Weaving Dolls Craft for Kids - Red Ted Art

Learn how to weave and make your own cardboard loom. Today, I welcome the lovely people behind the crafting at The Scrapstore Birmingham! I love the concept behind the Scrapstore – basically, anything can be reused and made into something new in some way or another!! Love a good recycled craft!! So cool. Especially when you combine it with nature finds.

So today, the Scrapstore Birmingham are sharing this wonderful Weaving Dolls Craft for kids! Now we have made our own weaving looms before.. but we have never weaved something SO CUTE!! These woven people will keep the Red Ted kids busy a LONG time over the coming weeks.

You could even make “smaller versions” and add them to greeting cards to send to family and friends? Or simply decorate your home with these lovely weaving projects for kids. Just adorable.

A little more about The Scrapstore Birmingham:

The store officially opened its doors in October 2011. Birmingham PlayCare Network’s (BPCN) scrapstore supports the reuse of unwanted materials that have been donated by businesses and individuals across Birmingham. We collect and sort waste/surplus materials which would often be diverted to landfill and redistribute it to out of school providers, schools, community groups and individuals

The scrapstore offers out of school providers, schools, community groups and individuals the opportunity to access a wide range of high quality materials, save money and promote the reuse of waste materials.

They also have a great little Store on their Facebook page that you can get lovely kits from!

Materials needed to make your Weaving People:

You will mainly need wool in different colours! This is a great project for using up odds and ends of wool… but as the image further down shows, you can also use ribbons and string.. and anything you can find. There are some additional bits you will need too – that you can find or recycle:

Wool/ yarn
buttons for eyes
beads of hair (if you wish)
elastic or ribbons for hair (if you wish)
some cardboard (recycle a cereal box)
a stick or a chop stick
Pen, needle, safety pin for weaving
fork or hair comb for neating you weaving

Remember.. the ethos behind this craft is not about “gathering or buying” all your supplies, but about MAKING DO, with what you have got!! So have a good rummage and see what you can come up with!

Learn how to make a Weaving Doll!

Check out the fabulous videos from the Scrapstore Birmingham. We have their super fabulous video that you can follow.. or check out the step by step instructions below!

Step by Step Instructions:

Prepare your loom card

Begin by making your loom out of card. Approx 15cm x 24cm will do – but it is not an exact science!

You will need to make 4 notches (to help hold your stick and yarn in place).

Draw 12 markers across the bottom – equally spaced – approx 1cm (leaving 2cm either end) and a dotted central line to help guide your work.

Cut into the 12 notches on both ends so they can hold the thread later.

Preparing your weaving wool

You will need 6 pieces of wool, that folded in half go well beyond the length of your card. So if your card is 20cm like ours… you will need 50-55cm strands x 6.

Fold each piece in half.

Take your stick. Place the top of the loop behind the stick and push the ends through to make a knot.

Repeat with all 6 pieces.

Securing your stick and threads to the loom card

Secure the stick to your loom card with the use of the notches you made earlier and some elastic bands.

securing your strands — The pen at the bottom, helps keep the strands off the card, which makes weaving easier. The strands have been taped to the back of the card to secure them and keep them out of the way!

Put a pen or another stick at the bottom of the loom card and also secure with and elastic band. This will make the weaving easier!

Then thread all 12 pieces of wool through the notches and make sure they are nice and tight.

Tape to the back of the card, to hold them in place and out of the way. Use a little sello tape.

You can now tape the board down onto the back board if you find that easier for weaving!

Mark out where you wand the features of your weaving doll!

Start weaving your legs

knot the yarn — This image also shows the marks for “legs/ dress/ head and hair”

Knot your leg colour to one.

Then weave “over and under” for the fix 6 strands. Then go back on yourself. Remember to alternate “over and under”. And repeat until the leg colour is finished.

You can use a fork or comb to bring the yearn down and neaten your work.

Once the leg is finished, make the second leg and so on.

When you switch to the dress, simply weave across all 12 strands, connecting both legs this way!

Weaving your doll’s head

For the doll’s head, leave two strands on either side. Then make some ears.. and then the top of the head leave out two strands again.

For the heair leave big loops.

Taking your woven doll off the loom

Take the weaving off your loom. And tie off two strands at a time. Make two knots for each one.

Trim off.

Then decorate with buttons (sew or glue) you can also add beads to the hair or anywhere else you fancy! How else can you decorate and dress you woven doll?

Here is an example of how you can have fun with different textures and materials! Experiment and see what you can make!

More recycled crafts for you here or more Beginner’s Weaving Projects here: