How to Make Small & Easy Yarn Dolls
Playing with dolls helps to foster a child's imagination as well as her nurturing side, according to Child Care Quarterly. Dolls may also help kids learn to work through difficult social problems such as fights with their friends or peer pressure at school. Make your child simple and inexpensive dolls in just a few minutes, or have him make his own, using not much more than a ball of yarn.
Things You'll Need
- Cream, beige or brown yarn
- Dictionary
- 6 pieces of 3-inch-long yarn in same color
- Scissors
- 1-inch foam ball
Instructions
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1
Wrap a piece of yarn 30 times around a dictionary widthwise.
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2
Tie a 3-inch length of yarn through the wrapped yarn to hold it together. Slide the yarn off the dictionary.
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3
Hold the piece of yarn you tied around the bunch with one hand. Cut through the circular bunch of yarn at the opposite end of the tied piece.
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4
Place a 1-inch foam ball under where the short piece of yarn is tied around the bunch.
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5
Arrange the yarn around the ball so it is completely covered and gather it at the bottom of the ball.
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6
Tie another 3-inch length of yarn around the gathered yarn to hold the ball in place, giving your doll a head.
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7
Gather two bunches of yarn of 15 strands each off to opposing sides. Tie a 3-inch length of yarn around each 15-strand bunch about halfway up the length of the bunch and trim the strands half an inch below the ties. Now your doll has arms.
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8
Tie another 3-inch length of yarn around the bunch of yarn that is left halfway between the doll's head and the ends of the yarn to give your doll a torso.
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9
Split the bunch of yarn below the tie in half. Tie a 3-inch piece of yarn around each half of the bunch half an inch up from the end to give your doll legs.
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10
Trim all the ties on the doll so the ends don't hang down.
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Tips & Warnings
Glue on craft eyes, clothes cut from felt, hair made from a different color yarn or any other accessories you want to add to your doll to make it more realistic.
Your doll will be as tall as the width of the dictionary you wrap it around. To make a smaller doll, use a thick chapter book that is narrower than a typical dictionary, which will probably give you a doll around 6 inches tall.
