Make Your Own Corncob Doll

Many peoples throughout history have used parts of corn for other things besides food. The Aboriginals began growing corn many thousands of years ago. Other Indian tribes used parts of corn for bags, mats, and moccasins. Let your students or kids make a corncob doll with materials you probably have in your craft basket and two large ears of corn.

To make your own corncob doll, you will need a knife, scissors and ruler, yarn, glue, scraps of fabric and thin ribbon, needle and thread and some acrylic paint and paintbrush.

With your knife, cut the corn and the stalk off of the cob and let it dry for two or three days. Use your paintbrush and acrylic paints to paint a face on your corncob doll. Decide what color hair you want your doll to have and make about 30 loops of loosely wound yarn around your hand. At each end, cut the loops and tie them at one end to give your doll bangs. Now you are ready to glue the hair onto your corncob doll’s head.

Neaten up the hair and trim it evenly across. You can add a ribbon or bow to the hair to make it more attractive. Every corncob doll needs a fashionable ‘do!

Make a skirt for your corncob doll by using a strip of fabric about seven inches wide. Make sure the piece of fabric is long enough to reach the corncob doll’s ankles. Sew a running stich aross the top of the skirt. Wrap the doll’s skirt around her body and give it a gathered look by pulling the thread tightly and then tie it around the corncob doll’s waist.

You can make a blouse in much the same way as you made the skirt. The fabric for the blouse needs to be long enough to hang over the top of the skirt. To complete the look, tie a ribbon or piece of complementary-colored yarn around the top of the blouse.

You now have your very own corncob doll!