Learn how to carve a Hitty doll from wood with step-by-step guides, carving tips, tools, patterns, finishing techniques, and helpful resources.
I have compiled the carving tutorials in PDF format for ease of printing so that site visitors can print and enjoy a physical copy of the instructions. Please note the copyright notice in the PDF file, the file is free to download, but you may not share it with others nor sell it for profit. … Read more
I wanted to share this delightful portrait of Hitty Chardonnay with site visitors. Hitty Chardonnay was carved with a knife from a turned blank. She was carved by Gale Lyons, a Hittygirls member who offers her carving instructions on CD.
Hitty Chardonnays wonderful hat and dress were also made by Ms. Lyons.
My tutorials cover the basics about carving a Hitty. My methods for carving a turned Hitty are probably different than others, but these are the methods I use, and I hope that they are useful to site visitors.
Here’s a photo of the Hitty I carved to create the tutorials, after she has been pegged, painted, sealed and dressed. Her name is Hitty Herald, and she is now the official Hitty Herald mascot. She will be sharing many fun adventures with site visitors in the future, as well as helping me with future patterns and projects. She has a lot of fun in store for site visitors in the future, she wanted to say that the fun has JUST BEGUN!
I use a fine grit barrel sander to sand most of my Hitty, but certain areas of the Hitty needs something smaller. Once I sand the Hitty with my dremel, I do the final sanding by hand using 300 grit or finer sandpaper.
Below is an image of the barrel sander I use for sanding the body, V-Joint, and most areas on the arms and legs.
This tutorial is rather long with a lot of information, and a lot of images. I know the page will probably load slowly for some with slow connections, but please wait patiently as the images load. It is very image intensive.
You will be using your rough cutter to begin with, but switching from bit to bit as your Hitty’s personality emerges. I use two dremels when I am carving the face, simply because I don’t like to stop and change my bit so much. I like to pick up a dremel and keep carving while things are flowing smoothly for me. If you only have one dremel, just remember, you will be changing your bits a lot, so have them handy before you begin the face.
This tutorial covers carving simple curls. There are many different methods one can use to carve their Hitty’s curls and I encourage you to experiment as you carve so that you can create your own special version of curls for your Hitty.
This tutorial explains how to make simple “grid pattern” curls, where all curls are neatly in line in rows going up and down, and side to side. I have carved curls where they were placed random for a more “natural” look, and I have carved curls so tiny that one could barely see them. Of course when using a dremel, one can only do so much. Very tiny curls and random curls are very hard to achieve with power carving, but can be carved with a good carving knife.
To begin, first you’ll need to do some sanding on your Hitty’s head. The areas shown in the photo below will need to be sanded to a fine finish. If you do not sand the head now, before you begin carving, then you’ll end up with a “very fuzzy headed” Hitty.
Now that you’ve completed your Hitty’s arms and legs, it’s time to work on helping her personality emerge! The arms and legs were basic rounding and shaping, with very little detail. The next few tutorials are a bit more complex, because you’ll be carving more detail rather than basic shaping as you did with the arms and legs.
This tutorial explains how to separate the face from hair at the top of your turned blank. If you have not ordered a turned blank yet, click here to contact me about how to acquire one.
If this is your first time carving a Hitty, I want to encourage you to not give up if you are disappointed with your results. It takes time and patience to carve a Hitty, especially when it comes to carving the face and hair. With practice, your carving skills will improve over time as you carve more and more Hittys.
To begin this lesson, you will first want to mark the center of your Hitty’s head. To make this easier, place the arms and legs temporarily on your Hitty so that you can lie her flat as you measure to find the center of her face.
In the photo below, you can see how I hold my ruler to find the center. I place it right below the head, on the flat plane, find the center, and place a tiny mark.
Carving the hands is pretty simple, again it’s rounding off and shaping corners. Your hands should be tiny square blocks at this point. To begin shaping them, first carve away the four corners.
Carving the lower arm is pretty much the same as carving the lower leg. First round off the wrist at the mark you made earlier.
This tutorial covers carving the upper arm. The arm is carved pretty much like the leg, by marking the areas for elbow and wrist, rounding these areas, then carving downward angles and rounding the top of the arm.
First you will need to mark your arm blank. Place your ruler right at the bottom of the peg hole, and mark a line 11/16 of an inch down (1/16 of an inch before the 3/4 mark).
