Teesha Moore Inspired Patch Doll

This past Summer I was in a swap where we were charged with making a doll of our partners. Why on earth I joined I'm still not sure! I would never consider myself a doll-maker.... but I jumped in at the last minute thinking I would make a fancy paper doll but then had second thoughts. After many sketches, templates, research, hair pulling, research, overwhelming thoughts of "why did I join this swap??!?", more sketches, more research, a hurried purchase of a blank doll form on etsy, and finally a flash of inspiration! I made this:

She is a TM style patchwork doll. I drafted a simple pattern for the head, body, arms, and legs. Went through my stash of fabric and picked out all the ones that I thought represented my partner (her love of nature and writing stood out the most). Then matched the fabrics up and decided where each one would go and got to cutting.

I was originally going to make her one-sided but then I decided to double up on the pieces because I wanted the back side fabrics to be pretty too! So I made two of everything and stitched them back-to-back before putting the doll together (except the I put part of the neck into the body before stitching it together). Here's her back:

The edge of the head is done opposite to all the other patches; the raw edge is turned to the back instead of the front to give her a nicer/more polished look. Her face was a challenge! I started and re-started a few times... but I think I finally gave her some nice eyes and mouth :)

I gave her some button joints:

 And then I got to work on the HAIR, so... much... hair...!!!

When she was complete I had a little extra time and made her a mini travelers journal as well :)

I used two little TM patches from my stash. I cut a rectangle of fabric big enough to hold them together and be the lining for the inside (and hide the backside of the patches). The pages are made from envelopes rescued from the recycling 

And finally, here she is with her book

Thanks for looking!