This little bundle of magazine pull outs came to me courtesy of my sister-in-law. She had retrieved a larger bundle from freecycle, sorted through them, took the patterns she wanted, then passed them on to me. Said bundle is a collection of toy patterns from various women's magazines. A quick flick through doesn't reveal specifics dates but I would say they look like they are from the 70's.
The majority of the patterns are for dolls. Jean Greenhowe features quite heavily as a designer. There are other various stuffed animals, knitted toys, costume dolls, hot water bottle, puppets and a few other things.
Some patterns are simply drawn on a small grid with a measurement for the enlargement grid. And some, like below, are to actual size, which is my favourite kind! My favourite pattern is probably the Desert Island Dolls, which features Deborah and Daniel, the Tourists and Delilah, the South Sea Maiden. Delilah has definitely been added to 'the list' especially after reading her little write up... 'Delilah, the delectable maiden from the South Seas, is a very small temptress indeed. She's girded by a mini-sarong, with gaily coloured felt flowers in her hair and a vivid necklace of wooden beads'
The language used is a little dated and completely politically incorrect, but delightful all the same. And the adverts! A true glimpse into the past is not the same without the adverts.
And all this for free! You can't beat that!
Peace Out x
3 comments:
Hi Kier
Just had to say I really enjoyed your Thrifty Thursday posts of this week and last. I had a Deborah doll just like that in the 70s, made by my Grandma. I wonder if she had that very same pattern! Judy x
Aren't those so lovely? i hope you are going to make some of them.
xx
How lovely to come across these! My sister made one of these dolls while at school but it was my Mum's pattern - Jean Greenhowe used to be published a lot in Women's weekly magazine. I adore all of the patterns. My sister's doll looked just like the one here and it is the one held by the little girl in the last picture. She had fur fabric hair, the sweetest little face and wore bloomers! She was lovely. I later drew her for my art lessons and might still have the picture today.
As an adult I tracked down some of those patterns which could be found in books (I wanted my mum to make them as a child and she never did). I made my daughter one of the other dolls you have here when she was three or so and it was really nice to make. A totally different construction to my sister's doll though. I made one of the dolls on the third picture down, underneath the doll that my sister made.
Jean Greenhowe made all sorts of delightful things and I am doing a search of her now, which is why I found your blog post. She also made a wonderful doormouse house (out of fabric) with cute little inhabitants as well as a Victorian dolls house made from cardboard which was amazing and had lovely little dolls living in it too.
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