Christmas Feature No. 5
Dolly Peg Angels
When I was a little girl, I used to love sleeping over at my Grandparents house. I would follow my Grandmother around like a little shadow watching her do the chores. When it was time to hang out the washing I would fill my little lap up with a bunch of wooden pegs and pretend they were little dolls. I would put grass on their heads for hair and a leaf or flower around their middle for a dress. A dandelion flower as a necklace and my creation was complete.
Little did I know, that many little girls and boys around the world had enjoyed doing the same thing. Around war time, there was little money around and children made their own fun and indeed they did make their own dolls with wooden pegs.
The craft of making dolly pegs can be so much fun.
When my children were preschoolers we would sit down around the table at Christmas time making little dolly peg angels. Of course back then the angels smiles were decorated in all sorts of coloured textas and pens. They had squiggly mouths and scary eyes and glittery heads instead of dresses ! ......but those angels are still beautiful to me as I look back and remember those precious moments with my little ones. Innocent days with no cares in the world.
I made these dolly peg angels.....
with scraps from my old antique mosquito net. Our lovely bunny rabbit had chewed it to bits so chopping it up wasn't an issue !
These dolly pegs have been made with scraps of netting and bits of lace. Small pieces of silver wire created a halo and tiny offcuts of doilies and ribbon were transformed into wings. Tiny little silver scrap booking stickers formed the eyes and crystals from an old chandelier added extra sparkle. Use whatever you have lying around. Last year I made lots of Christmas dolly peg angels with one of the children's classes at school and we used scraps of red and green fabric, simply cut a round circle, hole punched the middle and it had turned into a fairy skirt. Easy as pie and took all of 5 minutes to do the whole project.
Dolly pegs are available at craft stores for a few dollars for a packet or if you happen to have some vintage dolly pegs as I do, well then you can use those. I must admit I love to use vintage ones as I love the worn patina of the wood. It gives the dolly a unique look rather than a shiny new one.
Use your imagination and create your own spectacular piece !
I was lucky to find these pretty silver angel wings at my local craft store for the dolly on the left (above). On the right I adore these pretty white ribbon wings that I simply curved into shape and hot glue gunned to her back. A pearl finished the look and tidied up the join. A simple piece of wire wound into shape would look just as effective.
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