How It All Started

Late last year I kept seeing a darling ad for a pattern for a cute little doll.  I had never made dolls.  I can quilt, make By Annie Bags and other types, crochet, cross-stitch & hand embroider plus machine embroider.  I can also folk art paint, pour and fire ceramics, do floral work and was a professional cake decorator for 20 years.  My specialty was gum paste flowers for wedding cakes.  

I was working on bags for Christmas 2025.  That pattern kept rolling up in my feed intriguing me.  After Christmas was over, I finally I said to myself, "Just buy it!  It was inexpensive and said it had instructions for even a novice sewist.  So I downloaded it.  I had to run to Walmart to buy yarn and fiberfil but material I had.  I used some that a friend had gifted me.  

I made my first doll!  And she was so cute!!!  I was hooked.  I immediately made another and downloaded another pattern - it was to get a different dress as the doll was the same.  I made some mistakes but on the whole I was pleased with my little doll.  I made 5 of them in rapid succession.  I experimented with different fabrics for the body, different amounts of fiberfill and different ways to make their eyes.  Oh the trials of learning to put the legs on and sew the arms and head on!!  All of those are still sitting on a shelf in my sewing room.  I made the 13" and the 6" dolls.  Wow...the 6" dolls are hard to make as they are tiny!!

I finally settled on a tough linen fabric to make bodies.  I started buying fabric in quarter yards.  Most of my quilting and bag fabric had motif's I thought were too large for small dolls. 

I had such a good time making them.  They were so satisfying to make - bringing them to life with precious fabrics and experimenting with different bonnets or coif's.  Oh the trials I had making sun bonnets and coifs and different pinafores!!  And boots!!!  Some are just part of the legs - they don't come off!  Some are felt.  I practiced my old crochet skills to make a jacket - ripping it out a bazillion times - I think the pattern is not correct.  There is no way I can make the same mistake over and over!!  

I did sell a few.  My cousin Kellie bought two for her granddaughter, Addie.  She said Addie loves her dolls.  A little 6" one went to a quilt shop owner's great grandchild.  The receptionist at my doctor's office bought one for her niece.  Her own daughter doesn't care for dolls but the little niece does and named her new doll "Sallie".  Another doll was shipped to a lady that owns a fiber shop - I had bought some specialty yarn for the dolls from her and she purchased one.  

I started making more dolls and they are in my shop and on this site now waiting to bring joy to some child or just as a decoration in someone's home, office or sewing shop!  I will post some pictures of my first dolls.  They are made with a Happy Lab Toys pattern.  Victoria is from the Ukraine and sells dolls and patterns of all kinds to support her family.  Her doll patterns have brought me much joy and there is nothing like the smile of a little child hugging her beloved doll.