Clothespin Dolls

 

My niece Hadley loves little people - little Minnie Mouse, little Fisher Price people, little ceramic figures - if she can hold one in each hand - she loves them!  So I started thinking about how I could make some little people for her.  I was in the midst of researching peg dolls, when I came across clothespin dolls wrapped in embroidery thread and fell in love with them.

 

I went to Hobby Lobby and discovered they have clothespins, wooden balls and clothespin stands.  BUT then I got home and found the wooden balls don't fit on the clothespins, so I went to Michaels and found what I needed.

 

For this project you'll need:

wooden clothespins

wooden balls that fit with the clothespins

clothespin stands (optional)

various colors of embroidery floss

paint (flesh color and eye color)

paint brushes

hot glue gun

scissors

 

The first thing I did was to paint the wooden balls with my peachy paint color.  They are awkward to paint, but come out pretty good.  I tried dipping one into paint and that ended up too thick and uneven.

Then I hot glued a dot at the back of the doll and started wrapping. 

Stripes are easy to do and add visual interest to the dolls clothing.

The face details were all an experiment.  I think I ended up using one dot from a q-tip as the eye color and one dot from a toothpick in the center.  As you see below, I tried different colors and techniques.  For the cheek color, I used a dry paint brush and dabbed off most of the excess before painting.  The smiles were done by toothpicks.

This was my fancy paint palette.

Then I hot glued the head to the body.

Then I added hair.

 

To make curly or wavy hair, you get the embroidery thread wet (dip it in water and then squeeze it out) and then wrap it around something (for the tight blond curls, I used a wooden dowel rod I had and for the red waves I used a candlestick) and then let it dry overnight.

 

 

For the men's hair, I just cut tiny pieces of embroidery thread and put them in a pile, then hot glued an area on the top of the head and dipped it into the pile of thread.

 

 

I actually modeled these dolls after my niece, her parents and myself, so for those that know my family - below is me, Hadley, Lance and Jordan!

As I hoped, Hadley loved playing with them!

 

Ombre Flour Sack Dish Towels

Previously I made these Rainbow Flour Sack Dish Towels for my own kitchen, then I decided to try something different, as a gift for a friend. 

 

To change it up, I bought four different shades of turquoise thread and started with the lightest at the bottom.  I did two lines of each color, getting darker as I went up. 

 

 I think they turned out great!

And then I received a DIY Valentine's themed tea towel as a gift - look how cute!

 

♥ Tote Bag

 

 

I had never used iron-on transfers before, but I bought a camera and a heart on the same day, just to try out!  I blogged about the camera here.  But today I will tell you how to make an adorable heart tote bag! 

This project was truly a fun, creative, spontaneous chance to create - I loved it!  I had planned to put the rhinestone heart directly onto a white tote bag, as I did with the camera iron-on.  Once I laid it out though, it was too small and didn't make enough impact.  So I went to my scrap fabric box and started playing!  I ended up adding several more layers of hearts for visual interest.  I didn't make any kind of pattern, I just freehand cut out the hearts about 1/2 an inch bigger in graduated sizes.  They aren't perfect and to me, that gives them charm.  I ironed the heart onto pink felt that I had - felt might not be the best base for an iron-on, but the paper came off eventually and it worked!

Then, after I had sewed around nearly all the outside heart, I wondered what it would look like to add stuffing to it and make it a raised, pillow-like heart on the tote bag. 

I love this tote for every day use.  I also thought it would be ADORABLE for kids to take valentines to school in.  And it would be an adorable Valentine's Day gift or even to use as a gift bag!



Happy Valentine's Day!!

xoxo Lyndi

THREE Year Old Photo Shoot

Each year, I have taken pictures of my niece, Hadley, holding up the letters of her age and then created one image showing the whole word. 

Each year has presented unique challenges  (getting a two year old to sit still, corralling a three year old at a park, etc.) but it's always so fun and so worth the end result!  (My assistants, my sister Jordan and my mom and I are always worn out afterwards!)  The other difficulty is choosing which pictures to use.  These were options that I didn't use.

 

 

For this project I use wooden letters from Hobby Lobby and paint them white.  I save them and have been able to re-use some letters each year!

 

1:  O N E

2: T W   

3: H R   

4: F U   

5: I V   

6: S X  

7:        

8: G   

9:      

10: