#fartistry

The tutorials I've linked use a heat-erasable pen to draw guidelines. I use fireside as the fabric for the base (linked in the next section), and I found that a random highlighter I have at home rubs off over time without me even intending for it to. Probably a pretty cursed way to draw guidelines, but it was cheap and convenient. Use at your own discretion!

Plushie pattern

The plushie itself is by Tomoneko on Note (pattern + tutorial):

Tomoneko also has additional My Favourite Plushie patterns for hair + clothes on their blog. The original size is 10cm, but I bumped it to 24cm and cut them out with a Cricut (you can do the same by resizing, then printing on more than one sheet).

I used fireside fabric. Dollmakers sometimes recommend using a like-coloured fabric for the back of their head (to match the hair + hide bald spots), but it's not super consequential.

Hair

For Noemi's hair, I learned from Voicemail (YouTube) and XiXi Doll (Pinterest):

I used Demi Purl for her yarn. I obviously didn't follow the tutorials to the T - I wanted to be able to put her half-pony (not shown) up and down.

For Riquiña's hair, I learned from Flor de linha (who is also on Instagram):

You can research how Black women curl their extensions for more details on how to get full, round curls and coils - but doll hair only needs to be boiled/steamed for 5ish minutes, not >2hrs! Make sure its fully air dried before using. If your hands start needing TLC, you're doing it right.

The stitching method started out similar to Noemi's, but I improvised after sewing Riquiña's hairline because sculpting coiled yarn is much different to sculpting thick yarn. The goal was to let her hairstyle be versatile, too (to show off her undercut), but I fixed too many strands in place too early on. I could probably tie two low puffs, but there's no prettily tying her hair up, sadly.

De linha used acrylic yarn, but I used whatever black yarn I had leftover from crocheting. The curls loosened and became fuller a day after I stitched them onto her head; I like the effect this gave, since she's only ~3B, but it might not be what someone wants for a doll with kinkier hair.

Faces

I embroidered their faces with standard embroidery floss. I found that three strands, not two, is a good amount for embroidering pretty much everything on fireside fabric. I embroidered after stuffing the whole doll but before putting on their hair - no hoop needed, but a long needle is extremely useful.

Misc.

Noemi's ears are a custom pattern. I'll talk more about it if people are interested, but I don't think this post is reaching that far LOL. Soft, quality felt on the inside (worth the 70 cents it costed), and faux fur from the $ store that I shaved down on the outside.

Riquiña's horns are edited, much squatter forms of Rustic Horseshoe's pattern. My seams weren't even, so I had to ignore them while attaching her horns.

Noemi's tattoo is a mix of cheap acrylic paint and fabric softener. I talk more about it at the bottom of this post. Riquiña's undercut (to be added) will be painted the same way - I should've done this before putting all that hair on...