A New Year For Oldish Stories

I started my new year by throwing away some old things.  I've been going through closets and deep cleaning and today I finished the bedroom. Today, finishing the bedroom means taking photos of these dolls and handmade clothes to remember.

I made this doll years ago, for I don't know what reason, except I was into dolls at the time and had a pattern and no kids. Dorothy named this one Emily Margaret and she's the only rag doll I have. She has little pantaloons under her dress. 

This china doll was put together by my Aunt Barb. I carefully played with it all the times we visited my grandparents and I loved it. I'm glad to have it in my possession. She is named Rebecca Ann. I wish I had thought about using Anne before I embroidered on her quilt. The dresses were adapted from some American girl 8" doll patterns. I don't know why I don't change her dress to the pink one, once in a while. Making doll clothes is a challenge. Working with small pieces can be a pain in the neck, but I've made smaller. When I was young and playing with Barbie dolls, clothes for them was too expensive even then for mothers with 4 children and little money, so she sewed them. Many of them. What patience!! It must have taken a lot of time, as well. I appreciate her hard work more now than then. And I didn't make Barbie clothes for my girls.

The stroller this doll is in belonged to my Aunt Wanda, who got it from a friend who had two. Originally it had a maroon vinyl body and when it wore out, Grandma made a new one out of some hideous looking ticking type material. That didn't matter to me one bit as a kid. I loved it because it was old. I replaced the stripe with this maroon fabric, but I wasn't able to figure out the double hood apparatus, so it's not done right. I have photos of how it looked originally and of the material Grandma used. It may be in this blog and it may not.

The coat and hat live on this doll so I can admire my handiwork. It's made out of material I used for a suit for myself back in the day and it's made for an 18" doll, who lives now down in the doll area because I have grandchildren. That is another story. There were two dolls that belonged to Jim's sisters and they were named for two of our friends, Jason and Holly, no matter that they were both girls dolls, and Jason and Holly they still are today. 

In my cleaning out, I found these old skeleton keys and Grandpa's first glasses. The house I grew up in had skeleton key locks that didn't work anymore and I saved them because they were old. It's the same thing with the glasses. They are old and they were Grandpa's.