I was chopping vegetables for a salad the other day and I was inspired by the green onions! Holding up the long, thin, onion it looked like a little person to me; the white bulbous end of the onion was the head, the spiky little roots looked like hair and the long green scallion stems were the body! Sure, why not!? So I got out my felting needles and went to work.

If green onions had a personality, I’m sure they’d be giggly like little girls and cheeky when you pulled them from the ground. I’ve been trying to create a series of natural toys for kids and my imagination snuck up on me and came up with these. Surprisingly, this was a lunch salad I was fixing, so there was no alcohol consumption involved!

After I make something, I sit and look at it for quite a while. I need time to see if anything needs to be changed or altered before I decide if I’m happy with it. I was sitting in the living room holding and contemplating the bunch of dolls when my oldest daughter came in the front door. ” Are those ONIONS?” she asked. “Yep”, was my reply. I had already become comfortable with my new, slightly odd creation: green onions as dolls. “Oooookaaay”, she said as she went into the kitchen, because she’s used to seeing odd things sitting around our house like giant needle felted tarantulas, boxes of doll eyes, doll body parts or 7 foot tall paper mâché mushrooms.

Surpringly simple to make, my green onion dolls seem to make everyone smile. See the following tutorial to make your own! These dolls are also available to purchase from my website shop: http://www.lauraleeburch.com/?page_id=3&category=3&product_id=35 or my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/60075734/green-onion-dolls

Green Onion Doll Tutorial: This tutorial shows how to make one needle felted green onion doll.

Tools: felting needles, sponge for felting surface, embroidery needle, scissors

wool: dark green (body/stems) I prefer felting a course wool like shetland or New Zealand

bright green-felted in the center area, visually connecting stems and the head

white (head)

core wool or fiber-fill (base shape)

white curly yarn (hair)

thread (for wrapping core wool or fiber fill to make base shape)

green embroidery thread (for the face and securing stems and yarn hair)

1. Bind the core wool into the shape of the white part of the onion (5.25″/14cm long x 5″/13cm wide at the widest point) with sewing thread.

2. Wrap the onion head with white wool, needle it on till it’s firm.

3. Roll the onion head between damp palms to smooth it.

4. Tear off five pieces of dark green wool (about 15″/38cm long). Each one is a stem. Fold a stem in half vertically, felt till firm, keep folding and felting till the stem is about (.5″/1.5cm wide) and resembles a green onion stem. Do this for all five stems.

5. Roll the stems between damp palms to smooth the stems and make the ends pointy.

6. Make a cut in the non-rounded end of the onion head to insert the stems. Push all the stems into the cut and sew them into place with sewing needle and thread. Wrap the sewing area with more white wool, felt.

7. Stuff the five stems into the cut, sew with needle and thread to secure the stems. Cover the sewn area with more white wool, felt till smooth.

8. Place light green wool vertically in the center area of the onion (the area where the stems and white onion body meet). Felt till firm. Roll between your damp palms to smooth.

9. Cut five pieces of curly wool yarn for the hair.

10. Cut a slit in the top of the onion head to insert the yarn hair.

11. Insert the five pieces of curly yarn into the cut in the top of the onion head. Sew the yarn into the head to secure.

12. With green embroidery thread, embroider a face on the onion doll. (Irreverent vegetable attitude optional!)

Saftey Note: The yarn hair and stems should be additionally secured into the doll by sewing them with a needle and thread. The yarn, stems or optional tounge can be a choking hazard for very small children.