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How to Make a Nettie Doll

A Nettie doll is a simple doll made from strips of rags and string. Authentic Nettie dolls use a wide variety of different patterned strips, rather than strips from just one fabric, but you can use whatever you have on hand. Even children can make these dolls once the materials are prepared, since they don't require any sewing and they don't require much in the way of supplies. Next time you need a rainy-day craft project for older kids you might want to give making Nettie dolls a try.

Things You'll Need

25 yards cotton fabric strips, approximately 1 inch wide
3 yards strong string
Scissors
Fabric scraps

Instructions

- 1
  Cut the strips of cotton rags to the right length for the size of doll you want to make. The strips should be twice as long as the height of the doll you would like to make. Cutting the strips into 18-inch lengths will give you a 9-inch doll, while cutting the strips into 14-inch lengths will give you enough strips to make two dolls that are 7 inches tall.
- 2
  Line up the ends of your rag strips and fold them in half. Tie string around the rag strips a short distance down from the fold to form a head for your Nettie doll. If you want to add a face, you can cut one out of a fabric scrap or paper, draw in the features with markers and glue it onto the doll's head.
- 3
  Pull approximately 1/4 of the strips to the right side and 1/4 of the strips to the left side to use to form the arms. Cut these strips so the are about half the size of the remaining strips, and tie them with string near the bottom to make them into arms.
- 4
  Tie another piece of string around the waist of your doll. If you like, you can use a small strip of fabric to cut out an apron to tie around her waist. Although traditional Nettie dolls do not have legs, if you divide the remaining strips in half and tie each at the bottom with string you can make legs for your doll.

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