How to Make a Waldorf Doll: A Simple First Knot Doll

The simplest Waldorf doll to make is a knot doll. You roll a firm ball of clean wool for the head, set it in the middle of a square of soft cotton knit, and tie it off tightly at the neck. Then you knot two corners for hands and stitch two small eyes, or leave the face blank. It takes an evening and needs no pattern. It makes a lovely first doll for a baby or toddler. Once you've made one, you can move on to a larger doll with arms, legs and hair, and for that it's worth using a tested pattern.

Below: what you need, the steps for a first knot doll, how to keep it safe for a small child, and where to find full patterns when you're ready for more.

Why start with a knot doll?

Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, once described a doll made from an old napkin. Its corners became arms and legs, and a knot made the head. He suggested that a child given such a doll fills in the rest from imagination. Summerfield Waldorf School describes the first doll in its early childhood classes the same way, as little more than a head and two hands.

That makes the knot doll the easiest place to begin. There are no limbs to shape and no hair to sew on. If your stitches wander, nobody minds. And it's the doll many Waldorf families give a baby first anyway. If you'd like to know more about the doll itself before you sew, our guide to Waldorf dolls covers why the face is simple and which doll suits which age.

What you need

You can find all of this at a craft shop or a Waldorf supplier, and some of it in your own cupboards.

• Soft cotton knit for the body and the skin of the head. A square of about 35 to 40 cm (14 to 16 inches) makes a small doll. Cotton interlock or doll skin fabric is traditional. An old, soft T-shirt in a plain color works well for a first try.
• Clean carded wool for the head. Sold as wool stuffing, wool batting or roving. A few handfuls is plenty.
• Strong thread for tying the neck. Button thread or a thin cotton string.
• A needle and ordinary thread for sewing.
• Embroidery thread for the eyes and mouth, if you add them.
• Scissors and pins.

Many doll makers use tubular gauze or stockinette for the inner head, and the tutorials below explain it. For a first knot doll, you can leave it out and wrap the wool straight into the fabric.

How to make a knot doll, step by step

These steps are for a simple knot doll of about 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 inches). Read them through once before you start.

1. Roll the head

Pull off a strip of wool and wind it tightly around two fingers, then slide it off and keep winding. You're making a small, hard core, a bit like winding a ball of yarn. Then add more thin strips on top, layer by layer, until the ball is about the size of a small mandarin.

Keep it firm. Doll maker Barrie Hamby, in her head-making tutorial, starts every head with a firm core of wool and builds out from there. Press the ball: it should spring back.

2. Set the head in the fabric

Lay your square flat, wrong side up if it has one. Put the ball of wool in the middle. Bring the fabric up and around it, smoothing it over the front so the face side is free of wrinkles. Gather the rest together below the ball.

3. Tie the neck

Wrap the strong thread around the gathered fabric just under the ball, two or three times, pulling it as tight as you can. Knot it firmly and trim the ends. Then sew a few stitches through the neck binding so it can't slip. This one tie gives the doll its head.

4. Make the hands

Take two opposite corners of the square. Tie a small, tight knot near the tip of each one, so it looks like a little fist. Those are the hands. The other two corners can hang loose as a gown or be tucked up and sewn into a little bunting.

If you want a doll with more of a body, sew a straight seam down the front below the neck, stuff the lower part lightly with wool, and close the bottom. You now have a bunting doll, like the small bunting babies some doll kits start with.

5. Add a face, or don't

Many Waldorf dolls have two eyes and a hint of a mouth, and some have no features at all. With embroidery thread, sew two small stitches for eyes, a little below the middle of the face. A single tiny stitch for the mouth is enough. Pull each stitch through to the back of the head so the knots are hidden.

Keep the face quiet. Kelly Casanova's softie doll tutorial uses satin stitch for the eyes and one simple stitch for the mouth. Your child will imagine the rest.

6. Finish

Check the neck tie, the knots and every stitch. Give the doll a gentle tug everywhere. If anything moves, sew it again.

Keeping it safe for a small child

A knot doll is simple, which helps. There's not much to come loose. Still, a few general cautions apply to any soft toy for a young child.

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests stuffed toys that are well made, with parts on tight and seams and edges secure, and taking off any loose ribbons or strings. It also advises keeping soft objects out of the cot at sleep time. For children under 3, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission bans any toy or part that fits fully inside its small parts tester. Some parents use a toilet paper roll as a rough home check, though it's a little bigger than the official tester.

So for a baby or toddler:

• Embroider the face. No buttons, beads or felt pieces.
• Leave off ribbons, bells and cords.
• Sew, don't glue.
• Check the doll now and then for loose threads, a slipping neck tie or a split seam, and mend it straight away.

Kelly Casanova makes the same point about her small doll: with no little bits on it, it suits a younger child. If you're making something more detailed, like a doll with yarn hair or clothes with buttons, give it to an older child.

Moving on to a larger doll

When you've made a knot doll or two, you might want a doll with arms, legs, hair and clothes. This is a bigger job. A doll maker writing for Waldorf Publications put one full doll at 15 to 24 hours of work. The main new steps are:

• A shaped head, with a string tied across the face for the eye line and another for the chin, as Barrie Hamby's tutorial shows. It gives the head a gentle, human shape.
• A sewn body cut from a pattern, stuffed firmly with wool.
• Hair, often mohair or wool yarn, sewn on strand by strand or as a crocheted cap.
• Clothes that come off.

For these, use a tested pattern. The proportions matter, and a good pattern has already worked them out. Some places to look:

• Making Waldorf Dolls by Maricristin Sealey (Hawthorn Press). A professional doll maker's guide with ten designs, from soft baby dolls and pouch dolls to limbed dolls, plus hair and clothes.
• Toymaking with Children by Freya Jaffke (Floris Books). Jaffke taught in a Waldorf kindergarten for many years. The book covers several kinds of dolls alongside knotted animals, playcloths and puppets.
• Doll kits and patterns from Waldorf suppliers. A Child's Dream, for example, sells patterns and full kits from small bunting babies up to larger dolls, with the fabric and wool included.
• Free tutorials online. Doll makers like Barrie Hamby (Moonchild Dolls) and Kelly Casanova share head-making tutorials with photos.

A kit is a good halfway step. Everything arrives cut to size, and you learn the method before you go looking for your own fabric.

Caring for a handmade doll

Wool doesn't like the washing machine. A Child's Dream suggests spot cleaning with a cloth, lukewarm water and mild soap, then blotting dry. For a full wash, treat the doll like a wool jumper: cool water, mild soap, a gentle squeeze and a long air dry. Hot water and rubbing can felt the wool inside.

Because you sewed it, you can mend it. Keep a little of the fabric and thread in your sewing box for later.

Making dolls with your child

Young children often like to sit beside a grown-up who is making something. A small child can pull wool apart, help roll the head and choose the fabric. Our sewing with children guide lists the knot doll among kindergarten sewing projects, and Waldorf finger knitting is another good way into handwork. In many Waldorf schools, children sew a doll of their own in grade 7, as our Waldorf handwork by grade guide describes.

For the rest of the play corner the doll lives in, see Waldorf toys and play at home.

What to do this week

1. Find a square of soft cotton knit. An old T-shirt is fine.
2. Buy or find a few handfuls of clean wool.
3. Make one knot doll in an evening: head, neck, hands, and two small eyes if you like.
4. Tug everything before you hand it over, and give it a basket for a bed.

If your child is nearing grade 1, Starpath has Waldorf-inspired lessons for grades 1 to 3, with grade 4 being added. Sophie, a Waldorf class teacher with over ten years in the classroom, writes them. The Waldorf grade 1 curriculum guide shows what that first year holds.