My Stitchpunk Doll, Herbert G.

After I saw Shane Acker's movie “9” (see photo to right), I immediately wanted to try my hand at creating a stitchpunk doll of my own (his term, BTW). I’m a fan of steampunk in the first place, and I just loved this combination of the gothic/Victorian/industrial style of steampunk with the homemade-toy concept.

I couldn't find very much material on making such a doll--seems like only a few people have, but I got the sense on the web that the craze is just starting.  I decided to try to keep the general look of one of Shane Acker’s characters (small head, skinny limbs, big belly, goggle eyes and rough-stitched) while taking a few liberties to make the doll my own.

I named him Herbert G, after H.G. Wells.

[Click on any photo below to enlarge.] The first thing I did was sketch out my mental picture of the doll, and start figuring out the best way to achieve the various elements of it.  I loved the zipper on Shane’s 9 character so had to use that.  I liked having some of Herbert’s inner workings show, so I decided to include a “clockwork breastplate.”  Rather than try to find a way to make his hands out of clips (like others have done), I thought it would be easier to simply make him steampunk style gloves, and boots to go with (Shane’s creatures have simpler shoes).  I liked the idea of headgear, and of course nothing says industrial steampunk like an aviator cap.

But to me the most important element of these little creatures is their eyes; the way Shane did his, with goggle eyes that contained shutters like a camera lens, just entranced me.  I had an idea for that I hoped would work.

I had almost everything I needed for the doll already on hand, with the exception of the zipper, a few extra gears, and magnet snaps for the feet (more on that later).  So my cost was about $5 for supplies!

The first thing I did was to make the eyes, since I wasn’t sure how small I could make them and their size would determine the scale of everything else.  I made Herbert G's eyes from black and silver polymer clay, and used UTEE to create the clear lenses over the “shuttered” irises. (UTEE is an embossing powder that turns clear when heated.)  I made a flange around the edge of the eyes.  When they came out of the oven I was thrilled with them!

His clockwork breastplate is polyclay embellished with clockwork gears.  I bought some extra gears that are intended for scrapbooking, but most of them were actual old clockworks.  Before baking, I poked holes around the edges of the plate for sewing later.

With these items done, I could determine the overall size of the doll.  I designed paper patterns for all the fabric elements and did sketches of the gloves and boots.  As you can see, my cat Cody pretended to help, but actually was simply trying to gank Herbert’s eyes for himself.

For the body fabric, I used steel gray fleece I had on hand, but with the fleece side in.  This was great fabric because it stretched nicely but also had a simple look, like broadcloth.  You can see my cat Selke assisting with the fabric cutting in the photo.  

Most of the sewing was done with a golden-colored bead stringing thread, nice and thick so it would show up and look rugged.  Some of the finer assembly stitching was done with regular polyester thread in black.

First I assembled Herbert’s coveralls/legs, installing the zipper first.  Nothing tricky there except the tiny size (he’s only 12 inches tall and very skinny).

Next I did the head, which believe me was a challenge. I ended up actually turning it upside down from its intended position, because the shape was better that way.  I stuffed it with fiberfill, and then cut holes for the eyes (much smaller than I thought I’d need, fortunately; they immediately expanded from the stretching to what was fortuitously the right size!).  I inserted the clay eyes and immediately ran stitching around them and pulled it as tight as I could.  I used black standard polyester thread to do the stitch that sculpts the little mouth.  The head was stuffed very firmly.

Then I sewed Herbert’s shirt/arms, the final fabric element of the doll itself.  It should be noted that in doing this sewing, I was intentionally messy and uneven.  That’s what gives you the stitchpunk look!

Next I needed to make the rest of the clay elements.  I sculpted the gloves and boots from clay with wire inserted within (bent and deeply embedded so it wouldn’t come out).  The embellishments I used were jewelry findings I had on hand.

I’m also quite proud of the idea I had for the base.  I had bought two pairs of large magnetized snaps with no particular purpose in mind for them for the doll.  As I worked on him, I realized I really wanted to have some way of standing him up that would function well but also look cool.  It occurred to me I could embed one half of the snaps in a clay base, and the other in the boot bottoms, so Herbert could easily be placed on or pulled off the base.  I also wanted it to have some weight to discourage tipping, which gave me the idea to incorporate metal screws and washers and such.  No need to conceal them, as they fit perfectly with the theme!

The finished base turned out to be a steampunk work of art on its own.  And the boots stood on it perfectly!  I now had everything I needed to assemble the doll.

That whole project was a bit of trial and error, but went quite smoothly really.  I inserted the wires from the boots inside the coveralls, and the wires from the gloves inside the shirt, and worked stuffing around them.  Then I assembled the two partially stuffed sections, pulled all wires through the neckhole, and twisted them together.  More stuffing ensued, and when I was satisfied with that I tacked the shirt to the coveralls enough to hold it in place.

Then I folded in all but one wire back into the chest.  I pierced the head with the remaining wire and then stitched the head on to the neck, inserting a little stuffing in the neck as I went.  The wire I had used was not quite firm enough to keep him standing, but that was rectified by the insertion of a 9” piece of coathanger wire up one leg and into his chest.  It fit firmly into his boot top.  He has to be posed to keep his center of gravity over the base, but is quite stable.

After that I ran stitching around the cuffs of the shirt and coverall legs and pulled tight.  To keep the fabric from pulling away from the gloves and boots, I used a little Gorilla Glue.

The final element was Herbert’s aviator cap.  I made that of brown felt (so easy to work with, felt!) and used a couple jewelry findings for embellishments.  It fits nicely on his head and is removable.

Herbert G stands 13” tall when on his base.  I love how he seems to be amiably posed on some industrial refuse pile in a post-apocalyptic future scenario...just as you would want you stitchpunk doll to look.  He took me 16 hours to make, a small price to pay for such a cool friend.  Enjoy the rest of the glamour shots, with Cody included “for scale.”