How to Make Corn Husk Moccasins
If you are a teacher or a parent and you want to find a neat craft to teach to your students or your child, you can teach them to create their own corn husk doll with moccasins shoes. The corn husk doll is a tradition of the Native Americans and moccasins shoes were worn by Indians as well. According to the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, the corn husk dolls are made from the simplest materials which comes from the environment. Corn husk can be purchased at any craft store.
Things You'll Need
- String or twine
- Scissors
- Bowl of warm water
- 9-12 pieces of green corn husk
- Thread
- Sewing needle
- Pieces of soft leather
- 2 sheets paper
Instructions
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The Doll
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1
Place four corn husks in your hand and arrange them where the straight part is upward and the pointy part of the corn husk is facing down. Tie the straight ends of all four corn husk together firmly with a small piece of string closer to the straight edges. Use scissors to make the straight edges more rounded. Turn the corn husks upside down and pull the long ends of the husks downward over the tied edges and hold the long edges down to tie the folded part with a string to form the head.
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2
Place another corn husk in your hand and flatten it out. Roll the corn husk into a cylinder and bond each end with a string to form the doll's arms. Slide the arms in the middle of the long husks, underneath the neck of the doll. Then tie a string in the mid section of the corn husk to create a waist. Wrap another corn husk around the arms and the upper body in a criss-cross pattern to create the shoulders and to tie with string around the waist area.
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3
Place four corn husks in your hand. Arrange the straight edges of the corn husk together around the waist to create a skirt for your doll and hold it in place with a piece of string. Form the legs for the doll with the skirt. Separate two pieces for each leg and tie a string around the upper part of each leg to form a thigh. Then another string to form a leg and then tie a string at the end to create feet and to form an ankle. Tie a small piece of corn husk around the neck and waist to hide the strings. Dress the doll with small pieces of cloth for clothing.
The Slippers
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4
Trace an outline of the corn husk doll's foot onto a sheet of paper to create a pattern for your moccasins. Allow 1 inch of room between the doll's heels, between the doll's foot outline and the edge of the paper. Draw a line in the center of the foot pattern to divide it into two halves. Then draw a curved line around the doll's toe area, leaving half an inch between the toes and the line.
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5
Draw flaps on both halves of the doll's foot drawing to make the top portion of your moccasins. The flaps should be 6 inches from the bottom of the toes to the heel of the foot. Measure the space for the flaps before cutting the pattern out. Cut out the foot pattern and then lay the pattern on a piece of leather and then cut the pattern out to make your first moccasin. Then do the same for the other moccasin.
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6
Fold over the leather cut outs in half so that each end of the flap meets. Sew up the moccasin to form its shoe. Start sewing at the toes and then stitch up the two sides together. This should form the ankle part of the moccasin so that the doll's foot will slip in. Stitch the heel part together. If your child desires, she can decorate the moccasin shoes.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Corn image by DSL from Fotolia.com
