How to Make Flower Dolls

You might have hundreds of dolls in your collection but it's highly unlikely that you have any flower dolls. You might have dolls with flowers in their hair, or dolls with flowers on their dresses, but do you have a doll made from a flower? If not, there's a whole world waiting to open up to you! Flower dolls are simple to make and are very pretty. Since there are literally hundreds of different artificial flowers you can choose to make the dolls you can actually make many different ones and have an entirely new collection!

Choose a single, silk flower to make begin. Stiff plastic flowers are not useable for this craft. Cut the stem off the flower and pull away the plastic piece that joins the flower to the stem. If this won't pull off just cut it off instead. When you do, you'll see that the flower petals are layered and there is a hole that goes through them. This is perfect for creating the skirt for the doll.

Select a wooden bead that is appropriate for the size of the flower skirt. The bead will become the head for the doll. Make sure you have a bead with two holes rather than a cap bead which has only one hole. Use a marker to draw a face on the bead or use a sticker face from a craft store. In addition to the bead you'll need a chenille pipe cleaner. Choose one that closely matches the color of the flower or choose one in skin colors of black, white, brown or tan.

Fold the pipe cleaner into three equal sections and cut one of the sections off. Set these aside for the moment. Use embroidery floss or yarn to make hair for the doll. Make short hair by wrapping the yarn around two of your fingers; longer hair is made by wrapping it around three or four fingers. Slide the yarn off of your fingers and position the middle of the miniature "skein" on the bent area of the longest pipe cleaner. Slide the two ends of the pipe cleaner into the bead, going through the head and out the neck, then slide the bead up close to the yarn. Snip the yarn on each end where the folds are. This will complete the hair unless you want to add a touch of glue to secure it, here and there.

Wrap the short piece of pipe cleaner around the one that holds the head a couple of times, just below the wooden bead, to make the arms for the doll. Take the legs of the pipe cleaner and place them in the open circle of the flower petals. Insert them into the end of the flower that originally had the stem, and pull them out through the center of the flower. Twist the pipe cleaners just under the flower opening so that the flower won't slide down the legs. Curl the ends of all four pipe cleaners to make the hands and feet.

You can add halos, wings or other embellishments to make the dolls you want. Make small ones, add a button magnet to the backside, then place them on the fridge. Or, use double-sided tape to hold the lightweight dolls to curtain tie-backs. There are lots of ways to show off the dolls including simply setting them in your doll collection.