All dolled up!

When Sarah Brown used her artistic skills to create her first bespoke artisan doll, little did she realise the worldwide interest her new enterprise would attract. Interview by Glynis Fox.

It’s just three years since talented Sarah Brown felt inspired to create her first artisan doll, fashioning it to resemble the famous 1930s film and music star Marlene Dietrich, but she didn’t keep it for long!

Delighted with the way the bespoke character turned out, she reached for her mobile phone, snapped it and shared it on Instagram. Within days ‘Marlene Dietrich’ was on its way to an excited buyer in Australia, having already triggered a chain reaction.

An avid Dietrich fan had spotted Sarah’s post and wasted no time in messaging her, saying she must have the doll.

Sarah, a professional upholsterer and Pilates teacher, who lives in a beautiful 19th-century house in Tealby with husband John, soon realised she had given birth to a new enterprise – Hello Dolly – simply by having fun and using her creativity. Unsurprisingly, she hasn’t stopped since.

Her enchanting Instagram images are firing the imagination of many customers at home and overseas, who are eagerly commissioning dolls to give as unique gifts or for special occasions.

Creating characters
If you have a love of fabrics and creative pastimes, it is impossible not to be impressed by Sarah’s move. Her lovingly made characters are fascinating. Every doll is bespoke and takes weeks to plan and craft – especially when you learn they are made to look like their future owner or to fill a special role in someone’s life.

Various characters are to be found in Sarah’s home, once you’ve climbed its decade’s old staircase and discovered her bijou sewing studio. Dolls galore peer down from the top of a handy wall unit housing containers stuffed with fabrics and notions. Irresistible little treasures to complement each doll are tucked into every nook and cranny.

Sarah uses her sewing machine and cotton fabric to create each doll’s body, arms and legs, which are stuffed and enhanced with the addition of fine wire. This means they can be easily manipulated to sit and stand on different surfaces.

She sketches the features of the doll’s face onto paper and, when satisfied, transfers that image onto a piece of cloth. This is stretched in a small embroidery hoop, giving Sarah a taut surface on which she can hand embroider the eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth.

Sarah works with threads carefully chosen to highlight the colour of the doll’s eyes. Lips might be fine or boldly heart-shaped and worked in bright red or rosy hues. The head is then fixed to the body and Sarah adds some special finishing touches, before dipping into her fabric stash to choose pieces to make the doll’s clothing.

A lover of vintage and retro styling, fascinatingly Sarah uses different techniques when it comes to tackling a doll’s hairdo and eyelashes.

“If I am making a vintage style doll, I use felted wool and fashion it into a suitable style. More modern dolls often feature curly hair and I have great fun creating styles by recycling real hair extensions. My hairdresser saves these for me,” added Sarah.

Meanwhile, many a doll’s eyes are enhanced and made to look “wide awake” by the application of proper false eyelashes!

“My Instagram feed has fired many people’s imaginations and led to commissions, as have word of mouth recommendations. One of the people I contacted is Emma Haigh, the owner of vintage-style fashion shop Jailhouse Frock in Sincil Street, Lincoln,” said Sarah.

Communicating via Instagram, Sarah asked Emma if she would like a bespoke doll making for her shop and she said “yes”!

Working from an Instagram image of Emma, she made her doll with two-tone hair, dressed her in a purple and white spotted halter-neck dress, decorated with a tiny “bad-gal” gun and sat her in a hoop. Now she takes pride of place in Emma’s boutique and she thinks it’s “fabulous!”

Lifelike designs
Fired up by her success, Sarah received another boost for her handiwork when two colourful contestants who appeared on separate showings of the BBC television series Interior Design Masters, hosted by funny man Alan Carr, also eagerly accepted bespoke version of her dolls.

Instagram influencer and interiors designer Joanne Hardcastle, from Yorkshire, who has 235,000 followers on Instagram, is now the proud owner of a vibrant “lookalike” which sports her famous bob hairstyle and dazzling clothing. She told Sarah: “Oh my God these [dolls] are amazing!”

Fellow influencer Siobhan Murphy of InteriorCurve, a commercial interiors business in Yorkshire, also accepted the offer of a bespoke doll and loved her lookalike, which was perfectly crafted, right down to having pink hair to match her own.

Other dolls are very special because they are made to fulfil a very personal mission.

“A friend in Grimsby asked if I could make a special doll for her mum who was suffering from Alzheimer’s. She wanted it to look like her own mum (the friend’s grandma). She was thrilled with the end result and said her mum took it everywhere with her,” said Sarah.

“Another commission came from Europe, when I was contacted by a lady who had developed cancer. She knew she would have to undergo treatment, was likely to lose her long hair and wanted a doll to remind her what she had looked like previously. I was able to make a bespoke doll and she was absolutely thrilled with it.”

As we went to press, Sarah was busy working on the first of a trio of individual dolls, commissioned by a local lady and destined for each of her daughters. She is gradually constructing these, as each will take three weeks to complete. Sarah is rising to this latest challenge with the help of supplied photographs!

“I love making dolls, but the really exciting part is getting all the fabrics and accessories together and ensuring they meet the brief and end-up resembling the person they are made to represent,” said Sarah, who charges from £400 for each doll.

Whatever the individual approach, it’s all about getting each doll to correctly reflect the features of the person receiving it, or one of their loved ones. If it is a present, it needs to have the right clothing and hairstyle.

And when it comes to choosing the various fabrics for each doll’s outfit, it seems that Sarah is unlikely to ever tire of rummaging through her numerous containers for the right bit of plush velvet, square of faux suede or leather, lawn cotton or lace!

Unlike many of the old plastic dolls you sometimes find in antique shops, whose eyes can seem to eerily follow you around the room, Sarah’s are definitely much softer and more appealing.

However, it’s true to say that when her son and daughter, Amber and George, return home from their respective universities in York and Leeds, they never know whose doll they are going to bump into next!

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