Making a Wooden Spoon Doll
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Don't throw away that wooden spoon ...
What do you do with your old wooden spoons? Don't just throw them away, you can still get use out of them even if they won't pass the hygiene test for food use.
It's even worse if you have a dishwasher (as I have), those high temperatures and super-efficient wash cycles can strip the patterns off plates so what chance does a simple wooden spoon have in there.
Here's a way to give new life to all those wooden spoons which end up frayed around the edges. You don't really need a child in your life to create these dolls, they can be great characters to have hanging out together on the shelves.
I made my very first wooden spoon doll forty years ago for my oldest daughter and she still has Aunt Harriet in her cupboard, though she has given her a new dress.
Here's Aunt Harriet.
It's even worse if you have a dishwasher (as I have), those high temperatures and super-efficient wash cycles can strip the patterns off plates so what chance does a simple wooden spoon have in there.
Here's a way to give new life to all those wooden spoons which end up frayed around the edges. You don't really need a child in your life to create these dolls, they can be great characters to have hanging out together on the shelves.
I made my very first wooden spoon doll forty years ago for my oldest daughter and she still has Aunt Harriet in her cupboard, though she has given her a new dress.
Here's Aunt Harriet.
Take one old wooden spoon ...
It really doesn't matter what sort of state the old wooden spoon is in, you are using it as a base on which to build. The spoon below has become almost woolly at the edges and is long past being hygienic but it will be absolutely fine for this purpose.
Of course, you will also need to raid the rag bag for some oddments to make the dolls with as well as the wooden spoon. Below are some of the items you might need. I am using cotton wool for padding to save on fabrics but you could use almost anything. I found a piece of pink felt for the face but, again, you can use any skin tone and any fabric to make this sort of doll. If you use old tights or stockings for the face you'll need several layers to cover the padding underneath and you may find there is too much stretch in the fabric to hold features well.
Of course, you will also need to raid the rag bag for some oddments to make the dolls with as well as the wooden spoon. Below are some of the items you might need. I am using cotton wool for padding to save on fabrics but you could use almost anything. I found a piece of pink felt for the face but, again, you can use any skin tone and any fabric to make this sort of doll. If you use old tights or stockings for the face you'll need several layers to cover the padding underneath and you may find there is too much stretch in the fabric to hold features well.
Making the body
Cut a piece of scrap fabric into strips and begin to wrap them around the body. Work from about the middle of the spoon and about two inches from the bowl add some padding to form the chest, wrapping over it to keep it in position.When you reach the head (the bowl of the spoon) place your padding onto the bowl and continue wrapping around that until you are satisfied with the amount of padding around the spoon bowl. You'll be surprised how much cotton wool it takes.
Finish off any ends with a stitch or two to hold them in place and carry on wrapping now towards the handle of the spoon. Here, just above the end of the handle, you will want another bit of padding to form the hips. Wrap over this until you are satisfied, again, finish any ends of the fabric with a few stitches.
On the right you can see how I have added a winding of twine to give the body a little more firmness and I have randomly stitched the wrappings to hold them in place. It doesn't matter how messy your stitching is here, it won't be seen at all once the doll has been dressed.
You want the body to stay in the shape you have given it. Hips about as wide as the head seems to work on these dolls but there is no reason why the doll can't have a bounteous booty if you really like that sort of thing. Just add more padding.
Making faces
Aunt Harriet had her features embroidered on a fairly featureless face and my daughter was always quite happy with her when she was a child but here I'll show you how to make a three dimensional face - isn't 3D all the thing these days?
It isn't as hard as it looks.
If you added plenty of padding to the bowl of the spoon, you should be able to work some of it towards the centre of the face so that you can form the nose. Don't worry if there's not enough to make a good nose, you can add a bit more padding under the layer of felt or other fabric you've chosen for the skin. Starting from the centre of where you reckon the left nostril should be, stitch diagonally towards the funny little corner where the outside of the right nostril curves round to meet the main part of the nose. You need to pull the stitch fairly tightly to bring the nostril in. Stitch back from that funny little corner through the left nostril again, then take the thread around the underside of the point of the nose and into the right nostril, pushing the needle diagonally through to the left side of the nose (where that little curls meets the main part of the nose again) then back through on that same diagonal into the right nostril again.
You'll see now how the nose has magically taken shape. I then stitched around that curve line of the outside of the nostril but I didn't stitch up the side of the nose itself at all. It will hold its shape. If you have followed the above instructions you should also be able to see a filtrum appearing underneath the nose (filtrum is that funny little vertical crease between your nose and your top lip).
For the mouth you should equally be able to push some of the underlying padding into positon but if there is not enough, you can always add the appropriate shape of felt or other fabric to make the lips, padding them further if necessary. The bottom lip here was made by pushing up the underlying padding, the top lip was added felt. The eyes were formed by pushing padding out of the way and stitching around the eye to keep the position. I also anchored some of the stitches to the edges of the face and stitched through from the inner corners of the eyes to hold the bridge of the nose in place.
Your doll doesn;t have to be a serious doll, from the rectangle of felt I started with I could easily extend the face to have a pair of horns using the spare felt around the top edge, or I could stitch in ears on either side. There are no rules when making these dolls.
It isn't as hard as it looks.
If you added plenty of padding to the bowl of the spoon, you should be able to work some of it towards the centre of the face so that you can form the nose. Don't worry if there's not enough to make a good nose, you can add a bit more padding under the layer of felt or other fabric you've chosen for the skin. Starting from the centre of where you reckon the left nostril should be, stitch diagonally towards the funny little corner where the outside of the right nostril curves round to meet the main part of the nose. You need to pull the stitch fairly tightly to bring the nostril in. Stitch back from that funny little corner through the left nostril again, then take the thread around the underside of the point of the nose and into the right nostril, pushing the needle diagonally through to the left side of the nose (where that little curls meets the main part of the nose again) then back through on that same diagonal into the right nostril again.
You'll see now how the nose has magically taken shape. I then stitched around that curve line of the outside of the nostril but I didn't stitch up the side of the nose itself at all. It will hold its shape. If you have followed the above instructions you should also be able to see a filtrum appearing underneath the nose (filtrum is that funny little vertical crease between your nose and your top lip).
For the mouth you should equally be able to push some of the underlying padding into positon but if there is not enough, you can always add the appropriate shape of felt or other fabric to make the lips, padding them further if necessary. The bottom lip here was made by pushing up the underlying padding, the top lip was added felt. The eyes were formed by pushing padding out of the way and stitching around the eye to keep the position. I also anchored some of the stitches to the edges of the face and stitched through from the inner corners of the eyes to hold the bridge of the nose in place.
Your doll doesn;t have to be a serious doll, from the rectangle of felt I started with I could easily extend the face to have a pair of horns using the spare felt around the top edge, or I could stitch in ears on either side. There are no rules when making these dolls.
Arms and legs
You may be able to see that I added an old hair scrunchie to pad out the back of the head to give it shape. Aunt Harriet's hat performed the same purpose but as we're going 3D I wanted something with a little more shape to it.
The arms and legs are simply strips of fabric stitched together into a rough tube shape. You want the arms to reach down as far as the bottom of the hip padding (but allow a little extra - see below) and the legs need to be long enough to give the doll a decent proportion. Again, there are no rules. Your wooden spoon could be a short fat man or a tall skinny lady, whatever you fancy.
To attach the arms to the body first find the centre of the strip and place it in the centre of the back of the chest padding just below the neck area. stitch it straight across the back as shown above. The straight line here is important as when the arms are bent over to lie straight by the doll's sides, the angle at the top will form the shoulders.
A couple of stitches in each fold over will hold the shoulders in place and now your doll is ready to dress.
Most of the clothing is made up of rectangles of fabric stitched into tubes. It certainly isn't rocket science and the stitching doesn't have to be neat in any way. You can probably see that the boots are the most complicated shape and I cut a small sole to stitch into the base of the boot to give a bit of shape, I then padded the foot of the boots and slid the leg inside, finally stitching the boot to the leg.
Stitch each leg of the trousers about two thirds of the way up and then stitch the top third to the other leg's top third to make pants. the tube of fabric for the shirt needs to have slits left to accommodate the arms. The hat is from the bottom of a child's trouser leg.
I snipped off those extra bits of felt around the face of the doll to make the hands.
The arms and legs are simply strips of fabric stitched together into a rough tube shape. You want the arms to reach down as far as the bottom of the hip padding (but allow a little extra - see below) and the legs need to be long enough to give the doll a decent proportion. Again, there are no rules. Your wooden spoon could be a short fat man or a tall skinny lady, whatever you fancy.
To attach the arms to the body first find the centre of the strip and place it in the centre of the back of the chest padding just below the neck area. stitch it straight across the back as shown above. The straight line here is important as when the arms are bent over to lie straight by the doll's sides, the angle at the top will form the shoulders.
A couple of stitches in each fold over will hold the shoulders in place and now your doll is ready to dress.
Most of the clothing is made up of rectangles of fabric stitched into tubes. It certainly isn't rocket science and the stitching doesn't have to be neat in any way. You can probably see that the boots are the most complicated shape and I cut a small sole to stitch into the base of the boot to give a bit of shape, I then padded the foot of the boots and slid the leg inside, finally stitching the boot to the leg.
Stitch each leg of the trousers about two thirds of the way up and then stitch the top third to the other leg's top third to make pants. the tube of fabric for the shirt needs to have slits left to accommodate the arms. The hat is from the bottom of a child's trouser leg.
I snipped off those extra bits of felt around the face of the doll to make the hands.
Clothing the doll
The hair is wool, roughly scrunched around the edge of the hat, and I've given him an earring. All the clothing etc is stitched to the doll and is non-removeable except for the hat and scarf.
All the nice girls love a sailor.
And here's why I left that hat and scarf as removeable items. Our sailor has gone in for a sex change - shock horror ...
This was just to show that really, the dolls can be either gender, it doesn't matter one bit who you decide to turn them into. Of course, if you make the lady's clothes removeable you will still have a sailor underneath, all you would have to do is tuck her hair inside the sailor's hat.
Should you decide to do this, then you might want to choose a less bright red for the lips than I have below. Rather than embroider the eyes and mouth, I have painted these features on the face with acrylic paints.
So, don't throw away your old wooden spoons, turn them into little people instead and enjoy having them around for years to come. You could make them as gifts for family and friends, you could make them to represent friends and family, you can have a huge amount of fun with them as halloween characters or characters from your favourite book.
Wooden spoons come in all sizes and so do people. Who will you make first?
This was just to show that really, the dolls can be either gender, it doesn't matter one bit who you decide to turn them into. Of course, if you make the lady's clothes removeable you will still have a sailor underneath, all you would have to do is tuck her hair inside the sailor's hat.
Should you decide to do this, then you might want to choose a less bright red for the lips than I have below. Rather than embroider the eyes and mouth, I have painted these features on the face with acrylic paints.
So, don't throw away your old wooden spoons, turn them into little people instead and enjoy having them around for years to come. You could make them as gifts for family and friends, you could make them to represent friends and family, you can have a huge amount of fun with them as halloween characters or characters from your favourite book.
Wooden spoons come in all sizes and so do people. Who will you make first?
You might also be interested in ...
... the partner lens to this is Making Rag Dolls and Soft Toys from Scrap Fabrics. There you'll find more ideas and patterns to keep little fingers busy and pass the time on rainy days during the holidays.
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As a Lens of the Day winner, this lens appears not only in my Recycling Group but also twice on my Purpleography. With just two LotDs I thought it best to slip them in with the Purple Star lenses, maybe one day I'll have a lens for LotDs ... maybe ...
What do you do with old wooden spoons?
If you make a wooden spoon doll then leave a link here to a photo of it so we can all see your work.
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vallain Jan 5, 2012 @ 2:04 pm | delete
- Wow, my wooden spoon doll would be quite plain with just a drawn-on face on the wood and some yarn added for hair. You're quite an artist.
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marsha32 Aug 25, 2011 @ 8:23 pm | delete
- I have always thought these were so unique and cool.
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Mickie_G
Jul 1, 2011 @ 7:19 am | delete
- I know a few grandkids who would just love making a wooden spoon doll. In fact, I have a few frayed spoons that I could donate to a project.
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dfishbac Jun 23, 2011 @ 7:51 am | delete
- Amazingly creative lens. Congrats on LOTD!
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BigGirlBlue
Jun 21, 2011 @ 7:16 pm | delete
- The shaping of the doll's face is very impressive!!
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