Not exactly a word of the week, I know. 😉 I’m giving myself permission to be lazy, since it’s my birthday. But my “lazy” just means working on projects that are just fun, not technically work. Which today means corn husk dolls.
I just looked up how to make them yesterday, in preparation for a Little House in the Big Woods class that I’ll be helping teach with our homeschool group this fall. Xoë and I had fun putting one together, but it doesn’t seem exactly sturdy. (The image above is NOT ours, LOL. Ours looks more like this….)
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| Attempt #1. Falling apart, LOL. |
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| Attempt #2, after watching YouTube videos. Muuuuuuch better! |
I suspect that some of my readers have made their fair share of these fun little dolls, so I wanted to ask you guys if you have any tips or tricks for making them (using fresh [or dried] husks from corn on the cob, not store-bought husks). Is there a good way to keep them together? Any tricks for putting on hair? I’d love to have the kids make some to sell at our family farm’s Fall Festival, so any tips are appreciated!
[Update: I found some awesome YouTube videos on this, and discovered a couple different styles to try out! Great fun! The second photo above uses this technique. I also want to try out the “sleeves” from this one.]
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
I have never tried to make corn husk dolls. How sweet! They are so beautiful! Thanks for showing us the photos of your creations. 🙂
This class sounds like fun! I did one with my daughter when I was homeschooling her. We were blessed with a lot of snow so we were able to make the snow ice cream. Did you know that there was a Little House cookbook out? My daughter's aunt and uncle gave it to her one for Christmas. We did a lot of the recipes when we did the unit. You might check the library for it. Enjoy doing yhis! I'd sure love to come for it!
Roseanna, You are so talented; what a blessing. My mother used to make me "sock" dolls. She would dress them up with pieces of fabric from old dresses that no longer fit or were stained. as a result some of the dolls were elegantly dressed; the one I remember most vividly was dressed in purple satin; she made it when i was very sick with the measles.
When I made them at festivals, they came out of water so they were wet and a lot more pliable. I don't know how to put on hair, but you could try pinning it.