DIY Kitchen Witch Doll / How to Make a Clothespin Doll

This post is about a DIY kitchen witch doll and how to make clothespin dolls. 

Halloween is coming, and I’m very excited about all the fabulous decor I can make and, of course, the joy of decorating the house. I’ve been thinking about making a doll for a long time now, and it’s a perfect opportunity to make a cute DIY kitchen witch doll.

Supplies

• Wood clothespin with a stand
• 1-1/4″ Ball bead with a 5/8″ opening for the head
• Pipe cleaner or wire cut to size (~4 inches)
• Embroidery thread (the color of the flesh)
• Felt material for the witch hat
• Scrap black material
• Black tulle
• Thick gold thread
• Mohair hair locks
• Glue gun
• Scissors
• Acrylic paint
• Medium paint brush and detailed brush
• Water bin for cleaning brushes
• Paper towels
• Black thread & needle
• Witch hat pattern for clothespin dolls (Download for Free)

Optional

• green tulle to make a bow for the hat
• tiny branches and one small branch to make the broom

How to make clothespin dolls

This tutorial will show you how to make a cute DIY Kitchen Witch Doll using a wood clothespin, pipe cleaner, wool for hair, and tulle for the dress. She looks intricate, but it’s easy to make this doll. You can watch the video or read the full instructions below.

Instructions

Before we start making this cute kitchen witch doll, please drill a small opening through the clothespin. The hole shouldn’t be wide enough for the wire or pine cleaner to go through effortlessly. We will use the pre-drilled hole for the arms.

1. Make the arms

Cut the pipe cleaner to size, about 4 inches, and bend it in the middle so we’ll have a reference point where is the middle part. Insert the pipe cleaner in the pre-drilled hole in the clothespin. To secure the arms so they don’t move, add a little glue where the arms touch the body.

Take your embroidery thread and start wrapping it around one of the arms. Start from the body toward where the hand is going to be. Please leave a little bit of thread out so we can use it to tie it later. Take your time and carefully wrap, so there are no fuzzies sticking out, but it’s not the end of the world if some of them do stick out. We will wrap twice, and the second time should cover all the fuzzies that are not under the wrapped thread.

Once you read the end of the pipe cleaner wire, add some hot glue at the end to secure the thread, and so it doesn’t unwrap. Fold the edge of the wire to form the arm and wrap the yarn around the formed hand to hide any unevenness; continue wrapping the thread until the end of the arm.

Once you reach the end of the arm, cross the thread across the body and start wrapping the yarn around the second arm. Continue the same process as with the other arm. Once you cover the second layer of wrapped thread around the arm and reach the body, take the thread and the other end and tie it tightly together. To make sure the know doesn’t until, add a little bit of hot glue on the knot. The arms are done!

3. Attach and prep the head

Glue the bead to the body with hot glue. Make sure not to add too much glue, so it doesn’t come out where the neck is. Paint the head with acrylic paint. To mix a skin color, combine white with burned sienna and a little dab of raw sienna color. Thoroughly mix the pain and apply the bigger brush where the face is. You don’t need to add the paint where the hair will go. Just cover the face and neck without any steaks or lines.

If you want, you can leave the wood as is and not paint it with skin color. Up to you!

4. Paint the stockings and shoes

Paint the legs with white acrylic paint. Clean the brush well and paint the base (the shoes) black. Let it dry. Once all the pain is dry, add stripes to create stockings. I’m using a purple color for the stripes, but you can choose any color you want.

Clean your brush. Take the base off and paint it black. This will be the shoes. Let all the paint to dry before proceeding to the next steps.

5. How to make the doll hair

You can buy the mohair hair locks on Amazon or Etsy. Also, you can use other hair locks — synthetic or felting wool. Feel free to experiment.

I have the mohair hair locks that I’m using in this tutorial. Separate the hair into multiple hair locks and glue sections on the left and right sides of the face and the back. Take little locks and add between the back and side locks on each side of the head. Fluff the hair and separate the clumps. We are trying to cover all empty spaces in the head.

If the hair looks too messy or too long, trim the hair a little.

6. How to paint the doll face

You can paint little dots on the face for the eyes and keep it simple, but I like to paint the whole full face. 

Start painting the face by marking the face features with white and raw sienna acrylic paint. Use a detailed brush size of 0 or 1.

Paint the white balls for the eyes—this will mark the eyes and serve as a first layer and step for the eyes. 

To create the nose:

1. Take your Raw Siena and paint a little smiley line where the nose should be. If the line is too dark, take one of your clean fingers or a paper towel and press and lift the paint.
2. Add a small dot underneath the nose and then mark the mouth, which resembles a longer smiley line.
3. Add two dots where the nostrils should be and paint little lines on each side of the nose.

Paint the brows and eyelids by drawing curved lines above the eyes and on top of the white circles.

Now that we marked the main features of the face, we can start adding more detail.

To paint the eyes:

1. Take blue paint or any color you want the eyes to be and paint in the iris. Wait until the blue color is dry.
2. Paint the pupils with black paint by drawing circles closer to the top lid while leaving some iris at the bottom.

While the eyes are drying, take some red and paint the mouth, similar to putting on lipstick. Paint the top lip (two little waves) and the bottom lip (one curved line). Let the paint dry.

Mix some red with white and paint the cheeks. If the color is too intense, mix a lighter pink and go over the cheeks.

Take some raw sienna and add dots where the nose is — that will be the freckles.

Take your black paint and add eyelashes:

1. Paint the winglet eyeliner and two little lines for the top lashes.
2.  Then paint two lashes at the bottom of the eye. 
3. Repeat on the other eye. Try to match the other eye’s liner and lashes as much as possible.

We will add reflections in the eyes and lips to create some dimension. Clean your brush thoroughly and take some white color. Then make sure all the paint is dry on the face before painting. You can check that by gently touching the eyes and lips with your clean finger. Pain a small white line on the bottom lip, then take your finger (or some paper towel) and lift some paint off. Dab two little dots in the eyes.

The face is done!

7. How to make a dress for a clothespin doll

I like to recycle things. So for the tulle undergarment, I used a black scrap fabric I had lying around. And then added tulle on top of the garment.

Make the top:

1. Cut a ribbon from the scrap material and wrap around the doll’s body in a crisscross fashion.
2. For instance, place one end across the body, wrap around one arm, then go across the front of the body and wrap around the arm. Once you do that, put a little bit of glue on the side of the body and glue the fabric together.
3. Cut off the loose end.

Make the skirt:

To make the skirt, cut long triangles from black scrap material. You’ll need 5-6 triangles. Hot glue the triangles around the body (the shorter side is on top and the pointy edge is at the bottom). You will get a ripped-looking skirt perfect for the witch 🙂

Now, let’s add the tulle. Cut three ribbons from the tulle — two narrow ribbons and one wider ribbon. Take your narrow ribbons and wrap them around each arm. Use your wider ribbon to fold it in half and then wrap it around the body in the crisscross fashion as we did before.

Now cut a 24 inches ribbon and fold it three times. First, fold it unevenly and then fold it again to create a shorter skirt. Use the needle and thread to sew along the edge. Keep the end of the thread pulled out so it doesn’t accidentally go through the tulle. Gently pull on the thread to form a skirt. Tie it around the doll’s body, and put a bow tie in the back. I also cut little slits in the dress to make the effect of it having rips.

Adding a gold belt: Use the gold string to tie around twice around the waist. Create a bow in the back.

8. How to make witch hat

To make the witch hat, you’ll need a pattern, black felt material, a needle, and black thread. You can use the pattern that I created here. Use the pattern to cut out a circle and a triangle, which will be the top of the hat. Fold the felt in half and put the top hat pattern near the folded edge.  Cut out a triangle. You’ll get an obtuse triangle when you unfold the material. Fold together the obtuse triangle to form acute triangle and sew along the edge. This will create a cone. I like to keep the seam outside (facing exterior) because it holds the cone shape better.

Take the top part of the hat and sew, allowing the inner circle of the bottom section of the hat. Again, I like the seam to face outside because it improves the hat shape.

9. Finishing details and accessories

Your kitchen witch doll is pretty much done. You can also continue decorating the doll. I used a green tulle to create a miniature bow and glued it to the witch’s hat. Also, I made a small broom.

I found tiny branches outside in my backyard and one bigger branch. Using hot glue, I glued the small branches around the bigger branch, wrapped the gold string multiple times, and then tied it in a knot.

You can also make a small pumpkin out of felting material as decoration. It would be super cute. The world is your oyster!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please let me know in the comments below if you want more DIY doll tutorials like this one.

This post is about doll making – how to make a DIY kitchen witch doll and how to make a clothespin doll out of simple materials.