SHE’S HERE – SHIRLEY ANN, GIRL OF THE RIDGE

I am delighted with this "gently loved" "Kit Kittredge, American Girl," which I purchased through littlemarymixup on eBay. I was the only bidder on this particular doll – who knows why. The picture showed her as perhaps a little more than "gently loved," the starting price was perhaps a little high, and she had no clothes. I won the bid and promptly had buyer's remorse, but see how well it turned out. Maybe she just had my name on her. As I unwrapped her beautiful face, Mike said, "She's a beautiful doll. Did you know she was beautiful?" And of course, I did know that the American Girl dolls are beautiful, but I didn't know what to expect of this doll.

Kit comes to me via Connecticut where she was the favorite of a little girl who grew into other interests. Kit needed a new life, so she has come here to pretend she's Shirley Ann, Girl of the Ridge. She's going to help me explore and illustrate what life was like for a farm girl living on a ridge in central Idaho in the '30s and '40s. Her new persona is an idea that has been gently unfolding to me over the last few years -- buy an American Girl doll, then make a wardrobe and quilts representative of the era. Once I got past the point of wondering if I really ought to make myself grow up, I found a lot of other adults happily playing in this way – perhaps even my childhood best friend.

Doll clothes with their tight corners and quarter-inch seams are not easy to make and are thus a reasonable endeavor in the perfecting of sewing skills. Making doll clothes allows for practice where the outcome isn't crucial. Failure is not daunting because the investment of time and money is not great. You can start all over if you want to. You can make, re-make, and make again. You can give creative expression a whirl and the doll will never complain that she doesn't like it. And it was thrilling to discover that sewists have explored the way before me by using patterns published in the 1930s for the Patsy Ann doll. I'm looking forward to using copies of these patterns which I purchased through the eBay store, Favorite Huggables. I even found a couple of patterns in my mother's collection that might work for Shirley Ann. And of course, when Emerson has an American Girl doll, Shirley Ann can model the clothes that I make for her.

I promised myself that Shirley Ann would not appear naked again, but I needed the doll before I could use the retro patterns, which might need a little altering. I made the apron from a contemporary pattern using two retro 1930s fat quarters. The quilt I found amongst some old doll clothes of mine, but I don't remember where it came from.

We're in town now. It's pouring rain -- I mean a "frog strangler," a "gully washer." Lightning and thunder and rain -- Oh my! Nellie is hiding in the kitchen. Mike left on his motorcycle to run errands in town. Hopefully he's in a dry spot right now. In other late-breaking news, brother Chuck and Joanne are in town to attend an OHS class reunion this coming weekend. They're coming here to dinner tomorrow night. Menu: pheasant enchiladas, broccoli salad, and lemon cake. KW