I started sewing dolls in 2016. It was one of the first crafts I wanted to learn after playing around with yarn dolls. Naturally navigating to felt, I decided to change over to fabric dolls in early 2017. Searching for the right fabric and shades of brown was a little difficult at first. I came across Kona cotton and fell in love, especially since they have a large selection of browns.
After picking the right fabric, I decided I wanted to do something different with this collection. The Glamour Collection are felt dolls with plastic safety eyes. For the Jamani Collection, besides switching over to fabric, I decided to digitally draw a face and print it onto the fabric. The face I decided to use, is also the face of my official logo.
Trying to come up with a name for the collection was a little difficult. If you actually Google doll collection names, you'll see that a lot of the names which come to mind first are all taken. I already knew the doll collection was going to be an Africana collection so I figured it would be best to choose something directly from the Motherland. Jamani is a Swahili name (unisex) meaning "loving friend".
Besides all of the dolls having the same face, I decided to keep their dresses similar as well by only using African/Kente print fabrics. All of the dresses are made the same way.
Like the Glamour Collection, I decided to use yarn for the hair. The hair is individually sewn on, strand by strand, and then unraveled.
