Back in January, Rosie posted on Instagram a few photos of her girls making flower fairy dolls from a kit I made for them. I noticed that a lot of her followers asked for a tutorial, so here it is! If you include little gifts in your children's Easter baskets, these would be appropriate!
{All these photos, other than the one of my shopping bag, are Rosie's!}
Oh so long ago, I had gotten (or someone had gotten, the details are lost in the mists of time) one of those Klutz kits that was truly inspired — a set of beads, artificial flower petals, and wire — and I have no idea why they discontinued them. They made such cute little fairy dolls, and the proof of just how delightful they were was that my girls made them about 20 or more years ago, played endlessly with them, and then their little girls started to play with those exact little dolls, that I kept because I couldn't bear to throw them away! (Partly that is due to having my girls over a 14-year span, so it took a long time before my youngest, Bridget, was old enough for them to become officially “old toys.”)
I tried — believe me, I tried — to find that same kit. Rosie's Molly had said to me last year, “I would be so happy if I could make some of these dolls!” What more incentive could a grandmother need?
But they were nowhere to be found.
Molly's birthday came and went, but as Christmas came near, I was determined to make a kit for her and Deirdre's little girl, who is the same age. I headed out to Michaels to do what it took to put it together, and that ended up with me convincing the manager to let me “clean up” the artificial flower department, which indeed had many, many hopelessly detached petals strewn in and under their display.
I can't advise sending all of you out into the stores to crawl around, as yes, I admit I did, to snag free artificial flowers (and I hasten to add that I also replaced intact stems and rearranged misplaced ones too, as well as picking up in my shopping bag, with permission, what to the store was just trash!).
But I think that if you have a good coupon, you can get a fair assortment of stems and put together a good kit. If you look at the sprays of flowers, you see how they are constructed — you just gently pull the petals and leaves off the plastic stems. I think if you went in with other moms, you could divide up what you get for a good assortment, because they sell them in bunches.
A few notes on supplies: I included two kinds of wire, and the thicker gold type was better than the thinner silver, which tended to break – the ideal wire is strong enough to provide some structure, but flexible enough to stand up to a lot of bending around without snapping.
Tacky glue is useful for securing petals and embroidery floss. A glue gun would be even better, but these girls are eight years old and maybe that's a few years away.
You need some medium-sized wooden beads for the heads and some little plastic “perler” beads for the bodies. The embroidery floss is to wrap around the wire and to glue to the head for hair, which can be flowing, braided, and/or put up in a bun.
You think you need more instructions than these, but actually, if you just start making a body, you will see how it comes together. I just came across this blog post yesterday while I was pulling this together, that has the step-by-step photos we weren't able to muster.
Honestly, Klutz should just resurrect their kit!
bits & pieces
- A noble apostolate: “The Sons of Thunder, a high school group for boys based at St. Raymond of Peñafort Church, Springfield, usually gets together for prayer and discussions about current events, theology and politics from a Catholic perspective… But the group added a unique hands-on service project recently, inspired by a visiting speaker: building about a dozen tiny caskets for stillborn or miscarried infants.” St. Raymond teens build, donate tiny caskets for miscarriage ministry
- I had a good and deep conversation with Marie Hanson on her podcast: Incorporating prayer into the home.
from the archives
liturgical living
St. Ludger, and Sunday is the Fourth Sunday of Lent — Laetare Sunday — a day to be joyful on this journey to Easter!
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a mom says
Could you suggest what ages would enjoy making these. Is a ten year old too old?
TIA
Leila says
A 10 would love them, I think! Especially making the first ones with you or a fun friend!
Patty Kishler says
These are very cute! I love Klutz kits. Also, we have a miscellaneous tub of flowers lying around anyway from decorating baptismal and chrismation candles. Do catholic parishes decorate a candle for baptisms or… what do you call it when a baptized christian enters the catholic church through anointing? Anyway, having a supply of fake flowers around is a good idea for many reasons. 🙂
Rebecca says
The dolls are delightful, my sister used to (and perhaps still does, she’s crafty that way) make something like them but with felt as well for the clothes. I don’t know where you would buy them as we found them at a store going out of business but you can get packages of flower petals and leaves for making your own flowers (or fairies) . Also if you have to patience to wrap the embroidery floss just so you can use craft pipecleaners for the wire body.
Chelsea says
I love this! My sister and I both had that Klutz kit when we were, I think, 8 and 10. I don’t remember if any of my fairy dolls survived, but I still have the book, which I hope my toddler will enjoy when she’s older. I suppose that gives me plenty of time to save flower bits!
Juliana @ Urban Simplicity says
In looking around, it looks like Klutz repackaged the fairy kit into a fairy house kit: https://www.amazon.com/Enchanted-Fairy-House-Magical-Garden/dp/1338702238/ref=pd_day0_46/132-8303532-3446640?pd_rd_w=KAxPq&pf_rd_p=8ca997d7-1ea0-4c8f-9e14-a6d756b83e30&pf_rd_r=2JKSKJHGB4606A5WEDG7&pd_rd_r=c9a6ebd0-571a-4620-86c8-8a2945806a88&pd_rd_wg=FxNGA&pd_rd_i=1338702238&psc=1
Although I like your DIY kit too! My mom has a wedding flower business and always has artificial flower cast offs lying around–I might just make my own for my girls. 🙂
Carolyn says
Oh Auntie Leila! You have no idea how happy this post makes me. I am a young mom who, as a girl, had this very kit from Klutz. It absolutely captured my imagination for many months and my mom keeps one of the little dolls i made in a shadow box up on the wall in her house.
I appreciate the above commenter supplying the link to the fairy house kit, but from the box, it seems nowhere near as charming as the original kit was. I gave my daughter a simple sewing kit from klutz this year, and though she enjoyed it, I can tell that the aesthetic from Klutz has changed over the years. Perhaps someday they will revisit the original wonder and whimsy they had in the early 2000’s when I was a kid (I remember a juggling book my brother enjoyed, and also an embroidery kit and jewelry making kit that I loved).
Thank you Leila, for this seemingly simple blog post. You’re showing us that bits of culture can be restored as long as we have even a small amount of energy to take the initiative (speaking as an 8-month pregnant woman here!). I also love the “trash to treasure” element of this short story in your life. 🙂
Christianne says
https://www.ebay.com/itm/275072747797?epid=9038489093&hash=item400b9d0915:g:Dy8AAOSwiMVhwRXA
Joining the ranks, but my sisters had this and made so many! I was not a crafty child, but loved playing with theirs. The kit (or one similar) is on ebay for way too much, but in the photos of the book is the full spread of how to make the dolls. I’m just the kind of cheapie who would just write down diagrams and instructions from that and then scrounge for the materials myself.
Love the idea of “cleaning up” Michael’s, also recommend thrift stores. I know mine has a veritible meadow for very cheap. The benefit of the dolls is that a fake blue rose that would make me cringe in a vase somehow looks quite sweet on a doll!
Molly says
A great companion gift to this kit would be the Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker. Thanks for the inspiration! My girls would love this!
Patty Kishler says
Yes, I was thinking this as well!
Jennifer says
My older daughter had the kit & my younger daughter had DIY supplies. Between the two of them, we have collected many, many, many of the Flower Fairies books! The books continue to delight them, even as teens 🙂
houseofgraham says
Perhaps one day we will have a girl and make such beautifully graceful dainty dolls, but for now we have three little delightful sons. They like to throw rocks.
Barbora
Ellen says
I laughed too long over this. I have three very active pack rat girls and one battering ram of a boy. Thank goodness we live in the country
Anamaria says
Thank you! I am one of the non-crafty moms who requested a tutorial- I know my girls would love this!
Ashley says
My daughter is the same age as your granddaughters and I could see her enjoying these. Oh, if only she had a crafty grandmother! Right now putting something together myself seem overwhelming, but maybe this summer when we have more time.
I’m not on social media, but sometimes I wish I was, so that I can show you how your words have inspired me. 🙂 This year, our backyard, city garden is bigger then ever and we’re putting to use some of the knowledge gleaned from the no-dig site you shared. We’re also trying to do starts this year; it’s amazing to see how quickly they come up.
I’m an introvert and I value my quiet time, but I did make time to listen to your podcast. I’m a long time reader (at least 9+ years) and it was nice to hear new and timely content.
Finally, do you still use the panettone recipe you posted a while ago? Have you tried a sourdough version? We just read Tony’s Bread by by Tomie de Paola and now I’m intrigued to make it for Easter.
Leila says
Aw, thanks!
I have made sourdough panettone and it was super great, except that I didn’t have the paper mold — and you really have to have it, so you can hang the bread upside down when it comes out of the oven. Otherwise it collapses on itself, because it is so light!
The recipe I followed was here: https://breadtopia.com/naturally-leavened-christmas-panettone/
I can’t remember now what I did exactly… I think I might have simplified a bit, but I did do the two doughs. At the time I hadn’t moved into bread flour and just used AP and it was fine, but now I would use bread flour. I don’t think I used candied peel, but probably did use zest.
If I can find the molds I will try again! It was amazingly professional — light and airy (except for the collapsing haha)!