Historical Dolls, Part 2

Today I'll be sharing photos of antique china and parian fashion dolls from the Enchanted World Doll Museum in Mitchell, South Dakota. The first is a pink luster 1840's lady with a "covered wagon" hairstyle and a sweet face. Her striped dress has pagoda sleeves over lace-trimmed undersleeves.

This all-original doll dates from the 1870's. Her silk skirt has become shredded over time, a common occurence with antique silks due to the metallic salts that were often used to add body to the fabric.

This is one of many vignettes in the museum. Perhaps these ladies in their bustle gowns are getting all dressed up to go calling on friends.

The last doll is a mechanical doll with a music-box built in. Some little girl probably really treasured this doll, but I think, then as now, that it's more fun to play with a doll that doesn't do anything. That's when the imagination can take over.

Historical Dolls, Part 1

From time to time, I'll post photos from my 2005 trip to the Enchanted World Doll Museum in Mitchell, South Dakota. Today's theme is black dolls. These dolls were photographed through glass, no flash allowed, so please pardon the occasional reflections or blurriness you see in the photos. Click on each photo to see a larger version.

Unfortunately, most of the dolls at the museum are not identified. My only complaint about this lovely museum is that there's so little in the way of interpretive material. Perhaps some of you who are knowledgeable about this topic will be able to comment.


Above, two small babies. The one on the left is labeled as a "Sun Babe" by the Sun Rubber Company, an Ohio manufacturer that produced dolls from the 20's to the 50's. Notice that she's holding a tiny doll of her own.

This doll has a beautifully molded face and an exquisite outfit, complete with earrings. However, the unrealistic shade of pink used on the lips is somewhat distracting. Too-pink or too-red lips were a frequent feature of black dolls from this period. Below is another view of the same doll, this time with her baby in its pram. Sorry about all those reflections in the window!



Here is a 12" vinyl (Barbie scale) Hattie MacDaniel as Mammy from Gone With the Wind, a role for which she won an Oscar in 1940. Recently, she was honored with a postage stamp bearing a likeness of McDaniel in the dress she wore to the Academy Awards.

A Mystery

My parents gave me this reproduction bisque Bye-Lo Baby for Christmas when I was about thirteen. It's one of the childhood dolls I've managed to hang on to all these years.



After I bought a loveseat for my bedroom, I added a row of pillows across the back, and then nestled the doll into the pillows for a final decorative accent.

From time to time, though, I'd come into the room and find the doll folded over in half, face down. I always assumed that it was toppling over from its own weight. I would straighten it back up again, making sure it was firmly in place each time. But it never stayed up. Mysterious.

Then one day I saw my cat (who shall be known on this blog as Sauron) come into the room and jump up on the loveseat to take a nap. Sauron started to settle down, but then noticed the doll staring, unblinkingly, right at him. He reached out a wary paw to the doll, as if to ward off an attack. That's when I realized that it was Sauron who'd been flipping the doll face down so he could snooze without being stared at!

Mystery solved. Sometimes I still find my doll face-down. It has never yet attacked Sauron, but Sauron isn't taking any chances.

Knitting on the Bias, Part 1

I love knitting on the bias, mostly because you don't have to worry about gauge. Start with one stitch, add a stitch on the next row, and another stitch on the next row, and just keep going till you've got the width you want. Then increase at one edge and decrease at the other till you've got the length you want, and finally decrease at both edges till you're back down to a single stitch. At which point, you're done!

The first bias project I ever made was a purple baby blanket, which I ended up donating to Romanian relief efforts. This was followed up by a bias-knit cotton dish cloth. (Note to self: handknit dishcloths aren't durable enough for use on pots and pans.)

Next I made a bias-knit garter-stitch pillow out of Lion Brand Fun Fur for the loveseat in my bedroom.



I knit the front only, since the back will never show, and sewed it onto a muslin pillowcase. It adds just the right contrasting texture to all the lacy pillows surrounding it.

There's a story about the Bye-Lo Baby that I'll share with you next time around.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I created this blog so I'd have a convenient place to post what I've been doing in the world of crafts and fashion dolls. It's a spin-off of my Fashion Doll Dreams website.

These days, I'm more interested in creating people clothes than doll clothes. It's still fun to create the occasional doll outfit, though. My latest doll creation was the dress for Furga Simona that I knit back in December '06.


It was partly inspired by the famous Yves St. Laurent "Mondrian" colorblock dress, partly by Francie's vintage "Quick Shift" pink-and-green jumper, and partly by the wonderful Kool Wool merino blend yarn I found on clearance at JoAnn's. I remember the days when fuschia, olive, and cream were considered a delightfully shocking combination of colors, so daring, so untraditional, so innovative--so totally mod.

At the same time, I was knitting this little three-quarter sleeve sweater from the same yarn, for the same doll:



I decorated it freehand with scraps of needlepoint wool. I also have purple wool fabric to make the matching skirt, if I ever get around to it.

Kool Wool is an amazingly soft, vivid wool blend with a ropey look, sort of like thick chenille. On closer inspection, however, it's a six-ply yarn, which I painstakingly untwisted down to a single fine strand of fingering weight to make my doll clothes. Unfortunately, Lion has discontinued Kool Wool. Bummer. I'd love to make myself a sweater out of it. It's chunky enough to knit up quickly, but very lightweight in proportion to its bulk.



The doll dress and sweater are my original knitting patterns, and sorry, they're not available right now. If there's enough interest, I'll consider transcribing them and offering them for sale.