Dollz and thingz

Summer whites....

This is an all cloth doll I made several years ago. It is one of the earliest commercial doll patterns known and was published by Butterick. I made it as part of an online challenge.

It was the summer after my mother passed away and I was not feeling creative. At that point I had made and sold more than 100 dolls at craft shows and in galleries and was feeling burnt out. I worked on the doll every afternoon religiously and eventually finished her.

Her clothes were made from an antique dress that was beyond salvation. I made her boots from Ultrasuede. She had pantaloons, many petticoats, gloves and a purse I made from an embroidered doily.

The following Christmas/holiday season I put the doll in a holiday gallery show and sale with a very high price tag NEVER expecting it to sell it. It sold the first day and I have regretted this ever since. It represented healing and introspection and long summer afternoons much like I spent in childhood.

I was thinking about this doll the other day and how people dressed entirely in white during the summer. I know why--it is much cooler. I wanted to wear white recently and felt uncomfortable with it because I felt like I looked like I was in a uniform.

If you wear white in the sun you really won't feel the sun. No wonder white robes are worn in the desert! I have invested in some white shirts and pants and have been wearing them although not wearing white from head to toes.

If the world keeps getting warmer and warmer, I think we will see a return to this. Try it some time--you will feel the difference. When ladies dressed in layers and layers of white clothes like the doll, they must have felt somewhat cooler. I am old enough to remember white shoes worn ONLY from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Whatever you wear....enjoy your day...and the weekend, too.