About Us

I come from a background steeped in sewing, quilting, designing  and creativity. I love color and design almost as much as I love breathing! My mother was a fiber artist as was my grandmother. My grandmother was an avid quilter. My mother had so much courage when it came to creating anything from fabric. My brother and I saw her making things like wedding dresses,  Austrian draperies, Shakespearean costumes, and reupholstering button backed couches. She would create her own designs and patterns because she couldn’t find what she was looking for in a store. I grew up on the beautiful McKenzie River in  Oregon where repurposing was a way of life. My mom would go to Goodwill and buy a large dress for the “fabric” and come home and make pillows or an Easter dress for me. Mom could sketch and her handwriting was also a work of art. My brother and I were blessed to learn about the importance of things like color and its effect on you. This one (of millions) of lessons alone has blessed me all my life. My dolls are designed with many of the color filled lessons my mother endowed me with. I will be forever grateful to her for sharing her knowledge with me. While I do not profess to be as talented as either my grandmother or my own mom, I have been inspired by color, shapes, textures, shades and hues all my  life. I have never really had a “favorite” color because I love them all and I understand that they have different effects upon our lives. I have brought this intense love of these things to you in my entire doll collection. You will see that I use beloved shapes like the heart  and circles over and over in my doll’s beautiful faces. I do not shy away from suggesting rich and vibrant colors. My background as a teacher and then as a mother of 8 children has allowed me a wonderful vantage point to watch children. I have noticed that children adore color and they seem to thrive and grow around it. My patterns are simple by design. I want the people who use my patterns to have a lot of happy success in using them. While the patterns are simple, this allows for a lot of freedom to use fabrics and color to add variety and texture to your doll creations. I have a sense of humor and you will see it in my designs. 

Heartfelt Doll Patterns really is a “kitchen table” business. I literally sat at my large kitchen table and drew out these doll patterns. My story with our “Heartfelt” business begins with my  grandchildren. I wanted to create some handmade dolls for them so I purchased some patterns. These patterns were said to be for beginners. I guess I was way below a “beginner” because I could not make them work for the life of me! That is when I decided that I was going to create my own doll patterns. We had owned a bakery business and I had some left over full pan sized lining sheets of parchment paper. I used these large sheets to draw out my doll “patterns.” I made many many attempts at doll patterns. My failures turned into learning experiences. What is now available on our website represents my final successes: my beloved doll collection of patterns for animal dolls and many accessories.  

I love all fabrics for different reasons and occasions. For children I wanted sturdy and easy to use fabrics. I have focused my doll patterns on hearty cotton fabrics adorned with wool and or acrylic felts. These fabrics offer an enormous color range and style for creating amazing animal dolls. These fabric suggestions create an almost endless range of choices for my creators! Our patterns and their unique way of being made will make a doll that is able to stand the test of “love” your child will give it.  For example our doll’s limbs are triple sewn into the doll prior to it being stuffed! This is quite unique and a huge benefit to the child who loves their doll and doesn’t want the trauma of an arm falling off! 

I chose the name Heartfelt Doll Patterns because these designs really have come from my heart, and of course I love using felt so much, it made the name perfect! Our company motto is “From our heart into your arms.” We really have put so much love into this company. While I am the designer of these dolls it would be unfair of me to not recognize my amazing spouse who has worked very hard behind the scenes on the technical end of this business and also my incredible brother who helps us with anything social media (and a wide variety of other things). We are a small but mighty team and I am sure we will grow. 

We look forward to serving you and your family as you purchase our patterns and then create beautiful companions for the special children in your life. We currently have over 2 dozen animal dolls designed and more coming. We have many exciting items to bring to you. We look forward to seeing the beautiful creations you make from our patterns and we truly hope that you will post them on our social media pages for everyone to enjoy and be inspired. 

Let me say here for our team, a huge thank you for finding us and allowing us to be a part of you and your child’s life. We honestly feel it is an honor. It is why we do what we do, and we can’t thank you enough.  

From My heart to Yours, 

Chris Peterson 

Heartfelt Doll Patterns Co-Owner