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Patterns and Projects for Handmade Dolls

Generations of children have made dolls and doll accessories to play with. Your child can do the same, making a variety of projects simple enough for them to participate in or even do by themselves and quick enough to make up in a day. Homemade dolls are a toy that encourages imaginative play and that continues to engage the child creatively after the craft is complete.

Magnetic Paper Dolls
- Many websites offer free downloadable paper dolls and clothing. Find one that you like and that is small enough to fit on the top of a metal candy tin. Use decoupage medium to attach the doll's clothes to thin magnet sheets and cut around them. Decoupage the doll to the front of the tin. The magnetic clothing fits inside the tin, to be taken out and used on the doll. This portable toy should please any lover of paper dolls.
Peg Dolls
- Craft stores sell bags of plain wood peg doll blanks. They generally have either an oblong or curved body with an attached round head and come in a variety of sizes. Turn these into tiny dolls by painting clothing, hair and facial features on each. Try making a set that looks like your favorite child's family; the smaller blanks can even become family pets. Another idea is to make a set that represents the characters from a favorite book, such as "Little House on the Prairie" or "Little Women." Once the paint is dry, a coat of shellac will protect it from chipping.
Make a Monster Doll
- Ask your child to draw a simple monster on a piece of paper and use it as a pattern to cut two monsters from felt fabric. Stack the pieces and pin together, then help your child sew around the edges, leaving a 3-inch hole for stuffing. Turn the doll through the hole and stuff with fiberfill. Let your child decorate the monster with button eyes, yarn hair and fabric scrap clothing.
Worry Dolls
- A worry doll is a tiny figure your child can whisper her worries to so they can be taken away while she sleeps. Children can make their own worry dolls by cutting a craft stick in half and gluing the halves to the sides of a clothespin as arms for a doll shape. Wrap the ends of the clothespin with embroidery thread so they look like legs with pants and continue wrapping up the torso of the doll and around each arm. Fabric scraps make clothes for the doll, and more thread can be used as hair. Have your child draw on a face with a permanent marker and the doll is ready to take on worries.

Dolls