Find all of my peg doll resources here!
This is a super cute and fun toy for Catholic kids. You don’t have to special order expensive wooden peg doll parts to make these; you don’t have to be a great painter to pull this off either. Trust me, you can craft these adorable Catholic peg people- you really can. And you know what? These fun little Nun dolls make great Mass toys for little girls!
To make these, just go get the big bag of “doll pins” from your local craft store. Ya, they’re maybe not quite as nice as some of those fatter peg people things, but those are a lot more expensive, and in a lot of cases you have to special order them. The doll pins work just fine. Paint them with some cheap acrylic paints skin colored. You can either paint on a face, or just draw on a simple face with a Sharpie marker. It’s okay if they just look like a smiley face- really, it is. 🙂 Then, paint on the basic colors of their habit (see picture below). When you’re finished with the painting part, you can seal them with Mod Podge or similar sealer, but you don’t have to. It will just help them last longer.
I cut their clothes out of assorted colors of felt. Different peg dolls can be different sizes, so just play with it a little until you get their clothes the right size to wrap around. When you get one right, use it as a pattern to cut out all the others. Here’s what our pieces looked like before we glued them together:
First, glue the rectangle around the waist as the skirt. (We used hot
glue). Then, glue the half circle over the head. The very center of the straight side goes at the top of the forehead, and hangs down on either side of the face. I glued it down all the way and glued it down kind of bunchy in the back so the kids can’t take it off and it doesn’t flap.
For the Mother Teresa-looking peg doll, here’s what it looks like before it’s glued together.
Again, the rectangle goes on first, then the head veil. I used a paintbrush and some blue acrylic paint to add these stripes, but you could also use blue puffy fabric paint, or glue some blue string.
Here are the little pieces I used for the one with the weird Nun hat.
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First, glue on the half-circle-looking shape on the head straight-side-up, like so:
Then add a little triangle to each side, like this.
They can all be a little different. Search for pictures of different orders of Nuns online before starting, and you can try to make them match. I made these a while ago, so I don’t remember what orders I based these on, but for sure if I make more we’ll be making some Carmelites! 🙂 How did I miss them?!
I have given these as presents at Birthday parties before, and they’re always well received. Just make sure you reserve this idea for your Catholic friends. 😉
Have fun with your little Nun peg dolls! Warning: If you take these to Mass to let your daughters play with them, lots of people sitting around you will tell you how cute they are when Mass is over. 🙂
Also, don’t miss my post on how to make Priest peg dolls! More little Catholic peg dolls are to come later this week. Stay tuned!
Find all of my peg doll resources here!
Related Posts:
- How to make Priest peg dolls
- Make Nun Puppets from Paper Bags
- Make a Nun Costume
- Make a Mother Teresa Costume
- Embroider Nun dolls
So creative, Lacy! I’ll be making a Mother Teresa peg doll for a Godly Play story later this year, so you have given me some ideas to work with.: )
This is so ridicuously cute I can’t believe it!!! My daughter is a new nun…franciscan/domincan, I will have to make her one!! Thank you for all your great ideas! Many of our Faith FOrmation classes at our church use your site….thanks!!!
The priest peg dolls would be perfect in a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium. A cool guy toy, too.
Cute idea! Random fact- if you search yahoo images for “nun” a picture of you wearing a nun costume comes up.
Lol! The internet is a weird place. 😉