Making Cornhusk Dolls

You'll need:

• Corn on the cob in the husk with a good-sized stem
• Rubber bands
• Thumbtacks or push pins

When you buy corn on the cob it will often need to be shucked. That means you will pull off the outside leaves called husks and remove the hair-like corn silk.

When Mom saw that there was a length of stem left on the corn we bought, she got an idea!

She showed us how to pull the husks down without tearing them away from the stem. Once all the husks were pulled down, away from the corn on the cob, we broke the stem away from the cob.

Then Mom showed us how to make dolls using husks. The part of the stem that had been attached to the cob became the top of the doll's head. Mom bundled the husks and put a rubber band around them about 2 and 1/2 inches from the stem end. This makes the doll's head.

Now Mom took some loose husks and made a smaller bundle. This bundle became the doll's arms. Mom separated the husks hanging down from doll¹s head in half and slid the "arms" between them. She used another rubber band to secure the arms in place.

Using a pushpin we tacked the corn silk in place as hair and another husk was tied around the head to make a bonnet.