1. 100% cotton is the most predictable fabric to use with tiny figures. If you are a skilled seamstress, and you know how to handle your machine, then using silk, ultra-suede, a knit, or a blend will cause changes which I assume you will be able to handle. Lames, of course, must be backed, and are usually not very durable. But, hey! This is your project. Keep your Fray-Check on hand.

2. The "TURN-IT-ALL," designed by Specialty Distributors and previously known as the "Bow Whip," and the "Stuffing Fork" (standard size and small), designed by Barbara Willis, are tools you will need to make dolls. You can purchase these at your local quilt shop, or order them directly from elinor peace.

3. The #7 darner is an indispensable needle for doll sculpting and construction. I call for it in every pattern. There are various sources. Piecemakers Country Store has developed their own brand, and in fact have a good variety of needles useful to the dollmaker. I recommend them.

4. Selecting Fairfield Polyfil for stuffing will make a very big difference in the experience you have making dolls. I recommend it.

5. You must find "Dual-Duty Button, Carpet, and Craft Thread" made by Coats and Clark's. It is a very strong thread, and will be used when a good yank is called for. Quilting thread is also useful.

6. "Fray-Check," by Dritz, or "Stop Fray," andAleene's Glue, are indispensable in making tiny dolls. Turn the pieces before they dry.

7. Doll Face painting Supplies - I use the .03 Permawriter II fine-tip marker (in brown!) by Y&C (Yasutomo & Co.); the Fabricmate brush-tip color markers (available in many colors) by Y&C; bright-shiny white and crystal glitter fabric paints; a high quality, point-tip brush for fabric paints; Crayola Crayons (box of 64 or more to get colors I use). Creating the face of each doll will call for these tools.

8. YOUR BEST FRIEND is your sewing machine. Clean and check it regularly. If this is an old relic that you hide from your friend, it is time for a change. Work nights if you have to, or sell one of the kids, but get a good machine. This machine will facilitate your life's statement. It shouldn't be a lodestone around your neck. Every eight hours of sewing, you'll need to change your needle. I use a #12 or Universal Schmetz needle. Cheap thread, the kind that's two for a dollar, will wreak havoc with your machine's tension. The stuff on a wooden spool is for your memory box. It's too old to use (Don't you get tired of someone who thinks she knows all the answers?). So, now is the hour. If you are the only person at your house who is living as if they were poor, it's time for sweet justice. Go get that new machine, thread, a dandy pair of scissors, and go to work. Es hora de cambiar!

9. Be a collector--bits of lace, ribbon, trim, buttons, beads. Develop a stash of pieces of small graphic prints, such as checks, stripes, and dots. They will spark your pieces.

10. To avoid losing your patterns, use envelopes to store pattern pieces after you have copied and cut them out. Use a bit of foam core board to pin pattern parts on while you are using them. More time is lost looking for stupid little things than either of us care to think about.

11. The "template method" - This technique will save you lots of grief when working with tiny pattern parts. Trace your small pattern piece off on paper, and cut out the new paper pattern piece. Then, using this paper pattern as a template, place it on the fabric and draw around the paper pattern template. Now, before cutting out the fabric piece, do the stitching your pattern calls for slightly within your drawn line. Then, cut out and clip the piece. This means you will not have to handle tiny pieces, and your sewing machine will not eat them. Do change your sewing machine needle every eight hours of sewing...this is elementary, but essential.

12. WRT means With Right Sides Together. This is my protest against too many words.

13. ABOUT STITCHES AND KNOTS: You will need to know the "ladder stitch" ("slip stitch" or "hem stitch"), the "turkey stitch", the "colonial knot", the "stay stitch", and the "sheepshank" to survive in dollmaking. I will describe them, but you may have to find someone smarter than either of us to demonstrate them.

Ladder Stitch: This simple back-and-forth, over-under is probably best understood by studying the illustration.

Turkey Stitch: Starts with an overcast stitch. Pull it tight. Make the second over-cast stitch, and leave it as a loop. Pull the next stitch tight, and again leave the following stitch as a loop. Continue alternating tight, loop, etc.

Colonial Knot: Enter the form (head, body, leg, whatever) some distance from where you want to make the knot, perhaps on the opposite side of the form, without a knot on the end of the thread. Exit the needle where you want your first anchoring knot, and pull the thread until the tail disappears into the form. Now, take a tiny stitch; this will form a loop. Bring the needle through the loop, then weave the needle once around the thread where it emerges from the form. Pull gently--the thread will form a figure eight--then tighten. This is an anchoring knot.

Stay Stitch: This is simply a straight machine stitch that keeps an applique in place before you cover the raw edge with a satin zigzag stitch.

Sheepshank: This requires that you wrap a thread around other threads, as you would under a button, to form a shank. As you wrap, you catch the thread with your finger, forming a loop. Pass the needle through the loop, and pull tight. Repeat this series--wrap, catch to make loop, pass through, pull tight, as needed. Then bury the thread.

Bury the Thread: The point of this is to be able to finish a process without leaving a visible tail of thread. Enter the form you've been working on, at the point of completion. Exit virtually anywhere you choose, to leave the tail of the thread hidden inside the form. Clip the thread flush with the form where you exit.