Doll-A-Day 2023 #353: Red Haired Hillbilly

   Okay. I have a weakness for these vintage hillbilly dolls. I have a couple from when I was a kid. My parents were from Kentucky, and every summer we spent two weeks in Kentucky, visiting relatives. Dolls like this guy were sold at souvenir shops there. I used some of my vacation money to buy my hillbillies. You can see them, and another I bought s a grown up, HERE.

  Today's guy is about 11 or 12 inches tall. 

  He's pretty typical of this type of doll. He has a scraggly beard, cliche' hillbilly overalls, and bare feet.

And of course, a floppy hat. This one is a faux straw. Another thing that was common is the nylon string in his hat. I don't know if these guys have the string to hang them by once you've bought them, or because they were hung on a rack in the store.

  

He has crossed straps on the back of his overalls..

He has a very serene look on his face.

He appears to have originally been holding something. I'm guessing, from seeing so many of these dolls, that it was a 'moonshine' jug. That might account for his serene look.

 

He has stitched in toes on his bare feet.

  You can see another pair of my hillbilly dolls that are different from this guy, HERE.

That's the doll for, well, not the day. Let's say, for number 353. There will be three other posts today, at least. We're steamrollering through posts to catch up with the days for the end of the year.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #351: Lady With Wheat

I'm not sure where today's doll is supposed to be from, but here she is. Maybe some of you can tell me.

She's about 5 or 6 inches tall.

She's obviously a doll representing a country, but which one?

She's carrying a shock of wheat, and a scythe to cut it with.

 

Her clothes are felt, but her face is a smooth, shiny fabric, like silk.

She has embroidered detail and blanket stitching trim on her skirt.

Her feet are flat, and are basically the way my dad described my feet: 'You don't even have feet, just a piece of your shin bone turned down.' (Because my feet were so small, before I got fat and they spread.)

Her hands are pretty much just the ends of her arms curled up too.

Her body is very strangely shaped.

  Her legs make my legs look long! And that would take some doing.

  Make sure to check out today's other posts. We're racing to catch up before the end of the year!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #292: Minnie's Ballet Studio

   Today we're looking at some more $1 buys I got at the bin store. This one is a Sweet Seams set, Minnie's Ballet Studio, made by Moose Toys.

  There were loads of these sets in the millions of bins at that store. Nobody 'seamed', (ha), to want them. I decided to buy one, and do a post and then donate it to a Christmas toy drive.  It includes cute little dolls of Minnie Mouse and a little dog. 

  Minnie is about 6 inches tall. Both dolls are pretty flat, with only their heads and Minnie's skirt being puffy.

Minnie has a very 'anime' appearance, and a ribbon and a rosette on her ear.

Each of the dolls has one hand that's a loop, and one hand that's a knot. That's so they can 'hold hands'. The knot goes through the loop. No Velcro required.

Inside the right side of the package is the ballet studio. 

The box proclaims that there are three play areas: the dressing room, the stage, and the studio.

This is with just the two halves opened up.

This is with the flap on the right folded open.

  As you can see above the set comes with stickers, and a tissue paper wrapped 'surprise. It's not really a surprise, because they tell you on the back of the box that there is a 'mannequin' included. More of a dress dummy really. There's also a tissue paper bundle in the drawer in the bottom of the  middle section.

  It contains Minnie's ballet slippers.

  Not wanting to mess up the packaging, so I can donate it, I didn't want to unwrap the dress dummy. I don't think I could replicate that twist on the top of the paper. But the dummy opens to reveal another pair of ballet slippers.

  The slogan on the front of the box is 'Friends stitched with love'. There's a whole series of Disney characters, mostly the princesses. but also some other characters, like Jessie, from Toy Story. Here's the online description of the set I found:

Small "Rag Doll" style collectable Dolls of your favorite Disney Characters! Six inch soft Dolls with a handmade look and feel with simple yarn details and hand-like painted features. Slide open the Matchbox style box to reveal 2 Dolls, accessories, and Playset to create your own stories! Discover Minnie Mouse and her dog Fifi in this feature filled Deluxe Ballet Studio Pack! Minnie's Playset has 3 play areas and 2 pairs of Ballet Shoes, Mannequin and Stickers!

And then there was this description:

Each story in a box playset embodies a specialty look and feel with homemade, unique handcrafted-inspired details of your favorite Disney characters you know and love.These whimsical "rag doll" style 6-inch soft Dolls are truly special with homespun elements woven throughout! From their hand painted-inspired features, classic yarn hairstyle, elongated dangling arms and legs with knotted limbs and iconic Disney character outfits. 

I think they're pushing that 'homemade look' a bit too much. They don't look home made at all. And what's with 'hand painted inspired'?! What does that even mean?! They don't look hand painted at all, and stop trying to make them sound hand made. THEY ARE MASS PRODUCED! There must have been more than one series of toys too, because I also found this:

• Discover 12 of your favorite Disney Characters over Series 2 including Rare, Ultra Rare and Limited Edition Dolls to find.

Minnie wasn't amongst the 12 they were referring to either.

  That's today's doll. See you again tomorrow with another $1 bin store find.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #254: Hungarian Doll...Probably

   Today's doll, also from one of the recent doll shows, is this pretty little miss.

I got her from my friend Casey's table, for only $1! She needs her face cleaned, but otherwise she's perfect.

She has such beautiful embroidery and a cute face. She reminds me of the much larger Hungarian doll I have, that you may have seen HERE. This doll is much smaller, at only 8 or 9 inches tall.

  Her face is sort of a crepe like material, but her arms are sort of a thick stockingette, like the Hungarian Matyo dolls I showed you HERE. 

Since those are all Hungarian, I'm going to guess this girl is Hungarian too.

She's holding a wire, which I'm guessing used to have flowers on it.

Her outfit is beautiful, with loads of flowers embroidered all over.

  From the back you can see how pleated her dress is.

She has a sip, and cotton bloomers.

Her little shoes have ribbon rosettes on the front.

  They're backless, like the shoes on the first doll I mentioned.

The whole upper part of her dress is embroidered, along with her apron.

  

The neck of her dress has some delicate lace. She's wearing a tiny necklace. I don't know what her hair is made if, but it feels like human hair.

Even the back of her dress is embroidered. and look at that beautiful lace. 

The apron again.

Her hat has embroidery all over it.

  I would love to clean her face, but I'm afraid to. It's all she would need really, to be perfect again, besides the easy job of replacing the flower in her hand. Still, she'll look nice next to the other dolls I mentioned. If anybody know exactly what kind of doll she is, let me know in the comments.

  See you again tomorrow.