Hollyhock Dolls, Abutilon Dolls, Flower Dolls

When I was a little girl living in New York, a neighbor girl that often babysat my sister and I would make Hollyhock dolls for us.  I remember these dolls as if it were yesterday.
(click on any of the pictures to make them larger)

First gather your flowers; today I used  pale yellow Hollyhocks and dark salmon Abutilon flowers. You will need one flower and one unopened flower bud, a long wood skewer and a small flower or the stamen from the Abutilon for a hat for each doll. Also a glass head straight pin to adhere the flower hat.

Begin with the face, this is the unopened flower bud. Fold under two or three green petals, this will give her a face (forgive me my blurred photo below). On the Abutilon flower you will need to cut the green petals as they are too long to fold under. (see larger picture below). Also, you will need to cut the stem end off of the flower and the bud. Notice in photo below it is off and in the above photo they are still on the flowers.

I use a long wood skewer for tucking under the petals on the bud, this will look like she has bangs. You can also loosen the other petals in the back to make it look like she has hair.

 Now remove the stamen from the inside of the flower using sharp scissors, cut close to the inside top of the flower.  Then poke the pointed end of a long wood skewer up through the flower so that about an inch or two is showing.  This is where you will add your flower bud face.

Gently push the bud onto the pointed end of the skewer pushing until it just reaches the top of her head but does not go through the end.

She should look like this, notice the face; this picture shows a clearer image of the bangs. A little of the wood skewer becomes her neck.

You can also add another flower to her head if you like. I used a Heartsease (viola) flower and a yellow glass head pin to attach it to the head. 

Here is a doll I made from an Abutilon flower.

The only difference in the directions is to angle the wood skewer when poking through the Abutilon flower. These flowers are much more delicate and they tend to break if you are not very careful.  I also used the stamen from this flower for the dolls hat.



Dancing in the Fairy Garden!