Sunday, December 28, 2014

Playing With Dolls

I got side-tracked yesterday looking for doll clothes to fit the doll I got for Natalie.  I'm making clothes for it.  (eventually I'll share the one outfit I've finished.  It is for a baby doll that is about 14" which no pattern lists as a doll size.  So, I've fussed with the patterns so I have the one outfit.  I had two patterns from when Jenny was a little girl that I knew I had but couldn't find before I went to the store. Of course, I found them when I got home!) 

Look what I found instead of doll clothes.  I'm pretty sure this doll was dressed by my dad's mom, Grandma Rowe.  When her younger son married, she dressed dolls that matched the bride and all the bridesmaids.  This one reminds me of those dolls although not the outfit. 

And here is a little "kewpie" style doll.  I don't think there was any name on the back of the doll but she is made of some type of porcelain or similar product.  Poor dear needs some clothes. I'm guessing she is from my mom's side of the family. 

And, finally, the grand finale of my older dolls. Isn't she amazing.  Her arms are leather.  I'm wondering if someone took an old glove and made her body from that.  Her face is drawn on and she is wearing a doll wig. 


Take a look at the beautiful work on her shoes! Unfortunately, I'm not sure which side of the family owned this doll.  I have several dolls from my mom's side and often received wonderful dolls from my dad's mom for Christmas. (Maybe some day I'll take those dolls out, spruce them up, dress them in their finery and have a photo shoot so that I can share them with you.) Somewhere I have my mom's Patsy doll.  I need to do a bit more searching for my dolls aand put these dolls away to protect them.

I played with dolls a lot while I was growing up.  Barbies were just coming in when I was about through with dolls.  I actually have an old Barbie but not much more than that.  

Did you play with dolls as a girl?  Do you remember your favorites?  I'll be sharing some of my other dolls in the future.  I know I loved my Tiny Tears, Ginny dolls and Madam Alexander dolls.  I even have my own American Girl doll that I don't share with my grands yet.  Sophia isn't into dolls but Natalie loves her dollies.  It's too soon to tell if Ellie will be a doll fan.  

I'm heading up to the studio to throw a couple of quilts on Ruthie (named after my dad's mom who gave me lots of dolls during my childhood.) 


Happy Quilting All! 

4 comments:

  1. Did I play with dolls? Yes!!! I was a huge doll girl. I had all sorts of them when I was young (I'm 47) including many misc. baby dolls, etc. I have my first doll still, too. She even has my name scrawled across her head with crayon. I think it's funny that they didn't seem to have "permanent" names. I don't look at a picture and say "Oh, that was Sarah, or Jenny, etc." The best doll of all was when I was 9 and my Mom had my baby sister!! Finally, a real life baby for me to take care of!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I still have all of my dolls; some are in better condition than others. I don't have any dolls from other family members. One of my favorites has a rubber body and golden hair. My mother made clothes for her. I can't remember if I named any of my dolls.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You have some wonderful dolls with great histories. I wasn't much for playing with dolls, but I liked to make clothes for them. Mom brought home an old treadle machine for me to sew one when I was about 8 or 9. I spent a lot of time making clothes for my sister to play with. She was the doll fanatic in our house.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pretty clothes! I played with dolls as well - used my dad's handkerchiefs to clothe them. Poor Daddy - he went to work with embroidered hankies!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting. Let me know what you're thinking about.