1st Place Entry # Baby-B-1 Tyla Doll by Lethia Cobbs from... Long Beach, CA

The toddler is named Tyla. She has a pet bunny called Biscuit which is also created by me. Both are stuffed with polyfil.

Tyla is made from cloth, acrylic paint, hair used for cornrows, foam and beads.

I designed Tyla's body on paper and adjusted the pattern once it was sewn and stuffed. She is approximately 8 inches. Tyla's face design is based on a needle sculpting technique that I watched on Youtube - Carmencita, Hacemos, La Carita.

My baby doll's name is Rachael. She is 9 months old. She is living among us during the COVID-19 pandemic. This doll is my first original creation that started with the armature which represents the bones inside the human body. The stuffing used to build the body resembles the cells and muscles within our bodies. The fabric resembles the skin that covers our insides.

The focus of this doll was to understand how to develop an armature in accurate proportions. I surfed the Internet and found information which was helpful and provided guidance regarding the dimensions and head proportions of which I adjusted to match this 7-inch doll. This is my first reverse engineering doll I made (call it reverse engineering because I started with the armature, then build the body and then added the skin). My inspiration for this doll and ideas for the face and sculpting came from Brenda Brightmore, Cloth Dolls book, which is the first book I bought when I started making dolls.

This doll represents our country during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time many individuals including myself have examined their lives from the "Inside-Out". Thank you for challenging me to make this doll during my COVID-19 stay at home time.