Strictly Come Dancing: Crochet dolls meet real life inspirations
- Published
An 18-year-old who crocheted the cast of Strictly Come Dancing has given her woolly doll doppelgangers to their real life inspirations.
Ellen Siegert, from Hopton in Norfolk, began the craft when she was 14 to help her cope with chronic fatigue syndrome.
She said some of the Strictly cast recognised her work from Instagram and said it was "really lovely" to know they were appreciated.
Her 400 character creations to date also include musicians and TV stars.
After making animals to start with, she said the character dolls "kind of happened by accident".
Growing up watching Strictly, she wanted to give herself a challenge, she said.
She said: "I think it was 36 dolls in three months and I finished the last one with 24 hours to go until the [2022] final."
Ellen's said her favourite part of crafting the 4in (10cm) Strictly dolls was making the vibrant and colourful costumes the dancers wear in the BBC hit show.
"It gave me a challenge, I had to figure out ways of effectively making beards on dolls that were shorter, using eye shadow instead of the hair as they have stubble rather than a beard," she said.
Ellen said living with chronic fatigue syndrome, external, where the most common symptom is extreme tiredness, is tough.
"It's really hard to do anything [on a bad day], I'm normally just on the sofa in my pyjamas struggling but you take the good days."
Her dolls have reached a global audience after being posted to her thousands of followers on Instagram and most recently include Finland's Eurovision entry Käärijä, but it was the Strictly tributes that drew in a bigger UK audience, she said.
After posting the dolls on her social media channels, members of the Strictly cast commented they "were all really lovely" and said they "remembered them from Instagram" when Ellen and the dancers finally met.
She said: "It was really, really special to have that and to know that they were appreciated."
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