These cute little dolls are based off a set of directions on page 96 in the June 2012 Crafts ‘n Things magazine, and the design is by Linda Valentino. It was titled ‘toothpick dolls’.

Labeled under the “kids’ crafts” section, my 6-year old was able to help out in a lot of the components of these little dolls, and probably wouldn’t admit that he actually played with them for a little bit!

Read on to see how we made these sweet little toy dolls. I estimate these two could be done less than an hour and a half, including glue drying time.

Step 1: Gather What You Will Need

Materials:

• 10 mm to 12 mm round or oval wooden bead. (The ones I used were from a Craft multi-pack, as shown here.)
• Four toothpicks per doll
• Craft thread – I used DMC Prism brand, Rainbow Collection, that looks something like this:DMC Prism Six-Strand Floss
• Aleene’s tacky glue
• “Hair colored” sewing thread and optional sewing needle

Tools:

• Wire clippers (to cut tips off of toothpicks)
• Scissors
• Additional toothpicks to spread glue
• Red or pink chalk
• Black sharpie marker
• (Optional) Ruler

Step 2: Wrap the String Around the Toothpicks

Clip the pointed ends of the toothpicks using the wire clippers.

Cut two of the toothpicks in half for arms (one set for each doll.)

Spread a little glue on the toothpick your working on, especially to adhere the end of the thread.

For the Boy Doll:
I started out with blue (for jeans, my son’s idea) and the directions stated to start about ¼” from the bottom. (I eyeballed the beginning.)

To begin, I placed the end up along the toothpick and began wrapping the thread starting on the bottom.

Roll the thread along the toothpick within a ½-inch from the top. Repeat on a second toothpick.

Glue a third toothpick in between the first two toothpicks, about halfway up, that have the “pant colored” string on them.

Wrap the pant color thread onto all three toothpicks, covering the bottom of the middle stick. Stop at a point where the shirt will begin.

Changing to shirt color, begin wrapping the three toothpicks and stop at top of leg toothpicks. Glue thread end.

Wrap two arms (halves) with “shirt color” thread.

Glue arms to legs and continue to wrap shirt colored thread around the shoulders of the doll.

For the Girl Doll:
Position the three toothpicks together and glue the legs to the middle toothpick about half way up each of the leg toothpicks.

Starting close to the bottom of the three toothpicks, wrap the “dress colored” thread around all three toothpicks for the dress, spot gluing as needed to the top of the leg.

Wrap two arms (halves) with “shoulder shrug color” thread.

Glue arms to legs and continue to wrap shoulder colored thread around the shoulders of the doll.

Step 3: Head and Hair

My children chose two different kinds of beads to use as heads. It made the dolls unique, just like them.

Using the marker, dot the eyes and draw the smile. You can also rub chalk on for some color on the cheeks if you would like.

I marked the toothpick where the top of the head meets the toothpick and cut the excess toothpick from the top BEFORE gluing the head down.

Optional: I strung a needle with the thread that tied the hair together and slipped it through the head to further tighten the hair, before I glued the head to the toothpicks. This was not in the original directions.

For the hair, cut 20 to 24 three-inch (3”) thread lengths. I did this by wrapping the craft thread around my fingers 12 times for the girl. I eyeballed the boys hair length.

Tie the center of the hair with thread and glue onto the head. Trim the ends of hair to desired length.