Paper dolls always drove me crazy. The clothes always fell off. When I was in first grade my teacher used to tell us stories using a felt board. I loved it. It was like magic how the felt pieces stuck to the felt board. That always stayed in my head. When the kids were little I made a felt set for them. I made little felt versions of all of the kids. Emma and Fuzzy's got put away long ago. Ivy's was still in her room, although the pieces were in a million different places. Here's Felt Ivy.
I made her all kinds of things for her set. She had the felt version of her favourite doll, Baby.
Baby had a representation of her original outfit, and a pair of checked flannel pajamas, made out of the fabric I made the real Baby's pajamas out of.
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| Baby has lost a hand and is about to lose a foot. If the stuff was still in use I'd glue her to a new piece of felt to reinforce her. |
She had a variety of clothes,including casual shorts,skirts,a night gown,and loads of dresses, which Ivy was obsessed with at the time.
She could even go full Shirley Temple with the polka dot dress,just like she wanted in real life.
There were accessories for using on the dresses,like belts, collars,and bows.
I think it makes the dresses more fun.
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| I noticed that the Christmas dress in the bottom right corner looks like the dress I made for Ivy's Holly doll. |
And the bows could also be used as hair bows.
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| Her toe has a chunk out it. |
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| I couldn't find them all. |
She could decorate the Christmas tree.
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| All the ornaments are removable. There were more, but who knows where they went. |
Or she could take her basket and pick apples...
..or pears.
Her basket could even really hold the fruit.
Of course,it's not always fruit picking season.
She could enjoy her favourite meal,macaroni and cheese.
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| And no,those macaronis don't come out of the bowl. |
I made her a pillow and blanket too, but they have disappeared too.
And she didn't have to do any of these things by herself,because there are also Felt Daddy, Felt Mommy, and Felt Papa,(my dad.). I may not have made a shirt for Ken, who goes around in shorts all year,often without a shirt. Dad and I have clothes, although Ivy seems to have a lost at least one of our shirts.
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| I don't know why I made myself so thin. I usually strive for accuracy! |
All the dolls are about 6 or 7 inches tall. I guess I should have made us bigger than Ivy. I made her a good size to play with,and we should have been bigger than she is.Oh well.
Those are the dolls for today. I hope they weren't too boring for you,but I kind of like the clothes I made for Felt Ivy.Tomorrow we'll see another doll.
The awesome thing about these is that you can make new stuff to replace what got lost. These are so cute!
ReplyDeleteThanks. And you can always add or change things that get outdated,like favourite toys or clothes.
DeleteAmazing creativity and love is put into this set of flannel board figures! How fun! Amazing you retained so many pieces! Love this!!
ReplyDeleteShe still had them, but they were scattered far and wide! Someday when i get into my closet I'll have to get Felt Emma and Felt Fuzzy out and do a post on them too.
DeleteI love the idea of "personal" paper...uh...felt dolls. I am sure that Ivy felt very special to have her own dolls.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of some kind of paper dolls I had that where kind of plasticky. Their clothes would stick on and then could be peeled off. I don't remember what that concept was called.
Colorforms?
DeleteYes, that's it! I loved those things.
DeleteVery cool dolls. You were very creative in making all that.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I think I was thinking what I would have liked to have when I was a kid.
DeleteWOW you did brilliantly with these, I would have loved them as a child. We used to have Fuzzy Felts, as they were called in the UK, and my son had them when he was a child too...if I'd have been into crafts back then I'd have had great fun making some like this too. I did love paper dolls though and I used to make them and all their clothes.
ReplyDeleteI laughed about you making yourself slim, I'd have done the same...and why not!!! :)
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Now these are amazing. You were so creative and still are. I think if you made them now, you would double the felt on the people and baby. But the variety of felt things you have to go with them is awesome.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Do you mean double the thickness of the felt? That would be a good idea.
ReplyDeleteYeah, just the people and the doll. I think its because the actual doll gets manipulated more than the clothes. Either way, this is an awesome memory for your kids.
DeleteYes. The clothes just have to stick.
DeleteI don't know how much the kids hold these thing dear. i made a lot of crap!