PING-PONG PATSY is made with a handkerchief, ping-pong ball, and a roll of cotton. She can have two faces, a sleeping one and a wide awake one. She’s easy to make.

Place the ball in the center of the handkerchief, which is then pulled down tightly around it. Wrap thin white string around the folds, both to keep the ball in position and to give the doll a neck. Keep all the folds and gathers to the side and back so that there will be about half an inch of smooth space for the face. Knot the string.

Face

You can make this doll without spoiling the handkerchief by giving Ping-Pong Patsy removable eyes and mouth. Tiny circles cut from dark blue paper and a small half-circle cut from red paper will make acceptable features. Paste them on with a glue stick. You can peel them off very easily. To make permanent features, use coloring pencils for the eyes and mouth. This color will not wash out.

The position of the features is most important on such a round-headed doll. Hold a string around the middle of the head the same way the equator goes around the earth. This is the guideline for placing the eyes. With a sharp pointed lead pencil, draw a very light line about 1/8 in. long just under and touching the string. The second eye-line is 3/8 in. away from the first one. Draw the eyes and mouth as shown.

Patsy is really a double-faced doll! Draw the “sleeping” face on one side of the head, the wide-awake one on the opposite side. Draw the hair as you did for the Cotton Baby. You can change her appearance by turning her cap around.

Body

Ping-Pong Patsy really needs some kind of stuffing. Absorbent cotton will fill her body out nicely. Unroll cotton and cut off a piece about 6 in. long. Roll this up and put it inside the folds of the handkerchief, pushing it up close to the neck. The cotton is held in place with two tiny safety pins. They are pinned through from the right side in back. They will not show if they are set up and down instead of crosswise because the folds of the handkerchief will conceal them.

Cap

The pattern for Patsy’s cap is very much like the one you used for Cotton Baby. This one takes a piece of material 3 1/2 in. long and 2 1/2 in. wide. Copy the pattern above and use it to cut out the shape needed. Put a line of small fabric glue dots along the very edge of the side marked A. Turn this edge back over the glue in a narrow fold and press it down with the fingers. This pasted-down hem frames the face. Glue A to B, then glue C down over them.

Hair

It would be fun to put real-looking hair on Patsy. You can do this with fine knitting wool. Choose a nice shade of brown, or a gold color. A 5 in. piece will be enough. Cut this piece into 1/4 in. lengths.

Now squeeze a thin line of glue right across the top of the head. Spread the glue with a toothpick so that it comes forward slightly to make the hairline at the forehead. Place the small pieces of wool, up and down, all across the glued area. Pull the pieces at the center of the forehead down slightly so that they’re a bit longer than the others.

While the glue is still wet, gently pull one or two of the side pieces back just enough to give an irregular line. You know how a real baby’s hair grows with a little point or two in the center and a few wispy ends at the sides of the forehead? That is the effect that you want to get on Patsy. It is not necessary to put hair on the rest of the head because it won’t show. Glue the cap on.

Cape

If Patsy wears a circular cape, she won’t need arms. Cut the cape from a piece of colored material, using a saucer to guide you in drawing its outline. Fold the circle of material in half once, and once again. Cut off 1/4 in. of the point. This makes the neckline. Open the circle and cut it from the bottom up to the neckline to make the front opening. Put the cape on Patsy and hold it together with a tiny safety pin. You could cut a little circular collar from a lace-paper doily to dress up the cape. Cement this in place with a dot or two of fabric glue.

You can make either a jacket or a dress for Patsy from the same pattern.

For a dress, make the jacket pattern longer. You will need material 5 in. wide and 7 1/2 in. long for the jacket; 5 in. wide and 13 in. long for the dress.

Copy the jacket pattern and then cut it out.
Fold the material in half across the short measurement. Pin the pattern to the material, having the shoulder line meet the fold line of the fabric. Cut it out, then make the center slash from bottom to neckline.

Sew the seams together with running stitches. Turn back a narrow fold along the edges of the jacket or dress opening and hold it in place with very small running stitches. Hem the bottom in the same way.

Dress

If you’ve made the pattern dress length, put it on Patsy backwards and hold it together at the neckline with a small safety pin. Tie a piece of colored knitting wool around her waist for a belt.

The sleeves of jacket or dress are loosely stuffed with absorbent cotton pushed up inside them to make arms. Let a small piece of cotton extend below the bottom of each sleeve to give the effect of hands.

Now that you know the trick of making these simple dolls, all sorts of ways of changing them will pop into your head. See how many different ones you can make.