Welcome back to the 12 Months of Christmas Ornaments Series, we are already to Christmas in April!!

If you are new, I decided to create this series because I never have enough time to create all the Christmas ornaments I want every year so I figured why not continue making them all year long?!

And then I thought, why not share them here with you so that you can make them with me?! 😃

Below you will find this month's ornament tutorial in both a written blog post and a YouTube video!

Christmas in April - Clothespin Dolls

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If you'd like to catch up, you can see January through March's ornaments here:

Retro Christmas Ornaments DIY - Christmas in January

Spun Cotton Ornaments DIY - Christmas in February

Old-Fashioned Felt and Sequin Ornaments - Christmas in March

Supplies Needed:

A round-style wooden clothespin
A scrap of fabric (approximately 3" x 5" is all you need)
Coordinating thread and a needle
Coordinating wide ribbon (approximately 1" wide x 5" long)
A coordinating piece of embroidery floss
Scissors
Small clamps (or regular clothespins will work too)
A pencil
1 White pipe cleaner
Hot glue gun
Craft paint (black, white, flesh tone, pink, red, and color suitable for eyes)
Paint brushes suitable for small detail work

OPTIONAL supplies:

You can substitute colored Sharpie markers for all the paint colors EXCEPT the flesh tone
Pinking shears
A stylus
A piece of wire
Miniature buttons
Flower-shaped buttons OR miniature silk flower
1/4" wood bead

I hope you enjoy this video tutorial 😊

I remember very similar ornaments that my mom had on our tree when I was a kid.

I have recreated them and put my own spin on them. You can tailor these however you wish making girls with different colored hair and holding something symbolic such as a volleyball or other sports symbols. You can make boys too!

Here are the written instructions.

Step 1 - Paint the clothespin

Paint the clothespin with flesh-colored paint (or chocolate brown for an African-American doll, light brown for a Hispanic doll, etc.)

You'll want to paint the entire clothespin which I had not done yet in these pictures.

Step 2 - Draw and paint the hair and face

Start at the center, top of the head (make sure the "legs" of the clothespin face each side with the space facing up as shown below) and draw her hair. You can give her a center part as shown here, or a side part as shown in the video.

Paint the hair with black paint or whatever color you prefer. You could also use a Sharpie marker just be aware that it may be harder to get smooth lines with a pen.

Use red paint and a stylus or the end of a skinny paintbrush or toothpick to make the lips.

Dip it into the red paint and make two dots right next to each other that touch slightly.

Then drag the paint from each dot down to a point with your stylus so you have a heart shape.

Use a slightly larger stylus or paintbrush end to dot the cheeks with pink paint or a mix of pink and red for darker cheeks.

Then use the eye color of your choice and dot the eyes.

Dot a black pupil over the top half of the colored eye (I did the opposite in the video with a black dot for eyes and color on the bottom half) and then create eyelids and eyelashes with a fine paintbrush.

The eyelids are just a half circle painted over the top of the eyes. I only used black for the African-American doll's eyes.

Add a little dash for a nose.

You can use a 1/4" wood bead to create hair buns if you'd like. I especially like this on the flat-top clothespins. Some have rounded tops and wouldn't necessarily need a bun.

Step 3 - Make the dress

Cut a piece of fabric that measures about 2" x 4 to 5".

Run a gathering stitch around the top edge of the fabric. A gathering stitch is just a long, loose running stitch but you don't knot the ends and you leave long tails of thread hanging.

Stitch it together along one side with the right sides together.

Turn it right side out.

Slide it over the clothespin, gather it up, and tie a knot to secure it. Add a drop of hot glue underneath so it won't slide.

Cut a strip of ribbon (or another scrap of fabric) about 2" long and glue it around the doll, over the top edge of the dress to create the dress bodice.

Step 4 - Create the arms

The pipe cleaners I used are actual tobacco pipe cleaners. If you are using a regular craft pipe cleaner, cut it to about 6" in length.

Fold the ends over about 1/2 to 1".

Cut two pieces of ribbon about 3" long each (you could substitute fabric here if you'd like).

Glue the pipe cleaner to the center of one piece of ribbon.

Glue the second piece of ribbon on top.

Bend the arms around the back of the doll angling the down slightly in the front and glue the back and sides. NOTE: If you are using velvet ribbon, hot glue will not work. Use craft glue or E6000 and clamp to dry.

Cut a small piece of embroidery floss or twine and sandwich it between the doll and its arms.

Step 5 - Create the flower

The flower is created with a small piece of wire (I used green florist's wire) and a flower-shaped button.

I did not get pictures of this part but you can see how to do it in the video.

Bend one end of the wire to form a little hook, slide the shank of the button over the hook, and tighten it with pliers so the button no longer moves around.

Bend the ends of her hands so that she can hold the flower stem and glue the stem to her hands.