I have a soft spot for sweet little things … and dolls and pretty fabric are pretty darn sweet, in my book. My Aunt’s birthday is this month and I wanted to wrap up her gifts in a special way. She’s an bundle of creativity – one always gifting me her handmade treasures. I wanted to do something fun for her gift, too. I’ve spotted cute spoon dolls over the years, so I decided to try making my own. Plus, a darling stack of Sew Cherry 2 by one of my favorite designers, Lori Holt, recently arrived. Love it!! The collection is the perfect mix of small scale prints for the project.
For my spoon dolls, I used: wooden forks, yarn for the hair, ball head straight pins, gingham ribbon and bits of scrap lace. I decided to create tiny little faces and cut them out on colored paper with my cutting machine. It was an experiment, for sure. I wasn’t sure just how tiny a cutting machine could cut. Turns out, pretty tiny! I was so pleased with how precise the teeny eyelashes cut out – what a lifesaver from trying to paint or cut those little details by hand. You may have caught a close up of these paper cuts on Instagram.
Spoon dolls are a pretty quick project. I wrapped the top of the forks with yarn. I laughed when I found this particular yarn in my stash (though the label and brand were no longer with it), because it reminded me of hair like Dolly Parton (whom I love!) or maybe more like Marie Antoinette. I wrapped the yarn around each fork pretty high for some fun, tucking in and glueing the last strand to secure the hair in place. For each dress, I used a 2″ x 5″ piece of fabric folding in the top and sides (so no raw edges were showing on the outside, except the bottoms, which were cut with pinking shears to help keep the fabric from fraying) and securing with fabric glue to the back of the fork neck. For the lace, just a tiny piece about 1″ in length around the neck would do. I then glued on the tiny faces with a new favorite paper glue pen I’m obsessed with (I’m reserving a Toolbox Tuesday for this new find – so stay tuned). Sky is the limit on the fun ways you could embellish spoon dolls with aprons, jewelry, hands and all sorts of darling details.
To decorate their beehives, I had some ball head pins on hand (like little pincushion buns!) and topped their bouffants with red gingham ribbon bows (secured on with a dot of fabric glue). I thought the ribbon went perfectly with the reds and gingham in Lori’s fabric.
Hope this make brought some joy to you today! Links to supply resources are below, if you’d like to make one, too.
xx Elea
Supplies List
Sew Cherry 2
Wooden Forks
Fabric Glue (to secure the dress, lace, hair and ribbon)
Yarn (from my stash. I think it was from Joann)
Cotton Lace (from my stash, but can find similar here)
Ball straight pins
1/4″ Gingham Ribbon (from my stash)
Card stock or paint for the faces
These are so adorable!!!
Thank you so much, friend! xoxo
The hair and the face just totally make these dolls so sweet! What fun having a special Aunt to share hand made treats with! I was so amazed that your Cameo could die cut such teeny tiny little circles and eyelashes! Yay Cameo! If you decide to make some to sell in your shop, sign me up! You should submit this to one of the Stampington magazines (Art Doll?), I definitely think you should get published with your sweet idea! https://stampington.com/publications
What a sweet note, Kathy! Thank you! That’s a wonderful idea – I didn’t know Stampington had a magazine dedicated to doll art. How did I miss that – I love their publications! I will check that out. Appreciate the note!
Aww – sew cute! I’ve always wanted to make these too. Thanks for sharing.