Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Native American Clothespin Dolls

The Winter BazaarWelcome to the Winter Bazaar, if you've missed any of the previous weeks you can click on the "crafts" link at the bottom of this post and you can view previous editions. This month's theme is Thanksgiving and fall. Crafts, activities, games, tips, recipes, ANYTHING that remotely fits in with celebrating or teaching the season is welcome!

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Native American Clothespin DollsIf you're having dinner guests over during the holidays, especially if there are children involved, this is a fun craft to use as a place setting, propping up a name card, or as a craft for busy hands while dinner is cooking. These Native American clothespin dolls aren't fancy but they're cute and they go together quickly.

If you just don't have time to make some of your own, I have the ones I made here for sale in my Etsy shop, I'll ship them right to your door.

For each doll you'll need:
1 old-fashioned wooden clothespin (body)
1 circular wooden clothespin stand
1 large wooden bead (head)
2 small wooden beads (hands)
1 pipe cleaner
black acrylic craft paint
straight pin with a large head
q-tip
blush
9 yards brown yarn
wood glue
craft glue

For each girl doll you'll need:
5X7-inch piece of felt for dress

For each boy doll you'll need:
5X5-inch piece of felt for shirt
2 1 1/2 X 2-inch pieces of felt for pants
1/2 X 5-inch piece of felt for headband
small feathers

Native American Clothespin Dolls1. Cut the top off of the clothespin, glue the bottom of the clothespin into the stand and glue the large bead in place as the head. Dip the head of the straight pin in black paint and touch to the spots where the eyes should be, making two small dots. Using the q-tip, apply two spots of blush where the cheeks should be (see the picture at left). *Note, if you are making boy dolls make sure that the slit in the clothespin faces forward (so the two halves of the pin look like his legs) as that's where you're going to form his pants. I forgot to do this for the dolls you see pictured there at right and it caused me some trouble later on.

Native American Clothespin Dolls2. Fold the pipe cleaner in half then measure about 2 and 3/4 inches from each end and fold the ends toward the middle. Twist the ends around the pipe cleaner to make the arms then string the small beads on the end as hands (see the picture at left).

3. Once the heads are dry, lay the arms over the dolls neck in the front and wrap the arms around to the back, twisting once to secure. Bend the arms downward so that they appear to come more from the body than from the neck.

Native American Clothespin Dolls4. For the boys, cut fringe along the short edges of each rectangular pant piece then slide both pieces through the large clothespin slit, gluing each piece in place along the outside of the "leg" where the fringe is, to close the legs and form his pants.

Native American Doll Pattern5. Using the pattern for the shirt and dress at left (click to enlarge it and print it out) cut out each shirt or dress by placing the shoulders along the fold and cutting it out so that the shirt or dress looks rather like a large "plus" sound when you've unfolded it. Cut the neck opening. Cut the fringe along the sleeve openings and around the bottom then squeeze it over the dolls' head, it will be open all along the bottom. Tie securely around the waist with a piece of yard or jute or rafia to make a belt.

6. Using the brown yarn make the hair by wrapping it around your hands then tying it securely in the middle. Glue it on the dolls head, add the headband and feather for the boys, and you're done.

If you wanted to you could make pretty little beaded necklaces for the girls, or put tiny flowers in their hair.

You could also make some Pilgrim dolls to accompany these if you wanted to, little black and white hats would be pretty cute!

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Have you entered this month's Write-Away Contest yet? The theme is about making a difference . . .



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23 comments:

An Ordinary Mom said...

Very cute!

Chris said...

Those are adorable!

Anonymous said...

I am amazed by your creativity!

Amber M. said...

I'm filing this idea away...what a great project for "inside" weather!

Amy W said...

Very cute idea!!

M said...

These are great and I actually have all the materials to make one! I love it!

Anonymous said...

Oh my nana would love those. I should make some for her. *prints*

Anonymous said...

Those are adorable! We'll have to make some this year. :)

Anonymous said...

Michelle, I'm here for WFMW, and I thought I'd pass along a tradition for T'giving we began last year in our home. It's not "real" related to this post, but I'll include the link anyway :).

http://pensieve.typepad.com/pensieve/2007/11/fun-monday-holi.html

BTW, my daughter would LOVE making your Native American dolls...just precious!

Anonymous said...

Michelle, I'm here for WFMW, and I thought I'd pass along a tradition for T'giving we began last year in our home. It's not "real" related to this post, but I'll include the link anyway :).

http://pensieve.typepad.com/pensieve/2007/11/fun-monday-holi.html

BTW, my daughter would LOVE making your Native American dolls...just precious!

ames said...

those are so cool! And they're making my brain gears crank...I could see an entire holiday series, or a nativity scene, or a gaggle of Santa's elves, or red-capped gnomes, or an It's a Small World global outfit series, or, or...

wicked awesome. and I didn't even know clothespin stands existed.

Anonymous said...

OH is that CUTE! Thanks for the tut! (((((HUGS))))) sandi

Melissa Markham said...

These are very cute!

Montserrat said...

So much fun! I can't wait to try these with my girls.

Kerith Collins said...

those are cute...and i never thought to sell the crafts i do online...that is a great idea...i gotta set that up sometime!

Anonymous said...

I think that is a pretty cost-efficient craft idea. They don't look half bad either.

Ice Cream said...

These turned out lovely. My boys love it when I make them super heroes out of clothespins.

Annie-Savor This Moment said...

We'll be making these for our Thanksgiving table! Thanks for the idea.

my4kids said...

Those are sooo cute!!

Terri said...

Just what I was looking for--Thanksgiving craft ideas. Thanks for this cute one.

luckyzmom said...

Too cute!

Susan from Food Blogga said...

My nieces would love these dolls, Michelle. I'm sending this to my mom so they can make them on Tuesday when she babysits. Thanks! And thanks to everyone else for their wonderful ideas! Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving, Susan.

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

This is some pretty cool thing you got going here. Gonna check out the remaining site pages to see if there are any updates. ;)

Cheers! :)