project // felt rogue one stormtrooper doll

For a few years now, I've been making Star Wars gifts for my brother's birthday or Christmas. So far I've made Chewbacca (from Draw! Pilgrim's pattern), a Wampa (with removable arm!), Maz Kanata, and a Death Star mini quilt. Sometimes I save sharing them until Star Wars Day on May the 4th, but I just couldn't wait to show the latest: A Stormtrooper Doll.

When I went to see Rogue One back in December, I hoped I would see something that would make a good handmade gift for him. So imagine my delight when I caught a glimpse of the Stormtrooper doll that young Jyn had, which was soon picked up by a Death Trooper.

It would be safe to assume that Jyn's doll was made from wood or perhaps even stone. And in fact, someone has created a tutorial on Instructables for making one out of clay. I wanted to do something a little more in my style, so I went with felt.



The idea behind this was obviously to make a version of the Rogue One doll. But it also works as a way to make just a Stormtrooper. Of course there are several variations, each with different specific names, but you could adapt the pattern for a better match on those.

This particular pose reminded me of when Finn has his first moment of questioning his role within the First Order in The Force Awakens. It would actually be really fun to make a version with a Finn head and then a separate helmet!

I'm playing with other ways to use this pattern idea to make more characters, but those will have to wait. For now, let's make a Stormtrooper doll!

You will need:

White and dark gray or black felt
Black embroidery floss
Stuffing
Scissors
Tracing paper
Needle
Pins

STORMTROOPER DOLL PDF PATTERN



Cut 2 heads and 2 bodies from white felt. Cut 4 of each of the arm and leg pieces from white felt. Cut 4 hand and foot pieces from dark gray or black felt. Those all use the pattern pieces.

You will also need to cut dark gray or black rectangles to hold everything together. Cut 2 of each of the following: .75in x 6.5in for the arms, .75in x 7.5in for the legs, and 1.5in x 2in for the neck.



Trace the details from the head and body onto tracing paper and embroider them with back stitch and satin stitch. For the mouth area, I used a more open satin stitch. You can fill in the other elements on the helmet too, if you want. I talked about doing that, but ended up leaving them open.

Carefully tear away the paper when you're finished.



For the arms and legs, sandwich the dark gray or black strip between the different elements. It works best to start at the hand or foot end. Make sure that the end of the strip is down about .5in in the hand or foot. Stitch around the shape with running stitch and 3 strands of black embroidery floss.

Add the rectangles next, leaving a small gap between the sections, and finally add the top piece with the angled end. This is the same basic process for all four limbs. With all of the stitching, try to hide your knots between the layers of felt.



Pin the arms and legs in place between the layers of the body. The gap between the body and the top section of the limbs should be the same as the gap in the other sections.

Start stitching at one of the arms, then go down and around until you reach the top. Leave the neck open.



Stuff the body so it is full, but not too firm. You may want to work the stuffing in toward the front, so it ends up between the dark tabs from the limbs and the white of the body. The dark felt won't show as much this way.

Place the two neck rectangles in the neck opening and stitch across to close the opening and hold the neck in place. This double layer of felt will help your Stormtrooper's neck stand up as much as possible.



Stitch the layers of the head together, leaving an opening at the bottom that is wide enough for the neck to fit. Stuff the head about the same density as the body.



Slide the head over the neck tabs and stitch across the opening and through the neck.



Now your Stormtrooper is ready to play! Or maybe sit on a shelf if you're like my 23-year-old brother. And the good news is that even though this is a pretty floppy doll, it's able to pose quite well, and that includes sitting up on its own.




Happy Star Wars Crafting!

Quick note: Normally, I'm happy to share my patterns for both personal and cottage-industry/small business use. However, since this is a fan-art pattern based on characters I don't own the license to, I don't recommend selling anything you make with this pattern. We don't want anyone running into legal trouble!