Doll Parade...

I read through a friend's blog that Faerie Window was hosting a Dolly challenge today, and I was so excited to participate! I have collected dolls and have accumulated some neat vintage ones, but they are packed up. I am going to try to get some of them out in the next few days. I'm anxious to revisit with them myself! "smiles"

I was able to access my very favorite and most cherished ones!

These dolls were all handcrafted by my grandmother.

She has always had a fondness for dolls!

On Saturdays, she would scout the local flea market & yard sales for dolls in distress, and in need of a new home. Instead of bringing home stray dogs, she brought home dolls. Most needed a lot of TLC & doctoring, and would have been headed for the trash, had she not rescued them from their fate!

On most any Monday morning, you could ride by her house, and find dolls, rescued the Saturday before, hanging from a clothes line under her carport, to dry from an intense, washing, scrubbing, and hair cutting! She was in her late 70's and 80's by then. Can you imagine what the neighbors thought??? LOL!

The next few days were spent making clothes, with no patterns, only measurements, tailored to each doll with precise perfection and fit!

Her workmanship was beyond reproach!

She felt all proper dolls should be wearing all their correct undergarments too, which she also constructed!

I'm certain these dolls were dressed in a much finer attire, when she completed their transformation, than they originally came from the factory in!

She even did their hair...

She curled and styled each ones hair back to it's original softness and shine. Most had frizzy, dirty, chopped locks by the time she found them.

How many little girls have played beauty shop with their dolls??? I did and that is why I would never consider being a hair dresser today...was not my gift! :)

I couldn't begin to speculate on the number of dolls she brought back to life with her tender hands and care, but I can say, that three bedrooms housed shelves lined tightly with them!

I will try to post some of the dolls she rescued and some of my vintage dolls within the week, so check back with me!

These are cloth dolls my grandmother handcrafted from a pattern. She was an excellent seamstress! She could design and sew an adult or child's dress without a pattern. She made all of her family's clothing, including shirts, pants, and jackets for her five boys, and dresses for her two girls on an old pedal sewing machine.

She was amazing!

Keep in mind, that she made the clothes and most of the accessories for each of these dolls, ....even the shoes and floppy hat, for the dolls just below.

The little stitches sewn on each piece are so exact and finished! I sew a little, but I might not want you to see the underside! :)

My grandmother took a class on doll making and this was her project! She is porcelain.

This doll is ceramic, made from a mold. She painted the skin and face.

Thanks for looking! ~Enjoy!

Rhonda