Autumn Dolls

In preparation for our Autumn celebrations, we have been making various dolls. Kits for the pumpkin and corn cob dolls can be found at A Toy Garden here. And the witch was purchased from Magic Cabin here.

After studying the witch doll, I decided to try my hand at making a small fingertip type of doll and will share the tutorial. It was my first one and I didn't have a clue what I was doing (lol) but learned a lot along the way!

Needed Supplies for an autumn fingertip doll:
- pipe cleaner
- embroidery floss in desired colors
- needle/thread
- wool roving in desired color and a felting needle
- cotton doll skin in desired color (or make your own by dying a cotton t-shirt in tea leaves)
- wool felt in desired color

My doll's body wasn't long enough, so next time, I will not cut the pipe cleaner down. Twist the pipe cleaner into shape, then untwist and wrap the embroidery floss around the folds of the arms and legs to prevent the wire from popping out and possibly cutting small hands. The whole body can be wrapped in the embroidery floss for a better look, but I was trying to stretch the supplies, so I tied off early.

Next, take some plain wool roving and wrap it around the head, needle felting into place.

Cut a scrap of doll skin to place over the wool roving and secure into place with string. Note: this is where I messed up by not making the skin bigger. I also should have used dental floss to tie off as it seems to hold better than the string I used.

Once the skin is secure, take embroidery floss or even regular thread and make the eyes and mouth by going all the way through the head to the back. Don't worry, the hair will cover the thread that is showing in the back.

Once the features are in place, take your wool roving and gently needle felt it onto the head.

Cut and design your outfit and stitch it into place!

And voila! You have a cute little finger tip Autumn Doll!

Here she is with her friends. And below is an Acorn Gnome that I designed using pipe cleaners and wool roving. I needle felted the acorn to go into a real acorn cap and was able to secure the gnome's hands to the acorn by felting.

Hope you give it a try & have fun! We are loving all the creativity in Waldorf.