Dress Up Dolls

Many children in our neighborhood have received dress up dolls that were made by my mother. There is nothing technical about her dress up dolls patterns. The dress up dolls are special because each one is unique and specially made for the recipient. My mother first made a cloth doll for my sister for her sixth birthday. My sister took her doll to a friend’s house and her mother wanted the cloth doll patterns so she could make dolls for her children.

These dress up dolls did not have the character that my mother’s did because my mother was a complete stickler for details. She used the cloth doll patterns to get the shape of the dolls, but it was creativity that brought them to life. Mom had a way of capturing the spirit of the person and bringing the dress up dolls to life. Soon people were asking her to make dolls for their children. My mother would not make a doll for anyone unless she met him or her.

As the children in the neighborhood grew up and left my mother put an end to making the dress up dolls. When my brother and his wife had their first baby she made them one of the dress up dolls. She found infant cloth doll patterns. This kept her busy as each of us started having children. She created additional dress up dolls as the children got older and started developing their personalities.

One day one of the neighbors asked my mother if she would make one of the dress up dolls that would look like the neighbor’s husband. She wanted to give it to him for a gift for his sixtieth birthday. At first my mother did not think she would be able to do this, but as she started the project she realized that it was as easy to capture an adult’s personality in her cloth dolls as it is for children. If she would take all the requests for dress up dolls that she gets she would have a full time job. She would rather share the cloth doll patterns and let people have the fun of making their own dress up dolls.