Do you remember the felt purse tutorial I shared that had the castle appliqué on it? You don’t? Well, go look at it. I’ll wait…Cute, right?
My daughter and niece loved their purses when I gave them to them for Christmas. I have found all sorts of goodies stuffed inside Janna’s purse and my niece has brought hers to church filled with all sorts of treasures, too.
While the purses were a fun gift to make I also had fun making what I put inside, peg dolls with felt sleeping bags.
Today I want to show you how I made the peg dolls and felt sleeping bags. They really are easy, and this is coming from someone who is not good at drawing or painting faces.
Supplies Needed for Peg Dolls
- Wooden Peg Dolls
- Acrylic Paint
- Paintbrushes
- Pencil
- Triple Thick Gloss Glaze
(Find it here.)
Instructions for Peg Dolls
1. Choose your paint colors and paint the bottom part (dress) of each doll. It will take at least two coats of paint to cover the wood.
I chose to give each girl 6 peg dolls in the colors of the rainbow. The dolls I chose were 2 inches tall and were found at this Etsy shop. You can also find peg dolls on Amazon.
I would definitely choose much larger peg dolls for children prone to still put things in their mouths. The 2 inch dolls were pretty small and could pose a choking risk.
As you can see I left the heads unpainted.
2. Paint hair and face on each doll.
Tip: Use a pencil to outline the hair and draw the eyes and mouth before painting.
This part frankly scared me because I am not artistic in the painting/drawing sense of the word. However, I figured three year olds couldn’t be that picky, so I pressed on.
At first I thought about only drawing on eyes because I had read that it would be good for the kids to decide which emotions the dolls should have.
While the dolls were cute without mouths I couldn’t leave them like that so I made mouths. 🙂
3. Paint each doll with at least one coat of Triple Thick Gloss Glaze
I really liked how the dolls turned out. They are just so colorful and cheery.
I have to tell you that I spent forever trying to figure out what I wanted to make to go with these little peg dolls. I had already made the castle purse, but I thought they needed something else.
This kind of thing happens to me a lot. I overthink things.
In the end I decided to make felt sleeping bags. Here are the instructions.
Supplies Needed for Felt Peg Doll Sleeping Bags
- Felt (2 Colors)
- Scissors
- Rotary Cutter & Mat
- Sewing Machine
- Thread
- Pins
- Ruler
- Tailor’s Chalk
Instructions for Felt Peg Doll Sleeping Bags
1. Cut a piece of felt for the sleeping bag to a size of 6 1/2 inches wide by 5 inches high using a rotary cutter and mat.
2. Fold the bottom of the felt up towards the top 1 3/4 inches so that the height of the felt is now 3 1/4 inches tall. Pin in place.
3. Using tailor’s chalk, make two lines on the folded part at the 2 inch and 4 inch mark.
4. Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, sew each side and along the chalk lines of the folded part only. You will sew a total of 4 seams.
This step will make the pockets for the dolls to fit into.
Time Saving Tip: I didn’t cut my threads in between lines of stitching. I simply lifted the presser foot and moved to the next seam line. I cut all threads when I was finished.
5. Cut 3 felt “pillows” for each sleeping bag that are 1 1/4 inch wide by 3/4 inch high using a rotary cutter and mat.
6. Pin the felt “pillows” centered above each pocket of the sleeping bag.
7. Sew around each “pillow” close the the edges.
That’s all there is to making a peg doll sleeping bag.
Bonus Ideas: If you want to make individual sleeping bags instead of ones that sleep 3 dolls, simply cut a piece of felt to a size of 2 1/4 inches wide by 5 inches high. Follow the instructions above minus the drawing of chalk lines. Also, you will only have 2 seams instead of 4.
To make a 6 doll sleeping bag cut a piece of felt to a size of 12 1/2 inches by 5 inches. You will make a total of 7 seams. Follow the instructions above.
Let’s see how the dolls like their new beds.
They look pretty happy to me. 😉
This entire project was so much fun to make and really was a budget-friendly gift idea.
Who says you need to spend a lot of money or boy plastic, noisy toys to provide a child with a great gift?
