Doll Craft

Here is a baby doll that was a project commissioned by my mother in 1978. A co-worker of hers at the time made these baby dolls (the exact name or kind of craft I am not sure of) and my mother had her make them to announce to relatives she would soon give birth to me. She had a blue one made for my Grandmother Lucy and this purple one was made for my Grandmother O’Neal. When I became pregnant with my first child, I became the lucky recipient of this lovely doll. She has arms and legs that are attached with large buttons. Her clothes for the most part are all sewn on. She has an embroidered face. I feel very lucky to have received such a great family heirloom and am very proud to be able to pass this down to my daughter when her time comes to start a family.

My Star Mouse

Here for you today is another craft done by my very talented and dearly missed Grandma Lucy. This is a door stop dressed up to look like a mouse. My grandmother found this craft on a trip she and my mother took one summer. My grandmother copied the craft but improved upon the original design with a few minor modifications.

The original craft she found was about 2 ft tall. The body form and main weight of the object was made with a 2 liter bottle. My grandmother filled it about a little more than half way full with sand and then stuffed the top with plastic bags. She then covered it with a sock. To the bottom she applied a piece of felt. The top head piece is one large styrofoam bottle with a small hole on the bottom where it fits onto the bottle cap. The cheeks are made with smaller size styrofoam balls. My grandmother would then sew the dresses for the mice. She and my mother came up with all different kinds of themes for the mice. Sports teams, birthdays, easter, christmas, halloween theme material lined her closets. My mother enjoyed helping by applying all the facial features and accessories of the different mice. I still remember our trips to the craft store to find the tiny eyeglasses and hunt for more special trinkets for them to each hold. They held such things as footballs, basketballs, baskets, presents, teddy bears, and flowers.

The project I have pictured here was a special theme designed just for me. This version is quite a bit smaller than the original. It measures to just short of 12 inches, was made with a 32 oz plastic bottle and is more suited to being a decoration. My grandmother also made a smaller version using an 8 oz plastic bottle.

Plastic Canvas Calendar Craft

A long time ago, my very crafty Grandma Lucy made a plastic canvas calendar for me to match my room decor at that time. My grandmother’s crafts will show up numerous times on this site as she had a multitude of crafts that she enjoyed making. This calendar was made using two large sheets of white plastic canvas and blue plastic canvas was used for the month titles, weekday titles and numbered days. She used dark blue yarn for all the stitching. She included two little plastic bears as a decoration at the top right corner because I was a little girl at the time she made this, however, my tastes have changed over the years and since they were getting quite old, I have changed the decorations to various forms of stars which match the blue plastic canvas parts of the calendar. If you are interested in plastic canvas projects, visit AllCrafts for numerous projects and free patterns. Also, AOK Corral Craft and Gift Bazaar has some nifty how-to instructions for getting started with plastic canvas crafts.