Pin Dolls

Several months ago, our Doll Club decided we would each make 5 pin dolls to sell at the Quilt Show next week as a fundraiser for our club.  Last year, we spent several meetings each making doll parts and then assembling the dolls.  This year, we decided to do them individually and our completed dolls are due today.  

Five dolls - piece of cake, right?  Not for me.  The dolls you see are my finished dolls and I do really love them now that they are done.  But these dolls were a real struggle for me to get going on.

 I thought,  "I'll have my doll pins done in NO time!" But that's not exactly how it went.   I thought I would branch out and make my dolls be different than the ones we've done in previous years (although these are always great sellers).  I thought about what my dolls were going to be like.  I researched pin dolls on the internet.

 I went to Hobby Lobby more than once and purchased materials for the different dolls I was "going to make".  I went back to Hobby Lobby and bought the mold for the face of the pin dolls we originally made.  I even molded the faces out of polymer clay - and then left them sitting, unbaked, on my craft table for almost TWO MONTHS! Ugh...

 I was determined NOT to make the same dolls this year.  But guess what - as it usually does, time ran out on me.  Honestly, I procrastinated up until the very last minute.  I've been stressing about these dolls since they first announced we were to make them and I let it stress me for months. Crazy, I know.

 So, late yesterday afternoon, (I still wasn't going to make these!)  I went up to my craft room and started on a different doll.  I got halfway into it and didn't like it at all.  So, angry at myself for waiting so long, and disappointed that I would have to make these dolls, I set to work. I baked those clay faces (finally!) and cleared up that spot on my craft table.  I selected some pretty papers, beads and embellishments and started enjoying the process.

 Hours later, as these girls were coming together, I was happy, calm, and the time had flown by! Once I got over myself, stopped dragging my heels and set to work - I LOVED IT! I love my pin dolls.  In fact, I don't really want to give them away.  But I will - and I hope someone will love them too.

Guess that is my lesson that I needed to learn once again - just do it - it wastes so much energy to stress over small stuff - and once I get going on something, it's usually no where near as bad as I've made it up in my mind to be.