Most women have a soft-spot in their hearts for dolls. While we may not play with them like we did when we were young, a nice adult way to nurture our appreciation for dolls is to make them. Apple dolls are a great arts and crafts project to do alone or with a youngster.
Making apple dolls is simple and inexpensive. No sewing skills are required for this project. Once you master the basic apple doll you can incorporate your skills into the project and make them as detailed and elaborate as you’d like.
Here are the instructions for making a basic apple doll.
Items Needed to Make Apple Dolls
- Paring Knife
- Vegetable Peeler
- Apple Corer
- Water Colors
- Scissors
- Bottle Cork
- 16-ounce Plastic Bottle
- Rubber Band
- Fabric Scraps
- The Biggest Apple You Can Find
- Hair (You can Purchase This at an Arts and Crafts Store)
- Two Black Beads
- Glue
Instructions for Making an Apple Doll
Take your vegetable peeler and peel the skin off of your apple. Use your apple corer to remove the apple’s core. This will be the head of your apple doll.
To begin your doll’s face, start with her nose. To make a nose, take your paring knife and make a U-shape in the center of the apple. Then, gently remove the apple flesh around the U by cutting towards the U. This will give the nose definition and make it prominent. It will also serve as a guideline for your doll’s cheeks.
Next, cut out wedges beneath the nose, under the cheeks and where you want the eyes to be. Place a slit into each eye area. This will be the eye itself. Then, cut a line where you want the mouth to be. Follow this up by gently shaping the doll’s chin and face. You can add faint lines around the corners of the eyes and the forehead. If you are very handy with a knife, feel free to add eyebrows and ears to the doll’s head.
After your carving is complete, soak your apple head in lemon juice that you have added approximately two tablespoons of salt to. Allow the apple to soak for five minutes. Then, remove the apple from the liquid and place it on a rack.
Take your apple and place it in a dry, warm, dark spot to dry. Leave it there until it shrinks. This can take a few weeks, so if you have a food dehydrator you can use it to speed of the process. Your apple will be ready when it feels dry and spongy.
When your apple has dried, take it and pop beads into the slits of the eye area. Use a brush and gently apply diluted red/pink watercolor paint to the cheeks. Use a stronger color of red for the lips. Glue hair to the doll’s head.
Next, take your empty plastic bottle and cut off the bottom of the bottle. The bottle will be your doll’s body. Take a cork and plug the top of the bottle. This will serve as your apple doll’s neck.
Get out your fabric and wrap it around the plastic bottle. You want the fabric to extend past the bottom and the top of the bottle. Place a rubber band around the neck of the bottle and fold the extra fabric down so that it resembles a shawl. Trim the fabric on the bottom so that it is even.
Place the dried apple head on top of the cork and push it down onto the cork. Your basic apple doll is now complete.
After you do a few of these dolls you can add your own touches to them to make them truly unique. You can add a body and arms and legs with wire and you can carve feet and hands out of another dried apple. If you are handy with a needle and thread you can make hats and clothes for your apple dolls.
The great thing about apple dolls is you can keep them for yourself, give them away as gifts or sell them. You can make apples dolls into seniors, adults, teenagers, children and babies. Be advised: when word gets out about your handy work, your apple dolls will be in big demand from family and friends. Who knows, you might just turn your love for dolls into a small business!
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