Treasures from the Past...Well, Sort of.

I was reading a blog the other day;  the writer of the blog was anticipating her daughters upcoming 2 year birthday and asking advice of a doll for her.

Such deep-seated deliberation made me wander up to my daughter's room to examine her stash of dollies.

Most were gifts or hand-me-downs.

Can you tell which of these is an inherited treasure?

 

If you guessed this bedraggled creature,

you get the "most observant" award for the day.

Despite what you may think by it's appearance,

this was my most beloved bear as a child.

Green Teddy.
Funny the things kids fall in love with.

(Don't worry, my Farmer; my taste for better looking things improved over time.
Although I think you do have a heart like Green Teddy.
Okay, yes, I know Teddy Bears don't have hearts, but to a child they do
and my childhood is speaking here.)

This creature went on many vacations and has lived a life of grand "velveteen rabbit" love.

And now it receives a certain amount of love from my daughter,

although not as much as it deserves.

When it comes to dolls,

only one has traveled the scope of my 37 year life and made it into the love and playtime of my own daughter.

Meet Rosey Doll.

 Rosey Doll was made by my dearest Aunt Rosey,

which explains her name.

Aunt Rosey made a doll like this for both my older sister and I,

exact same look and dress,

except she didn't have time to embroider the shoes onto the feet of both dolls,

which was a good thing because it was the only way we could tell them apart.

Rosey Doll has seen much love...

 as this old band-aid tattoo expresses.

And funny enough, Rosey Doll is one of my daughter's favorites.

There was a time where Rosey went everywhere with us.

 Rosey is durable, with embroidered features that can't be pulled off...

 although I did have to replace her hair because it was breaking off in too many places.

She has the wild look now.

 This is another idea for those of you who like to sew.

This originally was a sweater that my Grandmother made for my mom when she was a child,

but it had been well-worn by her and her 2 sisters.

There were too many holes in it to be spared.

So I put iron-on interfacing to the back of it so it wouldn't unravel and then carefully cut the pattern pieces and sewed this bear from it.

This is a great idea to do with shirts from a family member who was dear to you

or old baby blankets that have seen better days,
a grandmother's wedding dress that is wasting away in the attic,

or an old quilt.

It saves the sentimental into something fun.

 Realizing that Green Teddy and Rosey are destined to fall apart one day

and because I like to make one memorable Christmas ornament every year

and because I wanted to practice painting on some gourds,

I decided to make this:

 Now we will have Green Teddy and Rosey hanging on our tree.

Next up is to decide how to memorialize my Farmer's childhood relic...

after Pinky Bear gets his arm surgery done.

So there's my idea of a good doll for you, Trina 

What about you?  Do you have a treasured toy from your past?

If you are interested,

here's a link to some doll patterns; not necessarily the one from my Rosey doll, but similar

The Rag Doll Book Patterns and Directions for Twelve Dolls

and some links for teddy bear patterns: