This Holy Family set is made from old-fashioned clothespins and felt.  This set would be perfect for a Christmas project or to give as a gift. These cute little craft doll/statues can be used as a doll for young children, as a statue, or as an ornament for the tree. This craft requires the use of hot glue, so if you plan to make these with small children they will need help. Older children may be able to do these on their own if they are accustomed to using hot glue.

Materials

For Mary :

For Baby Jesus:

  • mini old fashioned clothespin or a craft stick
  • Scrap piece of white felt  (about 1/2 the size of the head covering)
  • wooden ring (to help the doll stand, if it needs help)
  • Hot glue

For St. Joseph you’ll need:

  • brown felt robe*(see felt cutting instructions)
  • green head-covering -half the size of the one shown on the *cutting instructions.
  • brown string for waist and head
  • Hot glue

NOTE: The instructions for St. Joseph are the same as those for Mary, just use different colors and a smaller head covering. After gluing on his head covering it looks a bit more masculine if you fold the sides of his head covering back away from the face and glue it in place. Add a string around the head covering, too. You may need to use a few tiny drops of glue to keep it in place. Hot glue a stick to his waist as pictured. Use a brown colored pencil to draw his beard.

 *Felt Cutting instructions, click to enlarge:

 Materials for Mary and baby Jesus:

After cutting out your felt pieces, push the round clothespin head into the small head hole in the dress. You may need to add a drop of hot glue at the upper chest and upper back of the doll clothespin to keep the dress from sliding down the clothespin. Pull all the dress parts down against the clothespin and tightly knot a string around its waist. You may need an extra hand to hold the dress down while you knot the waist string. Now, cut off the extra string ends. If the dress is too long, cut it to the correct length. If the opening on the sides of the dress are showing, hot glue it together.  Add hot glue to the top and sides of the dolls head and cover the top of her head with the head covering. Note: You may have to cut a slit in the back of the veil, (from the bottom of the veil up to the head)  so it will lay down properly. Then hot glue the back of the veil down in a way so you don’t see the cut.
Now for the baby:

Cut or break the bottom of the mini clothespin off so it is the correct size. OR if you don’t have a mini old-fashioned clothespin you can use a craft stick. Break the craft stick in half and hot glue them one on top of the other.
Now add some hot glue to the top and side of the baby’s head and wrap the edge of the felt piece around the top of the baby’s head. Then wrap the rest of the felt around the baby, covering it completely. Hot glue the blanket in place.
 
Then hot glue it to the doll of Mary. If possible, try to use the wrinkles in her dress and veil as arms so it can look like she is holding the baby. If the doll has a hard time standing on its own you may need to buy a wooden ring to help it stand. If you can’t find wooden rings, you may be able to hot glue the doll to a small wooden flat shape. I hope I explained this well enough, If you have any questions please post a comment and I will respond.

I hope you enjoy making these little doll/statues as much as we did!! 
Take care and God bless.
~Jen-Marie

11 Comments

  1. Jennifer, this is adorable. thanks for sharing the pattern too!

  2. Oh, I love them! I wonder if we could make them in catechism class to go with the Infancy Narratives presentation… I want to create something simple for the kids to work with at home; not sure how many of them have Nativity sets they can \”play\” with.Thank you for sharing!

  3. Thanks Gardenia! I hope I explained it well. I can make crafts, but explaining them is harder! I'm sure you understand. God Bless!

  4. Hi Cheryl, I think having these for the kids to play with is a great idea! I made the Mary/Jesus dolls with our Little Flowers Club a few years ago. It was a group of about 6 or 7 girls. That worked well. But if your class is a big group you might want some helpers and a few glue-guns. Hope it all works well for you. God Bless.

  5. These are great, Jennifer! We recently had to make one of these clothespin dolls as a school project and I have so much felt and a lot of clothespins left so I think we'll try the Holy Family dolls too. Thanks!

  7. These are great and I know my daughters will love to make them and play with them. My oldest daughter loves paper dolls so I'm sure she would love these too! I'm your newest follower, by the way, and can't wait to read more of your posts. I read about your beautiful family and you amaze me that you make time for such cute crafts with all your little ones! I love meeting other Catholic bloggers! I hope you can stop by my blog, A Slice of Smith Life, and visit! Thanks for linking up to NOBH! Glad to have you! 🙂

  8. I love how they turned out!! I could definitely see making a whole Nativity scene with these dolls. Thanks for linking up to NOBH!

  9. Hello! I just wanted to let you know that your awesome Nativity people have been featured in my Make Yourself Monday blog hop this week. Thank you so much for playing! Please grab an \”I was Featured\” button from my left sidebar. :o)JamieFor Love of Cupcakes

  11. Love the clothespin gift idea. So cute.

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