How to make a baby...

No not like that! Like this...

Here's a story...

When I was little I had lots of cloth dolls made by my grandmother and I loved every one of them. I also still have every one of them and I'd show you but they are still in storage from the move. Anyway, I never understood why other little girls I knew had those horrible plastic dolls to play with. I thought they were too fake and cold and ugly.

Fast forward about a million years to when I started my own family. When Daughter the Elder was born I got the urge to make her some cloth dolls like I had when I was little. My grandmother was still sewing as much as she could by then and I asked her one time if she'd mind sharing some of her doll patterns with me. She had collected quite a few as she had been making dolls for her own daughters ( my father's sisters) for many years.

We sat at her kitchen table and she showed me patterns she had traced onto newspaper. I took my turn and traced them onto sheets of my own. Seriously, that was one of the most amazing moments of my life, sort of like the first time you get to sit at the grown-ups table.

I remember she told me about how a door-to-door salesmen had come around one day long ago selling treadle sewing machines. Her and my grandfather bought one on a payment plan. I believe she said the payment was about a dollar a week.

That same treadle machine is still around, though I don't know who has it at this point. My family, like so many others, has drifted apart over the years and many of us don't even keep in touch anymore. My grandparents raised 8 kids and countless grandkids and its so very sad that such a large family has come to this sort of end.

My grandmother is still with us, but barely. I'll not go into the details here.

Suffice to say that the memories I have of time with my grandmother are the ones I hold closest. She is the sole reason I wanted to grow up to be a mom and a wife and the kind of person who sews and knits for her children.

Anyway, I have tinkered and tweaked the patterns she gave me over the years to satisfy my own creativity. I made her one years ago and gave it to her as a gift, as she had done for so many years. That too, was a very special day.

My girls love the dolls I make and the few they have that were made my grandmother. Making cloth dolls fills a childhood sort of space for me but also gives yet one more outlet for the overwhelming need to create something as a crafter. Something small and so personable. They are always received well as gifts and I still smile when we are heading out the door to go somewhere and Tater has to double back to her bedroom to grab her "Emily" that I made her when she was a baby.

Comments

[Pat]

The "baby" is beautiful. The halo is really fun though.

[bezzie]

Mom used to make us girls her version of rageddy Anns. They slowly got smaller over the years--mine was the biggest, middle sister's was medium sized, youngest sister's was the smallest. Funny how it evolved like that.

I love the lines on your dolls.

[Miss Scarlett]

My Nana made dolls for us and with us when we were little and some of my fondest memories together were those times. She taught me how to sew clothes of my own making for my little dolls.

My Mom makes dolls still - I haven't made one in years (my Mom is so much better than me) but look forward to making them for my future children or nieces/nephews (boys need to learn to be daddies).

Love the pic of Tater and Emily!