A few years ago, dollar stores were selling off
TY Teenie Beanie Bopper dolls.
My friend Lucia began collecting these dolls and turning them into her family’s favorite saints!
She told me how she found the little accessories at dollar stores and craft shops. Her 7 kids love playing with the dolls and learning about the saints. Lucia sent me pictures of the TY Saint dolls that she has made.
Lucia also inspired me to create some of my own.
I posted our TY doll to SAINT Makeover
as well as pictures of the Saints we have created so far.
1. The robes are made by sewing 2 “T” shaped pieces of material together. To get the right shape, I loosely traced the figures onto paper to make my template (kind of like how kids trace themselves on rolls of craft paper to make a life-size drawing of themselves). I added a 1/4″ seam allowance.
The sewing doesn’t have to be perfect! Often, the appropriate accessories such as the toolbelt (St Joseph), chasuble and stole (St Patrick) hide alot of imperfections.
2. I cut the hair, often transplanting it for a beard or mustache (see St Joseph, St Patrick and Jesus).
3. Often the shoes do not come off, so I just make sure that the robe is long enough to cover them, especially if they are red sneakers!
 |
| TY doll to Saint Patrick |
4. I found little carpenter tools (St Joseph) and delicate crosses at Michael’s. The shamrocks (St Patrick) were at the dollar store in March!
 |
| St Joseph |
 |
| Mother Mary |
 |
| Jesus |
Lucia made Bl John Paul the 2nd for me! The delicate gold trim on the cassock(robe) the pellegrina (cape) and mitre (hat) are a nice touch!
Wow, this is a great idea. I love it. I would have never thought tho cut the hair and use it as a beard. Genius!! Thank you for linking up! You are awesome 🙂 See you again soon, I hope 😉
Britney
http://www.jandmseyecandy.blogspot.com
These are way too adorable! I think it’s a really fun and effective way to introduce different saints to children. We could use them while telling the story of popular saints.
I love these. I’ve seen them posted on your bog before, and always think it is such an awesome creative idea, and a wonderful tool for teaching the faith to our children. thanks for posting the tutorial on how to do these, and where you get your accessories. I should try my hand at it (and I better get looking for those dolls)!