Worried? We Can Fix That

One morning last week, early, I got a phone call at school.  The caller ID said it was Ol' Mother Hubbard.  However when I answered, a tiniest voice greeted me.  It was Antebellie asking me if I knew about "worry dolls."  I told her that I did know about them.  Apparently, Missy Antebellie has experienced a nightmare or two, and felt worry dolls might help.  I asked if she wanted to know where to get them, wanted me to make them, or did she want to help make them.  I ask some ridiculous questions sometimes.  Of course she wanted us to make them.  Hmm, thus begin my quest to figure out how to make them before I saw her again.
I have owned "worry dolls" in the past, so I knew how tiny they were.  First I googled "how to make worry dolls" and got nowhere. I already knew how to make a yarn doll, and a peg doll, etc., that wasn't what I wanted. Worry dolls are tiny.
 Finally I googled, "How are authentic  Guatemalan worry dolls made?"  I found a You Tube of a Guatemalan man making a worry doll.  Handy Man and I thought, from looking at pictures, that they were made from sticks covered with brown paper.  That is in fact how they're made, but some have material and stuffed heads, while other are paper heads.
Handy Man fetched me a stick and I started with the one like the authentic guy made and realized that was a bit too complicated for my little missy. He made it in eleven minutes. It took me 45, but then I haven't been making them for 30 years.
 Next, since I was out of sticks, I grabbed a pipe cleaner- a real white skinny one that is for cleaning pipes and covered it with paper.  It was hard to say which I liked the best.  I liked that little stuffed head, but I liked how small I could make the paper head one.
I had called Ol' Mother Hubbard, as the change in Thanksgiving venue meant I wouldn't see her as we've been accustomed to each year.  Every year, the kids won't eat because they are so excited to play with their cousins. Then, when it's time to go home, they declare they are near to fainting from hunger.  What do they eat of our Thanksgiving feast?  Ham, grapes, homemade bread by the loaf, chips and maybe pumpkin pie.  Anywhoo, I called Ol' Mother Hubbard and invited them out for the above mentioned feast.
I was ready with the worry dolls when they came.

First you form the body

Next you make the clothes

A happy, worry free girl

The one on the right is the stick/stuffed head doll

 

 Antebellie loved them all including the one she made and then she needed a box, then more material for blankets and pillows and an hour of quietly entertaining herself with them.


Miss Linee needed a worry doll too, so we made one more.

So tiny

It was a very productive evening.