Vintage Doll- Linda

This is another one of my mom's dolls. Her name is Linda.

My mom had two cousins named Louise and Linda, and she named two of her dolls after them. The doll named Louise did not survive to my own childhood.

Linda is I think meant to be a baby doll that you can feed with a bottle. There is a gap between her lips that seems to be meant for a bottle.

She has sleep eyes and her limbs can be moved up and down in a circle. They hold a pose well.

Her hair is not soft at all and not pleasant to touch. It's kind of like toothbrush bristles.

The dress she is wearing was also made by my grandmother. None of the original store dresses belonging to my mom's dolls survived.

My sister and I enjoyed playing with Linda as kids and she is a very sturdy doll.

Learning to Quilt

I wrote a post about the first doll clothing I ever made, so I thought I would write a post about the first doll quilt I ever made.

Try not to laugh. It's so sad.

I was only eight years old and had never seen a handmade quilt in real life. I was mostly going off of what it said in Kirsten's books about quilting, I think.

Not all the fabric is even cotton fabric. There is velvet and cheap satin in there as well.

Every single stitch I took is visible.

I didn't use batting, and I didn't quilt it. I stuffed it with stuffing, and stitched the backing on.

It's basically a pillow, except it's a quilt.

Oh!

And the kicker-

I was worried about the edges of the fabric unraveling, so edge fabric edge has been gently treated with nail polish.

I got this idea from my grandmother- she used nail polish for everything in her life except sewing.
It was just logical to me, seeing the way she used nail polish for literally everything else.

This is proof, if there ever was one, that skill to do comes of doing.

I have improved vastly in my quilting since then.
In high school, a lady Grandma knew taught me how to quilt for real. Thanks, Miss Allison!

I have taken other quilting classes as well, but mostly I just practiced, practiced, practiced.

Learning to Sew

My grandma was an accomplished sewist.

She made some beautiful clothes over the years, as well as doll clothes for my mom's dolls. None of my mom's dolls have the clothes they originally came with, only the ones that my grandma sewed for them.

She also made one, and only one, quilt during her lifetime, which is meaningful to me. Quilts are one of my specialties.

I am my grandmother's oldest granddaughter, but by the time I was old enough to learn to sew, she was in her eighties and had Parkinson's Disease. She didn't sew anymore.

I saw a picture of an elaborate Victorian era apron in the Anne of Green Gables Treasury, and decided that my grandma and I should make a doll sized version together. I didn't have a pattern or anything.

Well, I guess I was insistent enough or something, that my grandma agreed to make it with me.
It wasn't the fancy Victorian apron of my dreams, just a simple white apron tied with ribbon.

I was still very happy with it. It was the first piece of doll clothing that I successfully sewed.
(It was preceded by some failed attempts.)

My Felicity wore it for years to protect her meet dress, until I decided that the apron was getting too frail. I carefully put it away and made a newer version to replace it.

It's really special to me that we made this together. I still wish that my grandma had been able to pass her years of sewing expertise on to me. Still, we did this together.
To me, it is perfect.