Clothing, Household, Organization, Closet, Cleaning

We are on our way to our favorite apple orchard for a wagon ride, apple picking, and, of course, delicious cider and hot donuts. YUM! There is also a wonderful petting zoo and barnyard play area. Bug, Fairy and Pixie are looking forward to sharing the experience with Little Lady.

While we are off doing that, we wanted to repost a favorite activity to do with the wee ones. Although it is not specifically an autumn craft, we find the finished product makes a lovely addition to our fall/Halloween decorations. Check out our Handprint Sand Candles HERE. Enjoy!

The adage "necessity is the mother of invention" is never as obvious as when a parent is trying to fashion a toy for a child when traditional toys are unavailable. A hankie becomes a "pew doll", a piece of paper becomes an airplane or a "cooty catcher", and a handful of vines or flowers can be braided into a crown. Children are very good at creating their own toys, too. I read an article that said that most popular outside toy for a child is a STICK. Yep, just your garden variety, backyard stick. Think of the possibilities!

At one time, toys were a luxury to most children. Because of that, resourceful parents made toys from discarded items or items found in nature. Corn husks, straw and other plant fibers were often the basis for toys. Bits of fabric scraps and wood pieces were saved and fashioned into toys. Following that tradition, our dolls are made from raffia, which comes from the raffia palm, indigenous to Africa. Because raffia has very long fibers, it lends itself well to make dolls very similar to the yarn dolls we shared last year. I pulled fabric from my wee pieces stash bin. Although we are sharing our how-to, this is a very "ish" project. Follow our general directions, but delight in the fact that each and every doll will be unique.

Materials:
raffia
embroidery floss
calico scraps
large embroidery needle

Take raffia out of its wrapper and hang.

Find a lid or book for wrapping the height of the doll you wish to make. You can also cut a piece of cardboard to size. Mine is 7 1/2"

Cut off several strands of raffia, and holding it at the bottom of your lid, wrap the raffia around the lid. IMPORTANT: your ends must start and stop at the bottom of your lid. Continue wrapping strands until you are happy with the size.

Slip a thick piece of raffia under all the raffia loops at the top and tie tight and securely. This will be the top of the head. Leave the ends for now.


Using another piece of raffia, create the neck by wrapping raffia around the neck several times. Tie off the neck tight and secure. This should be about 1 1/2" from the top of the head. Thread one end of the raffia tie through a needle, and weave the ends through the neck a couple of times, and clip close to the neck.


Clip the bottom loops of the raffia.

To make the arms, again wrap raffia around your lid. The arms should be about half as thick as the body. Tie off the raffia about 1 1/2" from the bottom of the lid, and then cut through the loops at the bottom. This will give you a long rope of raffia, tied at one end.

Tape the tied end to a work surface, and braid the raffia. You will want your arms to be about 7 1/2". I find it easiest to braid farther, then tie off the end at 6 1/2" and cut through the braid at 7 1/2".




DON'T throw away your scraps! Simply take the raffia you cut off, secure it in the middle, weaving in the ends, and you have a corn stalk bundle! Also, save your little scraps. You can use these in other projects... you never know!

Separate the raffia on the body in two. Slip the braided arms between the divided raffia, and push up toward the neck. Now, tie off the waist like you did the neck.




At this point, weave in the ends on top of the head. (Not pictured.)

Any number of materials can be used for hair: dyed raffia, corn silk, yarn, etc. Staring at the forehead, tack on small amounts of hair using 6 strands of matching floss. (About 9" long.) Keep adding more strands around a center part until you get to the middle of the back of the head. Tie off. You can now "style" the dolls hair into a low ponytail, braids, a nape bun, or leave it flowing. I tied off mine to make a low ponytail. NOTE: If you would like a bun high on the head, tack on hair around the hairline instead of down the middle.


Using 6 strands of floss, add eyes and a mouth. I used straight stitches for the eyes. For the mouth, I used straight stitches, then wrapped the straight stitches several times. Your starting and finishing knots can be hidden on the back of the head.


If the bottom of the doll is uneven, clip the bottom a little to even it out. (Not pictured)

To make the bodice, ripe a piece of fabric 1" by about 15". (You can learn about ripping fabric HERE.)

Lay the piece behind the doll's neck. The wrong side of the fabric should be against the doll. Crisscross the fabric over the doll's chest. Turn the doll over and tie the ends. Clip off the extra fabric, by cutting on an angle or in Vs. 



To determine the size of the skirt, measure from the waist to the bottom of the doll. SUBTRACT 1". This will be the length. For the width, add about 3". (Remember, this is an "ish" thing :) Rip a rectangle of fabric to these measurements.

Along one long side of the fabric rectangle, sew a running stitch using 6 strands of floss. (Not pictured.) Gather the fabric around the waist and tie off securely. You can either work the ends in, or tie in a bow.


Tah dah... done :) Make one or make a whole village. I will share the directions for the boy later in the week.

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In a blink of an eye, your little fairies can be wearing flowers in their hair. Although these elastic headbands hold just 1 flower, using the same pattern you could easily fill the crown with a bouquet of blooms! Using a purchased elastic headband, scraps of felt, and a few glass seed beads, your wee ones will be ready to dance with the flower fairies :)

Materials:
purchase elastic headbands
felt scraps
glass seed beads
floss to match the felt
copy of the pattern found HERE 

Directions:
Make a copy of the pattern.

Cut out 2 large flower petal rings, one small flower petal ring, and 1 leaf. When cutting along the dotted lines make sure you do not cut all the way through.

Using 2 strands of floss, sew the ring shut just at the bottom. Tie off the thread and clip.

Using a running stitch and 2 strands of floss, sew around the inner circle. When you've gone all the way around, gentle pull on the threads closing the opening in the center. Tie off the thread and clip.


Make the other two flower petal rings. Leave the thread attached to the small ring after you have securely tied off the thread. The thread should be attached to the back of the ring.

Poke the needle through the center fronts of the remain 2 large flower rings. Position the petals in a pleasing manner, then tie off securely.


Add several glass seed beads to the center of the flower. Tie off and clip the thread.

From the back of the leaf, sew a running stitch around the leaf.
Place the front of the leaf against the center back of the flower. Sew in place being careful not to go all the way through. 
Sew the back of the flower to the elastic headband where the headband is joing together.
Now, place on your little fairies' heads, and send them out to frolic in flowers. Who knows what adventures wait for them :)

Remember, instead of 1 single flower, you can add as many as you like :)

EDIT: This giveaway is now closed. The winner can be found HERE.

Several weeks ago, when I was wandering the aisles of Etsy, I stumbled upon a new shop that I feel in love with. It was Jupiter's Child. On Facebook, I shared a beautiful Waldorf Inspired Wooden tree. I thought it would look incredible on a nature table.

Anyway, one thing led to another, as it often does on the Internet, and before I knew it, Beth agreed to sponsor a giveaway on Wee Folk Art. THANK YOU, Beth! We decided to giveaway something totally different than anything we've done before on WFA. The giveaway is for this totally awesome, totally funky, organic youth t-shirt. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, this design... and, of course, who doesn't love an incredibly soft, organic, tee? Here is the description from the site:

This is an organic tee-shirt, hand dyed and hand-screenprinted with a peace chicken design.

I started drawing the chicken design for this t-shirt, and somehow a peace sign appeared where the wing should be. And then I though, well, chickens are peaceful creatures, aren't they? The strut around minding their own business and making quiet little noises.

This t-shirt is hand-dyed a lovely grey-blue color using water-based procion dyes and our special scrunch technique which gives a nice marbled effect to the fabric.

Then we hand-screen-printed the chicken design on the front in black using water-based ink.

Rabbit Skins organic cotton tee.
Youth sizes small (ages 7-8), medium (ages 9-10), and extra-large (ages 13-14). Sorry, we are temporarily sold out of size large. Sizes are approximate; when in doubt, order a size larger than the child's age. 

She also carries baby onesies, for the smallest person in your life. You can choose from a lavender, green or blue print, in sizes 12 or 18 months. Here is the description from her site:

This is an organic cotton baby onesie with our original "Peace Chicken" design, hand screenprinted by us.

(Peace) Chicken (design) on a natural-colored onesie.

We start with a super soft Rabbit Skins onesie, 100% certified organic. Then we screenprint our designs using eco-friendly, water-based inks.

Your little one will love it! 

 

So, obviously, we ALL want one of these, t-shirts, right? Michelle asked if she could enter this giveaway. Sorry, Michelle, we are just going to have to buy ours for the wee ones. But YOU have an opportunity to win one, and pick the size you would like. To enter, simply visit Jupiter's Child. Look around. Take in the sights. Then come back here and tell Beth how great her shop is, and let us know who you would give the t-shirt to if you won. Also, include the size (and the color if you pick a onesie) you would like.

The giveaway runs from today, through Monday, July 5, at 9:00 pm EST, when a winner's name will be drawn. The winner will have 1 week to contact us with their snail mail address or a new winner will be selected. So, readers, meet Beth at Jupiter's Child... Beth, meet our readers. Hopefully, you'll all become good friends.

Thanks, Beth, and good luck to one and all :)

This summer the son of my dear friend is getting married. I wanted to make something for a shower gift and I immediately thought of the Coiled Rag Bowl. This bowl can fit any decor depending on the colors. I went to their registry at Pottery Barn. I made a copy of the stack of their towels, then I went out and found fabrics to match. (I realize the colors you see on screen aren't necessarily accurate, but I didn't need them to match exactly... just wanted the same feel.) 
Here is the work in progress:





To get the complete directions on how to make a coiled rag bowl, check out last year's tutorial for the Rainbow Coiled Rag Bowl. Although a bit time consuming, they are fun to make and the finished bowls are so beautiful, it is worth each and every pin pricked finger :)

What special projects are you working on?