How to make worry dolls

As a child I used to love my Guatemalan worry dolls, I still do. My mom told me to whisper my worries to the dolls and they would fix them for me. It always seemed to work. Now I'm older I realise that this is because I'm actually verbalising my problems instead of keeping them to myself but as a kid I thought it was the dolls working their magic. I still have my dolls, but for a while I've wondered if I could make my own. On Pinterest there were a lot of tutorials to make them with cocktail sticks or cotton bud sticks but I don't really like measuring things out and waiting for glue to completely dry, so I decided to figure out my own way of making them. I've seen lots of wirework dolls on the internet and as a jeweller I find it easier to work in metal than most other materials, so I decided to make a wirework frame as the base of my doll.

This is the the step-by-step tutorial of the first worry doll I've ever made. I hope you enjoy :)

You will need:

• Round nose pliers and wire cutters
• Craft wire
• Glue (I used regular craft glue)
• Embroidery thread in at least 3 colours

Using the round nose pliers twist a loop into the wire, leaving a tail a few inches long. This will be the head of the doll.

Make 2 similar length arm shapes using the pliers to bend the wire back on itself towards the body.

Do the same for the legs and cut the wire of the reel. Then twist the excess wire around the legs, leaving a loop at the bottom of each. These loops will be the feet.

I decided at this point to twist the arms too, leaving a loop at the end of each. These loops will be the hands.

Add a dab of glue to the neck and tie on embroidery thread in your choice of skin tone.

Wrap it around the head, use glue at the top of the loop to secure and then wrap back down again. Wrapping around the loop can be a bit tricky at first.

I decided that I wanted the hands to be the same colour as the head, so using the same thread I wrapped it down the arm and around the loop. This isn't necessary if you don't want the hands to match the head.

I did the same to the other hand then cut the thread and glued the loose end to the body.

While the glue is still wet start wrapping the thread for the trousers/skirt around the waist. Then go down each leg individually (unless you're making a skirt - then you just wrap the legs together), glue at the end of the foot loops, and wrap back up again. Cut the thread and glue the loose end to the body.

While the glue is still wet start wrapping the thread for the t-shirt. Start wrapping in a cross shape (like below) before you start wrapping straight around.

Wrap down each arm, stopping just before the hand loop and wrap back up again. Cut the thread at the neck and glue down. Glue some hair on if desired, I just left mine bald.

That's it :) It wasn't too difficult and didn't take too long either. The dolls are flexible when made with wire and a little less fragile.

I think it turned out okay. I wouldn't advise selling these or giving them to children though just in case the sharp wire pops out of the thread.

I'd love to hear off anyone who has tried to make these. Let me know how they turned out for you.

Loppy x