Autumn Crafting

Our First Corn Dolly

I've had these sweet little things in my head for a couple of weeks. A friend of mine made one about 10 years ago that we all thought was amazing but I never gave it a try. Last year Rae from Morning Sun Rae showcased lots of different lovelies. I never found the time last year to try them out but I put it in my schedule for this year. I'm glad I did!

 

 Dyed Husks

I soaked some of the husks in plain warm water. The pink husks I placed in about 2 quarts of water in the sink with a bottle of red food coloring squirted into it. I let them sit for about thirty minutes. For the green I used about half a bottle of green food coloring and just filled the jar with warm water. they also sat for around thirty minutes.

Pink Husks in the Sink

 

Tying off the Head

 

To make the head I took a small ball of wool and placed it in the middle of a natural colored corn husk. Then Auri helped out by holding the wobbly thing still while I tied it off.

 

Waiting for the next step

Tying off the hands

The hands were trickier than I expected. I took a small husk and trimmed the ends down a bit. Then I folded them in and tied them off. I think there may be a better way to do this, but I wasn't able to find it.

Initial Dress layering

 I laid the head down and placed the arms in between the husks under my "neck tie" and made sure the arms were even. 

But they wound up uneven anyways. Go figure. It was easy to fix. I just slid them a bit before they were secure.

Now comes the part I don't have a picture for. My hands were busy and the kids ran off to play with the goat.:o)

I placed a husk front and back and then took an extra long string for my next step. I laid the dolly on top of the string. Then I wrapped it around the waist a few times. Next I crossed the strings in front and took them over the shoulders to the back. Here I crossed them again and took them back to the front. 

I know it's confusing. I'm sorry I didn't get pictures. 

Next I took several of the husks and layered them in this order......

One on the front, one on the left side, one on the back, one on the right side.  (not that it was scientific or anything...lol. I kinda just stuck them where they seemed even.)

I saved the four best looking ones for the outside skirt. 

An inside view of the layers

You can tell from this view that there wasn't a whole lot of rhyme or reason to the layering....lol.

With the top trimmed up a bit.

 Then I "dressed" her, trimmed her skirt,

 And ran off to blog instead of pack up for the camping trip.:o)

The Best Helper.

Autumn Blessings!!