Know a nervous child? The answer... Worry Dolls.

   Guatemalan legend has it that worry dolls provide children with better sleep when they have things on their mind. They usually come, six at a time, in a little drawstring bag. A child would use one of the dolls each night to tell all their worries to, then they would place them under their pillow. Through the night the doll would fight to keep those worries away, giving the child a peaceful nights rest.

   I was given some as a child and remembered how tiny they were and that I really did treasure them. I loved the colors and their diversity. A friend and I would make our own version of worry dolls with pencil shavings. The pencils must have been different then, because I attempted this last night and didn't get to far. I'm going to look into the differences of wood and the lengths of shavings. We would carefully sharpen colored pencils to achieve the longest shavings possible for a nice flowing skirt. Then we would sharpen off a smaller one to turn it upside down and place as a torso. Another was done for the head, arms and hat. Even though this may seem like an odd thing to do, there is something fascinating with anything miniature and they were fun to make. These too, would come out different every time depending on colors we used and when the shavings decided to break.

   So if you have a  nervous child who worries about things at night, try making some worry dolls and seeing if they help. There are several ways of making these. The original ones were done with some wiring, paper, scrap material and embroidery floss. I have just made some with q-tips, double sided tape (can't find my glue lol), recycled shirts, brown paper bag and a pen.
Here is how I made these.

    I took a q-tip and cut it in half. I then shaved a little off each half. These were used as legs. I grabbed another q-tip and cut it in half also, using one of the halfs as a head and torso. Take one more q-tip and cut the cotton off. Cut the stick in half. These will be your arms. I had a really handy double sided tape roll on hand. It is clear, peels and stretches. It really worked well and it was at Marden's for less then a buck. I cut the tape in about 1 1/2 - 2 inch strips and used this like the floss, bounding the body in shape. Not only did this really work well in hold it all together, I could mold it better and it attached the clothing very easily. I then wrapped the cotton head with tape as well. Then it was time to pick the look.

   Cut some scraps of material and decorate your doll. With the double sided tape it stuck without sewing or binding. These literally only took about 5-10 minutes to make. It all depends on how detailed you go. You could even go as far as making the dolls resemble family members. Make 6 of them and put them in a little drawstring bag....like a perfume bag, crown royal...etc. And that's it! Very easy, cheap and fast but a great comfort for a little one.