Clothespin Crafts: Embroidery Thread Clothespin People

I love crafting with my kids in the summer–especially when we are making something that, as soon as it’s finished, is an instant toy.  And that is exactly what these clothespin crafts people are.  They were fun to make and since the kids and I finished making them they have been played with constantly.  A total win.

If you and your little ones are interested in making these simple clothespin crafts people, you are in luck.  The supplies are minimal as well the skills needed.

Supplies needed to make your own clothespin crafts:

• Wood Doll Pins
• Embroidery Thread
• Tacky Glue
• Black Marker

These clothespin crafts are very simple and kid friendly.  Basically it’s just a lot of wrapping.

There are lots of “right” ways to make a clothespin and embroidery thread doll, but here is what I found to work best for us.

First, we used Tacky Glue instead of hot glue.  I didn’t want my kids to burn their fingers and we found that it was better to work with a glue that wasn’t as quick to dry.  This way as they wrapped the thread through the wet glue more of the thread was stuck in place, making more durable toys.

Using the space between the “legs” and an indicator of front and back, add a strip of glue to the back of the clothespin.  With your desired color of thread, place the thread vertically in the glue.  Then, working from the front, start to wrap the thread around neatly until you have reached the bottom of your desired area.  Add glue to secure the end of the thread.  We used different colors to denote where a shirt ended and pants began.

Continue this with all of your thread.

For the pants, wrap around the entire clothespin a few times and then begin to wrap each individual leg.  Add glue to the thread and tuck between the legs when you are done.

The only part of this project that took a little bit of thinking was the hair.  We wanted something that looked like hair (of course) but also wasn’t too complicated and actually stayed in place as they were played with.

Here is what we came up with.

First, wrap thread around a couple of your fingers.  The bigger the loop the longer the hair.  Then, with another smaller piece of thread, tie a knot around one side of the loop.  Finally, cut the loop of threads opposite of where you tied the knot.  Trim if needed to make the hair even on both sides.

Glue directly to the top of the clothespin crafts.

For the men we just wrapped some thread around the top of the head–or left it completely bald.

As a final step we added little black eyes with a marker to each doll.

And your clothespin crafts are done!  Don’t they make a cute couple?

I happen to be one of those mamas that prefers wooden, primitive toys, so these clothespin crafts really appeal to me–and the kids love them.  Since they helped make them they dressed the dolls as they liked and love to play act with them in their doll house.  I foresee lots of summer fun with these!

I hope you have as much fun with these clothespin crafts as we did.

All the best–and happy summer!

Nancy

Nancy is the play-at-home mom of 3 little ones, ages 3 and under. When she gets a chance she blogs at dosmallthingswithlove.com about the intersection of motherhood and creativity. She has a special passion for embroidery, something she has been doing and experimenting with since she was a girl. A farm girl at heart, she now lives in Minneapolis and enjoys gardening, reading, stitching, traveling and painting. Most any day you can find her with a baby on her hip, barefoot, chasing her kids around the yard and eating beans fresh out of the garden.