THIS ENTIRE SERIES IS NOW SOLD OUT AND DISCONTINUED. IT IS SAD TO SEE THEM GO, BUT A NECESSARY PART OF MY DOLLMAKING JOURNEY. I AM SURE MANY OF THESE WILL NOW BE AVAILABLE ON EBAY IF YOU PATIENTLY KEEP WATCH.


FINISHED DOLLS are no longer available, though I may choose to make some now and again as limited offerings.

WHAT WILL BECOME OF THESE KITS? Because these are favorites (after all, they have been inspiring us for over 100 years), I will be reformatting them as patterns and instructions (not kitted) with the hard to find items available "a la carte". You will be able to click on each doll to see not only a picture of that doll, but the supplies list for that kit so that you can see whether or not you might need a supply from the Supplies Pages of this website and you will also have the a la carte items for each kit listed with add to cart links to buy if desired. Each pattern will include all of the same printed pages of instructions, a picture, patterns for all the pieces and a supplies list. These are listed as they are ready as "New Pattern". Those not yet reformatted may be purchased as Reprints (of the original kits).
Look for these at a later date. Prices will range from $15 - $24 plus any a la carte items you require. Note that #6 (Raggedy Girl) and 6-1 (Raggedy Boy) will be combined as a single pattern and all 3 of the Folk Style Izannahs will also be combined into a single pattern.


HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #1
- Features a 14" doll with primitive hands. The fingers are individual, but not as hard as it would seem if the special technique is followed (uses hemostats - sold on Supplies page) which enables sewers to turn tiny things right side out with ease. Or, a simpler alternative hand pattern is supplied. She has a dyed mohair wig and elaborate clothing with high button shoes. Very much worth the extra work to make her.

New Pattern $18 Add to Cart



HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #2 - This 15" all cloth doll is simpler than #1, but nevertheless quite winsome. Her most outstanding feature is her hair accomplished with rug braiding woven wool and a border of stitches. She has an embroidered face and a simple needle-sculpted nose. Her clothes include a dress in a print and style common for the times with a slip and pantaloons beneath. Her very humbleness is her charm.

Reprint $18 Add to Cart



HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #3 - No collection of American folk dolls would be complete without some Black dolls. This one is a 13" flat-bottomed Mammy-style doll whose ample figure is dressed in old reds. Her cookie jar shape is accomplished with a wooden base supplied in the kit and her exaggerated facial features are embroidered.

New Pattern Plus (includes her wooden base) $20 Add to Cart



HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #4 - A set of two 12" Amish dolls. Unlike many of the popular cute versions that are everywhere, these dolls are serious and meant to exemplify the expert sewing accomplishments the Amish are known for. In keeping with their traditions, the dolls remain faceless and plain fabrics are used for the clothing.

Reprint $18 Add to Cart



HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #5 - This doll is about 14" tall and has a very three dimensional shape unusual for cloth dolls. She belongs in the genre of dolls that had painted cloth surfaces, a technique used to make cloth dolls simulate more expensive "boughten" dolls. Special painting and antiquing techniques make the paint look old and worn. She has a mohair wig styled along with her clothing for the mid to late 1800's. Her delicate face has a stencil to help and a real plus for this kit is the addition of extra clothing and shoes in case she gets to be a real doll.

Reprint $18 Add to Cart



HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #6 - This 14" doll represents the many home-made versions of the famous Raggedy Dolls that were made and sold commercially beginning in 1918. Besides the blue dress with a tan print apron that I chose for its old-fashioned look, there is also a choice of a set of reds.
HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #6-1 - Representing homemade versions of the Raggedy Boy doll. He has a plaid shirt and homespun blue pants.

New Pattern (both dolls combined) $18 Add to Cart

NOTE: See the Supplies page for more of this yarn hair and buttons for eyes to make additional dolls. (Still available)



HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #7 - I wanted to include a doll in the series that exemplified cloth dolls, in their more primitive and simplified forms, but went more into the costuming and included a bonnet. This 16" doll has all those features on a 16" body in the Queen Anne style wearing an elaborate gown in mauve colors.

Reprint $18 Add to Cart



HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #8 - Every collection of American folk dolls must include a Topsy-Turvy or a double-ended doll. This one has a black doll and a white doll on either end as it is believed that early examples were originally created during Civil War times for the children of families who often played with their slave children counterparts and so both dolls were represented and probably sewn by black slave women.

Reprint $18 Add to Cart


HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL #9 -I wanted to include in this series a boy and girl pair as examples of all of the many dolls that were made as pairs or as somehow belonging to one another (two of my all-time favorites are a pair of wonderful boys). I also wished to do dolls which celebrate hand work as their main feature, but which use a nicer style of body than just plain flat. The style chosen for this 15” pair is more dimensional while still being the easier technique that flat offers, by utilizing a dart system under the chin (and in the back) that was picked up by the Columbian dolls and other dolls I have noted in my studies of early cloth dolls. Included in the kit are pre-printed heads (fronts and backs) with the design to follow for the simple embroidery. A pattern is also included for future dolls to print out on your ink-jet printer. The boy has the 1800’s short pants with suspenders and a collared shirt, while the girl has a pocketed apron over a simple dress covering her slip and tucked pantaloons. Both dolls have simple shoes and stockings, stitched fingers, knees and elbows and a new method of antiquing that gives the most realistic results yet. This kit is straight-forward enough for those who may be just starting out, although modest sewing skills are advised. These are both about 15” tall.

Reprint $18 Add to Cart


HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL ~
PRIMITIVE DOLL WITH HAND-STITCHED HAIR
- This is a 15" primitive doll originally designed as a class doll exemplifying some of the most important details of primitive cloth dolls. The techniques to make her are ones I have been evolving toward since beginning with cloth dolls many years ago. When the instructions are followed, she will genuinely look old and worn. One doll made in my class actually fooled an antiques dealer. Her vintage look is enhanced by the sweet pink calico that is so much like actual pink prints from the 1800's, that she can't help but look old. Her hand-stitched hair and simple face and stitched fingers make her a pleasurable doll to make and her dress, slip, tucked pantaloons and easy shoes are very much what may have been done in the 1800's.

New Pattern $18 Add to Cart


HISTORICAL FOLK DOLL ~
THE NEW YORK DOLL
- This 16" doll has made herself quite famous by being chosen to be on the cover of a well-known book of American Folk Dolls, by Wendy Lavitt. She is such a good doll for a cover as she has just about all the best details of this type of doll. Separate fingers, a wonderful and exaggerated face and hair all carefully embroidered, including her remarkable feather-stitched eyebrows, and a costume of just-right simplicity and detail. She has with her the same small cat the doll in the photo has. Silkscreened for embroidery and new antiquing methods included.


New Pattern plus $20 Add to Cart



HISTORICAL FOLK DOLLS ~
FOLK STYLE IZANNAH WALKER DOLLS
(USING KNIT FOR HEADS) - There are few cloth dolls with quite as much charm and presence as the dolls made by Izannah Walker in the last half of the 1800’s. The dolls themselves are so rare and costly that only a few museums and very fortunate individuals have them, but they are certainly at the top of any list of early cloth dolls that admirers wish to see. Her dolls had heads that were molded in two parts in cloth and then covered with a cotton stockinette, and although I plan to one day create one that is constructed in this way, for which Izannah is the first woman to hold a US patent (obtained in 1873), I felt that this collection would be incomplete without a simple one that could be sewn at home from patterns and easy techniques. This version adopts the very round head which is sewn of stockinette as a separate shoulderplate with applied ears and a raised stitched nose. Her demure countenance is accomplished by special pattern transfers and painting techniques to make it easy for non-painters to achieve the look. Body construction is like most real Izannah’s with the same hour-glass shape torso, separately attached thumbs and painted on shoes. Of course her clothing is also typical with a lace-trimmed tucked dress, ruffled apron, slip and tucked pantaloons. The cat is a period toy sometimes seen in primitive portraits of children from which it is thought that Izannah took her painting style. Three original kits included the girl, the boy and a black girl.

New Pattern Set of 3 Dolls $28 Add to Cart





THE ORIGINAL 15" COLUMBIAN SERIES (Large size dolls)

Many years ago, the Wenham Museum asked me to do a small kit series of the Miss Columbia doll who lives in their wonderful collection of historical dolls. This doll, originally a painted cloth 19" tall doll, is probably the most famous of the many dolls made by the Adams sisters in the late 1800's, having traveled led the world raising money for children's charities in 1900. The doll on her tour raised a remarkable amount of money for the times and everywhere she went, accompanied by her trunk, diary, coat and bonnet, she was given gifts by the children she visited. Many of the gifts still live in the museum with the doll and her things. The original dolls and kits that I did were in a 14" size which have been brought back as a pattern set. This is a pattern for an 11" version of the same doll. The extensive pattern for this larger size contains patterns and instructions for a girl with two outfits and bonnet, boy, black versions, other clothes including the coat and bonnet, plus the trunk and diary.
This series of kits has been brought back and made into a complete set of patterns including all of the items below (5 former kits) with a face stencil and printouts of the trunk and diary labels included. $36 Add to Cart
Click here to see photos

SMALLER 11" SIZE:
This is a pattern for an 11" version of the same doll. The extensive pattern for the sweet 11" size contains patterns and instructions for a girl with bonnet, boy, black versions, other clothes including small sized coat and bonnet.
$18.00 Add to Cart
For PDF version sent by email $18 Add to Cart