Magnetic Paper Dolls

Supplies:

• Book of Pre-cut Paper Dolls, $3.80 (Hobby Lobby with my coupon….over by the coloring books)
• Adhesive Magnetic Sheets, $2(?) for 2 sheets (I bought mine at Wal-Mart….cheapest I found.  I bought 3 packages.  But it just depends on how big your doll pieces are.  Mine were really big.)
• Cookie Sheet, $2.88 (Wal-Mart……..or use an old one and spray paint it.  Cute.)
• Piece of scrap fabric slightly bigger than your cookie sheet, free (from my stash)
• A piece of 1/8 inch side elastic a little smaller than the perimeter of your fabric piece, free (from my stash)
• OPTIONAL: scrap fabric for lettering and small piece of double sided fusible web, free (from my stash)

Before I began, I thought I was going to have to use special glue and seal the edges and add extra glue to each piece, etc.  However, the adhesive magnetic sheets I bought worked wonderfully.  It doesn’t peel away from the paper dolls at all.  In fact, I tried to peel a paper doll dress off of the magnetic sheet and it tore the bottom layer of the dress right off.  Success.

Here is the package of magnetic sheets I bought, that came as a 2 pack.  They worked awesome and like I mentioned above, the paper dolls aren’t peeling up one bit.  This stuff sticks pretty darn well.

To get started, punch out your doll pieces (or cut if applicable) and place them right to the sticky side of your magnetic sheets.  Try to use up as much space as possible and arrange all of your doll pieces down first before cutting anything.  Press each piece down firmly.  Then, begin cutting out each shape with the magnetic sheet stuck right to the back.

Each of your pieces should be nice and secure to the magnetic backing.

Repeat with all of your pieces.  Set aside.

If you want to make a cover for your cookie sheet base……..cut out a piece of fabric that is about an inch bigger on all sides.  Cut with the contour of your cookie sheet.

Then zig-zag or serge around the outer edge.

Then cut out letters and adhere to the fabric with double sided fusible webbing.  (I did this the same way as the lettering here.  Except instead of stitching around each letter, I just sewed a line through the center of each letter……just to keep them in place.  I figured that the stitch plus the adhesive of the webbing would keep it on well enough because this will never be thrown in the washer.)

Next, place your fabric right side down, under the needle of the sewing machine.  Begin sewing one end of your elastic down for about an inch, right next to the edge of the fabric.  (I started in the middle of one of the longer sides.)  Then, with your needle in down position, pull the end of you elastic so that it stretches out a bit……..

Then keep it pulled and lay it down along your fabric.  Be sure to keep that fabric pulled flat as you sew, like shown on the left.  Down loosen the grip on your elastic or it will pull in your fabric, like shown on the right (which is not correct).  Just keep the elastic pulled semi tight and right next to the edge of the flat fabric as you sew.  And sew down the center of the piece of elastic.  (Using a zig-zag stitch can be helpful for this too if you keep missing the elastic as you sew.)

And then as you sew, your elastic will pull back in and will pull the fabric in with it.  See how that works??  This way, you don’t need a casing for your elastic.  And as you sew around a corner, just pull the elastic around the corner a bit, sew a few stitches, then re-adjust and repeat several times.

After you make your way all the way around your fabric, overlap the elastic about an inch and sew down in place.  Cut the excess elastic off.

Now your fabric piece should cinch in like this.  If it didn’t, you didn’t pull your elastic tight enough as you were sewing.  (And you’ll have to unpick it and try again.)  If it’s pulled in tighter than this, that’s okay……it will still work great.

Now place over your cookie sheet to be sure it fits just right.

And that’s it.  Your little Magnetic Paper Doll set is ready to be played with.  Now make a little boy version with boy paper dolls (if you can locate some)……or create a magnetic scene of dinosaurs or cars or friendly monster shapes.  Just as fun.