How to make Wooden and Peg People (The Village People)


The village has come alive as we've made people to be apart of the happenings in the Village. Kay calls them all her "babies."  Below are tips for how to make your own village people out of pegs and wooden clothes pin dolls.  I purchased all of my wooden materials at Casey's.  Search through what they have that might be fun for your village.  I purchased a wooden tree and some fun other things too besides the wooden doll stands, heads, peg turnings, angel turnings, etc.  

Here is a photo of much of the "Before."  I wanted our people to look more "real" so I gathered scraps of fabric, lace, cross-stitch threads, modge podge, paper, chenille stems, and paints to bring them to life.  See below for instructions about how to make each kind of wooden person.

I used regular acrylic paints on some, and also tried the paints that come in a tube that are also acrylic.  Both worked fine, but the tube paints paints seemed thicker.  My sister has a few basic colors and we mixed them to create the colors we wanted.  It was a fun way to get just the color you are looking for without buying them all.
You will need a fine tipped brush for painting faces.  I didn't have a very good one, so don't look to close at mine!  {Little Project Painting Tip:} If you are painting details (like the face) and don't like what you see, simply wash it off with water quickly and redo it :)
Here I used my sister's dremel tool to put a hole through so that we could add arms.  There are lots of ways to do arms.  For now, we just used flesh-colored chenille stems.  Remember to bend the ends back so they don't scratch.

Here is our librarian.  You can see that arms come in handy for holding a book.  I used a peg person from Casey's that looked like it had a hat on.  With Modge Podge all over the cap part I wrapped white yarn around to make it look like a great beehive of hair.  She could also be a grandma (but neither of ours have white hair yet :)  She has a trim glued on for her dress.

The other guy is our postman or postwoman.  I used modge podge on the wood and wrapped paper around.  Then covered with another layer of modge podge.  Remember that modge podge is a sealer.  But, it is waterbased, which means that if you have little ones in the house and they put things in their mouths it isn't a good sealer since they lick it off!  Be careful with little ones and peg people.  They could be a choking hazard...

Here is our group of Village people so far...
Our librarian is watching over things at the village library:
Here is our mailman at the Post Office.
These peg people were accessorized with stretch lace glued on for part of the mom's dress with "liquid stitch," and the baby has 3 strands of embroidery floss wrapped around her dress and glued on with modge podge (a layer under and a layer over).  Embroidery floss has also been a great way to add a belt on the daddy peg doll.  The baby also has a bonnet in her hair made from a piece of fabric that is also modge podged on.  Those arms let her hold her baby :)
These wooden clothes pin dolls below are quite a bit taller than the others.  They have a clothes pin, head glued over that and a stand that helps them stand up.  I put a little hole in the middle of a 4-5" circle of fabric and put it over the clothes pin and also made holes for arms.

 The chenille stem is just glued to the back of the clothes pin (next time I will make it longer :)  I loved the fabric title so I left it on to show some patriotic spirit!
She has some fabric stars and a floss headband modge podged in her hair.


This wooden clothes pin doll has fabric ruffled and then glued on around her.  She is awaiting some arms :)
Her embroidery floss headband is a felt flower with a sequin modge podged onto her head.  

This is a finger finger puppet doll.  I just pushed and glued a square of fabric into a wooden doll head.  You supply the finger and she can walk all over the place!  I think I may make some animals like this too!
Little arms make giving hugs a lot easier :)  These little village keeps my little people busy for hours!

More village to come...  Let me know if you have any questions about how to make your own little wooden friends.  For more ideas of how to paint your peg people, or to skip that process and purchase them already made, you might check out Etsy

And be sure to link your blog here for the Project of the Week linky each Wed. to share and celebrate fun project ideas!




p.s. here are the links to the other places in our Village so far...
Swimming pool, Park, Library, Post Office and Stop and Go in the Village, and the village construction site .

2 comments:

elspeth said...

I love the finger puppet idea! We're definitely going to try that one. Also, the paints we used were acrylics that came in a tube, not oil paints.

Jedda said...

Thanks, I was wondering about that :)

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