June was a busy month; not content with some energetic bellydancing at our monthly meeting, we also made over a hundred peg dolls.

Community groups and local schools in the area were asked to decorate a tree for the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival and our Deputy President, Ruth came up with the fantastic idea of peg dolls representing the people of Hebden Bridge.

We spent several weeks enthusiastically making dolls and then a small group of WI members installed them on the square by the marina.

Our three little trees festooned with dolls, ribbons and WI bunting.

The dolls were wonderful; each was unique and many included charming details like belts, handbags, shoes, ties and necklaces.

There were even a couple of peg dolls walking dogs. Yes, this is meant to be a dog and not a sheep on a lead – although anything is possible in Hebden!

Rebecca got a little bit carried away and made a whole selection of dolls with sarcastic t-shirts poking gentle fun at some Hebden Bridge stereotypes.

This is the ‘lentil chef’…

…but there were lots of others.

And this doll was a cheeky nod to the Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival – she came complete with a feather costume, high heels and a carefully drawn g-string!

She wasn’t the only naughty doll; there were a couple of naked cyclists in honour of the Tour De France, which came through Hebden Bridge during the arts festival. Sadly the cyclists went whizzing past far too quickly to see their naked wooden counterparts but we’re sure they would have liked them.

This was such a fun project, it really got our creative juices flowing and we hope it delighted visitors and locals as much as it delighted us. Many thanks to the Arts Festival for inviting us to take part, to Ruth and her team for organising and installing the dolls and to Ribbon Circus who donated ribbon for the trees.

After the festival, we reclaimed our dolls (which had survived surprisingly intact) and any that their creators didn’t want were donated to a local playgroup, where they were a big hit.