
We had so much fun with all the craft classes that our 4-H club taught at Idea Fair this year. But the class that really got ALL the kids laughing and having fun (including the Junior Leader "helpers" from our club) was the clothespin doll class.

When I was looking for some easy to-do craft projects (remember, each class is only 50 minutes long), clothespin dolls were the first thing to pop into my mind. AND the bonus, was that it would use up some more of my crafty leftover bits that I can never part with....

Here's what we brought to make the dolls:
A pile of clothespins (we had small ones and flat ones and round ones, my kids and I "dyed" some of them with watered down acrylic to make an ethnic variety)

Piles of fabric scraps (we had cottons, plaids, fleece, sparkly costume fabric, pleather, faux suede, felt, netting, burlap, etc)

Then we had the accessories & hair stuff (all different types of yarns, fake flowers, sequins, buttons, ribbon, twine, etc.)

We also had fabric scissors, glue guns (used only by the Jr. Leaders when helping the other kids), tacky glue, fine tip Sharpie markers and pre-cut pipe cleaners (of all different skin colors). Ahead of time, Ross drilled holes in all the clothespins for the pipe-cleaner arms to be inserted. I also pre-cut the pipe cleaners so the kids could just insert them when making their dolls.

Most of the fabric and yarn was already cut into small scraps or wound into small balls. We did pre-cut some fabric circle and cut slits for heads so that some of the fabric could easily be slipped over the dolls for quick dresses, skirts of shirts.

Our Junior Leaders and parent helpers probably didn't know what they were in for to start...but very quickly one table was made the "hair & make-up stylist table" (it included the yarn and Sharpie markers, one table was the "accessories table" (with flowers, sequins, buttons etc.) and the main table was humming with scissors and glue guns and repeated clothing fittings.




But pretty much the kids just went crazy with their own styles and made some amazing, funny, cute, beautiful, eye-rolling, eye-catching clothespin dolls.









And we had more than enough clothespins and stuff left over, so every kid went back to make another doll or even full families.



Can you believe they made all of these in such a short time? I'd say it was crafting magic.

And a LOT of fun.