Russian folk doll made of threads: master class with photos

How to make dolls from threads and fabric with your own hands

These amulets appeared during the period of paganism and the worship of natural gods. Such magical talismans were made by people who had magical skills. They could stay with the owner throughout their lives.

Motanka amulet

Nowadays, they have become an ordinary toy, but in ancient times, people imbued them with magical powers for weeks. If the products were made using the correct technology, and their owner believed in magical protection, then they really helped.

Basically, amulets in the form of dolls were intended for protection and seeking happiness.

Simple pattern

Small doll amulets easily warded off envious glances and bad words, protected the happiness and health of their owner, helped him get rich and protect his family.

The ancient Slavs left their descendants many amulets. They were used to protect against evil forces and enemies. In addition to dolls, there were amulets made of stones and wood. Some put symbols of protection on items of clothing.

But the most popular amulets were thread dolls. In addition to threads, various materials were used for manufacturing:

• Dry tree branches;
• Straw;
• Vine;
• Scraps of fabric;
• Jute and threads.

Basically, amulets were made from threads and fabric. Because every housewife had such materials at hand. It was easier than drying straw or tree branches.

Step by step work

Note! The amulets had different purposes. Some brought happiness, others wealth, and others love. Sometimes amulets were made to find love.

Amulets and amulets from threads must be made following the established rules. These instructions should not be missed, as they have been going on since ancient times.

Since the ancestors took amulets very seriously, it is impossible not to follow their rules. For them, pupae were the highest level of protection.

Manufacturing rules:

• The Slavs believed that all protective amulets should not have faces. Otherwise, a spirit may move into them and bring misfortune to the owner;
• When creating a talisman, you need to be in a good mood. If a person is sick, then production should be postponed. Since negative energy can enter the amulet;
• While working, you cannot use scissors or needles; everything is done by hand.

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Yarn hair toy

In ancient times, only women made amulets, and men were not even allowed to be present during the work. But the children were allowed to watch. The Slavs believed that children filled dolls with their pure energy.

You should not buy such products in regular stores, as they will not have any power. Amulets can only impart power to those people who made it themselves and invested their souls. Dolls can be divided into types due to their purpose:

• Desire. Such a doll is necessary to make your most desired dream come true. When the wish comes true, it must be burned. The amulet is not kept in the house for more than a year; if the wish is not fulfilled, then it is not suitable for the person;
• Herbalist. This toy is made mainly not from floss, but from cotton or flax; it can be decorated with jute. This product is stuffed with herbs with a spell. Used to protect the home from evil spirits and damage;

Slavic motanki

• Ten-handle. In ancient times, this was considered the best for lonely girls who go to find a young and rich guy, and also to find love. In the modern world, these amulets are very popular;
• Cabbage. This motanka is also intended for finding love, but at the same time, it helps to bear and give birth to a healthy child. Protects him all the years of his life;
• Bereginya. This amulet protects the family and hearth. The scope of its application is varied: it can preserve love between couples, protect the family from adversity and illness, bring money into the house, protect travelers and much more.

Also, sometimes dolls for black magic are made from threads. They are sure to be burned in the end.

Winding process

What varieties are there?

Types of motanka dolls

There are many varieties of motanka dolls, and each performs its own function.

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Bereginya

Placed above the front door. The doll’s task is not to let malicious people into the house, to protect family members from the evil eye, to bring happiness and increase wealth.

Metlushka

Sweeps away negative energy and drives away uninvited guests. Just like Bereginya, it is placed at the front door, only not above it, but at the threshold on the floor.

Herbalist

It is a broom of enchanted medicinal herbs and plants, which was shaped into a doll.

Helps to recover from serious illnesses, prevents illness, and improves the health of household members.

Desire

Capable of fulfilling the most sincere and bright desire of its creator. To prevent the doll from taking back what was given, it must be burned immediately after it has fulfilled its purpose.

Ten-handle

Talisman for wives and mothers. Gives the housewife moral and physical strength to cope with all household chores.

Cabbage

Mascot doll for pregnant women. Helps to give birth and carry a healthy baby. Unmarried women used the Cabbage doll to attract a betrothed into their lives.

Bell

Doll with a three-layer skirt. Each layer symbolizes one of the three components of human happiness: love, family and health.

Well-being

It is worth mentioning separately about the motanka called Blagopauchnitsa. When a girl reached puberty, she was trusted to make this doll. By how well she did this work, they judged her readiness to get married and take on all the household chores. Subsequently, the Blessed One, woven by the girl, became her child’s first toy.

Materials and colors

Natural materials were used during the work:

• vine;
• straw;
• thin dried branches and herbs;
• wool yarn.

The color of the threads also mattered:

• Red is the color of love and wealth. A doll belted with a red thread will be able to protect its owner from damage and the evil eye.
• Yellow is the color of abundance and energy, as it is directly associated with the morning sun's rays.
• Green is the color of the healing power of nature

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The doll should be bright, colorful and elegant. The more colorful it is, the more areas of life it will be able to help its owner.

The type of skirt the doll is wearing can also matter. If it is long, it means longevity. If magnificent - to an idle and rich life.

Materials to complete the work

Motankas are famous for the fact that you don’t need to purchase expensive and rare materials to make them.

All materials can be found in any store, sometimes you just need to look for them at home:

• Cotton threads or floss, different colors;
• Scissors;
• A pattern made of thick paper in the form of a rectangle or a small book. This depends on the desired size of the amulet;
• Various decorations;
• Hook.

On average, the work is completed in one hour and has a low level of complexity. Therefore, even novice craftswomen can easily cope with this task.

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We create it ourselves

It is customary to make dolls with your own hands. It is forbidden to use knitting needles, hooks, or needles, as they can deprive the talisman of its power. Only thread cutting scissors are acceptable.

It is worth doing handicrafts during daylight hours, being in a good mood. We need silence. The absence of strangers, especially men, is important. In Rus', they were forbidden not only to create a talisman, but also to observe its production.

The step-by-step instructions for creating a doll are very simple.

Prepare material

The kit for making a doll is simple. You can probably find it in any home:

1. Threads. Bobbin, floss or cotton are best. Wool ones won't lie evenly, and synthetics won't hold knots. It is advisable to take threads of two or three colors.
2. Stencil for winding the layout. This can be thick cardboard, a book, or any small flat rectangular object.
3. Beads, rhinestones, ribbons, lace, beads for decoration.
4. Scissors.

Create a head

Wind threads of the main color onto the stencil. About 100 turns are enough. The more there are, the stronger and softer the toy will be. When finished, carefully remove the skein from the base and, stepping back 2 cm from the top, intercept the threads across. In the same way, create hair from yarn of a different color. The finished skein is cut at one end and threaded through the head. You can braid your hair into a braid or cut it at the front to create bangs.

Decorate your hands

For the arms, repeat the pattern as for the head, only take a little less yarn so that they are not bulky or too long. The threads are braided again into a pigtail, intercepting the edges with knots, and the toys are threaded under the head. At the end, part of the body with the arms is again firmly tied up.

Secure the body

If you want to keep the female version of the talisman, then trim the bottom with scissors and fluff it up, making a skirt. If it is male, then the product is divided into two parts and legs are formed, securing them at the end with knots.

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Decorate the talisman

To make the product original, you should use various materials:

1. Beads. You can use them to make buttons, an original skirt hem, or weave dolls into a braid.
2. Ribbons. They bandage the body of the toy, braid it into the hair, wrap the arms and legs for additional rigidity, and make a belt. A red thread as a decoration is considered an additional strong item that attracts good luck and wealth.
3. Shreds. It’s easy to use them to create a scarf and an apron for the female version of the toy. For a man's motan, the scraps will be used for a shirt and pants.
4. Dried flowers. Sometimes stems of medicinal herbs are woven into the doll’s hair: chamomile, mint, lungwort. They give a pleasant aroma, calm you and make it easy to fall asleep.
5. Leg-split. The coarse thread can be used as a belt or for tying the main mass.

In the old days, craftswomen made dolls from various natural materials: straw, dry twigs, wicker, jute, horsehair. Expensive yarn was used for sale and clothing. It rarely became the basis for talismans.

Activation Features

In order for an ancient amulet to work correctly, it must be created according to the rules, and then be sure to be activated:

1. You need to create the toy on your lap and not place it on the table.
2. The number of turns on the stencil must be odd. The winding direction is strictly clockwise. This symbolizes the spiral of life and a new beginning, charging the item with positive energy.
3. Do not bite off or break the thread.
4. The knot on the body should be located at the level of the doll's navel. This is a symbol of fertility, rebirth, strong family.
5. When the motanka is ready, you need to put it on the table next to the candle, give it a name and read a special spell: “Doll, become the protector of my family, protect my family, help, protect me from evil.” Words can be changed. The main thing is to clearly imagine what you want in your head. The energy of visualization will charge the doll and activate the power of the amulet.

Even a girl who has never knitted or sewed before can make a simple and reliable amulet at home. Its essence is not in beauty, but in the faith of the owner. If you regularly feed the toy with positive energy, then it will become a loyal friend and protector for many years.

Making a pattern

In Ancient times there were no patterns. Women simply wound threads on cardboard, wood or any other object. Now, patterns can be found in various master classes. You can draw a diagram yourself and work according to it, then the thread doll will be original. You can simply wind it around your hand; this is the oldest method of weaving. If you get the hang of it, the amulets will be performed fairly quickly.

Product for Maslenitsa holiday

Homemade amulet

In our master class we will tell you how to make a small doll; each step will be described in detail so that there are no questions about making it.

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Krupenichka will bring abundance and good mood to your home.

For production we will need all the parts that are in the photo:

• fabric, preferably cotton, size 25*65 cm. The thinner the cotton, the easier it will be to work;
• red cotton, size 29*8 cm, this piece of fabric will be used as an undershirt;
• orange, not necessarily cotton, flannel or wool can be used, size 29*8 cm, with a ready-made pattern for the poneva;
• dark red felt, or burgundy shades, size 29*7 cm;
• bright cotton in stripes 19*3 cm, three pieces are enough;
• apron flaps, three are also enough;
• fabric for a head scarf. Thin fabric is easier to knit than thick fabric, so give preference to cotton fabric;
• filling for the doll - green buckwheat, half a kilo will be enough;
• threads, scissors, beads.

Before starting work, we will glue the cardboard into a tube, this will be an auxiliary base.

We wrap the cardboard base with fabric on all sides.

Since the fabric overlaps, we will tie it with threads on one side, like a candy wrapper.

Next, turn the entire bag inside out to the other side.

We received a blank for the filler. Fill with buckwheat.

We tie the remaining edges in the same way as on the first side.

We put on a red shirt, wrapping the bag with cloth and tying it with thread.

We insert it one by one.

We make a zipun from felt and prepare the sleeves.

The apron is laid in rows.

We construct the headdress from several layers.

We tie a scarf.

And a mandatory element is a belt.

Making clothes for a toy

Step-by-step execution of clothes. It is also made from soft threads, but of a different color. For example, if the doll is blue, then you can make her a blue dress.

Hanging decorations

Fluff the threads a little at the hem of the garment and you will get a fringe. For large toys, you can make beautiful ball gowns, with transitions into different colors. To do this, you need to weave two colors of thread together.

Clothing made from burlap looks very beautiful. These can be Slavic outfits, with beautiful wreaths on the toy’s head. You can make clothes for girls in the form of aprons or long dresses. Knit a small sweater and pants, or some outerwear item, from wool yarn. As clothing items, you can take cotton or chintz fabrics. So that later you can remove them from the product and wash them.

Jute decoration

Description of species

There were many protective dolls, but traditionally there were several versions of this toy:

1. A simple doll without a face. To make the product, only threads of one color were required, which were collected in bunches and tied. This amulet looks faceless and is more suitable for adults than for children. You can make two types of toys: for a boy and for a girl. The female doll was given a fluffy skirt and a braid was woven into her head. The boy toy had legs instead of a skirt.
2. Protective doll. Its manufacturing technology differs little from the previous one. The only difference is that such a toy was created for a specific purpose. The appearance of the product may vary. For warmth and comfort in the house, they made a solar toy in the shape of a horse from light threads. For a daughter who had stayed too long as a girl, they created a Kostromushka, to maintain the success and prosperity of their affairs - an Successful Woman (a coin was hidden inside), and for the birth of their first child - a Pelenashka. Each doll was no larger than 10-15 cm in size.
3. Doll with a face. If a toy was prepared for a specific person and was supposed to protect him, they tried to give it a slight resemblance to the owner. Beads were sewn onto the head instead of eyes and a nose, and the toy was dressed in a sundress or vest and pants. In a modern version, you can make a face from a piece of light flannel glued to the head, and draw a funny face on it with markers. This item is considered individual and can only be passed on by inheritance.

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