Cornhusk Creativity

Today I made a cornhusk doll and I named her Rose because her outfit was flower themed. We made cornhusk dolls because it’s how the early settlers would have made their dolls (male or female dolls).

My mom bought cornhusks, fabric, thread and needles then we had to soak the husks in water to make them softer, because it’s easier to make the dolls that way. Then we went to work!

We started by stacking 6 cornhusks and tying them together near the top which would be the head.

Next, we turned it upside down and folded the husks down. We tied another knot to finish the head.

Then we made the arms by kind of doing a little rolling thing with one more cornhusk then tied the ends to look like hands then tied them on with another string. We made clothes out of different colors of fabric of different designs… creativity is what’s going on up in here!

I feel very proud of my doll because I helped make her. I think the prairie children would have felt the same as I do about my little Rose because making something yourself can make you feel really proud of it! We also figured out what it would have cost for them and what it cost for us. The pioneers already owned cornhusks (they grew corn on their farm), twine (they spun it for many purposes), fabric (they would’ve made their own quilts and clothing so would have scraps for doll clothes), needle and thead (because they sewed their own stuff) so it cost them nothing. We had to buy cornhusks, we already had twine, we had to buy fabric, and needle and thread.

We can make 5 dolls and each doll cost $4.40 to make.

Below is a picture of some cornhusk dolls that we saw on our field trip to Dallas Heritage Village, the ones at the top of this post are the ones that we made.