Chenille Pipe Cleaner Doll – a basic tutorial

Trying to find time to craft during the Summer months can be very difficult. Let’s face it, with your kiddos home from school, family trips and staycations, spending more time outdoors – your time is much more limited than during the long days of Winter!

Several creative bloggers – myself included – got together all week to share crafts that take 15 minutes or less to make. Yes, you can still carve out some time to craft, just do it in shorter chunks of time.

You can get lots of ideas for quick crafts – organized by my crafty friends Angie of The Country Chic Cottage and Carolina of 30 Minute Crafts – by clicking on the button below . . .

And now it’s time to share my own Craft Lightning project:

Chenille Pipe Cleaner Doll

You’ll need one 12-inch Chenille Pipe Cleaner, sometimes called a Chenille Stem. These are the pipe cleaners that have “bumps” in them.

You can usually find these in craft stores in the general crafting section. I purchased a package of 12 in black, but you’re sure to find different colors to choose from.

Step 1:  Take your pipe cleaner and cut it into three sections as follows:

• Section A: will have one chenille bump  (This will become the head.)
• Section B: will have one chenille bump  (This will become the arms.)
• Section C: will have two chenille bumps  (This will become the body and legs.)

Step 2:  Take Section A and curve it together so that the ends are touching. (This will look like a tear drop shape.) Keeping those ends together, twist them once.

Step 3:  Wrap the end of Section A (that you just twisted) around the middle of Section B. It should look like a hook that you then tuck into itself, around Section B. Now you have the head and the arms done!

Step 4:  Take Section C and find the midpoint – in between the two chenille bumps on the pipe cleaner stem. Put Section C “into” the opening of the head (Section A), stopping at Section C’s midpoint.

Almost finished!

Step 5:  Turn the ends of the “arms” and the “legs” up to make the hands and feet.

Step 6:  Using the free printable below – or any photo or image of your choosing – print out a “head” on cardstock for your doll. Cut out the image and glue it to the “head” of your doll.

Open image in new window. Right-click to download and save to your computer! (Print on 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock.) Images for personal use only!

Optional:  Seal the front and back of your image with Mod Podge.

That’s it!

Some ideas for your little doll? Since it’s bendable, you can have it “sit” on a shelf. Or how about having it “hold on” to some ribbon on a pretty package? You could even run a necklace chain through the back of the head and wear it as a pendant! What would you do with one of these little cuties?

~Laura