Store your embroidery floss in binders.

Several people reached out to share some really clever ways they are storing their thread supplies in binders. The photos below from Paula include skeins of floss wrapped around DMC Stitch Bows which fit in these mini binder inserts from DMC and can be popped into their mini needlework travel bag. The Stitch Bows allow the thread to stay in the shape of the skein and they can be labeled with adhesive number labels, also available from DMC.

Meanwhile Anne shares:

“I can't take credit for this one: a friend was moving and had stopped using embroidery floss and offered me hers. She gave it to me in two 3-ring binders! At her work, she had gotten sheets (pages) of plastic that had pockets, perhaps to hold slides (back in the day when that was part of photography). She wound the thread around these cardboard cards…She had pages for all the shades to blue, then green, etc.”

- Anne

Similarly, Kim says:

“I bought tons of DMC floss and wrapped each of the colors on those plastic/cardboard embroidery cards. Then I bought plastic coin holder pages and inserted each color into the pockets. Now I have 3 notebooks of floss in numerical order!”

- Kim

You can still purchase the slide/coin sleeves that both Anne and Kim mention and use them for your embroidery storage. A wrapped bobbin should fit pretty perfectly in those slots! Keep them in a 3-ring binder to quickly flip through all of your threads and grab what you need.

“I use plastic baggie type organizer which is made by Darice for storing embroidery floss. The bags have an area for labels and two holes for keeping them together with binder rings. I keep the floss in number order.”

Prep the Parts

The dolls shown here have been prepped by sanding the opening in the pin with fine-grit (240 or better) sandpaper, as well as sanding any rough spots on the head and base. For some dolls, we stained the doll head, body, and base with the artist's acrylics. The Nigerian mother was stained by painting the parts and wiping off the excess paints. The Japanese doll and the doll in the Saree were left a natural wood, while the contemporary doll was painted with acrylic paints. The easiest way to paint the parts is to set the pins in a base and paint the heads while they are held loosely on a pin as shown above.

We suggest you paint only the sections of the doll's body which will be seen once the doll is costumed. The head and neck might need painting, depending on the skin tone you wish. If the doll will have a short-skirted costume or shorts, you may need to paint the legs. We painted the contemporary mother's legs to match her skirt colors and added tiny white polka dots to the legs to make stockings. We used the end of a sharp toothpick to make the tiny dots in a regular pattern.

If you wish, you can paint the doll support base ring. We painted the ring for the contemporary doll as it will be on view, but the other doll's rings are covered by the fabric of their costumes.

If you use artist's acrylic paints, you should only need two coats. One will be a full coat, the other a touch-up coat. Tube acrylic paints are better for this work than craft bottles of paint, which may have a poor liquid to pigment ratio. You will need very small quantities of paint.

Store your embroidery floss in bins.

“I use a tool box, it has lidded plastic trays perfect for storing small card or plastic bobbins of thread. There is also room to store balls of Perle threads etc. I can see everything so it works well.“

- Carole

Prep Your Materials

These parts produce a doll that is slightly smaller than the standard dollhouse (1:12) scale, but which can be used with many standard dolls house accessories and clothes. Arms for the dolls can be made from chenille pipe cleaners, or from 18/20 gauge paper or fabric wrapped wire, covered with embroidery floss to suit the doll's skin tone or costume.

To prepare the doll bodies for the insertion of arms, a hole slightly larger than the covered wire or pipe cleaners used for the arms is drilled just down from the shoulder of the clothespin. You can use a power drill or a pin vice to drill the armhole if you have the correct sized drill bit. Make sure you line up the armhole so it goes through the body at right angles to the legs!