My Calico Doll & Bear Collection

When I was not able to do very much sewing by hand I decided to try and make some dolls from calico. I made these dolls at different times during the year in 2006. The dolls and their clothes are all sewn on the machine.

All the dolls are made from calico and then stuffed with a dacron filling. Some of the material for the clothes are 'left over' pieces from other projects while other pieces I brought specifically for the doll.

'Martha and Annie - Crafty Friends' were my first attempts of calico doll making. I found the pattern in a Patchwork and Stitching Magazine. In the book they were pictured together so I decided that I had to make both of the dolls and found some matching material to use for their dresses. For the hair of these dolls I used a boucle wool. The little dog and bear 'brooches' on the dolls are buttons that came from Peru.

'Betsy' was my third calico doll. I made her because I loved the bright colors of her dress and the woolen coat. Betsy's hair is made from nylon doll hair which comes in a bag already curly.

'Miss Primrose in her Garden' didn't quite turn out as the pattern intended. She was meant to be 60cm but somehow she only ended up 28cm tall! Being so small meant that it was a bit hard stuffing the dacron filling into her arms and legs. find a had and basket small enough was also a challenge. Her hair is made from boucle wool and for the 'seed' packets in her apron pockets I scanned and printed out photos of real seed packets.





This bear is also made from calico and stuffed with a dacron filling. I call her 'Victoria Bear' but her pattern name is Samantha Bear.

Unlike the calico dolls this bear has a different finish to the material. The calico has been painted with a solution of Parisian essence to give it the brown color and then once I had embroidered the mouth and nose I painted everything with an all purpose sealer. When all the material was fully dried I then painted it all again using a Gloss varnish. This gave the bear a 'hard' wooden feel to it. I then made all the clothes and dressed the bear.

I haven't sewn any calico dolls for a while now but I've seen a lot of patterns in my quilting books of dolls that I would like to make one day.

My Big Brown Bear

I can't remember ever having a bear as a child. I had lots of dolls -some big and most small but my favourite doll was meant to drink or cry but it didn't have the batteries - just a hole in it's back. I loved my dolls and loved dressing them up and taking them for walks. One day my father brought home a pram. It was old and rickety but I thought it was great as I used to dream of having a pram for my dolls. I didn't find out until years later that dad had got the pram from the local tip so that he could use the wheels on a billy cart and that I missed out on getting a brand new pram which was on lay by for Christmas that year.


Dolls weren't the only things that I used to love dressing up and taking for walks. I used to dress up my cats and take them for walks in the pram up the drive way. That is, until one day I was seen pushing my pram by a girl from school. Mindyou, I was 11 at the time and probaly a bit too old to be playing with prams even for those days! Thankfully for me, the girl didn't see that I had a cat dressed up in the pram. From that day on I stopped taking my dolls and cats for walks.



Anyway, back to the bear. As I didn't have a bear growing up I decided to make myself a big brown bear. He has a wonky ear and a funny shaped face but he is MY Big Brown bear and I really like him.