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Monday, June 28, 2010

CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--FLOSS DOLLS

These no-sew, easy-to-make dolls can be made into jewelry as pins, necklaces, or hair ornaments by gluing the dolls to jewelry findings, combs, headbands, etc.  Attached them to sweatshirts, sneakers, or pocketbooks.  Use them as Christmas ornaments or on plant pokes.  Use them to decorate gift boxes.  The possibilities are endless!  They also make great crafts projects for the female tweens and teens in your family.


Materials:
12” lt. pink chenille stem
18mm painted wooden bead head
flesh and assorted colors 6-strand embroidery floss
tacky glue
wooden skewer or wire (optional for making curly hair)
jewelry glue (optional for gluing dolls to jewelry findings, combs, or headbands)

Directions:
1.  Cut chenille stem into a 4” length and 8” length.  Bend 8” length in half for body.

2.  Glue bead onto folded end of chenille stem.

3.  Wrap 4” length around folded piece 1/8” below bead for arms.  Bend ends of arms and legs under ¼” for hands and feet.

4.  When wrapping floss around chenille stems, secure the floss at the beginning and end with a small amount of glue at the back of the doll.  Beginning directly under bead and following arrows on diagram, wrap floss around chenille stems, wrapping around neck first, then down one arm, back up arm and down next arm.  Wrap up second arm.  Crisscross floss several times at junction of arms and body to cover chenille stem completely.  Wrap down body for ¾”, then separately down one leg, back up the leg, down the second leg, back up the leg, then back up the body and neck.

5.  Using various colors of floss, create clothing for doll, wrapping in the same manner over the flesh colored floss.  Make long or short sleeves.  To form a skirt, wrap floss over both legs for desired length of skirt.  For pants, wrap each leg individually.  Make socks and shoes by wrapping feet.  Create patterns and accessories by gluing on individual lengths of floss to form stripes and plaids, a belt, etc.

6.  Glue floss around bead to create hair.  To make curly hair, wrap floss around a wooden skewer or wire.  Wet floss.  Allow to dry thoroughly before unwrapping.  Cut curled floss into lengths.  Fold each length in half and glue folded center to bead.  Repeat to cover bead.



Our guest author on Book Club Friday is giving away a free book this week. To be entered in the drawing, all you have to do is post a comment during the week. So let's hear from you! --AP

7 comments:

Kathy said...

How cute and easy. Since I'm a cross stitcher I have tons of embroidery floss and I know somewhere in this house I have the wooden beads with the faces on it. Looks like something I can do when I'm not reading.

Kttycat said...

These look cute and fun. I will have to try them out sometime.

ANASTASIA POLLACK said...

Kathy and Kttycat, if you do make the floss dolls, let us know how they came out.

Robin Haseltine said...

Uber cute! Going to try this when I get the chance

ANASTASIA POLLACK said...

Let us know how they turn out, Robin.

Anonymous said...

These are great! I am into crafting and well everything else and it just so happened that I have my two oldest granddaughters (15 and 12) staying this week and we tried these dolls. I think a long time ago they were called worry dolls (don't know why), but any why the girls just loved them and today we are going shopping for more supplies to make more. Great craft.

ANASTASIA POLLACK said...

I'm so glad your granddaughters are enjoying the project! Worry dolls are a bit different. They originated in Guatemala and were meant to remove worries, usually those of a child. The doll is supposed to worry for the child. Worry dolls are usually made of wood and decorated with scraps of fabric and thread. They're very small, only a couple of inches. You can easily hold a dozen in the palm of your hand.