A Method of Poppet Creation for Witchcraft
Take two separate pieces of cloth and lay them flat, one on top of the other. It does not matter if they are two different colors or patterns or whatever; what matters is that they are two entirely separate pieces of cloth. Not two pieces from the same cloth, but two separate pieces. One of these pieces will represent the physical person you want to connect your target to, and the other will represent their intangible personhood (identity, spirit, essence, etc.). Draw your basic poppet shape on the top cloth and pin the cloths together so they don't slip while you are working with them. Cut them out, doing your best to leave the pins in place. Set them aside.
Take a bit of parchment or paper and write out your poppet's command, starting with "I name you now as [target's name] and [target's name] you shall be. All that I would have done to [target's name] shall be done to them through thee." I find a long, thin strip works best for this because it is easily rolled into a scroll. After the initial dedication, you can write anything you want. When you're finished, roll the paper up as tight as possible and carefully sew it into onto the piece of cloth that represents your target's physical being (try to get it about where the heart should be). You don't have to pierce the paper. Just sew around it.
Lay the cloth pieces flat again (with the parchment/paper facing outward for now since this will be the insides of the doll) and sew around the edges of the doll (I find that a backstich works well for this), leaving plenty of space to fill it up. (Since I use the two pieces of cloth to represent the physical and non-physical parts of the self, sewing acts both as the creation of the doll and as a means to bind both 'selves' under the spell's influence.) I like to use the space from the doll's armpit to about halfway down the leg. Remove any remaining pins and flip your poppet right-side out so that your parchment is now within the doll. Fill the poppet with herbs, tag locks, charms, etc. according to your working's purpose. When you're finished, sew the poppet up. For this, I like to use a needle I don't need to keep so that I can leave it attached to the poppet by the thread. This gives me both a constant connection between my magical tool (the needle, in the case) and the doll, and a way to keep a needle always close by for this working without worrying about losing it.
You can stop here and be perfectly fine. I like to take my poppet and dip it into melted beeswax a couple of times, allowing it to cool in between layers until I have a nice, thick coat of wax. This seals the working and also gives me a layer of wax that I can use to inscribe symbols and words into as my working progresses. These markings can either be erased with low heat later or covered with another layer of wax if you need a reset.
When the working is completed and I want to release the doll, I just cut off the needle (using the cutting of the thread as a means of cutting the "cord" between the doll and the target) and cleanse it in burning herbs. I then dismantle and burn the poppet, and discard the ashes in a safe place.
