A few years later, in the mid-1970s, the soft Holly Hobbie doll was my sister's favorite. I envied Holly's gingham patch dress and blue sunbonnet. She didn't talk, but she didn't need to. You carried her tucked under your arm while wearing your peasant-style dress and watching "Little House on the Prairie" or making a dried-flower arrangement with your mom.
I'm sure there are plenty of must-have dolls today with TV or commercial tie-ins like we had when I was a kid. But I'm happy that the handmade plushie craze has returned to offer lots of alternatives to mass-marketed dolls.
I love it when my son makes up a story about the adventures of a stuffed animal I've made for him, rather than repeating a story that is already "programmed" into the doll. Last week we learned about Hercules, a bunny whose parents had to give him up to live under a thicket, where he was befriended by Frederick the Mouse who brought him cheese.
I sewed the plushie pictured here using Nini Makes' Sunny Bunny pattern. The pattern was a real pleasure to stitch--no gusset to wrestle with! The felted cashmere is so soft and cuddlable, and my son immediately requested one of his own. He understands that we're sending this Sunny Bunny to Japan for a child whose toys were lost to the earthquake and tsunami. Crafters have already pledged more than 430 bunnies as part of Operation Bunny Drop, which runs until May 13.
**Please check out Makiko, Sonia's (cozy homemaking) sweet offering, and Margie's (Resurrection fern) rainbow herd of bunnies, which will bring comfort to children in Japan in much need of it. The Crafts With Purpose, Because Love Heals Facebook page has many pictures of handmade bunnies ready for donation. Thank you, Liz Minnick Valentin, for the inspired idea. I'm sure you will be inundated with a flood of cute bunnies.
I'd love to hear what favorite toy(s) you played with as a child (or still!).
Hope you have a playful, creative week.
7 comments:
your bunny is absolutely perfect in many ways, Pat !!
I used to have a brown bear (not in mohair or anything .. I was born in the late 1970's & that was not the trend for them, unfortunately). My mom is a talented seamstress but she apparently never thought of handmaking me a bear or a another plus. But I have this brown bear, and he followed me in all our moves, and he's currently sleeping on my bed. Childhood plushes are NEVER forgotten.
xoxo
My favorite was a Madame Alexander doll named Funny. She was very atypical for a Madame Alexander--she was completely soft (no hard plastic, made from pink gingham, with yellow yarn hair and a patchwork dress. I renamed her Raggy, and she went with me everywhere. Once I got older and didn't "need" Raggy, she still came outin times of crisis to give me comfort. In fact, she was there for me after my mother died, and holding Raggy really did help.
That bunny is wonderful. I love the color! When I was a child my mother sewed a rabbit for me; it looked the way a real one might when sitting, and it had little kangaroo pouches to hold three baby rabbits. So cute!
I'm so in love with your cashmere bunny. I'm happy the pattern was so easy, I had hoped it would be.
I had a stuffed giraffe that I got when I was about 6, I called her Genevieve. She wasn't particularly nice, I think my eldest brother won her at the school carnival. In fact she started out as a boy giraffe with a black bow tie but I removed the bow tie and gave her a ribbon around one horn transforming giraffe from a he to a she. I still have her though she is very worse for wear as both my children have enjoyed the battered old thing too. She even has metal poking out now - she'd never pass health and safety toy requirements if she were manufactured today. I will take her portrait one day :)
PS, I just have eyes and noses to add to my bunnies and I shall post them to Japan tomorrow. I have had to promise Gracie I will make another bunny from your pattern for her to keep - she is so smitten with the one we're sending :)
my favorite toy was a microscope
ya i know total toddler nerd , right.
your bunny is really wonderful and i bet oh so soft.
Your bunny has such expressive eyes. I think I am going to have to try to squeeze in some time to make a little bunny too. When I was a little girl, I was there for the Cabbage Patch craze. Her name was Carrie Cordelia and being a fan of Anne of Green Gables, I thought the name was perfect. Our neighbour made me a suitcase full of clothes for her, both sewn and knit. I kept those clothes until a few years ago when I realized my two boys were not going to have any use for them and gifted them to a friend's daughter.
bunny mania at your house! i loved mrs. beasley as a kid, and i also loved my ballerina doll that had a crown that you lifted up and she would pirouette...i'm sure she had a name i just don't remember it.
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