It was Saturday noon as neighbor Ed’s old truck lumbered into the yard bringing daughter Shirley from town. She had ridden the night coach from Portland to Lewiston and then connected to Orofino in the morning. Ed met her at the station there and drove her up the steep and winding grade to Gilbert on top of the ridge.
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| Our Shirley as a girl |
Shirley had spent a month with her sister Myrtle, and Ina had missed her. At twenty, Shirley was an energetic and enthusiastic helper. With Christmas coming, Ina was happy to have her help. And besides, two (or more) had more fun than one alone.
Happy to be home, Shirley settled right in. She took her bag to her room at the top of the stairs, removed her hat and gloves, and hung her coat in the famous magic walk-through closet. You just never knew what the closet would provide or when. Today, Shirley was delighted to find a pair of fur-lined leather gloves, just the thing for going out on these cold nights. Well, she hoped she would be going out. Perhaps this was a sign.
Then she helped Ina get the noon meal on the table. As they ate, Shirley talked non-stop. Myrtle intended to come home for Christmas, she said, and that was music to Ina’s ears. Then she told all about her stay in Portland – a Thanksgiving meal with a few friends, a concert, a visit to the big city library, and a Saturday excursion to downtown Portland, already bustling with holiday excitement. Ina loved hearing about the elaborate displays in department store windows and how the dime store was filled with holiday ornaments and treasures. Oh! Ina did wish she could see all that. She would need Dickens to describe it for her. But of course, she preferred her own celebration to be understated with all of the folks at home.
For his part, Jack was mostly silent. He was listening, but as far as he was concerned, it was all foolishness. This would be a fun Christmas, though, he mused to himself, even if he preferred not to let anyone know how much he really enjoyed it. He especially loved that darling little granddaughter Sadie. After dinner, he made his way back to the barn, and once again, Ina wondered what he was thinking.
In
the afternoon, Shirley and Ina sat down together, and Ina showed Shirley the doll
she was making. Shirley’s enthusiasm was infectious, bolstering Ina’s joy in
the project. To Ina’s relief, Shirley volunteered to embroider the face and found
just the thread colors she needed in the little box of leftover embroidery floss.
Meanwhile, Ina found some yellow yarn and began to make a wig for the doll. She
really wasn’t sure she knew how to do it. She could only hope it would turn out
all right. As she painstakingly made yarn loops all over the fabric, she could
see that this would take some time.
[In real time, Kathy’s embroidery machine stitched the doll’s face.]
3 comments:
Oh my goodness, making the doll's hair looks hard! The face is adorable! Well done, real time Kathy!
Thank you, Chris!
The pattern called for "one strand of Shetland floss." I suppose that would be something like Persian wool, used in crewel embroidery. I didn't want to use wool, even though that would have been authentic. I tried regular embroidery floss and also Perle cotton and didn't like them. I also tried baby yarn, and again, I just didn't like it. I finally loaded a yarn needle with 4-ply yarn and went to it. It was hard and took several days of "sewing time" to make the wig.
A part of the challenge here is that my pattern is a photocopy, so the original transfers weren't available to me. There are ways to transfer without the iron-ons, but I don't know what they are. I think there was probably a transfer for the wig -- dots for the loops -- and if I had it to do again, I would probably copy those dots. But -- it turned out okay.
You could probably use a light box and a pen to transfer the markings, but machine embroidery for the face resulted in a wonderful doll face. My hand embroidery leaves a lot to be desired, which I guess, is why I enjoy machine embroidery so much.
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