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DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

July 11, 2019 by Wifeeclectic 1 Comment

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

My mom taught me to make worry dolls when I was about 7 and I have been making them ever since. This year, I began teaching my girls how to make them as well and the first thing they wanted to do was turn them into mermaids. Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that? They are easy to make and use fairly simple supplies that you can pick up at any craft store. 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

You will need:

  • 1/2 inch round balls
  • mini sticks (mine are 2.56 inches long)
  • embroidery floss
  • a ruler
  • scissors
  • hot glue
  • flower petals (I pulled mine from a lei)

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

Each worry doll needs five sticks. Two arms, two legs, and a body. The body and the legs can remain the full length but I usually cut about an each off of each of the arms, so they are 1.5 inches long. 

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Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

This is what your basic body will look like. 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

First, glue your legs on. For a mermaid doll, you glue them straight down. 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

Fold your flower petal in half and then cut off any excess petals so that you are left with four petals folded into two. Add a dab of hot glue and secure the petals at the end of your legs. You will need to add a dab of glue to the front of your dolls legs and press the petals down on to it, to  help them face the right way. 

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Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

After you have added your fins, complete the tail by taking embroidery floss that matches your tail and wrapping it around all the way up to the top of the legs. If you want to, you can color the bottom part of the stick to match your tail. 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls - Mermaid Tail

Hot glue the arms towards the top of the body and then wrap a second color all around the body and around the arms. If you want a different skintone than the wood, you can wrap the arms at this point as well. 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

Choose your hair color and then wrap the hair around three fingers 15-20 times. 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls Hair

Add hot glue on one side of the loop and add your head. If you want to change the skin tone of your doll, make sure to wrap the head in your chosen embroidery floss before you add the hair. For a curly haired doll, wrap the embroidery floss around a small wooden dowel and then spray it with a one part liquid starch to three parts water mixture. Spray the dowels with ribbon on with the spray bottle. Bake in the oven at 250 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Let the hair cool before putting it on your doll. 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

Now is the time to add embellishments, such as pearls or shells to their hair! 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

For this doll, I created her sitting and then hot glued her to a seashell. If you want your doll to be sitting, just glue the legs straight out instead of down. You will also need to cut the arms shorter, to about 1 inch, instead of 1.5 if your doll is sitting down. 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Ariel Worry Dolls

We couldn’t help but make an Ariel mermaid! 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Toothpick Dolls

 

Housewife Eclectic: DIY Mermaid Worry Dolls

Filed Under: Disney, Geek Blogging, Kids Crafts, Tutorials Tagged With: Arts and Crafts

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Comments

  1. ALK says

    October 20, 2020 at 4:49 pm

    That is so cool!

    Reply

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Welcome to Housewife Eclectic

Debra Hawkins - Housewife EclecticHi, I'm Debra. I am a craftaholic photographer married to a web-programming amateur chef with two sassy littles keeping it interesting. It gets crazy around here. Read More…

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