Katherine's Izannah Doll

I made a doll for a very sweet and gracious lady named Katherine. She wanted an Izannah doll that looked old and had the same sweetness and personality that Izannah Walker was able to give her dolls. Well, that is a tall order. To me Izannah Walker was unique and very gifted to create and bestow on her dolls an aura of  quiet sweetness that we don't see on other dolls. In the folkart paintings of long ago you do see the small children and their pets who are precious in there innocence, quaint clothes and backgrounds. I did my best to make such a doll.

Izannah Rag Doll Pinkeep

 I made, or thought I made a normal headed rag doll to give to a friend of mine, but something happened. Somewhere along the way, the pattern went wonky and this girl came out with a small head and tiny neck.  ( what happened? ) HaHa. I started to discard the doll altogether, but she was kind of cute after I got her painted, so I made a pinkeep out of her. I intended to make a good rag doll with the gusset in the head to make the head deeper, but ended up with this doll. She will be a faithful helper to any person who sews, keeping the pins at the ready all the time. Her dress is a really old calico that I have no idea where or when I got it. I made some adjustments and put it on her with her quilted pinkeep. She do

es boast a pretty slip underneath her dress too.

Mona Lisa's new dress

Here is Mona Lisa all dressed up. I can't make straw bonnets, so I made a cloth matching bonnet for her. The dress is antique reproduction blue calico. I saw it on Silent Stitches web site and just loved it. Her underwear is cotton with cotton lace with no ageing at all. I thought the white against the dark blue would be pretty. the lace is a little tan though. This waist line on the dress is my own design. It has a double waist band, and gathered top with a narrow collar around top. I am not a seasoned seamstress, but we have much improved in our clothes making and are venturing out to a little more complicated dresses. Friday we went to the Highway 11 flea market. We traveled about a 20 mile strip. It is fun and I always enjoy it. I found some cotton lace, some small vintage doll clothes, sewing thread, twine, and a bunch of toys for the kids. I also found what I think was a bedspread, but it is super thin and the designs on it are faded and some worn off.  I think it will make some good slips, or some rag doll dresses. Happy doll making to you all through out

 the summer.

Standing Bears

 After looking at lots of bears over time on ebay and other blogs, I decided to get a pattern and try to make some. I got the sitting bears and standing bear patterns from Sweet Meadow Farms. The pattern is nice and not to difficult to do, or else I wouldn't have been able to make them. I made simple primitive country bears out of osnaburg, as with no experience in bear or animal making I needed to keep it simple, but I will say, that I do really like them a lot, even though they don't have fur. The sitting bear is cute, but I really like the standing bears. They seemed to have more character to me, I guess it's in the head shape and they are so cute just standing there. Here are pictures of the two I finished. I have another, but it is still naked.

My little Sweetie Belle

  I have another little beauty made by Sherri Farley who I have named  " Sweetie Belle ".  As many of you know,  Sherri's blog site is Make Do Dolls, and you can see many wonderful cloth Dolls, cloth Animals,  as well as,   doll chairs she has for sale,  and she makes ornaments from molds which are so special. I like George and Martha Washington in particular. This little doll I now have is a black cloth doll filled with cedar sawdust, and has a hand stitched face. Sherri knows I like red dresses and so she made Sweetie Belle a beautiful, perfect fitting Red dress, a special multicolored petticoat, and her chemise and pantyloons. A

long with the doll, Sherri sent a cotton bale that is the perfect size for my doll to sit on to watch our comings and goings everyday. She is sweetness itself, meet and quiet and such a treasure. This little cotton bale is a lot like the huge 500 lb. bales that used to be baled up around here, as we have many gins around here. they are no longer in business as big commercial companies now do all this work. Some of the buildings do remain for us to see. I do need to make my little girl a sunbonnet and although she has a little friend for now, perhaps a baby of her own. Thank you Sherri for this little special doll and for making me see by looking at her work, that when I make dolls or clothes I need to go the extra mile to get perfection like she does.