Introducing Audrey

For some time, I had an idea in my mind to try and create an Audrey Hepburn-inspired TOFT doll. The thought of trying to do this without a specific pattern daunted me and so I was working up the courage to have a go.

In January, I finally decided to make a start with at least sketching out what I wanted her to look like and what colour yarns I would use. This also meant I finally got to put my TOFT notebook to use.

Naturally, I was aiming to create her in her iconic Breakfast at Tiffany’s look with a long black dress, long black gloves, tiara and necklace. So that made my yarn colour choice, largely, quite simple. I used TOFT DK yarn in Black for the dress and gloves, oatmeal for her skin tone, and a mix of Fudge and Chestnut for her hair. For her necklace and tiara, I used TOFT DK in Mist with clear glass beads that I had left over from the Eds Advent the year before.

Now to using some kind of pattern… ridiculously, I don’t yet own the TOFT Doll Emporium book! So, I had to work with the doll patterns that I had in my collection. Luckily, I found the pattern from my Queen doll that I made last year, incredibly easy to adapt to how I wanted my Audrey doll to look. Some of the main alterations I made were capped sleave on the dress instead of long sleeves;  a few additional rounds to the length of the dress to reach floor length; I didn’t add the slip stitch around the waist of the dress; I extended the gloves further up her arm to sit above her ‘elbows’; customised the crown to be smaller and more understated to give more of a tiara look; and simplified the necklace to incorporate only three glass beads that sat closer together.

The hair, I had to make up completely and fashioned a bun of sorts that her tiara could sit in front of. It doesn’t look as good at the back as I would like, but it has the desired effect from the front.

Although she’s not perfect, I am so happy with how she turned out. I think she has a good likeness to Audrey, even if I do say so myself and she received a number of compliments from lovely fellow crocheters and TOFT lovers at the recent Spring Workshop at Kew Gardens.

I’m now contemplating my next off-pattern creation, but I think it might prove trickier than Audrey was! I’m going to have to pick up a copy of the TOFT Doll book I think!