During pioneer times when supplies and items were scarce mothers used whatever they had at hand to make dolls for their children. This included handkerchiefs and pillowcases.
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts created a wonderful .PDF tutorial on making Folk Art dolls. The .PDF includes an introduction into "Doll Making As A Folk Art Tradition" and tutorials on making 4 different types of Folk Art dolls.Included in this tutorial is a section on Page 3 on How-To Make Pioneer Handkerchief Doll, like the doll in the picture to the right.
According to the .PDF, "During pioneer times (and at other times when supplies were scarce) dolls were made from handkerchiefs for little girls. These handkerchief dolls were called "prayer dolls. They were carried to church and did not make noise if dropped. Some mothers would put sugar cubes or candy in the head of the handkerchief doll for a youngster to suck on to keep the child quiet during the long church service. Other names for the handkerchief doll are, "church doll", "church babies","pew doll", and "pew babies."The Hankie Dolls page of the Folk Dolls chapter of The Complete Photo Guide To Doll Making book by Nancy Hoerner, Barbara Matthiessen, and Rick Petersen has a tutorial on making a faceless hankie doll on pages 82-85 that shows how easy it is to make a simple faceless hankie doll.
According to The Complete Photo Guide To Doll Making book - Page82, "Hankie dolls were also called church dolls or pew dolls because they were first made for children to play with during church services. The idea was that if the doll was dropped, it wouldn't make any noise."
"The dolls have been made in various ways and we will show you two different ways. Similar dolls were made from lacy women's hankies and given to a newborn baby girl with the intention that she would later carry it as her bridal hankie."
