Olives For the Dolls

Watch the video here

This week for my Trash to Treasure project I decided to work in three different scales. I show you how to turn some inexpensive beads into some green olives for the dollhouse, for Barbie or for your 18” dolls.

These are really simple as a trash to treasure project should be. They go together in just minutes although you will need to wait for the glue to dry.

I used some little glass beads (they say they are size 11/0) for the dollhouse size and I used the same beads in a larger size (6/0) for Barbie size. I got both of these packages of beads at Walmart a few years ago and they were very inexpensive but I don't remember the exact cost. You could also use a plastic bead of about the same size. Just think about the size of olives in real life compared to your hand and scale the bead size to your doll's hand. For the larger, 18” dolls (like American Girl, Journey Girls and all their friends) I used some simple plastic Pony Beads.

I am going to be branching out to doing more 18” doll items and I am starting an additional blog for that. Stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks.

This project can easily be re-sized to just about any doll size, just use your doll's hand to find the correct size beads.

For the Pimento that fills the beads I used embroidery floss for the two smaller sizes and some inexpensive yarn for the larger ones. You can use any floss or yarn as long as it is in scale to the bead.

The first step of applying some glue to end of the piece of floss/yarn and letting that dry will make this project so much easier than if you skip this step. Trying to get that floss/yarn through the opening in the beads as it comes from the store is almost immpossible.

Some people like to coat the floss/yarn with glue before they string the beads on, for me it works better to get a bunch of beads on and then push them out of the way and coat the floss/yarn with glue and place my beads where I want them. Do remember to space the beads out (you are going to waste some of the floss/yarn between the beads) so they are easier to cut apart once dry.

Also after loosing a bunch of beads a few times in the past I got into the habit of tying a knot in the end of the floss/yarn so that the beads stop and don't slide off the end.

I do prefer to use a thinner white glue for this (like Elmers) it seems to work better at soaking into the floss/yarn that a thicker glue but use whatever you have on hand.