Grown Up Dolls

One of my hobbies includes collecting dolls.  Not Barbies, although I do have a reproduction of a vintage bubble cut. 

This is one of my favorites.  Her name is Violet and she’s a bed doll.  Apparently they were popular from about the 1920’s to 40’s, although I’m not an expert on this.  I got her on EBay with another that I gave to my mom. 

The price was a steal, but understandably so because they had no clothing at all except for Violet’s socks.  So I set to work trying to make an outfit that fit and hopefully was accurate to the style.

The little crocheted hat is adorable and a necessity because to my knowledge many manufacturers of these dolls only added enough hair as to peek out from the hat and left the rest of the head bald.  At least this is the case with most dolls wearing hats.  Again I’m not an expert on this topic. 

The little flower on the brim was just something I added because it needed a little something.  I had meant it to be temporary, but it’s actually been there for several years.  Oh well.  The matching scarf was just because I thought it was cute.  I actually made one for myself, although I don’t plan on wearing it anytime soon.  Darn Arizona summers.

The dress was made fairly quickly since I lacked patience, strange that years later it still technically isn't finished.  I still need to hem the sleeves and add some snaps and stuff.  At least she isn’t naked anymore, and her appearance has improve greatly since I cleaned her up and all.

If you’d like to learn more about dolls like her, there’s a fantastic book called Dolls of the Art Deco Era, 1910-1940 by Susanna Oroyan.  It has tons of info and it is really fun to read, plus it has patterns so you can try to make your own bed dolls.  I haven’t tried it yet, but someday maybe.  As soon as I finish Violet’s outfit, in like 20 years.