Craft Miss Hickory in Her Gingham Dress

       If you have waited far too late in the fall to collect a hickory nut for this project, you may need to glue two halves together as I did. The squirrels in our area a relatively thorough about burying and eating hickory nuts prior to Winter. If there are any left over, these are most usually buried too deep beneath the snow to retrieve. 

Miss Hickory's head is made from an acorn and her body shaped from an apple wood branch.
I have dressed my Miss Hickory in the checked gingham that she wears in the first half of her story.

       As a few of you may also discover, it's not so very easy to nail a hole into a hickory nut. This is best done with a small drill press. However, I have included directions for gluing together two halves for a second reason. This reason being that children can make the doll independently of their parents, if they glue the head together as I did in the sample doll shown here. 

Miss Hickory, our folk art doll, is searching for wild red berries to collect in her acorn
 cap bowl for dinner.

       Young folks may not have checked gingham fabric on hand, so I have shown in how it might look using paper. Either fabric or paper will dress a small nut head doll perfectly. Or, you could decide to make Miss Hickory a calico dress instead. 

Craft Supply:

• two halves of a hickory nut
• one paper clip
• blue and white checked gingham paper or fabric
• white ribbon and lace
• two cotton balls for sleeves
• white typing paper
• masking tape
• tacky craft glue and white school glue
• chenille stems
• brown paper bag
• permanent black ink pen
• white, brown and red acrylic paints
• printable patterns for Miss Hickory's dress, apron and bonnet
• hot glue and glue gun are optional for those of you who prefer to work with these

Step-by-Step Instructions for Making Miss Hickory:

1. First you will need to find two halves of a hickory nut that will glue together neatly and still maintain a sharp, pointed nose at one end. For this distinctive facial feature is most important to reproduce for a Miss Hickory doll!
2. Unbend a small paper clip so that you can insert part of it between the two nut halves along with a generous glop of tacky white glue. This wire should also be bent around the bottom half of the acorn so that approximately half of it will help support the nut head doll's neck.
3. While the glue dries, you may wish to use masking tape to hold the hickory head tightly together as it dries.
4. Use several chenille stems to shape a twig-like figure, having two arms, a torso and two twig legs. You may also choose to shape boot-like shapes at the end of the legs. Miss Hickory's legs in the traditional lithographs by Ruth Gannett have boot-shaped feet.
5. After you have finished twisting the chenille stems together to make the nut head doll body, squeeze out a generous portion of tacky glue onto the exposed paper clip neck and attach the chenille stem body to the wire neck. Reinforce these parts with masking tape. 
6. Now wrap the entire body with white glue and brown paper bag strip layers until you are satisfied with the overall body of the doll.
7. You may need to paint the hickory nut shells one consistent color with some brown acrylic paints before adding the facial details with a permanent ink marker.
8. Paint the whites of Miss Hickory's eyes and give her tiny lips a bit of red. 
9. Cut out and fold a long rectangle using the according fold to make the tiny skirt around the doll's waist, gluing this in place.
10. Then cut a white apron from typing paper to layer on top of the skirt. 
11. Glue on a ribbon to either side of the apron and tie a bow on the backside of the doll.
12. Now past on the top of the dress. 
13. Glue two, tiny plumb cotton balls where the arms and shoulders meet; these will be the dolls puff sleeves.
14. Layer white cotton ball fluff with glue onto the back of Miss Hickory's head. Glue a bit of lace around the head; this will shape her tiny bonnet.
15. Glue a white ribbon bow around her chin.

Shaping Miss Hickory from chenille stems, paper and a real acorn head.

More About Miss Hickory's Story Here.

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