Pirate Peg Doll

This activity is really very simple. Most of it is simply drawing details on. I gave it to my almost-12-year-old and she did everything herself.

Materials

Felt (or light card)
Texta / Ball point pen
Wooden Peg (You can get them from places like Spotlight)
Craft/Hot Glue
Scissors

1. Draw a pirate hat shape out on felt or light card and cut out 2 pieces. My daughter free handed this, and you can find her template here if you want to print it.

2. Glue the two sides of the hat together allowing for a space for the peg head.

3. Ensure when you draw on the clothes that the peg is sitting the right way. You need opening at the front/back (not the sides) so the pants look right.

4. Google pirate illustration inspiration and plan out the design roughly on a piece of paper.

Tip: An easy tip for pirate pants is to do a zig zag hem.

5. Regular felt pens work well on the wooden pegs. When you’re ready to start, just draw! I’ve done quite a few peg dolls in my time and I have tips for drawing the face below.

6. Drawing the face isn’t hard, but it’s easy to make a mistake with felt pens for the eyes, and if you’re using a thick pen, it can bleed into the wood. I find either a fine tip pen or even a ball point pen works best for drawing eyes.

6. My daughter added a red cape to her pirate too. If you want to make a mermaid peg doll, you can find the instructions here.

Ideas

Make up a story at bedtime
Do a puppet show
Make a pirate ship out of cardboard
Make a stick raft (tutorial here/image below)
Just play!
Make a story board series using your peg doll. You can do this without any Photoshop skills by using PowerPoint. You can find the instructions on how to do this here. This is a great extension activity for older kids.