Hitty's Adventures

1970 to 1987

This page shows how my wooden dolls evolved.

This first doll, who I named Dolly, was made from a pattern in McCall's Needlework & Crafts magazine. The pattern was copied from an antique tuck comb doll from the early 1800's. I wanted her for my doll collection. Before I made her, I practiced by making 3 other dolls from a pattern in Wish Booklet Volume II by Susan Sirkis. They were pretty crude, but I have saved them all these years. Then I was ready to try the McCall's doll. My husband got her body cut out for me at the pattern shop were he worked. I sawed her arms and legs out with my coping saw. She is painted with enamel paint from Sears. I had to mix colors to get flesh. She has a calico dress and a complete set of underwear.

I made quite a few dolls with cloth bodies and wooden heads, arms and legs made of pine. When I would paint the limbs, I made holes in Jello boxes to put them in as a holder. The doll on the left is painted with enamel, just like Dolly. Sunbonnet Girl on the right is painted with watercolors and shellacked. Her skin is plain wood. In later Sunbonnet Girls, I reversed and made the hair plain wood and painted her skin. I sold both of these dolls to a member of my doll club, and when she died, I bought them back. In the last couple of years, two of my dolls like the one on the left have appeared on ebay for a lot more than I sold them for.

The reason I started painting my dolls with watercolors and then shellacking them was because I had read that that was how the old dolls were done. this is Jane. I named her after Jane Eyre. She is made of pine, has mortise and tenon joints and is 13 inches tall. At first I made her a dress by copying a picture in a costume book from the library. Then Susan Sirkis published a book of clothes from the 1840's, and the patterns fit Jane perfectly. The dress she is wearing is from that book and is made of cotton gingham. her bonnet is blue straw. After I made Jane, I made Angela and Mary, who are pictured on the first page of my web site.

In 1976 I decided to enter a Bicentennial contest that required making a doll of a famous person from Pennsylvania. I chose to make Grace Kelly. She has a cloth body, but the rest of her is white pine. I left her hair plain wood to look blonde. I used pictures of her from magazines to try to get a likeness. I had to mail her to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. When she came back, she was wearing this ribbon and had a scratch across her left eyebrow and down her nose.

This is Alice. I made her to wear the clothes in Wish Booklet VI for 1900 by Susan Sirkis. She is a Gibson Girl, and I named her after Alice Roosevelt. I took the pattern for a cloth doll in the book and made a wooden doll from it. On the left she is showing her very fancy undies and red high heeled shoes. Her dress is called a Home Dress. It is two piece, made of polished cotton and trimmed with velvet ribbon and black lace with a nainsook underblouse. She also has another dress, which she wore to the 1979 UFDC convention in New York City, where she won a third place ribbon in wooden dolls. I decided not to use shellac anymore, because sometimes it made the watercolors run and was stubborn about drying. Alice is sprayed with artist's fixative. I also made her a mohair wig.

Click on group picture of dolls to get to More of my Wooden Dolls

You can find more information about Hitty and wooden dolls on
Jean Lotz's Wooden Doll Page