Peg Dolls

Peg Dolls
Finger Puppets

All About Peg Dolls

For years I made finger puppets using wooden molds that are larger than peg dolls and include a hollowed center. Then I discovered peg dolls and started making those. I'm still partial to finger puppets because I like the larger size, but the availability and versatility of peg dolls makes them a better option. All the supplies I've used to make my finger puppets and peg dolls have been purchased from A Child's Dream. Our peg dolls and finger puppets are used in our homeschool for anything from pretend play to math. What I especially appreciate about the peg dolls is that they come in many sizes from bunting baby, tiny, small, large, extra large and female shape large and female shape extra large. While I occasionally use the female shape, I prefer the neutral shape for both male and female peg dolls. I also typically use the Holland wool felt for clothes and accessories for our peg dolls and finger puppets.

Occasionally I'll use other materials like beads, sticks and metal accents to accessorize the decorate our peg dolls. Adding these additions is not safe for children under 3 years of age, so please be mindful when adding these items to your peg dolls. Additionally, many peg dolls are small and chokable, so be mindful of the smaller peg dolls as they are not suitable for toddlers. I use a hot glue gun to adhere both accessories and clothing to the peg dolls. I also use it to adhere the hair to the peg dolls and finger puppets. I like using bulky weight Lamb's Pride wool yarn, but I have used worsted weight and mohair as well. While I didn't used to paint our finger puppets, I do often paint our peg dolls with Lyra Opaque Watercolors. I like these paints because you can still see the wood grain. If you want more a more opaque look, you can add a bit of the white paint that comes in the set or add a bit of white acrylic paint to the watercolors.

Over the years we have many hundreds of peg dolls. Here are a few of the tutorials. Enjoy!

Peg Doll Tutorials

  • Peg Doll Faces for Beginners

    Drawing faces on peg dolls can be a little tricky. I share four techniques for making faces on peg dolls. Of course you can always skip drawing a face and leave it blank. You can draw on a face with pencil or a fine liner or paint it on with Lyra paints or acrylics.

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  • Peg Dolls for Beginners | Paint

    When it comes to painting the body of your peg doll, you have many choices. Even if you don't have any paint, you can use markers! In this video, I'll show you several ways to paint a peg doll from acrylic paint to watercolor paint. My favorite is Color Shine spray by Heidi Swapp. It was a shimmer quality to it that makes the peg doll sparkle.

    Make It

  • Peg Dolls for Beginners | Hair

    The hair you choose for your peg doll is going to help define its look. While all my finger puppets had wool yarn for hair, when it comes to peg dolls, you can skip the yarn and paint on the hair. While that is one technique, there are a few more you can try when working with peg dolls.

    Make It

  • How to Knit a Hat or Beanie for Beginners | Peg Doll

    In this slow tutorial, I walk you through the basics of knitting so you can knit a hat or beanie for a peg doll. I have three patterns to share with you inspired by the pattern in the book Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom on the Martinmas peg doll tutorial. We have gotten so much inspiration from this book.

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  • How to Knit a Hat | Pattern Comparison

    Once you learn the basic pattern for a hat, you can alter it to make it bigger, smaller or more pointy. For this project, I used sock, sport and worsted weight. I also altered a pattern I found in the book Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom on the Martinmas peg doll tutorial.

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  • Fairy Peg Doll | Tutorial

    I'm getting better at this tiny little peg dolls, and my girl is loving it! Here are a couple tips: if you are painting in eyes and a mouth, use a thin but slightly firm paint brush, don't use too much water or the paint will spread in the wood grain, and if you make a mistake or you don't like it, just stop, trying to fix it usually makes it worse. If you really don't like it, flip the doll around and make her a new face on the back and cover up the mess-up with hair or a hat.

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  • How to Make a Peg Doll Necklace

    Aren’t these peg doll necklaces adorable? They would make darling party favors, prizes or little gifts for a special child. They are surprisingly easy to make. All supplies (except ribbon and screw eye) can be found at A Child’s Dream or local craft stores.

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  • Storage + Organization | Craft Supplies

    Now that our supplies for peg dolls and finger puppets have been replenished and increased, we needed a new way to store and organize them. Enter our new Alex drawer unit from IKEA! I have this drawer in our craft room, and my favorite feature about it is the shallow drawers. You don't have to go digging around for supplies, it's all at your fingertips.

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  • Pretend Play | Waldorf Kindergarten

    This is a super delightful, easy-to-assemble, playhouse kit for young children. This playhouse is small and adorable and can be assembled by a child in a matter of seconds. But, you'll glean hours of playtime from this charming little house which includes beautiful strips of silk to decorate the two peg dolls as well as bits of wool for hair or decorations.

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  • Peg Doll | Tutorial

    This is my first peg doll, and I wondered if I should share it because I don't think it turned out all that great. But, I'll keep practicing until I can do them quickly and easily because I know my daughter is eagerly waiting for them!

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  • Pirate Peg Doll Tutorial

    How much fun am I having in our homeschool!?! When my son assembled a pirate ship from one of our pirate book/kit, he asked me to make some peg doll pirates for it. I most willingly obliged, and it turned into one awesome homeschool day!

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  • Educational Toys for Kindergarten 

    Learning the ABC's has never been this adorable! These painted and embellished peg dolls are the perfect addition to any preschool or kindergarten. The large peg dolls are painted with the uppercase letter while the small peg dolls have the lower case letters. They are painted to coordinate to make it easier for new learners to identify the pairs.

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  • Craft Room Tour & Reorganization | Peg Dolls & Finger Puppets

    I don't know why it took me so long to move our peg doll supplies to the craft room, since that's where we make them! Set up and clean up is so much easier now that the supplies are where I need them. I love opening up the drawer to see everything I need. We did need to move some things around in here, but the added perk is that the craft room is cleaner and there's extra storage space in the school room that is now being used to store felting and other handwork supplies.

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  • Watercolor Comparison | Winsor Newton and Lyra 

    Having trouble choosing the right paint for you wood pieces? There are many to choose from and while many peg dolls are painted with acrylic, there are other choices if you wish for the wood grain to show through your final project.

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  • How To Make A Peg Doll

    Here's an old video I meant to work into a series and never did. I'm releasing it now as part of my latest blog post that shares many of my peg doll tutorials. Over the years we've made hundreds of peg dolls from simple to educational to complex. My children have also made dozens as well often just painting them to use for their educational or pretend play.

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  • Days of the Week Peg Dolls | Waldorf

    This has to be the cutest way to learn the days of the week. These little peg doll gnomes are easy to make, especially if you don't complicate the process as I did! I'll tell you how I did this project with my daughter, and I'll also tell you some shortcuts you take to make this project faster, but just as cute.

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  • Months of the Year | Peg Doll Tutorial

    These Months of the Year . We use them with our calendar peg dolls. Each day, the kids replace the day of the week and day of the month peg dolls. And each month and each season they replace another one. It's a fun way to keep track of the days, months and seasons.

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  • How to Make Calendar Peg Dolls

    Invasion of the mini gnomes has begun! Brace yourself for this cuteness. These 31 calendar mini peg dolls are for our homeschool calendar. These small peg dolls were easy to transform into gnomes. I painted the peg doll with Lyra watercolors and twisted a triangular shaped piece of wool felt into a gnome hat.

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  • Phases of The Moon Peg Doll Tutorial | Lunar Peg Dolls

    These are probably the cutest peg dolls I've ever made! I actually made a complete lunar phase set to last an entire month! Granted it did get a little tedious and some crescents and moons look awfully similar to one another, but we got a complete set!

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  • Fall Inspired Peg Dolls | Nature Table

    It's official, it's no longer pumpkin season, it's peg doll season! We've made more peg dolls in the past month than all the peg dolls we've ever made combined. We're on a roll. And now we are adding themed ones to our nature table and having a blast doing it.

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  • How to Make Seasonal Peg Dolls

    These adorable peg dolls represent the seasons. We use them with our calendar peg dolls. Each day, the kids replace the day of the week and day of the month peg dolls. And each month and each season they replace another one.

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  • Four Seasons Mini Peg Dolls Tutorial

    This is a super cute and fairly easy four seasons mini peg dolls tutorial. We made these super fast and they were easier than the original set of four season peg dolls which you can see on the post.

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  • Peg Doll Tutorial | Man

    This is my first attempt at making these peg dolls with arms. I've had these peg dolls in our collection for almost a year before using them. I admit they were a little intimidating at first, but I absolutely love the way this one turned out!

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  • Mother Peg Doll Tutorial | Intermediate Level

    This is my second attempt at making these peg dolls with arms. I've had these peg dolls in our collection for almost a year before using them. I admit they were a little intimidating at first, but I absolutely love the way this one turned out!

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  • Grandma Peg Doll Tutorial

    This grandma rocks! And she's all stylish too. This peg doll is part of the set we made for our Giant Turnip story. They were my first attempt at making peg dolls with arms, and while it took longer and was more challenging, my kids and I love the way they turned out.

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  • Grandfather Peg Doll Tutorial

    This is my third attempt at making these peg dolls with arms. I've had these peg dolls in our collection for almost a year before using them. I admit they were a little intimidating at first, but I absolutely love the way this one turned out!

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  • Peg Doll Comparison & Winter's Cape Wool Felt

    It's time for some winter crafts! Do you make peg dolls, finger puppets or anything with felt? Check out this winter collection by A Child's Dream. It's called Winter's Cape and the colors are beautiful for all kinds of fall and winter inspired projects.

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  • How to Make Simple Peg Dolls

    Looking for a fast handmade project you can do with your kids? This set is quick, adorable and easy. Make these as party favors, Valentine gifts or as a project with your children. You can omit the wooden heart and put a felt heart instead.

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  • Peg Doll Spring Crafts

    In a last minute moment of inspiration, I turned these darling spring bunting baby peg dolls into magnets. I used super strong magnets, and it worked! I love the versatility of these mini peg dolls. Since the fall, I've had a set of three seasonal peg dolls grace our nature table. Each set has been unique.

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  • Ladybug Peg Doll Tutorial for Beginners

    This is my first attempt at making animal peg dolls, and I can tell you, I love it!! These adorable ladybugs were inspired by both a similar design in Margaret Bloom's Peg Doll book as well as a mini glass ladybug my sister gave me.

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  • Monarch Butterfly Peg Doll

    Some peg dolls and fingers puppets end up looking super cute and charming while others look like a nice try. This peg doll is one such project in which all the extra time it took to make something I envisioned turned out pretty mediocre.

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  • Fairy Peg Doll Tutorial

    Fairy peg dolls are some of our favorite peg dolls, but there's one major challenge when doing these. Because the wings are so prominent and take up so much room, they usually compete with the hair. For that reason, painting on hair is an option.

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  • Peg Dolls for our Africa Unit Study

    For our West Africa main lesson block spanning the years 900-1400 and the empires of Mali, Ghana and Songhai, we did several projects, cooked regional recipes and read books. While these peg dolls don’t represent West African tribes of Mali, Songhai and Ghana, they are being included as we added books from other parts of Africa into this unit.

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  • Owl Peg Doll Tutorial

    Finding hands-on projects for our unit studies and main lesson blocks brings me so much joy, especially when we can make adorable owl peg dolls like these. They were pretty simple to do, but had their challenges. Making the eyes were too hard for my 8-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, so after they attempted, I helped them fix it up.

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  • Walnut Shell Babies

    These little sleeping babies in walnut shells are adorable. They'd make charming ornaments, cute table scape decorations or one-of-a-kind party favors. We made them to decorate our Fall Nature Table, but truthfully, they were barely there before being swept away to be played with along with our peg dolls and finger puppets.

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  • Mini Baby Peg Doll Tutorial | Fall & Autumn Themed

    If peg dolls weren't cute enough, they go and make these tiny bunting babies! They are adorable no matter how you make them. This set if for our nature table in our homeschool room. They were easy to make and are perfect for using up scraps.

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  • Winter Peg Doll Tutorial

    If you're looking for a simple winter inspired peg doll tutorial, this is it! These bunting babies with white painted snowflakes and petite bonnets are fast, easy and super adorable. I made this trio of snowflake babies to accompany our other peg dolls and finger puppets on our winter themed nature table.

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  • How to Make Finger Puppet Babies

    This is quick video on how to make Waldorf inspired finger puppet babies to accompany finger puppets. All natural materials are used and can be found at A Child’s Dream.

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  • Kindergarten Craft | How to Make Finger Puppet Babies

    These cute little babies only take about 4-5 minutes to make. You can find supplies at your local craft store or at A Child’s Dream.

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  • Winter Peg Doll Tutorial | Waldorf Winter Nature Table

    I made this set for my daughter for our Winter Nature Table. While these are winter peg dolls, I found that because of their detail and size, they did not get enjoyed as much as the simpler, more generic dolls and so they were gifted.

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  • Pirate Peg Dolls

    Sometimes a set of peg dolls we make inspires another set years later. That's what happened here. We made pirate peg dolls years ago for a homeschool unit study. Now we made another set inspired by that first set

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  • The Story of the Giant Turnip | Russian Folk Tale

    This is how we retell stories with props. My children are helping with the props while I tell the story. We did it three times and set two of the stories to music. The third story is without music. I edited the clips to give them movement, but basically these are unedited stories.

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Finger Puppet Tutorials

  • Little Red Riding Hood Finger Puppet | Tutorial

    This quick and easy tutorial will show you how to make a charming "Little Red Riding Hood" inspired finger puppet.

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  • How to Make a Finger Puppet

    If you are just trying out making finger puppets with wooden bases, this design is both simple, fast and beautiful. Long braided hair is especially adorable!

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  • Waldorf Finger Puppet | Tutorial

    This beautiful finger puppet has a lot of details like metal embellishments that are glued on, making this finger puppet unsuitable for very young children. You could embroider rather than embellish with beads or metal pieces for safety.

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  • Spring Nature Finger Puppet | Intermediate Level

    We've started a new tradition this year and that's to have a special seasonal finger puppet for the our nature table. Our Nature Table is more of seasonal table decorated with toys, crafts, books and things found in nature.

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  • How to Make a Boy Puppet Doll | Tutorial

    Pulling out another video from the Pepper and Pine vault! This one's from December 19, 2015! Yikes! But don't worry we are getting through these old tutorials so I can bring you new ones!! Yay!

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  • Winter Inspired Doll | Green Finger Puppet Tutorial

    This is the last in a set of three winter inspired finger puppets. Perfect for this winter season, whether you live in a place that snows or not.

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  • Rainy Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the first in a series of six weather 'gnomes' we made for our school room. This one is blue with the word "Rainy" embroidered on the front.

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  • How to Make Little Red Riding Hood Puppet

    Learn to make this charming Little Red Riding Hood inspired finger puppet. All materials can be found at your local craft store and from A Child’s Dream.

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  • Boy Finger Puppet

    Finally! A boy finger puppet! I definitely have more girl puppets than boy puppets in our collection. This delightful puppet has a quiver with arrows that come out. What fun for the kids. And even after months, we still have all the arrows!

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  • Cold Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the third in a series of six weather 'gnomes' we made for our school room. This one is white with the word "cold" embroidered on the front.

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  • Windy Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the fourth in a series of six weather 'gnomes' we made for our school room. This one is grey with the word "windy" embroidered on the front.

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  • Hot Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the fifth in a series of six weather 'gnomes' we made for our school room. This one is red and orange with the word "hot" embroidered on the front.

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  • Cloudy Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the sixth and final finger puppet in a series of six weather ‘gnomes’ we made for our school room. This one is grey with the word “cloudy” embroidered on the front.

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  • Lettering on Wood Block | Tutorial

    Quick and easy way to add lettering to wood blocks. You can trace letter stickers and fill it in with pencil or use your wood burning tool or a stylish effect.

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  • How to Make a Finger Puppet

    Learn how to make a simple Waldorf inspired finger puppet using supplies found at A Child’s Dream.

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  • Finger Puppet Tutorial for Beginners 

    Open ended play is helped along with these darling little finger puppets and peg dolls. This tutorial will make the whole process easy and attainable. Even my 10-year-old can make them and you'd mistake them for ones I did.

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  • Pretend Play | Waldorf Finger Puppet Tutorial

    How much fun are these little finger puppets?! My kids have been enjoying them for years, and they are still treasured. Every few years, I make a new batch of puppets to add to their collection.

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  • How to Make a Waldorf Style Finger Puppet

    Today's project took a little time to make because I fussed and fiddled with the details of this puppet. I edited most of it out.

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  • Winter Inspired Dolls | Grey Finger Puppet Tutorial

    How darling and cozy do these little winter inspired dolls look?! I have to say that to date, these are my favorite set of finger puppets. I had to dip into a large 18x18 inch piece of grey felt that I was saving for another project, but it was worth it!

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  • How to Make a Waldorf Inspired Finger Puppet

    For this project, I used felt, yarn and finger puppets bases from A Child’s Dream. Other supplies needed: glue gun, glue stick, and scissors.

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  • Mini Doll with Blue Hair! | DIY Tutorial

    "Blue hair," said my four-year-old daughter, "that's what I want." So I made her a finger puppet with blue hair just as she requested.

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  • Winter Inspired Doll | Double Long Braids

    It's the season to get cozy with hot chocolate sitting by the fireplace while the little ones play. Add these charming winter inspired dolls to your kids' pretend play toys for hours of open-ended creative play.

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  • Finger Puppet Tutorial | How to Make Curly Hair

    Making toys for our homeschool isn't just fun for the kids, it's fun for me, too! Today's tutorial is for a curly haired finger puppet. Usually, I use worsted or bulky weight Lamb's Pride wool yarn, but today,

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  • How to Make a Blue Fairy Doll | Tutorial

    Do you have left over butterfly accessories? Why not upcylce them and adhere them onto finger puppet bases for delightful fairy dolls?

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  • How to Make a Green Fairy Doll | Tutorial

    Check out this video from the Pepper and Pine vault from December 19, 2015!! Enjoy! Ready for another fairy doll? This one was pretty quick to make from supplies I got from A Child’s Dream.

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  • How to Make a Pink Fairy Doll | Tutorial

    Boy did this fairy doll take a turn for the worse before I remedied the problem. Check out how I upcycled some decorative butterflies and used them for fairy wings. The wool, yarn and finger puppet bases are all from A Child’s Dream.

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  • How to Make a Harry Potter Finger Puppet

    How adorable is this Harry Potter finger puppet!?! Yes, this one took more time, but I have a way to cut down on the time it will take you to make this one. For the first time, I have a finger puppet pattern available!

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  • Hermione Finger Puppet Tutorial | Harry Potter 

    How adorable is this Hermione Granger finger puppet from the Harry Potter series?! Yes, this one took more time, but I have a way to cut down on the time it will take you to make this one.

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  • How to Make a Mini Broom

    How cute is this mini broom?! It's also pretty simple to make from all natural materials and chances are you can find them in nature for free! This mini broom is the perfect accessory for finger puppets, peg dolls and mini dolls.

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  • Finger Puppet Tutorial | Intermediate Level 

    My six-year-old daughter asked me to make my 19-year-old son a video game inspired finger puppet based on a character in a game he plays. This is the result!

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  • Imaginative Play | How to Make a Waldorf Finger Puppet toy

    Pretend play is and imitation play is the foundation of a Waldorf kindergarten. Learn how to make toys your kids and students will love and cherish long after kindergarten.

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  • How to Make a Waldorf Finger Puppet

    This quick and easy tutorial will walk you through the steps on how to make this black-hooded finger puppet. Most supplies can be found at A Child’s Dream or local craft stores.

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  • How to Make a Simple Finger Puppet Tutorial

    In this video, I make a darling little finger puppet using a wooden base, felt and yarn from A Child’s Dream. Other tools used are a hot glue gun, glue stick and scissors. This project took about 10 minutes (not including making the braids).

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  • Sunny Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the second in a series of six weather 'gnomes' we made for our school room. This one is yellow with the word "sunny" embroidered on the front.

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  • How to Make a Pregnant Fairy Doll | Tutorial

    Check out this Finger Puppet video from the Pepper and Pine vault from December 20, 2015. I meant to release this one first when releasing this series of fairy puppets...opps!

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Peg Doll Tutorials

Peg Doll Faces for Beginners

Drawing faces on peg dolls can be a little tricky. I share four techniques for making faces on peg dolls. Of course you can always skip drawing a face and leave it blank. You can draw on a face with pencil or a fine liner or paint it on with Lyra paints or acrylics. Anyway you make it, you’ll want to go slow and steady. Change the expression of your doll by curling up the mouth or widening the eyes. If you make a mistake, that’s okay! Just turn your face around and paint over the mistake or add hair. You can also practice with pencil before using paint.

See the other tutorials in this series for more techniques.

Peg Dolls for Beginners | Paint

When it comes to painting the body of your peg doll, you have many choices. Even if you don’t have any paint, you can use markers! In this video, I’ll show you several ways to paint a peg doll from acrylic paint to watercolor paint. My favorite is Color Shine spray by Heidi Swapp. It was a shimmer quality to it that makes the peg doll sparkle.

See the other tutorials in this series.Find more inspiration on Instagram. And don’t forget to use the tag #pepperandpine when you make your peg dolls!

Peg Dolls for Beginners | Hair

The hair you choose for your peg doll is going to help define its look. While all my finger puppets had wool yarn for hair, when it comes to peg dolls, you can skip the yarn and paint on the hair. While that is one technique, there are a few more you can try when working with peg dolls. In this tutorial, I’ll show you four different ways to do hair for your peg dolls, then I’ll complete one peg doll. If you want to see the other peg dolls in this series, you can watch the other tutorials for more techniques and ideas. Materials for these projects can be found at A Child’s Dream.

Get the wing patterns here.

How to Knit a Hat or Beanie for Beginners

In this slow tutorial, I walk you through the basics of knitting so you can knit a hat or beanie for a peg doll. I have three patterns to share with you inspired by the pattern in the book Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom on the Martinmas peg doll tutorial. We have gotten so much inspiration from this book. It’s beautifully laid out with step by step instructions and simple patterns. Even if you are just getting into peg dolls and knitting, you’ll find this hat tutorial is easy enough for new knitters and it’s so satisfying to complete. I usually use hot glue to adhere the hat to our peg dolls, but you can keep them loose as well.

For this tutorial I used my size 7 needles with sport weight yarn using one of the three patterns. When knitting with sports weight, the suggested needle size is 5. For worsted weight, you can use a size 7 needle. There is some flexibility as to the size needle you use for the weight of yarn.

The way you knit will also affect the finished project. If you are a tight knitter, the hats will be smaller. If you are a loose knitter the hats will be bigger. If you use a worsted weight over a sports or sock weight, your hat will be bigger. If you use the larger of the three patterns (17 stitch cast on), your hat will be bigger. There are also several sizes of peg dolls and finger puppets. The mama/female peg doll has a small head, so use the smaller of the patterns with sock weight yarn to make a hat that will fit. If you are making hats for the finger puppet, use the larger pattern and a worsted weight yarn. The male/unisex peg doll is in the middle. Use a small pattern for a beanie, or the large pattern and worsted weight yarn for a hat that covers more of the head. I encourage you to make a few as the type of yarn, needle size, pattern and way you knit will all affect the final size of the hat.

Small pattern suitable for all yarns. This will make a small hat with sock/highland sport weight yarn and slightly larger hat when using worsted weight yarn:

  • Cast on 15 stitches

  • Knit 2 rows

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 for whole row

  • Knit a row (you should be down to 10 stitches)

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together

  • Knit a row (you should be down to 7 stitches)

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together

  • Knit a row (you should be down to 5 stitches)

  • Kit 2 together, knit 1, knit 2 together

  • Now you should be down to 3 stitches

  • Bind off

  • Fold triangle and sew it together with a sewing knitting needle.

Medium pattern (slightly larger than the smaller pattern)

  • Cast on 17 stitches

  • Knit two rows

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1

  • Knit 1 row

  • [Repeat: knit 2 together, knit 1 knit 1 row] Until you have 3 stitches left

  • Bind off and sew hat together

How to Knit a Hat | Pattern Comparison

Once you learn the basic pattern for a hat, you can alter it to make it bigger, smaller or more pointy. For this project, I used sock, sport and worsted weight. I also altered a pattern I found in the book Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom on the Martinmas peg doll tutorial. After talking with Margaret to get permission to share my version of the pattern, she let me know that the book is being reprinted and a new updated hat pattern is expected. While you can crochet or knit in the round to make hats and beanies, this tutorial used the basics of knitting with two needles and readily available supplies. The skills you’ll need to know or learn for this tutorial are casting on, knitting, decreasing (knit two together) and binding off. You’ll also need a sewing knitting needle to sew the hat together.

Small Beanie: Small beanie for large peg doll

The smallest mini beanie pattern calls for worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles. This size beanie fits the large male/unisex peg doll and finger puppets. The pattern for this basic hat is as follows:

  • Cast on 15 stitches

  • Knit 2 rows

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 (repeat for the whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 10 stitches)

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together (repeat for whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 7 stitches)

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together (repeat for whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 5 stitches)

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1, knit 2 together

  • At this point, you can add an extra row of knitting for a pointier hat or you can bind off

  • Bind off when you have 3 stitches left

  • Sew triangle piece together with blunt or pointy sewing knitting needle.

Medium Beanie

The medium beanie pattern calls for worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles. This size beanie fits the large male/unisex peg doll and finger puppets. The pattern for this basic hat is as follows:

  • Cast on 17 stitches

  • Knit 2 rows

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 (repeat for the whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 11 stitches)

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 (repeat for whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 7 stitches)

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together (repeat for whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 5 stitches)

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1, knit 2 together

  • At this point, you can add an extra row of knitting for a pointier hat or you can bind off

  • Bind off when you have 3 stitches left

  • Sew triangle piece together with blunt or pointy sewing knitting needle.

Large Beanie/Hat

The medium beanie pattern calls for worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles. This size beanie fits the large male/unisex peg doll and finger puppets. The pattern for this basic hat is as follows:

  • Cast on 19 stitches

  • Knit 2 rows

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together (repeat for the whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 13 stitches)

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together (repeat for the whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 9 stitches)

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together (repeat for whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 6 stitches) *Skip this row for beanie shape rather than pointy shape

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together (repeat for whole row)

  • At this point, you can add an extra row of knitting for a pointier hat or you can bind off

  • Bind off when you have 3 stitches left

  • Sew triangle piece together with blunt or pointy sewing knitting needle.

Extra Large Beanie or Hat for Peg Doll, Finger Puppet and Extra Large Peg Doll

The medium beanie pattern calls for worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles. This size beanie fits the large male/unisex peg doll and finger puppets. The pattern for this basic hat is as follows:

  • Cast on 21 stitches

  • Knit 2 rows

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together (repeat for the whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 14 stitches)

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 (repeat for the whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 9 stitches)

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 (repeat for whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 6 stitches) *Skip this row for beanie shape rather than pointy shape

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 (repeat for whole row)

  • At this point, you can add an extra row of knitting for a pointier hat or you can bind off

  • Bind off when you have 3 stitches left

  • Sew triangle piece together with blunt or pointy sewing knitting needle.

Hat for Female or Medium Peg Doll

The small hat for the mama/female peg doll and medium peg doll pattern calls for sport weight yarn or sock/finger yarn and size 5 needles. This size beanie fits the large male/unisex peg doll and finger puppets. The pattern for this basic hat is as follows:

  • Cast on 13 stitches

  • Knit 4 rows

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together (repeat for the whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 9 stitches)

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 (repeat for whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 6 stitches) *Skip this row for beanie shape rather than pointy shape

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 (repeat for whole row)

  • At this point, you can add an extra row of knitting for a pointier hat or you can bind off

  • Bind off when you have 3 stitches left

  • Sew triangle piece together with blunt or pointy sewing knitting needle.Sew triangle piece together with blunt or pointy sewing knitting needle.

Hat for Medium Peg Doll

  • Cast on 13 stitches

  • Knit 2 rows

  • Knit 1, knit 2 together (repeat for the whole row)

  • Knit 1 row (should be down to 9 stitches)

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 (repeat for whole row)

  • Knit 2 together, knit 1 (repeat for whole row)

  • Bind off when you have 3 stitches left

  • Sew triangle piece together with blunt or pointy sewing knitting needle.Sew triangle piece together with blunt or pointy sewing knitting needle.

Fairy Peg Doll | Tutorial

I’m getting better at this tiny little peg dolls, and my girl is loving it! Here are a couple tips: if you are painting in eyes and a mouth, use a thin but slightly firm paint brush, don’t use too much water or the paint will spread in the wood grain, and if you make a mistake or you don’t like it, just stop, trying to fix it usually makes it worse. If you really don’t like it, flip the doll around and make her a new face on the back and cover up the mess-up with hair or a hat.

You can just paint the peg dolls, you don’t have to add felt, but if you want to, you can download the pattern for the fairy peg doll here.

This peg doll goes with Sarah’s Silks Mini Playhouse Kit available at A Child’s Dream. She was suppose to be the boy peg doll shown in the instructions, but I decided to make her a girl doll after I felt her face looked feminine.  My recent kindergarten haul shows Sarah’s Silks Mini Playhouse Kits as well as other peg dolls and the Lyra paints I used to paint her face and clothes.
You can see our first two peg dolls now, but soon you’ll be able to see more of my Waldorf inspired crafts in a very special place to be announced soon!

Don’t forget to visit me on Instagram for exclusive links to videos that have yet to be released on YouTube or for special ‘unlisted’ videos! And when you do  a project inspired by one of my projects, don’t forget to tell me about it by tagging me and using the hashtag #pepperandpine and #pepperandpinemademedoit (thanks for the hashtag idea Miki!!) (2016)

How to Make a Peg Doll Necklace

Aren’t these peg doll necklaces adorable? They would make darling party favors, prizes or little gifts for a special child. They are surprisingly easy to make. All supplies (except ribbon and screw eye) can be found at A Child’s Dream or local craft stores.

You can just paint the peg dolls, you don’t have to add felt, but if you want to, you can download the pattern for the fairy peg doll here.

This peg doll goes with Sarah’s Silks Mini Playhouse Kit available at A Child’s Dream. She was suppose to be the boy peg doll shown in the instructions, but I decided to make her a girl doll after I felt her face looked feminine.  My recent kindergarten haul shows Sarah’s Silks Mini Playhouse Kits as well as other peg dolls and the Lyra paints I used to paint her face and clothes.
You can see our first two peg dolls now, but soon you’ll be able to see more of my Waldorf inspired crafts in a very special place to be announced soon!

Don’t forget to visit me on Instagram for exclusive links to videos that have yet to be released on YouTube or for special ‘unlisted’ videos! And when you do  a project inspired by one of my projects, don’t forget to tell me about it by tagging me and using the hashtag #pepperandpine and #pepperandpinemademedoit (thanks for the hashtag idea Miki!!) (2016)

Storage + Organization | Craft Supplies

Now that our supplies for peg dolls and finger puppets have been replenished and increased, we needed a new way to store and organize them. Enter our new Alex drawer unit from IKEA! I have this drawer in our craft room, and my favorite feature about it is the shallow drawers. You don't have to go digging around for supplies, it's all at your fingertips. The first couple drawers of this unit are dedicated to my daughter and her kindergarten supplies, while the remaining drawers are for peg dolls, finger puppets and felt supplies.

Pretend Play | Waldorf Kindergarten

This is a super delightful, easy-to-assemble, playhouse kit for young children. This playhouse is small and adorable and can be assembled by a child in a matter of seconds. But, you'll glean hours of playtime from this charming little house which includes beautiful strips of silk to decorate the two peg dolls as well as bits of wool for hair or decorations. The kit comes with either rainbow silk or night sky with stars silk. I liked them both so much, I got one of each. If you had to choose only one, I have to say I'd lean ever-so-slightly to the rainbow silk. You can find Sarah's Silks Mini Playhouse Kit at A Child's Dream. You can see our first two peg dolls here.

Peg Doll | Tutorial

This is my first peg doll, and I wondered if I should share it because I don’t think it turned out all that great. But, I’ll keep practicing until I can do them quickly and easily because I know my daughter is eagerly waiting for them!

This peg doll goes with Sarah’s Silks Mini Playhouse Kit available at A Child’s Dream. My recent kindergarten haul shows these kits as well as other peg dolls and the Lyra paints we are using.
You can see our first two peg dolls now, but soon you’ll be able to see more of my Waldorf inspired crafts in a very special place to be announced soon! You can download the pattern for the fairy peg doll here.

Don’t forget to visit me on Instagram for exclusive links to videos that have yet to be released on YouTube or for special ‘unlisted’ videos! And when you do  a project inspired by one of my projects, don’t forget to tell me about it by tagging me and using the hashtag #pepperandpine and #pepperandpinemademedoit (thanks for the hashtag idea Miki!!) (2016)

Pirate Peg Doll Tutorial

How much fun am I having in our homeschool!?! When my son assembled a pirate ship from one of our pirate book/kit, he asked me to make some peg doll pirates for it. I most willingly obliged, and it turned into one awesome homeschool day!

We did find much needed inspiration from Making Peg Dolls and More by Margaret Bloom. The books is a magical resource for anyone wishing to make peg dolls but doesn’t know where to start.

I think these pirate peg dolls turned out pretty cool, but my first peg doll ever wasn’t so pretty!

These pirate peg dolls are for our Pirate Unit Study.

Educational Toys for Kindergarten 

Learning the ABC's has never been this adorable! These painted and embellished peg dolls are the perfect addition to any preschool or kindergarten. The large peg dolls are painted with the uppercase letter while the small peg dolls have the lower case letters. They are painted to coordinate to make it easier for new learners to identify the pairs.

Many activities can be done with these charming peg dolls. You can match the peg doll letters to alphabet cards, match uppercase to lowercase, or even form simple words. Of course, you can always use the peg dolls for imaginative open-ended play.

It's now easier than ever to create this set of peg dolls. You can find ABC peg doll kit for a limited time at A Child's Dream!!

Don't forget to take the poll to vote on your favorite peg dolls: painted or embellished?

And while you are at it, let me which set is your favorite. I like the letters Ee and Xx.

You can check out the other activities we've done for KG by clicking here.

Craft Room Tour & Reorganization | Peg Dolls & Finger Puppets

I don't know why it took me so long to move our peg doll supplies to the craft room, since that's where we make them! Set up and clean up is so much easier now that the supplies are where I need them. I love opening up the drawer to see everything I need. We did need to move some things around in here, but the added perk is that the craft room is cleaner and there's extra storage space in the school room that is now being used to store felting and other handwork supplies. Check out what the old peg doll storage looked like here. The Martha Stewart printer's tables are from The Home Depot but sadly, they are no longer available.

Watercolor Comparison | Winsor Newton and Lyra

Having trouble choosing the right paint for you wood pieces? There are many to choose from and while many peg dolls are painted with acrylic, there are other choices if you wish for the wood grain to show through your final project.

Today, I’m sharing the results of using Winsor-Newton watercolors and Lyra opaque watercolors. Each have their benefits and unique results. While the ultimate choice is one of preference, ease and cost, in this video, you’ll be able to see how each performs on wood pieces I got from Jo-Ann craft store. I also use a beeswax polish on each to show the difference if that’s something you wish to do. When using watercolors, you risk having color transfer if the wood gets wet. Sealing the wood gives a rich finish, but you will lose some of the matted look you get from using the Lyra opaque watercolors.

These projects were for my 7-year-old daughter. She loved them and plays with them with her peg dolls and finger puppets.

**This post is not sponsored. No products were received for free.
No affiliate links are used. Links to these products are for your convenience.**

Lyra Watercolor paint

Winsor-Newton watercolor
Peg dolls

Finger Puppet bases

Wood pieces from Jo-Ann (Make it Love it Brand):
Currently Unavailable or Discontinued

Beeswax Polish

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How To Make A Peg Doll

Here's an old video I meant to work into a series and never did. I'm releasing it now as part of my latest blog post that shares many of my peg doll tutorials. Over the years we've made hundreds of peg dolls from simple to educational to complex. My children have also made dozens as well often just painting them to use for their educational or pretend play. Now you can get the templates for this fairy peg doll by visiting my website. The pattern and design are easy. There was a small learning curve for making them.

You can just paint the peg dolls, you don’t have to add felt, but if you want to, you can download the pattern for the fairy peg doll here.

This peg doll goes with Sarah’s Silks Mini Playhouse Kit available at A Child’s Dream. She was suppose to be the boy peg doll shown in the instructions, but I decided to make her a girl doll after I felt her face looked feminine.  My recent kindergarten haul shows Sarah’s Silks Mini Playhouse Kits as well as other peg dolls and the Lyra paints I used to paint her face and clothes.
You can see our first two peg dolls now, but soon you’ll be able to see more of my Waldorf inspired crafts in a very special place to be announced soon!

Days of the Week Peg Dolls

This has to be the cutest way to learn the days of the week. These little peg doll gnomes are easy to make, especially if you don't complicate the process as I did! I'll tell you how I did this project with my daughter, and I'll also tell you some shortcuts you take to make this project faster, but just as cute.

I used the Autumn Holland felt pack which I love and will be using in several upcoming projects.

The Lyra watercolor paints and embroidery thread are also from A Child's Dream.

I also used Heidi Swapp Color Shine in peach, red/pink, purple, green, blue and red.

For the extra shimmer, I used Perfect Pearls. You can also use the shimmer powders in Color Lab by Marion Smith

Sadly, this product is no longer available.

The Days of the Week gnomes are displayed on a piece of wood from Tree Blocks or Tree Blocks Math set.

For other tutorials check here.

Days of the Week peg dolls

Nearly all the materials for these peg dolls can be found at A Child’s Dream.

Distress Inks

Mr. Huey's white opaque spray

Months of the Year

These Months of the Year . We use them with our calendar peg dolls. Each day, the kids replace the day of the week and day of the month peg dolls. And each month and each season they replace another one. It's a fun way to keep track of the days, months and seasons. Each morning the kids look forward to changing the day. They can also use these with our weather gnomes we made last year.

Season Peg Dolls, Days of the Week peg dolls.

Nearly all the materials for these peg dolls can be found at A Child’s Dream.

31 Mini Peg Dolls | How to Make Calendar Peg Dolls

Invasion of the mini gnomes has begun! Brace yourself for this cuteness. These 31 calendar mini peg dolls are for our homeschool calendar. These small peg dolls were easy to transform into gnomes. I painted the peg doll with Lyra watercolors and twisted a triangular shaped piece of wool felt into a gnome hat. I love the colors and they look darling on our homeschool room window sill.

You can find the materials I used at A Child's Dream:

Small peg dolls, Holland felt, Lyra watercolors

A Child's Dream no longer carries Lyra.

Once the peg dolls were dry, I added a coat of shimmer using Color Lab shimmer powders.

Sadly, this product is no longer available.

You can also use Perfect Pearls as well. You can mix it with water or mix it into paint.

Check out the other calendar peg doll tutorials.

Phases of The Moon Peg Doll

These are probably the cutest peg dolls I’ve ever made! Don’t be deceived by the thumbnail, I actually made a complete lunar phase set to last an entire month! Granted it did get a little tedious and some crescents and moons look awfully similar to one another, but we got a complete set! Now we can track the lunar cycle with these adorable moon phase peg dolls. Of course my 7-year-old will be playing with them, too.

I plan to put each peg doll into our Ramadan calendar for this year and each day we can remove the peg doll and display it on a wooden plaque.

Project details:
Duration: 5+ hours
Level: advanced (young children could do the base color, but details were challenging)
Cost: $20+

Direction: First I painted all the small peg dolls with a coat of blue from our Lyra Watercolor set. Once they were dry, I gave them all a coat of Mr. Huey’s Shine for a bit of shimmer. Before painting the phases of the moon, I polished each one with Beeswax Polish. Finally, I used the white opaque paint that comes with the Lyra watercolors set to paint the phases of the moon. I watered it down until it was smooth and easy to paint and I used a stiff, yet soft bristled pointed brush for best results. While the peg dolls dried, I worked on the wooden plaque. I watercolored it with various shades of blue and white opaque paint. I added Mr. Huey’s shine and let it dry thoroughly before added beeswax polish. Then I painted the faces and hair for each doll varying the hair color, but making all them with sleepy faces. To make the sleepy eyes, just draw two half circles. The circles should be stretched like ovals and should be midway down the face. I used a felt tip marker for most, but you can also use the black paint. For the mouth, I used a magenta colored Sharpie, but red paint for be just fine. I just dotted a little mouth. For the little caps, I cut an elongated semi-circle out of 100% wool felt in various shades of blue. It was a little trial and error till I got the size I wanted with no extra felt hanging over the sides or back. I used hot glue to adhere it to the completely dry peg dolls.

Fall Inspired Peg Dolls

It's official, it's no longer pumpkin season, it's peg doll season! We've made more peg dolls in the past month than all the peg dolls we've ever made combined. We're on a roll. And now we are adding themed ones to our nature table and having a blast doing it. All the materials are from A Child's Dream. I used the large peg dolls, Lyra paint, Lamb's Pride wool yarn, and Holland Felt. The shimmer was not from A Child's Dream. It's called Perfect Pearls.

How to Make Seasonal Peg Dolls

These adorable peg dolls represent the seasons. We use them with our calendar peg dolls. Each day, the kids replace the day of the week and day of the month peg dolls. And each month and each season they replace another one. It's a fun way to keep track of the days, months and seasons. Each morning the kids look forward to changing the day. They can also use these with our weather gnomes we made last year.

Days of the Week peg dolls

All the materials for these peg dolls can be found at A Child’s Dream.

Distress Inks

Mr. Huey's white opaque spray

Four Seasons Mini Peg Dolls Tutorial

This is a super cute and fairly easy four seasons mini peg dolls tutorial. We made these super fast and they were easier than the original set of four season peg dolls which you can see here.

These adorable peg dolls represent the seasons. We use them with our calendar peg dolls. Each day, the kids replace the day of the week and day of the month peg dolls. And each month and each season they replace another one. It's a fun way to keep track of the days, months and seasons. Each morning the kids look forward to changing the day. They can also use these with our weather gnomes we made last year.

Days of the Week peg dolls

All the materials for these peg dolls can be found at A Child’s Dream.

Distress Inks

Mr. Huey's white opaque spray

Peg Doll Tutorial | Man

This is my first attempt at making these peg dolls with arms. I’ve had these peg dolls in our collection for almost a year before using them. I admit they were a little intimidating at first, but I absolutely love the way this one turned out! Though I had intended him for our Giant Turnip story, he ended up being replaced with another one. This one now belongs solely to my 11-year-old son who loves him!

The following supplies were used for this project and are available from A Child’s Dream: Peg dolls with arms, Lamb’s Pride wool yarn, Wool Felt (Silver, Gray and Charcoal for grandparents), Wool Felt (Willow, Olive and Clover for the greens), and Wool Felt (Hazelnut, Brown and Coffee for the browns). Little accessories and glue were from my crafting stash.

Mother Peg Doll Tutorial | Intermediate Level

This is my second attempt at making these peg dolls with arms. I’ve had these peg dolls in our collection for almost a year before using them. I admit they were a little intimidating at first, but I absolutely love the way this one turned out! Though I had intended her to be the grandmother for our Giant Turnip story, she ended up being a bit more stylish and looked more like the mom.

The following supplies were used for this project and are available from A Child’s Dream: Peg dolls with arms, Lamb’s Pride wool yarn, Wool Felt (Silver, Gray and Charcoal for grandparents), Wool Felt (Willow, Olive and Clover for the greens), and Wool Felt (Hazelnut, Brown and Coffee for the browns). Little accessories and glue were from my crafting stash.

Grandma Peg Doll Tutorial

This grandma rocks! And she’s all stylish too. This peg doll is part of the set we made for our Giant Turnip story. They were my first attempt at making peg dolls with arms, and while it took longer and was more challenging, my kids and I love the way they turned out.

The following supplies were used for this project and are available from A Child’s Dream: Peg dolls with arms, Lamb’s Pride wool yarn, Wool Felt (Silver, Gray and Charcoal for grandparents), Wool Felt (Willow, Olive and Clover for the greens), and Wool Felt (Hazelnut, Brown and Coffee for the browns). Little accessories and glue were from my crafting stash.

Grandfather Peg Doll Tutorial

This is my third attempt at making these peg dolls with arms. I’ve had these peg dolls in our collection for almost a year before using them. I admit they were a little intimidating at first, but I absolutely love the way this one turned out! Though I had intended her to be the grandmother for our Giant Turnip story, she ended up being a bit more stylish and looked more like the mom.

The following supplies were used for this project and are available from A Child’s Dream: Peg dolls with arms, Lamb’s Pride wool yarn, Wool Felt (Silver, Gray and Charcoal for grandparents), Wool Felt (Willow, Olive and Clover for the greens), and Wool Felt (Hazelnut, Brown and Coffee for the browns). Little accessories and glue were from my crafting stash.

Peg Doll Comparison & Winter's Cape Wool Felt

It's time for some winter crafts! Do you make peg dolls, finger puppets or anything with felt? Check out this winter collection by A Child's Dream. It's called Winter's Cape and the colors are beautiful for all kinds of fall and winter inspired projects. I'll be using these items for a peg doll exchange coming up. Debbie at A Child's Dream sent me these supplies for free so I could make and send charming little winter inspired dolls to another mystery family here on YouTube. You can find the supplies we used at A Child’s Dream: Winter's Cape wool felt pack, Large peg dolls, Small peg dolls, Bunting baby peg dolls, Finger puppet bases

How to Make Simple Peg Dolls

Looking for a fast handmade project you can do with your kids? This set is quick, adorable and easy. Make these as party favors, Valentine gifts or as a project with your children. You can omit the wooden heart and put a felt heart instead. Or better yet, simply paint a white heart on the front and letter a child’s name across each peg doll. Children are sure to delight in these and cherish them.

For this project, I used Lyra watercolor paints, 100% Holland wool felt in Spring colors, embroidery floss in pink, embroidery needles and small peg dolls. I used the book Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom. All items available at A Child’s Dream.

I used wooden hearts from my scrapbook stash by Studio Calico.

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Spring Crafts for Kids & Adults

In a last minute moment of inspiration, I turned these darling spring bunting baby peg dolls into magnets. I used super strong magnets, and it worked! I love the versatility of these mini peg dolls. Since the fall, I’ve had a set of three seasonal peg dolls grace our nature table. Each set has been unique. This time, I knew I wanted a green set, but I wasn’t sure what else I wanted to do with these. At first I thought I’d paint little flowers on them, but I didn’t feel inspired in that direction. For ideas, I opened up my scrapbook drawer houses my wood veneers and other small embellishments. I found the perfect accessory: paper flowers. I happened to have bought this set in variegated green and I happened to have made three bunting baby peg dolls. I matched up the color of the flower to each felt hat and glued them on. I added a couple of leaves in a contrasting green and to finish off this project, I sealed each one with some beeswax polish. The piece de resistance was the mini super strong magnet glued to the back. All materials can be found at A Child’s Dream, except the flowers.

Warning: While these mini peg dolls are choking hazard to begin with, they are especially dangerous in the hands of little children with a magnet. If the magnet falls off and is swallowed by the child, it can cause severe complications and in some cases, if multiple magnets are swallowed, it can tangle up the intestine and case death. Be cautious with young children.

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Ladybug Peg Doll Tutorial for Beginners

This is my first attempt at making animal peg dolls, and I can tell you, I love it!! These adorable ladybugs were inspired by both a similar design in Margaret Bloom’s Peg Doll book as well as a mini glass ladybug my sister gave me. To get the shiny gloss, I polished them with all natural beeswax polish. I had only intended to make to make one, but I messed up on the face of the first one, so I quickly made another one, and on this one, I left it without a face which actually looks a bit cuter. I did struggle with the little hat which I made myself based on examples in Bloom’s book. The hat is basically two crescent pieces sewn together. I used embroidery floss in black with an embroidery needle and didn’t bother with a fancy decorative stitch because it wasn’t going to show against the black felt. All the supplies were from A Child’s Dream. I used the super cute tiny bunting babies for the ladybugs. The rounded bellies are perfect and mimic the shape of the ladybugs. I used 100% black Holland wool felt, Lyra watercolors and Beeswax polish.

These peg dolls are for our Spring Nature and Seasonal Table. To see how we put together the table and seasonal unit as well as our other Spring projects and activities, you can click here to see the playlist

Level of project: Beginner
Duration: 20 minutes
Skip the hat and use paint and this project can take less than 10 minutes.
Cost: Less than $1 for 2

Monarch Butterfly Peg Doll

Some peg dolls and fingers puppets end up looking super cute and charming while others look like a nice try. This peg doll is one such project in which all the extra time it took to make something I envisioned turned out pretty mediocre. When it comes to how long I invested in the monarch butterfly bunting baby peg doll, it comes in at rather lengthy taking about half an hour to complete. For all that time, you’d think the results would be stellar! Alas they weren’t. You may be wondering, “why show a tutorial in which you don’t like the end result?” Good question. I have a couple of answers. First, I went to Instagram and posted a poll on whether I should turn this into a tutorial. I had already recorded the process, so I didn’t have to do it again if you all were in favor if a tutorial. A large majority, 92%, said yes. So I went ahead and polished this video up for you. Second reason is because what I think is a fail is subjective. You may actually like the way this peg doll turned out, and indeed, the finger Puppet wasn’t so bad at all. And the third reason was because there are some techniques that I haven’t shown before like coloring a cotton pipe cleaner, “drilling holes” in a peg doll and adding a blanket stitch to butterfly wings.

I’m sure you can improve on this design and I can’t wait to see what you do. I’ve already been extremely impressed with all of your projects thus far. Share your work in Instagram using the hashtag pepperandpine. Don’t forget to tag me too!! When possible, I’ll repost your work or share it in my story.

This peg doll and finger Puppet were inspired by our Butterflies and Caterpillars unit. This was a unit that had almost all the work as hands-on projects and activities. While the concept was just in line with the kind of things we do in our homeschool, the results were disappointing.

You can see more peg doll tutorials and finger puppets tutorials. There are a lot of videos with a broad range of ideas and techniques.

For today’s project, I used bunting babies peg dolls, Lyra opaque watercolor paint, 100% Holland wool and cotton pipe cleaners. All these supplies can be found at my favorite Waldorf vendor: A Child’s Dream.

This blog post is not sponsored by A Child’s Dream nor do I receive free products.

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Fairy Peg Doll Tutorial

Fairy peg dolls are some of our favorite peg dolls, but there’s one major challenge when doing these. Because the wings are so prominent and take up so much room, they usually compete with the hair. For that reason, painting on hair is an option. While I do like the ones with painted hair, I do like the hair better, but the hair gets in the way of the wings! It’s a circular problem. Maybe I need to learn how to make fairy buns.

All the supplies for this project except the glue, glitter and bling can be found at A Child’s Dream. I used the Spring Blossom Holland felt in yellow, purple and blue, Lyra Opaque watercolors, flared peg dolls and Lamb’s Pride wool yarn in white, black and brown.

If you liked this tutorial, you can check out more peg doll tutorials and finger puppet tutorials. And the paper butterfly was made for a life cycle of a butterfly project, but it’s come in handy for this project, although free-handing a butterfly isn’t hard to do.

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Peg Dolls for our Africa Unit Study

For our West Africa main lesson block spanning the years 900-1400 and the empires of Mali, Ghana and Songhai, we did several projects, cooked regional recipes and read books. We are including our peg dolls in this series, though this is the first time we are making peg dolls to represent a specific people, location and time period. These are not accurate replicas, these are based on two resources: Bringing Water to Kapiti Plain and Children Just Like Me. These peg dolls, like the meals we cook for our unit studies, carry the essence and spirit of the project or meal, not the historical accuracy. When making these for our West Africa unit, I used sources that depicted clothing from different regions of Africa and most were modern or traditional. For this project, I used materials from A Child’s Dream. The peg dolls, paints, yarn and fabric can all be found in their shop.

The accessories like beads and twigs, I got from my own supplies. I also tried out different art mediums for skin tones. Here are a few tips I learned from others and some I learned along the way: Sand peg dolls before staining (this isn’t necessary if you are painting with acrylic paint or opaque watercolor paints, though it will make your surface smoother). Use beeswax sealant to protect the finished peg doll (I usually leave my peg dolls unstained, so I’ve only started doing this more recently when I used opaque watercolors for my peg dolls for outfits). Use a weight to submerge the peg dolls when staining them in a bath.

I found that some parts that were left exposed and when the water evaporated, it left stain rings on the peg doll. At first (and in the video I say) I prefer the walnut ink (which I used as a stain), but upon reflection, I think the peg dolls that were soaked in the bath had a more even tone. One important suggestion that was offered by my friend Kristy (at Ethnic Green Living), said to make skin tone varied, even within a family. You will see that in one peg doll family. While I’m only sharing two peg doll families here, we have others in our homeschool that we have added to these history units.

Owl Peg Doll Tutorial

Finding hands-on projects for our unit studies and main lesson blocks brings me so much joy, especially when we can make adorable owl peg dolls like these. They were pretty simple to do, but had their challenges. Making the eyes were too hard for my 8-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, so after they attempted, I helped them fix it up. The beaks were also really hard to do and while we found some solutions, I’m thinking they are eventually going to break off. While those small pieces are choking hazards for young children, these peg dolls babies are also very small and so I don’t recommend giving these to young children. Also, as we used a mix of Lyra Opaque watercolors (which I believe are safe for children), I don’t know about the acrylic paint we use to make the black around the eyes. For that reason, I advise you check the safety of your paints and keep these objects (whether painted or not), out of the hands of small children.

For the first time, I glued the peg doll base onto a small square of watercolor paper using a glue dot so the children and I would have an easier time painting them. I don’t know why it took me so long to figure that out! But oh did it make things easier.

I’m using peg doll babies and Lyra Opaque watercolors for this project. You can find these materials at A Child’s Dream. I used various materials for the beak.

Check out our complete Owl Unit Study with videos on how we put this unit together, the resources we used and the projects we did. You can also check out our larger Bird Unit Study which includes more projects and resources.

Walnut Shells Sleeping Babies

These little sleeping babies in walnut shells are adorable. They'd make charming ornaments, cute table scape decorations or one-of-a-kind party favors. We made them to decorate our Fall Nature Table, but truthfully, they were barely there before being swept away to be played with along with our peg dolls and finger puppets.

For such a tiny craft, you'd think they'd be easy to make, but working with such a tiny space was actually a bit challenging at times. First we cracked walnuts carefully so we could get full shell halves. This only happened half the time. I'm using a gorgeous nutcracker from A Child's Dream. Next we fill the walnut shell with wool top. For the babies, some were directly on the wool, others on blankets and still others were removable.

For more Fall Crafts, check out this playlist.

For Winter Crafts, check out this playlist.

For Spring Crafts, Check out this playlist.

Materials for today's projects:

Nutcracker: Sadly, this product is no longer available.

Autumn wool felt is from A Child’s Dream.

Mini wooden balls

Additional supplies: hot glue gun, glue sticks, scissors and wool top for stuffing.

Mini Baby Peg Doll Tutorial

If peg dolls weren’t cute enough, they go and make these tiny bunting babies! They are adorable no matter how you make them. This set if for our nature table in our homeschool room. They were easy to make and are perfect for using up scraps. You can find the bunting baby peg dolls at A Child’s Dream. For this project, I used Lyra watercolor paints, and the gorgeous fall Holland Felt pack.

You can check out our other fall activities here.

Winter Peg Doll Tutorial

If you’re looking for a simple winter inspired peg doll tutorial, this is it! These bunting babies with white painted snowflakes and petite bonnets are fast, easy and super adorable. I made this trio of snowflake babies to accompany our other peg dolls and finger puppets on our winter themed nature table. My six-year-old loves playing here and adding a few new peg dolls to the mix enlivens her pretend play. This project uses just a few products, all of which can be found at A Child’s Dream: Bunting babies, Lyra Watercolors, and Winter’s Cape felt. You can see our winter nature table and how we put together our winter themed unit here.

How to Make (Waldorf Inspired) Finger Puppet Babies

This is quick video on how to make Waldorf inspired finger puppet babies to accompany finger puppets. All natural materials are used and can be found at A Child’s Dream. I used wooden finger puppet bases, 100% wool felt and 100% wool yarn and 100% wool batting. This project can be made with non-wool felt from local craft stores, but in my experience, the quality, durability and beauty of the wool felt surpasses that of other materials. Other tools needed: Hot glue gun, glue and scissors.

Materials for finger puppets including wool felt, Peg doll bases and Lamb’s Pride wool yarn are available at A Child’s Dream. Check out the complete YouTube playlist for Peg Dolls.

Kindergarten Craft | How to Make Finger Puppet Babies

These cute little babies only take about 4-5 minutes to make. You can find supplies at your local craft store or at A Child’s Dream. Supplies: glue gun, glue sticks, scissors, wool batting, wool felt and 1/2" wood balls. This is quick video on how to make Waldorf inspired finger puppet babies to accompany finger puppets. All natural materials are used and can be found at A Child’s Dream. I used wooden finger puppet bases, 100% wool felt and 100% wool yarn and 100% wool batting. This project can be made with non-wool felt from local craft stores, but in my experience, the quality, durability and beauty of the wool felt surpasses that of other materials. Other tools needed: Hot glue gun, glue and scissors.

Materials for finger puppets including wool felt, Peg doll bases and Lamb’s Pride wool yarn are available at A Child’s Dream. Check out the complete YouTube playlist for Peg Dolls.

Winter Peg Doll Tutorial | Waldorf Winter Nature Table

I made this set for my daughter for our Winter Nature Table. You might be surprised to learn that she didn’t end up really liking these as much as I’d hope. They’re nice, but not a hit. She may come around and like them a lot at some point, but I happen to really like them, so until she wants to play with them, they’ll decorate our Winter Nature Table.

You may not have noticed, but these are the extra large peg dolls. When I saw them at A Child’s Dream, I wasn’t interested in them. They were too big for my liking. My kids saw them and asked if we could try them out. I said, “okay.” They are 3.5 inches tall compared to the 2 inches of the typical peg dolls. When we received them, I wasn’t thrilled with them. While working with them, I found them too big, but when I was finished with this project, I absolutely loved them! Who knew! I certainly didn’t. I’m happy we tried these out. I have two more sets, and I’m thinking of making a mama and papa spring and summer…we’ll see.

There’s a first for everything 🙂

Check out our other finger puppet tutorials.

Check out the peg dolls playlist!

All materials except for beads are from A Child’s Dream:
Large Peg Doll -Man, Large Peg Doll -Woman, Felt in Winter and Autumn colors, Finger Puppet, Peg Doll Book

Materials for finger puppets including wool felt, Peg doll bases and Lamb’s Pride wool yarn are available at A Child’s Dream. Check out the complete YouTube playlist for Peg Dolls.

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Pirate Peg Dolls

Sometimes a set of peg dolls we make inspires another set years later. That’s what happened here. We made pirate peg dolls years ago for a homeschool unit study. Now we made another set inspired by that first set. For this tutorial, I used the smallest peg dolls available from A Child’s Dream. I used bulky weight yarn for the hair, though you can also use mohair as well. Sometimes I use worsted weight. I used Lyra Opaque Watercolors for the body and used a pen to dark facial features.

I love Holland felt for our crafting needs, and used scraps for this project. I dipped into our scrapbooking and beading supplies for the accessories. I also used a small amount of white acrylic paint for details and to make the watercolor paint more opaque. All these supplies can be found at A Child’s Dream. When working with small bits of felt, it’s best to use 100% wool felt as it is a more durable felt versus an acrylic felt.

The Story of the Giant Turnip | Russian Folk Tale

This is how we retell stories with props. My children are helping with the props while I tell the story. We did it three times and set two of the stories to music. The third story is without music. I edited the clips to give them movement, but basically these are unedited stories. I made a couple mistakes, but that doesn't matter as the kids like spotting the differences or just ignore them. They are not perfectionists usually, so if you are weary to try this, know that your children will delight in whatever you do. The stories can be simple, and you definitely don't need as many props as what we have. We (I mean I) got carried away with it, as I normally do, but the time was well worth it and we all love it.

I made no introduction to this video so it can be enjoyed by both adults and kids. I left all three versions in one video because children like to hear/watch the same thing again and again and this way, there's variety.

There is also significance to stories that are repetitive. While this may seem annoying to some adults, children love the anticipation of the repetitive nature of stories.

This story has been modified from the original in the book Autumn by Wynstone Publishers. We changed it so we could fashion all the characters out of peg dolls.

We felted the turnips and made the peg dolls. You can see the tutorials for the peg dolls here:

You can see how we make pegs dolls in this playlist.

Here are the finger puppet tutorials.

If you want to see more videos like this, let me know in the comment section.

3:32 and 6:37 are the stopping points for the new stories.

Grandpa, Grandma, Mom and Dad tutorials.

Finger Puppet Tutorials

  • Little Red Riding Hood Finger Puppet | Tutorial

    This quick and easy tutorial will show you how to make a charming "Little Red Riding Hood" inspired finger puppet.

    Make It

  • How to Make a Finger Puppet

    If you are just trying out making finger puppets with wooden bases, this design is both simple, fast and beautiful. Long braided hair is especially adorable!

    Make It

  • Waldorf Finger Puppet | Tutorial

    This beautiful finger puppet has a lot of details like metal embellishments that are glued on, making this finger puppet unsuitable for very young children. You could embroider rather than embellish with beads or metal pieces for safety.

    Make It

  • Spring Nature Finger Puppet | Intermediate Level

    We've started a new tradition this year and that's to have a special seasonal finger puppet for the our nature table. Our Nature Table is more of seasonal table decorated with toys, crafts, books and things found in nature.

    Make It

  • How to Make a Boy Puppet Doll | Tutorial

    Pulling out another video from the Pepper and Pine vault! This one's from December 19, 2015! Yikes! But don't worry we are getting through these old tutorials so I can bring you new ones!! Yay!

    Make It

  • Winter Inspired Doll | Green Finger Puppet Tutorial

    This is the last in a set of three winter inspired finger puppets. Perfect for this winter season, whether you live in a place that snows or not.

    Make It

  • Rainy Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the first in a series of six weather 'gnomes' we made for our school room. This one is blue with the word "Rainy" embroidered on the front.

    Make It

  • How to Make Little Red Riding Hood Puppet

    Learn to make this charming Little Red Riding Hood inspired finger puppet. All materials can be found at your local craft store and from A Child’s Dream.

    Make It

  • Boy Finger Puppet

    Finally! A boy finger puppet! I definitely have more girl puppets than boy puppets in our collection. This delightful puppet has a quiver with arrows that come out. What fun for the kids. And even after months, we still have all the arrows!

    Make It

  • Cold Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the third in a series of six weather 'gnomes' we made for our school room. This one is white with the word "cold" embroidered on the front.

    Make It

  • Windy Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the fourth in a series of six weather 'gnomes' we made for our school room. This one is grey with the word "windy" embroidered on the front.

    Make It

  • Hot Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the fifth in a series of six weather 'gnomes' we made for our school room. This one is red and orange with the word "hot" embroidered on the front.

    Make It

  • Cloudy Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the sixth and final finger puppet in a series of six weather ‘gnomes’ we made for our school room. This one is grey with the word “cloudy” embroidered on the front.

    Make It

  • Lettering on Wood Block | Tutorial

    Quick and easy way to add lettering to wood blocks. You can trace letter stickers and fill it in with pencil or use your wood burning tool or a stylish effect.

    Make It

  • How to Make a Finger Puppet

    Learn how to make a simple Waldorf inspired finger puppet using supplies found at A Child’s Dream.

    Make It

  • Finger Puppet Tutorial for Beginners 

    Open ended play is helped along with these darling little finger puppets and peg dolls. This tutorial will make the whole process easy and attainable. Even my 10-year-old can make them and you'd mistake them for ones I did.

    Make It

  • Pretend Play | Waldorf Finger Puppet Tutorial

    How much fun are these little finger puppets?! My kids have been enjoying them for years, and they are still treasured. Every few years, I make a new batch of puppets to add to their collection.

    Make It

  • How to Make a Waldorf Style Finger Puppet

    Today's project took a little time to make because I fussed and fiddled with the details of this puppet. I edited most of it out.

    Make It

  • Winter Inspired Dolls | Grey Finger Puppet Tutorial

    How darling and cozy do these little winter inspired dolls look?! I have to say that to date, these are my favorite set of finger puppets. I had to dip into a large 18x18 inch piece of grey felt that I was saving for another project, but it was worth it!

    Make It

  • How to Make a Waldorf Inspired Finger Puppet

    For this project, I used felt, yarn and finger puppets bases from A Child’s Dream. Other supplies needed: glue gun, glue stick, and scissors.

    Make It

  • Mini Doll with Blue Hair! | DIY Tutorial

    "Blue hair," said my four-year-old daughter, "that's what I want." So I made her a finger puppet with blue hair just as she requested.

    Make It

  • Winter Inspired Doll | Double Long Braids

    It's the season to get cozy with hot chocolate sitting by the fireplace while the little ones play. Add these charming winter inspired dolls to your kids' pretend play toys for hours of open-ended creative play.

    Make It

  • Finger Puppet Tutorial | How to Make Curly Hair

    Making toys for our homeschool isn't just fun for the kids, it's fun for me, too! Today's tutorial is for a curly haired finger puppet. Usually, I use worsted or bulky weight Lamb's Pride wool yarn, but today,

    Make It

  • How to Make a Blue Fairy Doll | Tutorial

    Do you have left over butterfly accessories? Why not upcylce them and adhere them onto finger puppet bases for delightful fairy dolls?

    Make It

  • How to Make a Green Fairy Doll | Tutorial

    Check out this video from the Pepper and Pine vault from December 19, 2015!! Enjoy! Ready for another fairy doll? This one was pretty quick to make from supplies I got from A Child’s Dream.

    Make It

  • How to Make a Pink Fairy Doll | Tutorial

    Boy did this fairy doll take a turn for the worse before I remedied the problem. Check out how I upcycled some decorative butterflies and used them for fairy wings. The wool, yarn and finger puppet bases are all from A Child’s Dream.

    Make It

  • How to Make a Harry Potter Finger Puppet

    How adorable is this Harry Potter finger puppet!?! Yes, this one took more time, but I have a way to cut down on the time it will take you to make this one. For the first time, I have a finger puppet pattern available!

    Make It

  • Hermione Finger Puppet Tutorial | Harry Potter 

    How adorable is this Hermione Granger finger puppet from the Harry Potter series?! Yes, this one took more time, but I have a way to cut down on the time it will take you to make this one.

    Make It

  • How to Make a Mini Broom

    How cute is this mini broom?! It's also pretty simple to make from all natural materials and chances are you can find them in nature for free! This mini broom is the perfect accessory for finger puppets, peg dolls and mini dolls.

    Make It

  • Finger Puppet Tutorial | Intermediate Level 

    My six-year-old daughter asked me to make my 19-year-old son a video game inspired finger puppet based on a character in a game he plays. This is the result!

    Make It

  • Imaginative Play | How to Make a Waldorf Finger Puppet toy

    Pretend play is and imitation play is the foundation of a Waldorf kindergarten. Learn how to make toys your kids and students will love and cherish long after kindergarten.

    Make It

  • How to Make a Waldorf Finger Puppet

    This quick and easy tutorial will walk you through the steps on how to make this black-hooded finger puppet. Most supplies can be found at A Child’s Dream or local craft stores.

    Make It

  • How to Make a Simple Finger Puppet Tutorial

    In this video, I make a darling little finger puppet using a wooden base, felt and yarn from A Child’s Dream. Other tools used are a hot glue gun, glue stick and scissors. This project took about 10 minutes (not including making the braids).

    Make It

  • Sunny Weather Finger Puppet

    This is the second in a series of six weather 'gnomes' we made for our school room. This one is yellow with the word "sunny" embroidered on the front.

    Make It

  • How to Make a Pregnant Fairy Doll | Tutorial

    Check out this Finger Puppet video from the Pepper and Pine vault from December 20, 2015. I meant to release this one first when releasing this series of fairy puppets...opps!

    Make It