Carmen Miranda: A Needle-Felted FOGLEBERRY Doll

Wool is amazing! It looks beautiful in earthy colors and vibrant colors. Take that beautiful wool and needle felt it, and the results can be pretty fun. When admiring the vibrant tones of Ashland Bay Merino roving, it wasn't a far jump to think of that famous Brazilian 1940s movie star in the Tutti Fruitti Hat: Carmen Miranda.

This Fogleberry doll stands at the impressive height of 10-1/4" (inches) from the bottom of her classic platform shoes to the tip of her pineapple hat. She has that big smile on her face because of winning the "Best of Show" award in the Felting category at the Ohio State Fair in 2012.

Making this doll was great fun and a nice chance to use a lot of color. Every pom-pom on her dress was individually felted and attached to her outfit. She is felted in position and is solid wool --- no wire armature or anything like that. I enlisted my sister to make Carmen's jewelry. It's handmade from jewelry wire and glass beads.

The real "crowning" touch to this Brazilian Bombshell is her fruit-laden hat! It's complete with a whole pineapple, a large bunch of grapes, two bananas and a Naval orange. Be sure to check this Fogleberry doll out by visiting our Etsy shop (use the link in the bar at the top of this page). Thanks for looking!

King of the Watusi MINIKIN Doll (King Solomon's Mines)

The latest Minikin is patterned after Umbopa, King of the Watusi Tribe, as he appears in the 1950 film version of King Solomon's Mines. This is a character that we have always wanted to "turn into a doll", and a Minikin just the right answer.

This little Umbopa stands at a towering height of 4-1/2 inches and even carries his traveling blanket role. His brightly colored robes are made of Wool/Rayon felt and stitched with linen and cotton floss. His impressive hair-do is sculpted out of 100% needle-felted wool. Picture above shows our MINIKIN Umbopa alongside pictures of the real one!

The Minikin King of the Watusi doll is available in our Etsy shop. Just use the link in the bar at the top of this page to visit our store.

King Aragorn in Coronation Robes MINIKIN Doll

After featuring the little Bilbo Minikins in the previous entry, it is only fair to put the spotlight on another Lord of the Rings based miniature. This Minikin is based on Aragorn, King Elessar of Gondor of the House of Strider as he appears in his Coronation Robes in The Return of the King. Big title for a little doll!

This is definitely a one-of-a-kind Minikin. Instead of having clothes made entirely of wool felt, this little fellow features a chain-mail tunic made from a shiny, woven fabric that is covered by another tunic made of 100% silk. These are topped off with the outer tunic of felt --- hand-embroidered in metallic thread with the beautiful symbol of the Tree of Gondor. Aragorn's crown is crafted from gold-colored jewelry wire and gives him that authentic regal look. :)

This adorable Minikin is available in Peppermint Toes' Etsy shop, so be sure to check it out! You can get to our shop by using the link in the bar at the top of this page. Thanks for looking!

Bilbo Baggins MINIKIN Doll from Tolkien's "The Hobbit"

Characters from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were the very first idea that we had when it came to designing Minikin dolls. After getting basics under our belts like bodies and patterns, it wasn't hard to envision Minikins from Middle Earth. We set out to make the nine characters in The Fellowship, since that would give us a chance to experiment with Hobbits, a Dwarf, an Elf and Men --- not to mention, Gandalf the Grey! The picture below shows the final result. This set of dolls never made it into our Etsy shop, since they are staying in our private collection. Just couldn't part with them! Characters shown are (left to right): Aragorn, Boromir, Frodo Baggins, Samwise aka "Sam", Gimli, Pippin, Merry, Legolas and Gandalf.

We have decided to make some single Lord of the Rings Minikins, though, and the first two are now available. Because of the recent release of The Hobbit, we decided to make a little Bilbo Baggins. In the end, we made two --- one in Bilbo's "Hobbiton" outfit and one in his "Adventure" outfit. These are in the shop, so check them out by using the shop link in the bar at the top of this page.

We would also be open to custom orders for other Lord of the Rings characters (sorry --- no orcs, goblins or bad guys), so feel free to ask. We'll let you know if we have the materials to make the character of your choice into a Minikin. Thanks for looking!

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot as a MINIKIN Doll

One of the very first characters that Elizabeth and I wanted to design for our line of Minikin dolls was Agatha Christie's Belgian Detective. A little Hercule Poirot doll seemed made for these miniature felt characters. After a lot of time studying the various suits worn by David Suchet in the Poirot TV shows (a family favorite), we finally came up with six different suits.

We listed four of these in the shop on Wednesday and were still working on the last two --- but all six sold in about five minutes! :) We are now hard at work making some more to list again. We do have a "Custom Order" option available in the meantime.

All of the suits are made of a Wool/Rayon felt, and the heads, hair and trademark mustache are needle-felted out of 100% wool. We're planning on designing Minikins of Captain Hastings, Miss Lemon and Inspector Japp in the future, so keep checking back!

Now Available in the Shop: MINIKIN Dolls

After two days of photographing and writing ads, the first MINIKIN dolls are available in our Peppermint Toes shop on Etsy. We've got all kinds of characters --- including some from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Robin Hood and his Merry Men, and Agatha Christie's famous detective, Hercule Poirot!



All of the Minikins had a great time, since they got together for a "family" reunion. Pictured above are all of the Minikins that we've made so far, but there are quite a few more in the works. Check back often, and feel free to request a custom order through our Etsy shop.

'Peppermint Toes' is Up and Running!

After a lot of talking, thinking and working. we have given our new Etsy shop an "extreme make-over". We've got a new name, a new logo and some new categories.

Our original shop name was "The Fogleberry Shoppe", since the primary items for sale were my felted Fogleberries. The whole family has decided to get into this, however, so we decided to change to a more generic shop name that can include all kinds of items.

We are planning on featuring Fogleberries (needle-felted wool dolls), Minikins (miniature wired dolls made of wool and wool felt), Nacho's Flies and Fishing-Rod Covers, Ragtime Quilts, Upscale American Girl Doll Clothes and anything else that we think of!

Use the links in the navigation bar at the top of this page to visit our shop or to read more about it. Thanks for looking! Check back often.