Doll-A-Day 2019 #333: Felt Dolls

  Today's dolls are more I made for Ivy. It's this little set.

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.

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.

I noticed that the Christmas dress in the bottom right corner looks like the dress I made for Ivy's Holly doll.

The white collar could also double as sunglasses!

And the bows could also be used as hair bows.

Her toe has a chunk out it.

There were shoes too.

I couldn't find them all.

Felt Ivy also had a bathing suit and a beach ball.

She could decorate the Christmas tree.

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.

And no,those macaronis don't come out of the bowl.

Or she could snuggle down in bed with Baby.

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.

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.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #332: Jolly Dolly

   Well, it's Thanksgiving,and time once again for Dexter Madison. Share the fantasy!
   Today's doll is two: these little guys.

They're Jolly Dolly dolls.

And they want you to know it!

They were made by Zapf.

They want you to know that too. It's printed on their bodies...

...and their clothes.

Zapf also made Baby Born dolls. There were lots of Jolly Dollys. This is from a Zapf booklet that was in Ivy's stuff. It probably came with a Baby Born doll.

There were also Jolly Dollys with rooted hair.

They weren't all stuffed either. there were all vinyl ones. This booklet says they all came with a frog. But the first Jolly came with a cat, and the second one came with nothing at all.

They had clothing sets available for them. Ivy also has one of the tiny Jolly Dollys pictured at the top of the right hand page. They are about 4 inches tall.

 Ivy got these when she was very small,so it would have had to be just either side of 2000. Her first was the little guy with his shirt missing.

I found his pants, his hat, and his cat,but not his shirt.

We always just called him Jolly. Her second Jolly Dolly was one that took batteries and giggles when his stomach was pressed. I found his whole outfit. He didn't come with a cat.

I found his hat later.

He's a little bigger than the first Jolly Dolly. I would say they are 10 and 12 inches tall. Or maybe 12 and 14. I was going to measure them, but when I went to get my yard stick I remembered I took it down stairs to measure some stuff for Ivy's room redo. So I had to eyeball it. I'm pretty good at that by now.

They are cute little guys. My favourite is the non giggling one.

  Today would have been Ken's mother's 97th birthday. We never got to meet each other's mothers. I think I would have liked Dora though.

  Those are today's dolls. See you tomorrow for another doll. Happy Thanksgiving!

Doll-A-Day 2019 #331: Pansy

  Today's doll is this pretty girl.

This is a doll I bought Ivy because I liked her.
 

She's named Pansy. Pansy also came as a blonde,a red head, and an African American.
 

She was made by Daisy Kingdom.

She's marked 1991,but Ivy wasn't even born until 1999,and we bought Pansy new. It's just the copyright date.

She's 18 inches tall.

She looks very vintage. That's what I like about her.
 

She is kind of a hard plastic lump though. She's jointed at the neck,shoulders, and hips,but she's all vinyl. She is a bit stiff and not very cuddly.Still,that's what dolls were like for years and kids still loved them.
 

Her hair looks 'marcelled',a popular style of the 1920's.
 

Her head leans forward a bit,making it hard to get a good shot of her face from a distance.

 

Pansy came in a white cotton onesie with pink ribbons. I didn't find that yet! Daisy Kingdom  also produced a lot of clothes for the doll, as well as printed fabric to make more doll clothes. This lavender dress is printed with paper dolls and their clothes.

It's all in one piece, but made to look like there is a yellow and white gingham under skirt.

It has an attached purse.

And it came with a matching headband.

That head band is heavy duty though! It's super thick for her little head. I suppose it's worth it though, because,unlike most doll head bands,it stays on.
 

There is also a sailor dress, which I had to buy because I LOVE sailor dresses!

The pink dress has an attached tulle apron with flower petals floating around inside it.

 There is a slip too, but because of the neckline of the sailor dress and the lavender paper doll dress,the slip could only be used with the pink dress.

The contents of the slip are a little confusing.

Is it 100% cotton, or 100% nylon?

The other side of the tag makes more sense.

Daisy Kingdom dolls, doll clothes, and patterns were sold at Joann Fabrics. They may have been sold other places, but that's where we bought ours.The patterns are supposed to be by Simplicity for Daisy Kingdom,but the violets one we bought just says Daisy Kingdom, and the bunny pajamas and robe one just says Simplicity.

 

Designed by Donna Hrkman? I want to buy a vowel! 

  The smaller pieces of the patterns we bought got cut out, but I was daunted by the idea of sewing from a pattern. I still can't do it.  Ivy eventually took over the project, but never did it either. They're  still around though. Maybe someday one of us will make it! These days Ivy works at the theatre department of her college,where she sews, and even designs, costumes. She recently designed and made some costumes for their production of the Sleeping Beauty ballet.

This is one Ivy designed and sewed for one of the fairies in the ballet.

  That's today's doll. Tomorrow we'll look at another one.