Sewing Sunday - Making Ida Bean

Ida Bean was a doll for Addy Walker 1 (who is also a doll, haha for having a doll for your doll, which I think is a cute idea, but I tend to have stuffed animals for my dolls). Ida is, from what I gather, a type of rag doll that uses beans as stuffing. You couldn't go out and buy a doll back before the civil war - you had to make it yourself. Doll manufacturing did not become a big thing until after the civil war 2.  Nowadays, if you want an Ida Bean doll, you'll have to pay $51 (without shipping, bedtime collections included) 3, since she retired in 2017 4 thanks to Addy's cubing. I was able to find a tutorial and pattern on how to make Ida Bean on Living A Doll's Life 5 which I will be transcribing and altering slightly so you don't get things you don't need right here.

You Will Need

• Scissors
• Fabric for the doll body (10 inches by 20 inches)
• Needle
• Thread
• Cotton stuffing
• Dried beans (or polyfill beans to replicate the feel)
• String
• Embroidery floss or makeup markers
• Cardboard (7 by 5 inches)
• Glue
• Fabric for doll clothes (6 by 14 inches)
• Ribbon 
• Yarn 

Directions 

1. Print out the pattern below and fold your doll body fabric in half (or just have two pieces measuring 5 inches by 10 inches ready). Trace or pin the pattern onto the fabric. Cut out the fabric.
2. Pin or line up the two fabric pieces and sew the edges together except for the bottom one, which you will use to stuff the rest of the doll.
3. Stuff the upper half of the doll with the cotton and the rest with the beans, tie a string around her neck to give it its shape, then sew the doll back up.
4. Draw or stitch on a face.
5. Wrap your yarn around the cardboard about 30 times. Slip a short end underneath the rest of the yarn, pull it to one end and tie it in a double knot before cutting off the ends. 
6. Glue the yarn onto your doll's head. It may be a good idea to let the glue dry before styling it. I ended up having to sew my doll's hair on, I don't know if it's because of the material I used for the hair or doll. 
7. Simply cut a (2 by 1.5 inch) hole in the center of your dress fabric and slip it over your doll's head for a dress. Use the ribbon to make a sash around her waist, 
8. Tada! Doll is done. Make more dresses if you want to. It isn't a law, but it'll be cute to have this doll have matching outfits to your bigger doll and you have a matching outfit for that bigger doll... That's not too paradoxical or anything, is it?

Thank you, Living A Doll's Life.

Now let's give this a try. Since I have an overabundance of such fabric, denim (y'know, the things that make your jeans) will be used. Since Nanea is the only one lacking in the stuffed animal department, I will be making this doll for her. She's already decided to name it Billie Jean, after the Michael Jackson song of the same name. And for her hair? All I have is this.. yellow... and... red... yarn, so that'll work. I guess. My mom made me a doll similar to this when younger, except it, y'know, kinda didn't have a face... Creepy memory, but it's okay!

The pieces of jeans I used alongside the pattern. It's simple to cut out, a child could do it.

Make sure you leave the bottom undone so you can stuff it! I gave her a face kind of like a Hollywood starlet. 

All we had was chickpeas. I didn't fill half of her up with stuffing and then the other half with the beans, I went full bean. 

Billie is ready for hair! I keep my sewing needles in that one-touch thing in the right corner.

After trying (and failing) to glue her hair on like the instructions, I just sew it on. I made sure she had a full head of hair.

I totally forgot to tie the string around her neck and I'm so far behind my sewing backlog, she'll have to be naked for a while. I'm proud of my handy work though. I hand sewed this during a long afternoon of watching Monkey World, the largest monkey-exclusive animal rescue in the world. Wish I could go see them, but they're in England and I'm in the USA, soo... Please donate to them, pretty please. 

This is fun. I'm tempted to make another one just for fun! I hope you enjoy this craft as much as I did!

Sources

1. http://americangirl.wikia.com/wiki/Ida_Bean_Doll
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20070929095004/http://ctdollartists.com/history.htm
3. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xida+bean.TRS0&_nkw=ida+bean&_sacat=0
4. http://americangirl.wikia.com/wiki/Addy%27s_Bedroom_Accessories
5. https://livingadollslife.blogspot.com/2015/06/how-to-make-bean-doll-week-3.html