alice in Wonderland rag doll I have sewn. When doing these character designs, you can really get into it with the different fabrics and variety of accessories available. 

To make the first Alice, I used a commercial fabric I purchased from an Etsy vendor, and she sure turned out cute, too! I spent a lot of time thinking of how I wanted her to be. She also had a different face that I designed and her hair was crafted using some wool yarn.

I didn't want to make the same doll twice. I find that boring to do. So this doll I am making here with these patterns is a little different than the first, and she also has a nose! I will show you a picture of the original here so you can see how different ideas for materials can play out with the same patterns.

Hobby Lobby has some great accessories. They have a fairytale charm line (link is to browse and get ideas, not affiliated.) They have all kinds of theme trinkets. I usually do like to put a necklace on the dolls to add to the design. I also found the bunch of mushrooms she is clutching in the store.

I went so far as to felt a really cool rabbit this time to go along with the Zadie doll. In the image I took on top, she's holding a tiny bunny rabbit in her hand that I did get from Hobby Lobby, too. After buying it, I decided to scavenge YouTube for felting ideas and came upon a rabbit I really liked and felted it myself. It took like a week to do it, given much distraction. Worth it. It looks really fun and unique with the doll. 

A felted rabbit pattern is not included with this doll. If you search video tutorials, you will find a lot of rabbit felting videos. Just pick one. I used white wool purchased from Etsy to stay with the theme.

Temu has some great stuff, too! I ordered a tiny Alice in Wonderland pocket watch for Zadie's necklace and it's very cool! In addition, the brass horn the rabbit is holding from there; with a search in 1/12 doll miniatures. 

Oooooooooookay, the true test came once I had Zadie finished. I went to my sister's house and took her along. She has two young daughters that are just obsessed with all things doll related. When I pulled Zadie out of the brown paper bag I had her tucked into, Pippa's precious little 3 year old face lit up like a birthday candle!

She's a petite and soft spoken munchkin but she just reached over and snatched that doll right from my hands and began hugging it. I couldn't help but love her in that moment.

Alice in Wonderland is not the only character doll I have done. I have done several others, including many Wonder Woman dolls, a Halloween witch, Mrs. Clause, a ballerina and even a really cool boy dressed as a ninja turtle for my nephew. I can show you those in another post at another time, there's more, but the point is, you can come up with great ideas and just change the character of the doll by switching fabrics (or outfits all together) and accessories.

Making this doll is super fun and easy to do, even for a beginner! I used my machine embroidery pattern to make Zadie's face, but I have also included a graph illustrating the design for those who hand embroider. Zadie's embroidered rag doll face design can be purchased on Etsy.

When it came to faces, I have made a bunch. I definitely embroidered them many different times on my embroidery machine with adjustments to create what I felt to be the perfect faces for different dolls. With adding a bit of makeup and paint, the look of the face can be more customized by you.

*Note: The Zadie pattern is the only doll face pattern I sell with a hand embroidery graph and instructions. It is included in the folder with the machine embroidery patterns.

In addition to stitching the face, Zadie has a rag doll body pattern sold separately. Some people may or may not need instructions for the body, but it is available. All of the information that is needed is included in this additional file. I created PDF's to be able to easily follow and move right along. These instruction files for the body are detailed and designed for beginner doll makers.