More Wool Experimenting

I am forever looking for ways to use up wool here..


Our former church goes to India every year and they take little dollies that are made and donated . I initially thought I would just be stuffing the dolls, (wool -of course) but when I was given a link to the pattern it looked simple enough. To think that some of the recipients may have never had a doll, or may never, was great motivation to make as many as possible before the deadline.

Even greater motivation was knowing that there would be a translator there to tell the girls the simple gospel message. The dolls were 2 sided, with a sad face on one side that represents life before Christ,

and a happy face on the other that represents the change that He can make in your life.


So that was the motivation behind the dolls, but the other advantages are that I'm 4 pounds lighter! (wool only..lol) And another advantage was getting to experiment with making dollie hair. The hair on these dolls were made from washed Icelandic lamb locks. They were made by taking a strip of black wet felted wool and the wool was needle felted onto the strip a layer at a time starting at the bottom working toward the top. (I used a strip of felted wool, but only because the doll had a face on both sides.. if the doll wasn't dual faced, i would have used a base the shape of a little cap to fit their head) Initially I was hand sewing the hair onto the dolls, but finished the last few by spraying Super 77 glue onto the back of the strip. It worked really great, much quicker than sewing and it was a good bond, but just had to be careful not to get any overspray of the glue on the hair. I'd like to experiment more with using wool for doll hair. If anyone has any experience they'd like to share.. . tips appreciated! :) Meanwhile, here in the upcoming months I'll be looking forward to starting dolls for next year- and hope to not be so 'last minute' finishing them this next time around!