There’s a vintage furniture store nearby that specializes in Midcentury Modern. They make little room vignettes with all their furniture, so walking through the showroom feels like walking through a trendy home in 1963. One of the rooms they had set up was decorated for Christmas with an actual vintage aluminum tree and handcrafts from the era. I spent forever looking at that tree and snapping pictures, paying attention to the crafts that were popular at the time and how they would have decorated. There will be quite a few ornament tutorials this month that started with that tree at the furniture store, but for today I’m focusing on this little doll. I saw so many versions of these little wood peg dolls! Carolers, elves, Santas, all kinds of permutations from these little wooden pegs turned into dolls. I wanted to include any craft that was so popular at the time, but I knew mine had to pay tribute to the glamorous ladies with their beehives and fur coats. A Betty Draper peg doll, if you will.
For this project you need the wooden doll pieces, two pom poms, 2 2″ pieces of pipe cleaner, yarn for a belt, doll hair, and felt skirt and shirt.
I started by painting little faces on my dolls and you can see that there was nothing involved about it. Two little boop boop eyes and a swipe for a mouth. The hair I painted will be covered with doll hair, I just wanted to add a little color underneath so the raw wood wouldn’t show through.
Now our lady needs some clothes. The skirt is a circle skirt so you start by literally drawing a circle. Then draw another circle in the middle by tracing around the doll so you know how big her waist is. Wrap the skirt around the dolls waist and cut off any extra width if it overlaps. Use hot glue to attach the skirt in the front, back, and on the sides. For the top I started with a white rectangle and trimmed it so that it would fit around her at the top. I just tried it on, snipped off what seemed too big, and when I was satisfied, I hot glued her top on.
To complete her look she needs a belt at her waist. Tie a piece of yarn around her waist and tie a bow at the back. Hot glue the pipecleaners to her shoulders, and then the pom poms on top of the pipe cleaners. If her arms are too long you can just snip them until you’re satisfied with the size.
Add another loop of yarn to be the ornament hanger by gluing it under the bow and up behind the head. If you don’t glue it to her head she’ll hang face down once you put her on the tree, so make sure you get that loop to stay up nice and high.
My glamorous 60’s lady needed to have a big glamorous hairstyle, so I took curls of doll hair and hot glued it all around her head. The hot glue will seep up through those doll hairs, so watch your fingers carefully. Then I took more curls and hot glued them on top, piling them on to make a beehive.
I think she’s so sweet. She looks like she’s going to a fancy Christmas party where she’ll choose from a selection of nogs and gather around a piano for a singalong.
I'll definitely try this out!