I never was much for dolls when I was a kid. In fact playing with dolls was not my thing at all. So you can imagine my surprise when I was given one for my 11th birthday. The year was 1970 and our church was having yet another jumble sale/auction as it were. They had these once or so a year and for the most part I didn't pay much attention to them. (I do remember however one year buying a puzzle in a bag for one penny, only to get it home and build it, and it was missing a piece. Maybe that was the beginning of my dislike for puzzle making?! Who knows?!) But I am getting off the point. At this particular church sale there was a lady selling dolls. Her name was Mrs. Knight. (Children in our area at that time, did not address adults by their first names, so I don't know what her first name was.) My twin sister just loved dolls, so for her sake, I trooped along to look at the dolls Mrs. Knight had on display. Mrs. Knight didn't just have dolls, she also made custom clothing for them, which she sold along with them. I instantly fell for this beautiful doll with long blond hair and blue eyes. I had never laid eyes on a doll like it before. Just at that moment Dad came up behind me and asked me if I liked any of the dolls? I said yes, I liked the one with the long blond hair and blue eyes. I went away from the table and didn't give it another thought. I didn't expect him to buy it, I had seen her price, she was five whole dollars, too much money for us to afford. I never expected to see the doll again. We were poor, money had to go towards feeding 7 kids and 2 adults, not on frivolous things like dolls. So I was never more surprised, come my birthday, to open a package and there was that beautiful doll. She was Kerry, a Friend of Crissy, the growing hair doll. My twin sister got Tressy, another Friend of Crissy doll, whose hair was raven black. We spent many happy hours of our childhood playing together with those dolls. I don't remember ever having a doll before that time. Nor do I remember having a birthday party up to then either.
I have always kept my Kerry doll very carefully, along with the special clothes made by Mrs. Knight. Kerry has always been one of my dearest and most cherished possessions. Not because she was that unique of a doll, but because Dad had bought it for me, and let me choose her. I thought today I would share my doll and her clothes. I always wanted to tell Mrs. Knight thank you, and just what an inspiration she was to me, and how it was she who gave me the first ever look into the delights of clothing design, through her dolls clothes. I may have thanked her at the time, I don't remember?! We moved away in 1973, and I have never known what became of Mrs. Knight and her family since.
This cute little green body suit with the elephant pattern on it, is original to the Kerry doll. I have seen pictures of her with green shoes, but mine came with black. I don't know if this was because she has a copyright date of 1970 on the back of her head, and the green shoes came with the later versions of this doll? I looked online and I could only find dolls from 1971 with green shoes. I couldn't find any Kerry dolls from 1970. One website said Kerry dolls weren't made until 1971, but my doll very clearly has c.1970 on her head not 1971. So that rather proves she was made in 1970. Also Mrs. Knight had so many of these dolls she may have just mixed up the shoes?!
This three piece pant suit was made by Mrs. Knight. The bell-bottom pants and long vest were made of a synthetic woven fabric, but are not double knit, so they are not stretchy. I don't know if Mrs. Knight was working from a commercial pattern or if she made up the patterns for these clothes?!
This three piece ensemble is made of double knit. The black skirt and bolero vest are made of a patterned double knit. The elastic had died over the years so I replaced it with bobbin elastic, which I up-cycled from a package label that came in the mail. Frugality is my watchword. ha ha ha I do love her choice of silver trim and not rickrack.
Here is the unpatterned, white, double knit long sleeved blouse, that Mrs. Knight made. It has a two snap back closure and goes very nicely with these two outfits. The little green original body suit goes well under the black skirt too. Tho I forgot to take a picture of it that way...sigh!
This little Christmas dress came from a porcelain doll that I bought my daughter for Christmas back in the late 1980's. Sadly the doll was broken, but I kept the dress for Kerry. This is a commercially made dress, and not done very well at that. I never liked how badly the zipper was sewn so decided to fix it.
I restitched the fabric closer to the zipper by hand and it helped a lot. A double blessing of taking it in like this, is that it made it fit better.
One of these days I hope to make a nice little white apron or pinafore for this dress, which I think will improve it a lot. The elastic in the arms has gone, but I think it looks fine loose. It also makes it much easier to get the dress on. If I had to say anything negative about these types of dolls it is that their bodies are rigid plastic, while their arms are flexible. I do wish they had made them entirely out of the softer plastic, it would have made dressing them so much easier. The other downside these dolls have is that the hair snarls very easily and with age this has worsened, making it impossible to let a child play with it without ruining the hair. I do wish they would remake this doll, as she is very beautiful, but change the hair fiber and body rigidity. Also the hair growing thing is a gimmick they could do without. I was always afraid as a kid, to let her hair out long, for fear it would become a snarled mess, or it would all pull out. A short bobbed hairstyle would look nice and be much easier to care for.
I hope you have enjoyed this small ramble down memory lane with me and my Kerry doll. I hope you all have a God blessed day!
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