March is national Crafting month!
Welcome to spring! Being that this month is crafting month, I would like to share with you how I make my flower fairy dolls! It’s a fun activity for the kids and parents to do during the sometimes rainy (or snowy) spring month of March!
Materials Needed:
Round wooden bead
floral wire
silk flowers (colors of choice)
embroidery floss (a couple of diff colors)
glue gun
wire cutters
scissors
tape measure
Instructions:
Take out your floral wire, measure 18″.
Fold wire in half.
Grab the embroidery floss that you want to use for the hair, remove packaging- but leave the floss in tact. You will have a loop, slide that loop onto the floral wire, all the way to the end where it’s folded in half.
Then take your round wooden bead, slide that onto your floral wire, all the way to the end.
At this point, your wooden bead should be at the same end as your “hair”.
Now it’s time to assemble he body. Hold the head in place, and twist the floral wire about two times. This will create the neck.
Then take your wire, and hold one side straight out (horizontal), measuring 1 1/2 in.Fold the wire, keeping it horizontal, and fold the wire around the body, and then fold the wire down. This will create 1 arm.
Then repeat those same steps to create your 2nd arm.
Now we will make the torso. Take your two wires and twist them together 4-5 times, approx 3/4 in.
The left over wire will be the legs, if they are uneven just grab some wire cutters and make them even.
Now we will wrap the doll with the embroideryfloss that will be her skin color.
Take your glue gun, and put a dot of glue on the dolls torso. Start wrapping evenly, single layers,upwards toward the arms. once you get to the bottom of the arms, you will start wrappingone of the arms.
Once you get to the end of the arm, place a small dab of glue on the end, and wrap several times around where you placed the glue.
Then wrap back towards the torso (creatinga 2nd layer of thread).
Once back at the torso, wrap another couple of times around the torso, and then repeatthe above steps on the 2nd arm.
Once back at the torso, continue wrapping your floss up on the neck, evenly and single layer. When you reach the head, wrap back down towards the torso.
Now you want to wrap your thread in an “X” pattern, from right shoulder to left armpit, and then opposite side left shoulderto right armpit.
Once you’ve created that “X” torso, continue wrapping the floss down the leg. Once you get to the bottom of the leg, put a dot of glue and wrap the floss several times around the glue, then back up the leg.
Repeat the steps for the 2nd leg.
Once you have your floss back at the torso, dab some glue and trim excess.
Now it’s time to dress your fairy!
Grab the color floss you’d like for the clothing.
Place a dot of hot glue on the body of the doll, and wrap the floss around her torso several times.
Once the torso is wrapped, you can continue the floss in the “X” pattern you did with the shoulders. Wrapping several times.
Once the “X” pattern is done, wrap the floss back down the torso, and down each leg a little ways, creating shorts.
Once your floss on back to the torso, dab some glue and trim off excess.
This creates a body suit.
Now it’s time to make the skirt!
Take your silk flow, and take it apart- removing the backing, and center piece.
Arrange the petals so that the longer petals will be at the bottom of the skirt, and the shorter petals will be at the top of the skirt.
Basically you are going to take the flower a apart, and engineer it backwards.
Once arranged, grab 2-3 petals at a time, fold in half, and make a small cut (Approx 1/4″)with your scissors where the center hole is. Then fold in half the other way and cut another slit (approx 1/4′). This will create an “X” shape to make the opening a little wider so that the dolls legs will fit inside.
Repeat until all of the petals have been cut.
Starting with the small petals, slide onto the dolls legs, up towards the torso.
Repeat until all of the petals have been added.
Now you can play with the petals, to make sure they are laying how you like them.
Once you’ve got them arranged how you like, lift each layer of petal and dab some hot glue, so the petals will stay put!
Now for the hair.
You can leave it how it is, or to create a little more volume in the back you can do this next step:
Dab a little amount of hot glue to the back of the dolls head, just below where the floss is. Loop the floss and tack the end of the floss to that hot glue. This will cover the wood back, creating hair on the back of the dolls head. Then you can play with it, and add glue (SMALL AMOUNTS) to lay down the hair creating less volume if you’d like.
You can give her a face, or leave it blank, it’s up to you!
