I am so passionate about dolls that I started my own collection after having boys’ toys for several years…. Now my passion for making toys out of junk combined with my passion for dolls has produced this. I hope this junk doll can be inspirational for some mums wanting to entertain their kids at home while being creative and good to the environment by recycling.
FILLING
For the doll’s filling, just look around your house for foam left over from packaging. Alternatively you can use some old socks or pieces of textile. The idea is not to go out and buy bits and pieces. The creativity is shown in how you transform junk into something artistic.
BODY
Get any old cloths and old T-Shirts to roll the padding and make legs, arms, body and head. You only need to sew them all together.
FACE
At the very end, you can make the eyes, nose and mouth out of old pieces of colourful foam sheets. If you don’t have them, simply cut the shapes out of cardboard, old magazines or paper.
DRESS
I made the doll’s dress from an old pijama.
HAIR
For the hair, my son and I had real fun cutting pieces of old shirts and cloths in strips which I glued together. I used a button to keep all the strips together.
SHOES
I found two cute key rings from Tunisia in the shape of Turkish slippers and used those as shoes. They looked cute and the key rings have finally found a good use.
My son called it ‘Everything’s Rosie’ because of its resemblance with the Cbeebies character.
In terms of measurements, you can decide what you want. My doll is 50 cm tall. I had lots of junk and I wanted to make the most of it.
SHARING IS CARING!
Get Creative and send all your dolls’ pictures to info@londonmumsmagazine.com.
If you want to share your art & craft with London Mums please send us your pictures and we will post them online together with your comments.
Sharing is caring!
Shes beautiful I do feel inspired well done Monica!
Thanks Becky I am not a pro like you, but I thought i give it a go! it’s very easy and hope mums will turn some of their junk into toys. I am so passionate about recycling …. Becky if you ever manage to make something like that please post it here! Mums feel shy sometimes to share their artwork..
this is great! thanks for the idea, and you are right, you can make anything out of anything! See you tomorrow Monica!
Thanks Maria. Yes everybody can be creative – no need to be ‘artists’. The secret is to look around the house with different eyes and try to see how things can become something else…. I love doing it.
Wow, isn’t she just great
Great idea, I’ll try to make it with my little one.She may even learn to stitch (easily superseeding her mum who is not so good at it!) Laura
Well done Laura! You don’t need top sewing skills for this one. The whole idea is to make it quickly and then play with it. Excellent recession-proof tip! In the Seventies we used to make lots of toys ourselves. I don’t know it any different. Kids these days have far too much ‘ready-made’ stuff and cannot think creatively and manually. Please send us the photo of your junk doll so we can post it here. Thanks.