Germany
Hallo, today we will talk a little
about Germany and learn how to make a “German” clothespin doll.
Some interesting facts about Germany.
¯ The capital of Germany is Berlin
¯ over 83 million people live in Germany
¯ 65% of the highways in Germany have no speed
limit
¯ People in Germany speak German
¯ In German Germany is Deutschland
¯ The Euro is German money
Although
around 65% of the people in Germany are part of Catholic or Protestant
churches a little over 60% of them only
attend church at Christmas or Easter or some other important event such as a
wedding or a funeral. Very few people
in Germany have a personal relationship with Jesus. ABWE INTERNATIONAL works to establish
churches in Europe where Germany is.
Their goal is to establish churches that will someday be operated by the
Germans themselves. We can pray that the
people in Germany would come to know Jesus more personally and learn to turn to
him with all their problems.
How to
make a German Clothespin Doll
What
you will need:
clothespin
hot glue
brown paint
scissors
white, black, blue, pink, yellow, and green
fabric
white and yellow thread
iron
white and yellow friendship thread
a big needle
white netting
Optional Items:
black thread (for dress)
white and black paint
wood (for arms)
pink and green friendship thread (for shawl
and hat)
This is the picture I am
going off of to make this doll. This is
traditional clothing so if you actually visited Germany you probably wouldn’t
see someone dressed like this.
We will start with the hair. Use hot glue to make your doll hair and a
bun. Once the glue is dry paint it
brown.
An optional item is to paint the dolls legs
white so it looks more like stockings.
It is really hard to get up In between her legs so just do your best.
Now we will make her dress. Let’s start with the bodice.
Cut the collar 1”X 2 ¼”
White bodice ¾” X 2 ¼”
Black bodice ¾” X 2 ¼”
The sleeves are optional. Sleeves 1” X 1 1/8” (make top rounded)
Melt the edges of all the pieces. Now fold the collar piece in half and sew it
to the white bodice. Next sew the white
bodice and the black bodice together.
The next optional part is the arms. Cut two arms in a bent position so that it
will look like she has her hands on her hips.
Fold the sleeves in half, then sew it up
the side and do a backstitch. Then with
the same thread or a new one make a gathering stitch all around the top. Flip the sleeve and insert the arm. Pull the gathering stitch tight and sew the
end shut.
Cut the skirt 9 ½” x 2 ¼”. Use an iron to pleat the whole length. Once the whole piece is pleated put a string
through the one end of the pleats to hold them in place. Stretch the top of the skirt to 2 ¼” long and
sew the bodice onto it. Sew down the
back of the bodice and the skirt.
To help her skirt stand out more cut 6
pieces of white netting 2” x 6”. Do a
gathering stitch through 3 pieces at a time.
Cut a piece of elastic that is about 1 ¾” long. Mark the center and then sew the 3 pieces of netting
onto half of the elastic. This can be
really tricky since you need to stretch the elastic while you sew the netting
onto it. Once you have all the netting
sewed on attach the ends of the elastic together to make a circle. Slip this
onto your doll and then pull her skirt down over it. Because of the way I did it I sewed her skirt
shut after I had the netting on.
Now we will make the apron. Cut an apron 1 ¾” x 1 ¾” you can taper it in at the top to 1 ½”
Cut a ruffle 3” x ¼”
Make the belt 5” x ¼”
Melt the edges of all the pieces and then
put a gathering stitch in the ruffle piece and sew it on. Now gather the apron to ¾” and sew it on the
middle of the belt. Tie the apron onto
the doll and use hot glue to hold her belt in place.
This is an optional piece where you add the
white friendship thread on the black bodice.
It isn’t very noticeable so it really doesn’t matter if you don’t do
it. Put the thread on a big needle and
make four French Knots all spaced apart.
Then add the lines in between the knots.
How to make a French Knot: pull your thread through the fabric and wrap
around the needle. The more times you
wrap the thread around the bigger the knot.
Pull the thread tight and hold it tight.
Poke the needle back through the fabric near the place it came out and
pull the needle and thread all the way through.
Come up at the place where you want the next knot. You might want to do some practice ones first
to get the hang of it.
To make the shawl cut a square 2 ¼” x 2 ¼”
and fold it in half across the corner.
Wrap the shawl around the doll and fold down the top edge. Tack the front together with some yellow
thread. Put the yellow friendship thread
onto the big needle and go all the way around the bottom of the apron tying the
thread once and then cutting it off and then make the next one. Arrange all the tassels so they point in the
right direction. Once that is done add
some flowers and leaves with green and pink friendship thread. For the flowers I did French knots and the leaves
are done just like the tassels.
Now to make a hat for your little
lady. Cut 2 circles that are slightly
bigger than a quarter and one circle the size of a quarter that has a pie
shaped piece cut out of it. Sew the
sides of the pie shaped piece together and then sew the two bigger circles
together too.
Cut a
yellow band 2 ¾” x ½” and fold the band into thirds and sew it onto the
crown of the hat. Then center the hat
crown and band onto the hat “brim” and sew it on. Add white pom poms by making French knot and
also add a pink flower or two.
My doll wouldn’t stand by herself so I
tried adding hot glue shoes. It is
really hard to make them even to where she will stand up, but they worked until
they fell off. Now we put them back on
but she just has to lean on something to stand.
Depending on the ends of your clothespins your doll will probably stand
better.
Now find a German name for your doll. We are going to call ours Adalia.
Auf Wiedersehen!
sources:
World Book Encyclopedia
ABWE INTERNATIONAL
Studying in Germany
Comments