It
is well to keep a wary eye on any young man who shows interest in the daughter.
Henry comes to visit once in a while. Ina Dobson, 1933
We have to forgive Shirley for being a bit distracted today. She’s so excited about attending the “literary” tonight. And even though Henry only offered her a ride to and from, it still felt like a date. Being an industrious, helpful girl, she did bake fresh cookies when Jack announced that he was taking the last one from the jar.
Ina
made good progress on the doll. First, she pulled the over face into place and
added a bit of stuffing at chin and cheeks to give it more shape and character.
Then it was a matter of basting and hand stitching, bringing the face into
place and pulling the wig over the face. When the head and face were finished,
she basted the legs into place at the bottom of the body and then stitched the
body closed with the machine. The arms had to be stitched on by hand, and Ina
thought that wasn’t good engineering, but this was 1930, after all. What could
she expect?
She
pronounced the doll finished, and she and Shirley stood back to contemplate
her. Ina said what Shirley didn’t dare say – “What an odd-looking doll!” As Ina
had predicted, the doll wasn’t nearly as cute and lifelike as pictured on the
pattern envelope. “And look at those arms!” Ina picked up the instructions to
double check placement of the arms and found it essentially correct. Well, it
couldn’t be helped – and no use to think of these things. They would go on and
make a few clothes.
One positive thing could be said for the doll – she was cuddly.
Promptly
at 6:30, Henry called for Shirley, and they were off to the schoolhouse for the
literary society meeting.
What a lot of work!! I think she looks pretty amazing, and very like the picture on pattern front. Now comes the fun part--making the clothes!! Can't wait to see them.
ReplyDeleteIt's just a little hard to make out her nose from a distance and since she's fair, her eyebrows are also light. But the child will be up close to see how cute she is!
ReplyDeleteI didn't even think about making her eyebrows and nose a little darker.
ReplyDeleteAnd Chris -- the wig was the most time-consuming. She actually went together pretty well. The arms are just tacked onto the body, which seems strange. The seams were numbered, and the instructions were to sew them in order.