Worth a Mint!

Since we are doing an altered mints tin with fibers for a fiber art group, I decided to submit a tutoral on one that I have made. This particular mint tin stands so it gave me an idea to make a whimsical sitting art doll. Click her to enlarge and see her detail.



First you need to purchase a tin of mints. Empty them in a bowl and feast on them while you work:) Use an awl or a nail and punch a hole in the top for head placement and one on each side for the arms about 1 inch down. As you can see, I also punched holes for the legs, but later decided to sew them to the body so I didn't need them after all.



Next you will need to have a piece of fabric for the body. I machine quilted a piece on thin cotton batting and then cut down to the size to fit around the tin. Approx. 2 1/2 X 4 1/2. I finished the edges by satin stitching with a rayon thread all the way around. For the legs and arms, I used a double knit striped fabric. Make them the length that you wish. I seem to think that long whimsical legs are most fun. Mine are 15 " long. I cut the strips 1 1/2" wide and sewed 1/4 inch seam allowance and turned with a Fasttube tool. The arm fabric is 1 1/2 " X 5 1/2 inches long.





As you can see in this photo above, I sewed the legs right onto the body fabric and fited the body around the tin. Notice that I didn't cover the top edge where the lid comes down. You can either glue your fabric on or what I did was whip stitch the back enclosure. Then you can take wire to form the arms. I used about a 10 inch 20 gauge wire and formed a loop. Make a hole through the fabric and the prepunched hole. Twist and fan out. I also covered it with a piece of duct tape on the inside so that it would be smooth so I could later put something in the tin.





Next add the sleeves by rolling the edge 1/4 inch down and sew it to the body by hand. Don't worry if the sleeves are too long as you will be adding the hands later and can trim and fold the cuff as needed. I also used a little bit of Fun wire for the ankle and feet. If you wish make the whole leg more posible, you can fill in the length. Sew the legging toe closed. Add a bell or a piece of a feathered boa.





Form the hands with fimo clay in a hand mold or if you wish, make a mitten or you could even add beads for the hands. I looped a piece of wire and added it the the wrist and baked it for 275 degrees for 30 min. I then took the arm wire loop and bent it back like a hook and attached it to the loop of the hand.



Then I took and extra piece of Fun wire and wrapped around the wrist area to reinforce it for posing.




For the head, I used a wooden bead with a wide hole in it. I looped a piece of boa feathers with wire twists. I made a collar from wired ribbon.





I glued the ribbon down for the neck area and ran the wire from the head into the tin. More glue at the base of the head and twisted the under wire and again covered it with duct tape. You can now paint the face and add any embellishments you wish.
Put a special trinket in the tin to give to someone. After all, you ate all the mints!!!