Worry dolls (made of old batteries) 5+

***Post update:
after 6 months of every-night talks and sleeping under Ela's pillow we can now honestly confirm they are totally safe and taking big part of worries away :)

Last week Ela and I went to Library to get some new books to take home.
There was one we really liked and inspired me to a new project.
Worry dolls...

I hear about the dolls long time ago.
If you didn't then read some more about it here Worry dolls ;)Then I found out the inspiration of "Silly Billy" book is nothing new in the on-line crafting world :)
I desperately wanted to make some worry dolls for Ela but in this case I needed to came up with something new.
I have seen dolls made of clothes pins, pegs, chopsticks, toilet paper tubes, toothpicks...
I looked around and 

BINGO!
Old used alkaline batteries will now find a better use :)

Lets have a look how it goes then!

Colourful materials were waiting for Ela when came back from school :)

Measuring and cutting felt pieces to cover the batteries.

I choose few colours to imitate different shades of the human skin. 


The hands were made of straighten paper clips.I guess working with wire would be easier but I just didn't have any.

All the parts ready to be glued with hot glue gun.
This step leave it for yourself, is a bit fiddly...but very rewarding after when is done ;)

Then trimming of the felt, wires and toothpicks so they're not too sharp.

Ready for the fun bit - dressing up!

This little lady is a prototype so she observed the whole transformation of the others ;) 

Ela was choosing materials and matching the colours,drawing faces and shoes, working with thread.
I helped her by using a hot glue to attached the fabrics, thread, beads etc.

I asked why so sad, "She worries a lot mommy"...Of course :)
Happy with the first results, lets keep going.

                        Now this is the bunch we created!

We needed some kind of home to keep them safe by the Ela's bed.
At first I attempt to use one of the oversized match boxes but the dolls didn't fit as the amount of clothing and hair make them larger :)
So we used a coffee jar again, and decorated.

They were ready to go into the jar.

Now lets see if that's working and Ela stop worrying, having nightmares and brings us a peaceful nights :)

                                                             Don't worry
                                               be happy!

*Caution:
This craft idea is not suitable for children under 5.
Small children could bite the batteries.
Alkaline batteries are safer then non-alkaline however read the information here https://practicegreenhealth.org/pubs/alkbatfs.pdf if you worry about toxicity.

You can also use some wine/champagne corks instead in exact same way we did it with the batteries ;)