My web site programs are down--so I thought I would add this tutorial here. Hope someone finds it useful--I've made literally dozens of these little dollies and love them! They are not intended for children, as they are not exactly fragile, but not exactly robust either. I would suggest these for the adult collector. You'll notice an acorn head Dolly in some of the photos--an experiment. And I liked her! The cherry pit dollies measure 'about' two inches tall.
For this tutorial, you will need:
1 cleaned cherry pit
Twigs for arms and legs, with forks for the feet and hands. (Don't have a tree handy? Use toothpicks.)
1" x 3/4" square of paper, with a scrap of fabric this will fit onto, with room to spare, for the body
1" x 3" strip of fabric for skirt
Small trims--ribbon, buttons, etc
Small amount of stuffing (I use wool roving, but any stuffing is fine)
Toothpick
Red, white, black paints
White glue
Pencil
Sewing machine (can be done by hand if desired)
Needle and thread
Hemostat (optional)
Scissors
Pin Vise (a small, hand-held drill)
Step One:
Look at the cherry pit, and decide which will be the front of Miss Hickory's head. Then, on the bottom, make a mark half-way between the two points. Use your pin vise to drill into the cherry pit. If your cherry pit is old, then it may split. If you have had them a while, just soak them in warm water for an hour or so before drilling.
Step Two:
Take the toothpick and trim off the very pointed edge, leaving a bit of taper. Take the white glue (I use Tacky Glue, but you can use any other, although Elmer's Glue takes a
long time to dry.) and squirt a goodly amount into the hole of the cherry pit. Insert the toothpick, cut edge first. There is a seed in the cherry pit, so you may need to do some finagling to get the head on straight. Set this aside to dry. I just punch the toothpick into a cardboard box.
Step Three:
Take your body fabric and the 1" x 3/4" paper square. I like to use body fabric that will double as a blouse. Trace the square onto the wrong side of a doubled piece of body fabric. Sew on three of the lines, leaving one of the short ends open. Trim seams. Turn right side out. I use the hemostat for this, and use the blunt end to 'poke' the shoulders out. You can use anything for this if you don't have a hemostat. Set this aside.
Step Four:
By now your cherry pit should be dry enough to handle. Paint on the face. The original
Miss Hickory is a character in a book
, Miss Hickory, by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, illustrated by Ruth Gannett. If you want to make your Miss Hickory look like the original, check out some of the pictures in the above site. Miss Hickory has a rather severe expression, but yours can, of course, be much more gentle. She has a rudimentary red mouth, simple eyes, and no nose. Because she is originally made from a Hickory nut, her nose is the point on the nut. Cherry pits have a lovely 'point' too.
Here are some of the faces I just painted.
Step Five:
While the faces are drying, go play with something. Read a book. Check out Miss Hickory online. Lalalalala. Eating chocolate? Me too. OK! They are now dry, so we are going to add the body. In the above picture, I have positioned the body in two ways--with lots of neck showing, and just some neck showing. Pick whichever way you like. Next, gently swirl the toothpick into the center seam of the top. The pointed end will go right through the seam. On the open end of the body, squirt some white glue up there towards the top.
Step Six:
Trim your branches carefully, leaving a joint for 'hands' and 'feet'. You will need to snip a little at the shoulders to make a hole for the arms. Stick them in, making sure they are in the glue you just squirted in. Take the stuffing, and firmly stuff to the front and to the back of the toothpick, until you have a nice little body shape. Don't stuff all the way to the bottom--leave about 1/8" unstuffed. Trim off the toothpick up inside the body. Now, squirt some glue into this opening, onto the stuffing. Add the legs, and position them to the way you want. You can either sew this shut now, between the legs, or do as I do, and pinch it shut with some glue. Either way is fine.
Here are mine, drying a bit while I make the skirt.
Step Seven:
Note: if you are adding trim to the bodice that will go under the skirt, add it now with fabric glue.
Take your skirt rectangle, and finish off the hem. You can either fringe the bottom by pulling out some threads (cute!) or fold over and use glue or needle and thread to hem the skirt about 1/8th of an inch. I use a fabric glue. When this is done, sew up the back seam (the short edge) and make a knot, but don't cut off the thread. Instead, make a small running stitch all the way around the top. Don't cut your thread yet! Turn the skirt right side out, put it on the dolly, and pull the running stitch to gather the skirt around the body. Tie off.
Step Eight:
Add a ribbon or other trim to the skirt, at the waist, to cover the gatherings. I usually put a dot of fabric glue on the front, sides, and back. Tie this in a bow. Add any trims you might like, such as buttons, baby rick-rack, etc. You are done!
Have fun making these cuties. It's fun--and they make lovely little presents. I intend to make more of the acorn headed dolls and use the on the Christmas tree!
