Making doll clothes

I gave both of my granddaughters 18" Gotz dolls for Christmas and we are getting ready to make some doll clothes. The project has brought back all sorts of childhood memories. Just about every year my mom made doll clothes. We hardly ever got a doll without a complete wardrobe. I did the same for my daughter and now she and I are making doll clothes for her daughter. What a nice legacy!

I am also carrying on another tradition. I am not sure when I first learned to sew with the sewing machine, but I got a Saucy Walker doll when I was about 8. She was 23" tall and I learned to sew with her. I had to have been sewing for her by the time I was 9. I wouldn't have guessed I was that young, but I have the original patterns. I used one pattern piece so much, I wore it out and had to make another one to replace it. I can tell by the writing that I had to have been younger than 10 because my writing was terrible. My 5th grade, Sister Madeline, taught me to write decently. When we did penmanship, she came by my desk and looked long and hard to find a word, or even a letter that was written well. She gave me a lot of praise and a holy card. By then end of that year, I had a stack of holy cards and I could write beautifully. I wish I could tell her that people still compliment me on my writing.

So...I had to be younger than 10, maybe quite a bit younger because I used that pattern piece over and over. I can even remember many of the doll clothes I made. I made a very gaudy skirt out of polished cotton that I just loved. It was on a red background and had tin soldiers marching around it. I also made a more tasteful skirt of blue polished cotton. What I wouldn't give to see those doll clothes now? Unfortunately, I had to give away the doll and all her clothes when we moved to Virginia.

My daughter never liked to sew like that, but my granddaughter is 5 and she is really good with the sewing machine. She has already made 2 pieced pillows for her bed and they turned out very well. We'll start making skirts so she can sew the long side seams, then I'll see if she can sew the side seams on the pants. It is such a good feeling to pass this love of sewing on to another generation. In my mind's eye, I can see my granddaughter, my daughter, me, my mother, my grandmother, my great grandmother...a long line of women going back through history teaching this ancient craft one child at a time.