The Tiny Family: A Free Sewing Pattern

Free Printable Sewing Pattern for an entire family of tiny rag dolls and their clothes!

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I had so much fun making these dolls!

Honestly, I could probably only make tiny toys forever and be perfectly happy!

I’m so excited to gift these to my daughter!

I’m also excited to share how I made these dolls with YOU, as a FREE SEWING PATTERN!

Follow along the tutorial below.

You can print out the pattern for all of these dollies and their clothes at the bottom of the page!

Each little adult rag doll measures about 6″ tall (the children a bit shorter). These little rag dolls are begging to move into a dollhouse!

Let’s get right to it!

Supplies Needed:

• Small amounts of fabric for the doll’s bodies and clothes. I used a thrifted pillowcase for their bodies, and scraps of flannel for their clothes!
• Wool for stuffing the dolls
• A sewing machine (optional), as well as a hand sewing needle and thread (required)
• Yarn for the hair
• A tapestry needle and/or a crochet hook for weaving in the hair to the dolls
• Scissors
• Your free printable pattern, found at the bottom of the page!

Some Things to Remember:

Here are a few important things I want to emphasize TWICE before we get started.

I’ll elaborate more on them as we go along!

• For the bodies of the dolls, you will trace the patterns onto two layers of fabric and sew directly onto your traced lines before cutting. This gives the bodies and incredibly accurate shape, and it especially helpful when sewing tiny things.
• For the clothing for the dolls, you will adjust sizes with seam allowances. The pants are a “one size” situation for both the Papa doll and the Child dolls — use a 1/4″ seam allowance for both. For the shirts and dresses, use a 1/4″ seam allowance for the adults, and a 1/2″ seam allowance for the children.

Step 1: Trace and Sew the Doll Pieces

After you have printed out your pattern (get it at the bottom of the page!) and have cut out your pieces, we’ll start on the dolls first.

Lay out two layers of fabric on a table.

With a pencil, trace each doll body, arm, and leg onto the fabric.

Note the dotted lines — you’ll leave these portions open when sewing so that you have somewhere to stuff your dolls with wool.

Be sure to trace two arms and two legs each for each doll!

Don’t space the doll pieces too closely while tracing. You’ll want at least a 1″ gap on all sides between pieces.

I should also note that there are no arms and legs for the baby. I simply wrap the baby in flannel for a swaddle at the end. Of course, if you want YOUR baby to be more detailed, you can certainly add arms and legs. I would use the templates for the child arms and legs if you wish to do so.

Once you have traced your pieces onto your fabric, DO NOT CUT THEM OUT.

Instead, you will use your sewing machine (or by hand if you wish) to sew on your traced lines.

Do not sew on the dotted line portions of each body piece. This is where you’ll stuff your dolls with wool.

Sew through TWO layers of fabric.

After you have sewn your body pieces, then you will cut them out.

Do not cut too close to your stitch lines, otherwise your dolls will fall apart.

You will want a 1/2″ seam allowance left around each of your doll’s body pieces.

After you cut out your dolls, make little snips into your seam allowance around any curved edges — this will make your dolls nice and smooth.

Step 2: Stuff your dolls

After you’ve cut out your doll pieces and have snipped around your curved edges, turn your doll pieces right side out.

Firmly stuff your dolls with wool.

The heads should be stuffed the MOST firmly.

It’s not as important if you stuff the rest of the bodies and legs firmly.

You should leave a little bit of empty space at the tops of the arms and the legs.

Leaving a little bit of empty space in the arms and legs will allow for some nice mobility in your dolls.

Wool is my choice of fiberfill. It adds a good weight to the dolls, and the dolls hold their shape for much much longer than dolls filled with polyester fiberfill.

Step 3: Attach the Arms and Legs

Remember — when filling your arms and legs, you’ll want to leave a bit of empty space at the top to give your dolls some mobility.

It’s helpful to use a pencil to turn out the arms and legs.

First, let’s attach the legs.

Put the legs inside the bottom of the body.

Fold the bottom of the body to create a hem, and hand sew across.

This will hide the raw edges on both the body and the legs.

For the arms, fold the top of each arm inside the doll’s arm, and sew across. This hides the raw edges.

Then, sew each arm at each shoulder of the dolls.

Leave nice long tails of thread at the beginning and ends of your seams.

Then, weave in the tails of thread deep into the dolls body, coming out on a different part of the doll before trimming the thread close to the doll’s body.

Securing the threads this way enables nice and secure stitches that shouldn’t come undone over time, while still giving the doll a clean look.

Repeat this process for all dolls.

I did not use any arms or legs for the baby, so just hem the bottom of the baby and sew across.

Step 4: The Hair

Now it’s time to move onto the hair.

I’ve included several different hair styles for you to play around with.

I’ve also included instructions for making a beard!

For some of these hairstyles, I have crochet instructions. Don’t fret if you don’t know how to crochet — it’s not required for all of the hairstyles. You can still make doll hair without being able to crochet.

For all doll’s hairstyles, you will want to start them out the same way.

First use a pencil to trace the hairline on the front of the face.

Then, with a hand sewing needle, sew stitches all around where you would like the hair to go. The stitches should be close together, and large enough to fit a thick tapestry needle through.

Let’s go through the different ways I made each doll’s hair.

For the Mama’s hair, I used a crochet hook to pull strands of yarn through each stitch that I sewed onto the doll’s head.

You can also use a tapestry needle to pull yarn through if you do not have a crochet hook.

I looped/tied each strand of yarn to secure it into place.

I pulled Mama’s hair into a bun.

Then, I made a separate braid with matching yarn and sewed it onto the top of her head.

For Papa’s hair, I used a crochet hook and did a little bit of crochet work.

With my crochet hook, I pulled some yarn through each sewn loop. I chained one or two chains, slip stitched it back into the same sewn stitch, and then chained 1 before moving onto the next sewn loop.

For the beard, I sewed two rows of stitches with my sewing needle and thread across the front of his face.

I began crocheting across Papa’s face for his beard over the first row of sewn stitches.

Then, I turned around, crocheting back across his face again over the second row of sewn stitches.

I paused briefly at the center of his face to crochet back and forth a few times, creating a beard.

Then I finished crocheting back to the beginning of his beard.

Brother’s hair is very similar to Papa’s hair.

It’s just a little longer.

Crochet around 3 chains into each stitch, anchoring each curl back into the sewn stitch it is being crocheted out of.

This will create crochet “loops” in each sewn stitch.

For sister’s hair, crochet or sew hair closely to her head.

Then, create two separate braids with matching yarn.

Sew the braids to the back of her head to give her pigtails.

I did not give the baby any hair, but use your creativity to do so, if you desire!

Step 5: The Faces

Next, we’ll make the faces!

It’s important to make sure you put on the doll’s hair first, otherwise you might not get the proper face placements, so don’t miss out on step 4!

Grab a pencil.

Trace on facial features lightly onto each doll’s face.

It’s pretty easy to just erase anything you don’t like as long as you’re tracing gently enough.

Once you are happy with your faces, sew them on.

I just used regular thread to sew the faces on.

Use a french knot for each eye.

Weave in all your ends to the dolly so you don’t see them! (see step 3 for more details on how to hide and secure threads)

Check out the pictures below for how to make a french knot for the eyes!

Step 6: Make the Clothes

Making the clothes is so easy!

Cut out your patterns.

For the shirts and dresses — you’ll want to cut on the fold.

Cut two pieces for each clothing item.

Sew right sides together, then sew your hems by hand.

Your seam allowance will determine your clothing sizes for the shirts and dresses (pants are one-sized!)

Use a 1/4″ seams allowance for adult sizes for the shirts and dresses.

Use a 1/2″ seam allowance for the child shirts and dresses.

Your hems will be very tiny and sewn by hand. Adjust how long you want sleeves, etc, for each doll while hand sewing your hems!

No clothes for the baby — just a square of flannel bundled over the baby and sewn into place!

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