The Bookworm Cloth Doll



Do you remember the story of Cora Jean, the bookworm?  She is my favorite Snugglebug, a little girl who can't open a book without being pulled into some sort of amazing adventure. 

And yes, you've met her before in paper form, but now I'd like to introduce her fabric form.  Isn't she cute?  This lovely doll (along with some cute outfits) was Lu's birthday present.  I gave it to her for her birthday, alongside a sewing kit, with the promise that I'd make her some more outfits of her choice and we'd make some together too.  I mentioned before that Lu loves to dress her dolls right now, but that she doesn't really have the skill for complicated outfits and dolls yet.  I thought she needed something simple, both to dress and make clothes for.  This doll is perfect for both. 

She's easy to dress.  Soft to hug.  A perfect first doll to sew for. Oh, and did I mention that I plan to have tutorials and patterns for it all?  Yep, that's right.  You'll be able to make your OWN Cora (for personal use only please--contact me if you'd like to sell them commercially). 

The next few weeks on this blog are going to be BUSY!!! Keep track of this post, because it's going to serve as a hub, with links to all of the tutorials for Cora's clothes and accessories shown here.  I'll modify this post with the links as I add them, but if you aren't a follower of Snugglebug University yet, make sure that you sign up so that you don't miss any future Cora outfits or accessories.

But enough talk.  You want to see more Cora right?

Cora's simple little shift dress is made of adorable nursery rhyme fabric and I attached a little patch made with one of the drawings I did for Cora for the girl's room.

 

Since Cora loves to read and the characters never seem to stay put on the pages, I thought she needed a little friend.  Meet Mother Goose:

And since Cora came for Lu's birthday, she needed to be properly dressed for the celebration.   Nothing says birthday like a dress with cupcakes on it, and a little felt cupcake.

Cora's first adventure was of the mermaid sort:

And then Cora took a turn as Rapunzel.  Lu loves the fact that Cora's dress matches her own Rapunzel dress.

 Altogether, Cora's collection currently consists of these four lovely outfits:

The tutorials for these outfits will run like this (as I post, the following will become links to the full tutorials.)

Intro Week (week of August 4th):  The Snugglebug Sewing Kit

Week 1:  Cloth Doll Pattern

Week 2:  Simple Shift Dress and Mother Goose

Week 3:  Mermaid Outfit

Week 4: Cupcake Dress and Felt Cupcake 

Week 5:  Rapunzel Dress

Week 6:  Simple sewing dress that you can make with your child  

So how has Cora's reception been in our house?  Quite a hit.  The mermaid outfit is Lu's absolute favorite. 

and she's even a necessary component of bedtime.  No one sleeps if Cora doesn't make it into bed.

And Cora already has a friend, Juliana, who we'll have to introduce you to another time. Because one thing is for sure.  If you make one of these, you're sure to have to make another.

Keep tuned for the upcoming tutorials!