Topsy Turvy Doll mini - Doll & Sailor Jupiter

I finished another smaller topsy turvy doll, this one as a gift for my sister. These smaller dolls are made not so much for play but as decorative pieces, but they are still very playable if that is desired. Standing at about 8.5 inches from head to head and about 9.5 inches from head to hem, as the skirt hangs a little lower to fully cover the doll under it, these are an ideal size for display.

Although with my larger flip dolls I embroidered individual face designs for each character, for these smaller dolls I decided to stick to the patterns original face templates. This meant making one dolls face happy and the doll on the flip side sad. These more basic faces were embroidered on using black and white for the eyes with black eyebrows, a pale tan colour for the nose and either red for happy lips or pink for sad lips.

The hands of each doll is also embroidered to give definition and create the fingers on each hand. The hair for each dolls head is made from yarn stitched first in a layer to cover the head, then followed with a second layer to create the length of the hair. This was done to ensure no bald spots on the dolls heads. For the brunette doll I created a fringe and a ponytail tied with a green ribbon to match her skirt.

For the hair on the blonde doll, I create the hair length and left the loops on the ends so it wouldn't look choppy or uneven but instead was left soft and rounded to better disguise any uneven ends. The dress on this blonde doll originally belonged to my sister before she donated it to me for sewing materials and she was pleasantly surprised to see it returned to her in this new representation.

If it was not already obvious, the blonde doll was made to represent my sister but the reverse brunette doll was actually made to represent Sailor Jupiter, the sailor scout who represents the month of my sisters birthday. The outfit for this second doll is a simplified version of Sailor Jupiter's fuku, that is a white top with her signature green colour for her skirt and hair ribbon.

As with everything I sew, this flip doll was completely sewn by hand and this includes the hair and dresses for these dolls. At some stage I will have to find the time to make a topsy turvy doll for myself, I would really like to make a Harry Potter themed doll for my shelf, but in the mean time I have another two sister I am making these dolls for and because they are hand-sewn they tend to take some time to make.