Thursday, June 16, 2011

Clothes Pin People (with instructions)

The 8 year old daughter has been obsessed lately with trying to come up with things to sell to earn some extra money. She came up with these:



Clothes pin people. Aren't they adorably ingenious! They were a big hit with her friends, whom she gave her first ones away to before the school year ended. I didn't get a chance back then to get some pics. Now, she's made a new batch.



If you want to make your own, you will need:

- a clothes pin (for the body)
- scrap fabric (for hair and clothes)
- masking tape (for the head and to secure the hair)
- two twist ties (for arms)
- a permanent marker (for the face)



Here is what she does to assemble them:

1. She cuts a small piece of fabric about 1x2"; folded it in half and cuts slits to make hair. (We've found that if you use a knit like polar fleece or t-shirt, it will curl if you pull it gently.) She then pinches this between the clothes pin. She folds it until she gets it all to fit between the tips.

2. She wraps about a 2" piece of masking tape around the tip to secure the hair, making a flat surface to draw the face on.

3. She cuts another scrap of fabric of varying size to wrap around the middle of the pin just below the edge of the tape to form a dress. Using one twist tie in back and one in front about 1/4-1/2" down from the top edge of the fabric, she secures the fabric to the pin by twisting the ties on both sides to form each arm.

4. Lastly, she draws her face of choice. To her, it is of the utmost importance to wait to draw the face. This is so she can judge the personality of the individual people after they are fully dressed and make the perfect face for each character. :)

Hope you've enjoyed this little project. Being a tad biased, I'm totally impressed at her cleverness coming up with this. Makes a crafty mother proud. :)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Just dropping to say hi. I'm your newest follower via Michele Made Me.

Unknown said...

Very cute little dollies! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?

mieljolie said...

Hi, Laina! Thanks for dropping in. Michele, and her blog, is awesome.

Mieljolie

mieljolie said...

Michele, I'm afraid you'd be partially wrong there. If an apple could fall from this tree, it has in this girl. We are very different. That's a good thing, though. We probably get along better for it. ;)

So happy she's crafting!

Mieljolie