The summer solstice and fairies just go together in my mind. Maybe it is Puck in Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, or maybe it’s ingrained in our psyche from centuries of folklore. At any rate, the summer solstice is here, and I have designed a peg doll fairy for the occasion!

I looked at fairy illustrations online but nothing really clicked and I don’t really like copying other folks’ ideas. So I took the dogs out for their afternoon constitutional, and found just want I needed on my next door neighbor’s sidewalk! Maple whirligigs (seeds).

I thought about gluing the whirligig onto the wooden peg doll, but the seed pods rapidly dry out and would crumble if touched. So I placed one whirligig upside down and put the small right side up and overlaid them. The pair makes perfect fairy wings!

I used my Tombow dual pen art brush markers to decorate the fairy wings. If the marker is held still on the wing, the wool felt absorbs the color. That worked much better than trying to actively draw with the pen on the felt.

I made tiny, small and medium size peg dolls for these fairies. The hand dyed merino yarn, color is “Prism”, came from Alive with Purpose which supports mental health in Minnesota. This yarn has a very short color repeat. I wasn’t sure how I would use it when I bought it, but it’s perfect for peg doll hair!

I made a bundle of loops and stitched the bundle on the sewing machine, making several passes to be sure to capture all the strands of yarn. Then I clipped the loops open to make straight hair. I trimmed the peg dolls locks once the hair was glued on the doll’s head.

Bundles of yarn hair, stitched together on the sewing machine, and the loops clipped open to create a wig.

The wooden pegs are painted with non-toxic watercolors and sealed with beeswax polish. Then the faces are added using the same markers I used to decorate the wings.

Wait! Who’s this in the fork of the tree? I do believe it’s Puck!

Mischievous Puck! Putting in an appearance at the last minute!

Bella Luna toys has posted a Summer Peg Doll tutorial by Margaret Bloom on their blog if you’d like to see some other summer fairies and learn more about creating your own summer fairies.

I learned from Bella Luna’s blog post and Margaret Bloom’s Instagram feed* @webloomhere, that June 24th is International Fairy Day. Who knew??

*Margaret Bloom’s IG post was what inspired me to create my own Summer Solstice Fairies. : ) Thanks for the idea!

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