The other day I came across a dolls head I had packed away for our move from Hawaii. I thought it was high time I gave her a body, so I set about gathering supplies and doing just that. This time of the year when the weather is turning colder, I like to turn to crafts. That age old habit of making nifty things from scratch, much as no doubt my ancestors did around the hearth fire, when all their Fall harvest was gathered in. This is the second doll in a series of hopefully four dolls, modeled after, and in memory of, my grandma and her three sisters. Rosa, Violet, Lillie, and Daisy. Here's to two of the Thompson girls, I miss their laughter and clever wit.
Gathering my supplies consisted of going through my craft bins and selecting the various decorative yarns I wanted to use. Getting a large wooden spool from my collection of spools. Raiding my fabric stash for colorful fabrics, and likewise my decorative ribbon. Some nice fat wool skeins of homespun yarn that was from Jean Gaulke's estate, a long time friend of the family. Some Fraycheck, some hot glue and glue gun, a few bendable curlers, a tiny pair of porcelain Dutch clogs, made in Holland, and I was set to go.
Here you can see the bamboo chopstick which is stuck through the back of her stuffed and stitched head. Here eye's are blue glass beads and her lips and eyebrows embroidery thread.
I know I skipped a few steps in showing you what I did, but it is very hard to stop at each stage and take pictures, as it delays the process no end. By this stage I have taken the gold bent piece in the prior picture and glued it to the wooden spool, then I cut out a rectangle of fabric, cut little slots in it to go over the arms, and fitted and glued it to the spool. After that I put the dolls head and bamboo chopstick through the hole in the spool, marked the chopstick about an inch below the spool and cut it off. Then I gathered a bit of blue ribbon and put it around the neck. I glued the legs, which are just wire curlers, to the piece of bamboo sticking out of the spool. As you can see I made the fabric around the spool about a half inch longer than the spool. This was so I could glue the fabric around the legs to hold them on firmer.
In this pictures you can see where I have put decorative ribbon around the top and the bottom of the spool, but I had to remove the bottom one, because it was put on too soon. Meanwhile I stitched the pink wool yarn in loops all over the dolls head. If I had it to do over I would have just put it around the edges of her head, because her bonnet hides it later. This would have saved a lot of yarn, and I wish I had done it because this yarn is very special to me. It was made by Jean Gaulke, who has now passed away, and so I want to use it wisely to honor her.
Here I have just finished cutting the rectangle strip that will be her skirt. The only hand sewing on this doll was her face, hair, sleeves, bloomers, and bonnet. I like to sew as much as I can and use hot glue very sparingly, just to tack things in place. I hemmed her sleeves, but the skirt edge and apron I used fraycheck as it leaves a much cleaner line.
Here is Rosa all finished and ready for her photo shoot. She was not too pleased with frontal shots.
And she thought this shot of her back completely ridiculous, even when I told her it was so you could see her bonnet, which I stuffed with a bit of batting, and how I gathered her skirt onto the spool along with her apron and glued them in place, then put the lower trim back on to cover it.
This she said was her best side, and much more acceptable, and that I should stick to just taking her picture from this angle, and got rather pursed in the lips when I didn't. She does look pretty good from this angle doesn't she?! It's the front that will never win beauty awards.
When I took this one she complained and said it made her look startled, like a deer in the headlights of a night driven jalopy, with its lights on high beam. At least she didn't say a buggy with a lantern, after all she did grow up in those days. Rosa is a woman of firm convictions, but she does have a sense of humor too.
Which is a good thing, because when I told her I wanted a shot of her bloomers, she was appalled at first, and then just laughed and lifted her skirt, for she was rather proud of them too. They are of course just whip stitched together fancy ribbon, but oh they do make delightful bloomers.
Here is a lovely shot showing Rosa's bonnet and her pet butterfly Indigo, which she is very fond of. You musn't tell her he is made of feathers, for she talks to him constantly and thinks he is real.
In this picture if you look closely, and compare it to her first picture, you might notice that her nose is different. When she saw herself for the first time she complained so badly about how I had not captured her nose correctly, that I had to give her a nose-job to quiet her down. She still is no candidate for a beauty pageant, but she seems much happier with this one, and for that I am grateful.
I wish you could have known my grt. Aunt Rosa, for she was a fine cook and wonderful hostess. Whenever we went to her house with Grandma Lillie, there was always lots of fun, food, and laughter. Tho she stuffed my grt. Uncle Lloyd with good cooking until he couldn't rise from his lounge chair. I remember him as being very fat and very short. He wore blue denim over-alls and a white shirt. His legs looked about two feet long, and the rest of him was round like a barrel. He was a quiet but jolly sort, who never said much, Auntie having enough to say for both of them.
Here's a shot of her bow, she insisted I get it right, as she said there is nothing worse than a sloppily tied up bonnet bow. Don't get me wrong, Aunt Rosa was not a fussy woman, she didn't fuss about her looks, or her clothes, or us children. She just liked to have things right and said, "If you're going to do a thing you ought to do it right.
Here are the two sisters together, Rosa on the left, and Violet on the right. It took me the better part of a day to make Rosa, mostly because I had other chores to do. I wasn't sure if she would like the porcelain Dutch clogs, but she said she didn't mind. It just reminded her of her Dutch ancestors. She said, "If they were good enough for them, they were good enough for her." Ever the pragmatic was Aunt Rosa.
This last picture is of the blush I bought for Rosa's cheeks. I know I have some somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't find it. Good thing I was able to get some, as Rosa simply won't be seen in public without her blush. She says a touch never hurt anybody, and when you get to her age, if she doesn't, her reflection reminds her of a cadaver. A dollar compact never made someone happier.
Comments