spring maidens peg doll tutorial

Well I've finished the peg dolls for the swap over at We bloom here and Miss Molly is ALMOST done so I thought maybe I'd put up some pictures and a little tutorial.  The inspiration for my dolls started with The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle von Olfers.  However, as my dolls progressed they sort of took on a life of their own and became spring maidens.  Helpers to mother nature in the spring to bring green grass and colorful flowers...They are sweet and this was fun.

 They are all the same and yet so uniquely different.  So here is a quick tutorial of what I did:

These are the 2 1/2 inch peg dolls from Swift River Toys .  All the felt is 100% wool purchased from the same shop.  

To start I gathered wool, sewing needles, thread, embroidery floss, glue and of course the peg dolls:

 For my pattern I simply measured around the doll body to figure out what I would need for a dress, shawl and hat cutting them with pinking shears for some instant cute.  This is a picture of the pattern with measurements.  I seem to be unable to figure out how to attach as a PDF so this is the best I could do.

 next I embroidered some little flowers on the dress.  This was not a pattern just a "wing it" moment I do so often...then I sewed a simple running stitch along the top.

front

a quick sew down the back seem has her looking cute already.

 Next is the hair, i just took 6 strands of wool yarn about 3 inches long and braided them, tying a little floss on the ends.  A little glue across the braid and onto the head it goes.  The braid simply goes across the front as the back of the head will be covered with the hat.

For her shawl/cloak I used embroidery floss to do another running stitch, but this time it's a little further down (about a 1/4 inch) so that it can be folded over.

The embroidery floss is tied in front of the doll and looks very sweet.  

For the hat I used a blanket stitch.  Starting at the point I sewed the two sides together about 2/3 of the way down before separating and continuing the blanket stitch all the way around like so:

I've attached the hat with glue all over her head and presto we have a spring maiden.

notice the braids in the front...

Here is a picture of my spring maidens along with Molly's woodland elves, she's finally let me photograph them!

Molly painted faces and hair on hers, but I stuck with that simple Waldorf theme that I love, though I must admit I'm tempted to paint a few and see how those come out.  The dolls go in the mail on Monday and Molly and I will anxiously await our dolls made by others from around the globe!  I'll be sure to post pictures.