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"Mary often saves time by stuffing the bodies with cotton instead of fiber, 'since the body doesn't need much sewing.'"

"'After she finishes that, I guess she puts that cardboard and wraps that palmetto around it and put[s] it on the bottom so stuff would not come out when it stands. She'll cut that cardboard out and make a circle big enough where she stuffed it, uh, cotton. And then she'll take that palmetto fiber and put it around that cardboard where she make that circle, cut that circle. And then she'll, uh, put it on the bottom of that doll and sew it up so it can stand straight. Then she'll make the eyes for it and the mouth.'"

Accompanying note: "Mary stuffs the head with pieces of palmetto fiber. 'If she uses something else like cotton, the needle won't go through that cotton. So she uses that palmetto fiber. Then she would put the palmetto fibers inside the doll to make it stand.'"

Mary B. Billie has been a dollmaker since she was 17. She learned the skill by watching her mother, who had learned it from Mary's grandmother.