Armature Tutorial

Materials:
-Wool Roving
-14 gauge primary electrical wire
-Doll body (for this tutorial I used My Crochet Doll, by Isabelle Kessedjian)
-Felting needle, optional but very helpful (also very sharp, so be careful!)
-Wire snips

This tutorial is primarily a picture tutorial about creating and wrapping a wire armature for your crochet
doll. This works best if the legs and torso are crocheted as one piece, as in Isabelle Kessedjian's My
Crochet Doll.

Wool roving is an unspun but carded wool that is a lovely medium for stuffing dolls, and works great
for wrapping the wire armature. It comes in ropes or lengths of unbroken wool, that can be 'peeled' to
yield the thickness most appropriate for the armature you are wrapping, or used as stuffing for dolls. It
flows easily into the cavity of the doll, and is warm when held, a particularly endearing quality when
making dolls for children. But, DO NOT put a doll in the wash that is stuffed with this, as it will matt
and felt and distort the doll.
1. Cut the wire to the appropriate length, using your crocheted body as a template. Cut a length of
roving and peel it so you have a rope about ½ inch thick to wind around the wire.

2. Wrap a bit of roving around the end of the wire, then fold this about ½ inch and continue
wrapping over the folded end of wire. Wrap down the length of the wire to the other end and
fold the wire over, wrapping over this folded end as well.

3. With the felting needle, stab the end of the wool roving a few times to secure it in place; try
really hard not to stab yourself! These needles are very sharp, with barbs on the end to tangle
and felt the wool, so be careful.
4. When finished, you will have a leg armature that looks like the left hand picture. Gently work it
into the legs of your crocheted doll, making sure the ends are firmly into the very bottom of
each leg.

5. Continue crocheting the body up around the armature. I admit that once I got to this point, it
was clear I had cut the wire too long. So my suggestion is this: Cut two pieces for the leg up
through the torso.

6. As you can see, I went ahead and cut the one piece into two, and trimmed it to a better length,
then wrapped the roving around the end.

7. This doll is made with a move-able head, so the neck portion is lengthened to create a stub that
will fit up into the head opening. Before you finish the neck, stuff the doll with lengths of wool
roving. It will pack nice and firmly without stretching your stitches. And with an armature, you
do not need to stuff as firmly as the armature will help maintain the shape of the doll.
 8. Crochet the arms, and cut two wire pieces and wrap them as before. Insert them gently into the
arm and this is all the stuffing you will need to do.

You now have a sweetly flexible crochet doll!