Alabama Indestructible Dolls

After a long and hard time making four of these Alabama babies, also known as Alabama Indestructible Dolls, or Ella Smith Dolls, I am finally finished with them. Two white with matching outfits and two black with matching outfits. The other two, my first two are in an older post. I will have to work on the first black baby just a touch to bring her up to what I think is a better version of an antique black doll. I have said many times, the black dolls are harder to paint and still show details, but this last black doll shows up very well. There are lots of antique Ella Smith white dolls to be had, some are I would say prettier than others, but the old black ones are hard to come by, and I imagine much more expensive, that is why I wanted to make them in the first place. I have a white antique Alabama Baby, and have recently refurbished her some. I did only what must be done to save her. Her right ear was missing and her arms were in danger of falling off, and her right hand also in danger of separating from her arm. I did put new leg covers on the upper legs too, as they were very weak, but did nothing to the feet. I  had to re glue some deep cracks in her face and apply just a touch of paint, but absolutely as little as possible. Soon, when I have had an opportunity to make her some clothes, I will post her pictures. These dolls are for friends in Mississippi who love all sorts of dolls, and have huge collections. Now that I have got my feet wet, so to speak, I feel that I can go on to make some really nice pretty accurate copies of the Alabama babies. they are really sweet and a good size. I do want to try to make the tiny Alabama baby I saw on ebay, and will tackle this eventually.

Making Primitive Rag Dolls

In the last month I have turned away from my Izannah's somewhat, to make some primitive rag dolls, a lot of this is because they are easy to make and mama can work on them too. She is enjoying time with her sister and going to Florida for a few days, and so am I. We will go to Pensacola, Fla to see my brother and then on to pick up mama in Apalatchacola, Fla. These rag dolls are a little different. We have been experimenting with color, different noses, and putting in seed teeth. They look just a little scary at first, but they grow on you pretty quick. I think when I get the whites of the eyes put in and some fine dresses and bonnets on they will be cute. The summer is moving along pretty fast, but the doll work is going good. Lots of big Izannah's to come out in the next few months. We are making 27 of the tiny 8 inch dolls,

 this will take up lots of time, and be interesting to see the difference in so many little faces.

Izannah Walker Reproduction Doll with Blue Reproduction Stripe Civil War blue Fabric

    Finally I am finished with this little about 18 to 19 inch doll. She gave me a lot of trouble while I was making her, I'm not sure what the real problem was, except my perception of depth from right to left must be  a big part of what happened, and I think as we get older, and probably to some degree always was a little off, becomes worse. On a plain white surface it is hard to judge if everything is pretty even. On this doll, I was way off, to far off to just leave her alone and call it ( quaint charm ). She is quite beautiful now. We had a test of wills and while I say I won, she definitely won, getting her pretty face for her dolly life. This doll is not perfect, nor would I want her to be. She has some scratches on her shoulders, that I didn't plan, but in time that would happen anyway. She has a lot of distressing that was put there on purpose and I am well pleased with this. The fabric her dress and hat are make of, I got at Silent Stitches, it is Civil War Blue stripes reproduction calico, and I made her bonnet with the quilted osnaburg  from Jo Anns Fabrics, it is really nice. Not much else to say except I am grateful to be done and not in danger of disgarding this doll as has happened in the past when fixing problems seemed to big to overcome at times. Moving on now to primitive rag dolls with my mama helping me. She is having fun making stitched faces and quite proficient at grunging. Mama stitched this dolls unders, and is a quick study at making dolls. I hope everybody has a chance to work some with their parents on things, it is very rewarding and certainly times I will always remember.

Working on the 4th of July

  Hi and Happy 4th of July to everyone. I hope your day is going great. I have spent my day relaxing over my doll work. Lots of people read, or do various hobbies, but making the dolls is very enjoyable and calming for me, so it is natural that given the opportunity, I would choose to spend my day this way, however, tonight I will get rewarded with a good supper on the grill. Here are a few pictures of dolls in the works that are close to being finished, some finished and some with still along way to go. I took a picture of my 2nd pair of Alabama babies, even though they are far from finished, because you can see a lot of form and detail. The black one is hard to visualize finished, but I think she will be super cute. I have already made their matching outfits to the 1st pair that I made. The rag doll is finished and drying. I have picked out some pieces of pretty homespun and nice fabric for unders for her, which will be made into a beautiful dress by a sweet friend. The Izannah doll is my Trouble doll, which I  have corrected.  I had to carve her eye down and build up her right cheek and then re stockinet. Now she has a new paint job. I think she is pretty and will be outfitted in Civil War reproduction blue calico which I bought from Silent Stitches.  She will have black boots with red scalloped tops. Work is going along steadily and peacefully. To all those folks headed to the UFDC Convention, I hope you will have great success and super fun, and a little rest from all your hard work getting ready to go. I will certainly be thinking of you all and hoping to hear some of the outcome of the convention.