A Handmade Legacy

When I am asked how I started "crafting" I have to give full credit to my mother.  My mother is an amazing seamstress and when we were small, she made a lot of our clothes for us.  Her mother was a home economics teacher, so she had grown up learning skills like sewing, knitting, and other needle crafts.  I "dabbled" in lots of craft hobbies as a child and teen, and I give my mother many thanks for teaching me from a very young age to make things and be creative.  Although I never did pick up her knack for sewing, unfortunately.

One of the most impressive gifts I remember was given to me and my 3 sisters in about 1986 or 1987.  That was one of the years that Cabbage Patch kids were the BIG THING - stores ran out of them, parents waited in line for them.  They were a bit pricey, too.  There are four girls in my family and it wasn't in the budget to buy 4 of these dolls, although we - especially me and my next oldest sister - were begging for them.  So, my mother purchased the doll heads and kits to make the "Doll Baby" versions for each of us (incidentally, it seems by searching online that it's actually debatable about whether these were the original or the knock-off version).  Yup, she made 4 dolls.  And didn't stop there.  That same year, she made matching outfits for us all - it included a blouse, a corduroy jumper (dress) and pant jumpsuit.  Yup, that's a lot of sewing.  But there's more!  She made from the leftovers - matching outfits for all 4 of those dolls.

Here is a not so great picture of a picture, which is aged anyway, but you get the idea.  I'm on the left, the oldest.  I was about 8, and my sisters would have been about 6, 2 and 1.  Yes, it's cheesy.  Yes, the dolls are kind of odd-looking.  But at that age, we didn't care.  And now, as a mom, I fully appreciate how many hours of sleep were sacrificed to sew these gifts after our bedtime.

Well, my little Elaina is now 2-1/2 and she really loves playing with dolls.  So, it occurred to me to go looking in the basement for a box which I knew contained my "Baby Doll" - Angela - and some of the clothes that went with her.  I found her!  And since I was 7 or 8 when I received her, she didn't get as much playing as the others in the family did, so with a run through the delicate cycle and an air dry, she looked pretty good!

I was so excited to share this with my daughter.  The dress she is wearing in this photo is the one, I believe, that I wore home from the hospital as an infant.  The sweater was hand knit by a family member, and in the next photo you can see me as a baby wearing it.  Mom also made the diaper bag you see in the photo and some other clothes are included that were also mine as a baby.

One final special thing to note about Angela: she has two right legs.  Mine was the first mom made, and she realized that she'd sewn the legs together incorrectly.  We always talked about her going to the baby hospital for surgery, but....well, it didn't happen.  And I love that about her now.  I love that she is a little bit imperfect, but represents so much time and loving care that went into a handmade gift.  Back in 1986, I might have been a little disappointed to get a substitute for the real thing.  But I now appreciate so much what my mom did for us that year, and I am so happy to be able to pass on to Elaina this version rather than a doll that probably hundreds of kids got that year.  There isn't another one out there exactly like this one and I hope Elaina can get more play time with her!

Thanks for passing on a heritage of creativity and making handmade gifts, mom!  It's a treasure I am happy to share with my daughter.