Clothespin Doll Kits

(Continued from this post)

Or, if you give a mom a Ziploc... Inspired first by JennyAnyDot's dolls, second by a simple request from Crayons ("Mommy, don't we have any clothespins so I could make a clothespin doll?"), and third by the fact that stocking stuffers were hard to find this year, I decided to drop some craft-store clothespins and doll stands (the wooden rings to make them stand up) in the two youngest Squirrelings' stockings. Breaking up a package of each meant they each got about a dozen pegs and eight or nine stands.However, I was betrayed by my large-sized ziploc bags, which called out for...I don't know...oh yes, how about if I put some of those old fabric swatches in there with them, maybe in a snack-sized ziploc? (A long time ago, I used to get fabric samples by mail, and I saved all the mini-swatches--some of them have lovely colours and textures.) And in the box with the swatches there were some old bits of embroidery floss too...I put half in each kit. And, oh yes--we went to a wonderful yard sale in the summer where I picked up a lot of OLD mini-packs of sequins, tiny plastic rings, spangles...so I emptied a few of those yellowed cellophane bags into two more snack-sized bags. Getting a bit bigger by now...what else should go in? I printed out some doll-making instructions from the Our Canadian Girl website and tucked those in--and noticed that they suggested felt. OK, we did have some felt sheets (left over from making the Glorious Coming ornaments). Uh oh...between the felt sheets and the printouts, these kits were no longer what you'd call little stocking stuffers. And I had managed to pick up a few more things for the stockings in the meantime. So let them stay big! I printed out a label for each kit, leaving a long tail at the bottom, and folded them around the bottom of the felt sheets in the bag so that they'd stay upright.

(At this point Mama Squirrel was having so much fun and was so impressed with the way these turned out that she was about ready to go into the doll-kit-making business full time. But it was Christmas Eve afternoon and there were a lot of other things to do...besides, that took most of the felt. :-))

The only question that remained was what to do with these now-kind-of-bulging Ziploc bags. There were already presents wrapped from Mommy and Daddy, and we are not too much into wrapping things up just from Santa. Stockings, yes, but he doesn't go overboard around here.

Then Mr. Fixit had the best idea: label each one from each girl's favourite doll or stuffy. So that's what we did. And they were very happy with them.