Lisa over at Pheobe and Egg is running a Beloved Handmade Doll Dress Contest, and I’m thrilled! Of course, being a toy designers, the idea of cherished handmade toys is one that is close to my heart. But it’s an idea that started long before I’d ever thought of designing toys as a job. My childhood was filled with handmade treasures, and the ones that have survived through the years still make me think of pure childhood bliss when I look at them.
In the spirit of beloved handmade toys (they are not all just dresses, but each includes a handmade dress), I thought I’d pull out a few of my treasured handmade items to share. I can’t wait to see contest entries- handmade treasures are the best!
My mom loves to get great quality items at a good price. When I was a kid she splurged on an American Girl doll (who can dispute the quality of those dolls?! Mine is 25 years old and has endure thousands of hours of play and still looks fantastic.) and with it purchased the official Samantha sewing patterns so I could have the accessories without paying a fortune for them. (That was back when the American Girl company made official sewing patterns of all the clothes in their catalogs. I wish they still did!) I remember picking out the materials for this cape, matching gaiters, hat and muff. We brought the picture with us to the store so we could try to make everything exactly like the ‘real deal’ so it would look like we bought the real thing. I remember being disappointed that we couldn’t find the right colors of wool plaid. 🙂 As an adult, I am very impressed at the accuracy my mom obtained (below is a photo of what the outfit looked like in the catalog) and the fact that she used real wool and satin for a doll dress. The time and quality material paid off. It looks just as good today as it did the day she made it, and it’s something I’ve considered too special to part with all these years.
These two dolls were also made by my mom. My favorite is the one below with the painted face, the personality in the brushstrokes remind me so much of my mom! This doll sat in my living room (of my adult home) for years- just looking at her brings back so many happy childhood memories that I hate to put her in a box.
As someone who loves to make toys and who hasn’t been able to have kids, I’ve always been grateful to have quite a few nieces and nephews to spoil. Above is a photo of my nieces a few years back when they were going through their own American Girl doll phase. They’d come for a visit, so I’d pulled out my own doll (on the right) and made their dolls brand new dresses (shown on the left and middle dolls). We took them outside and had a tea party together, with our dolls all dressed up. Best day ever. I kind of wish girls would never grow out of the tea-party-with-our-dolls phase!
Last but not least is this crazy mini van back pack. I made this back when I was in my 2nd year of design school. I’d never designed a toy before, and never made my own sewing pattern. We were working with a rep from Honda who’d asked us to design a product to promote brand recognition in an unlikely user. (check out this post to see what I mean by a user) I designed mine for a little girl (I don’t even remember if I got to pick my user of if she was assigned) and instantly fell in love with designing for kids. After this project, whenever I had a chance, I chose to design for kids. All my classmates started to see me as a toy designer and we all assumed I’d graduate and get a job working for Fisher-Price or some other big toy company. (Of course, at this point in my life I was still healthy and planning on taking over the world single-handedly.) Who knew that just a year or so later I’d be fighting a life changing heart condition and stuck in bed all day? Whenever I look back I think, thank goodness for that silly Honda project! It taught me how much I love to design for kids, and that I actually could design sewing patterns- two things that have been absolutely necessary for me to have a life after I got sick. This toy hasn’t been played with by very many kids (at least not yet) but it might just be one of the most influential handmade toys out there. 🙂