Worry dolls and how to make them

Do you know what worry dolls are?  I hadn’t heard of them until a few weeks ago when Anya came home from school insisting that she needed a worry doll.  I googled it and found out that worry dolls come from Guatemala and that they are tiny dolls that fit comfortably in the palm of a child’s hand. These tiny dolls are made to take away a child’s worries.  Whenever your child has a worry, they can take the worry doll to bed with them, tell the doll their worry and place the doll under their pillow.  The next morning the worries are gone because they have been taken away by the doll.  Worry dolls are especially for kids but adults can use them too. I loved the idea so much – what a sweet and simple way to help your child with their worries.

We all know that kids have worries – they may seem small and insignificant compared to our own but they are so important to the child.  I know Anya has worries big and small, and I always take them seriously and chat with her about them.  We still talk about her worries but now every time she has a worry, she also takes a worry doll to bed and I see her talking to the doll and then placing it under her pillow.  It really is such a simple thing that has helped her fall asleep quicker especially when she is struggling to sleep with something on her mind.  

When Anya asked for a worry doll, I decided to have a go at making my own.  You can buy these dolls but I thought it would be so much more fun to make our own.   I’ve made a very simple version of these dolls that can be made using just a few materials. Here’s how to make worry dolls:

What you need:
One mini wooden clothes peg per doll
Different coloured wool / yarn
Hot glue gun

I like to use a beige/brown coloured yarn for the face part of the doll.  To start, tightly wrap the beige yarn around the top 2-2.5 cms of of the clothes peg. Once you’ve wrapped enough for it to start looking round and a bit like a head, cut the yarn and glue the end to the back of the head with your hot glue gun.

Next, you’re going to make the body of the doll in the same way.  Take the next colour of yarn and wrap under the head going down another 2.5 cms or so.  Again cut the yarn and glue the end to the back.  Lastly, we need to do the legs.  Using a different coloured yarn, wrap it around one leg/end of the clothes peg, cut and glue and do the same on the other leg.

These worry dolls are easy enough for kids to make too so the dolls become even more of a friend as your kids have had a hand in making them.  You can choose any colours that your child particularly likes and even a combination of colours – you can do one leg in red and the other in purple for instance.

If you do decide to make your own worry dolls, let me know what your kids thought.  Worry dolls are just the sweetest little idea and I’m so glad Anya introduced me to them.  It’s such a lovely thing to come across little traditions from different countries that you can adopt in to your own life. Do you have any such customs or traditions from your country?