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VickiKK
Seriously Hooked
934 Posts |
 Posted - 08/27/2006 : 8:47:35 PM
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While knitting outside today at a coffee house, we got into a conversation with a passerby. She came back to share an item that she bought at a craft show yesterday.
It's a little crocheted purse and when you turn in inside out it becomes a doll bed and there's a little doll tucked into a blanket. At first when she started to turn it inside out we thought it was going to convert to a hat(which would be another great idea.)
Anyone seen this cute toy?
Vicki near Seattle |
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llinn
honorary angel
USA
1650 Posts |
Posted - 08/27/2006 : 11:50:24 PM
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It's been around since at least the 60's. I've been packing stuff for our move and last went found a big stack of patterns from my grandmother who died in 1982. She had one of those folded up paper patters for the pocketbook doll and the plainer blanket baby she had sent for from a newspaper. (The used to print ads for crochet and knit patterns in the back of the paper years ago) I think it was marked $.35 or it might have been 50 cents. Either way, I remember her making them for my littler cousins when I was a teenager during the 60's.
They used to be made over the bottoms of bleach bottles or similar sized jugs. Crafters nearly went into spasms back in the 80's when Ivory Liquid changed their bottle shape. It used to be perfect for doll bodies and there were several plastic and bisque heads that were sold that went on the different size plastic bottles. You made the dress and used bought arms and head, then filled the bottle with sand so it wouldn't fall over easily.
There used to be a lot of patterns for 2 sided babies too. You crocheted two heads and two upper bodies then sewed them together end to end. At the waist would be a full skirt. One face would be embroidered happy and the other crying. Little kids seemed to like them a lot, but remember we didn't have the kind of predigested entertainment then.
Llinn |
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eclair
Chatty Knitter
New Zealand
320 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2006 : 12:58:27 AM
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We had one of those double-ended dolls! One end was little Red Riding Hood and the other end was the Big Bad Wolf in Granny's nightgown and bed cap.
Quite gruesome, now I come to think of it. But then, most fairy stories were, weren't they? They didn't call them the Brothers Grimm for nothing!
Eclair |
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gwtreece
Permanent Resident
USA
7254 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2006 : 07:10:41 AM
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I had the Red riding hood/big bad wolf doll. The American version of the Grimm stories are tame compared to the original German tale.
Wanda
My Blog
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VickiKK
Seriously Hooked
934 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2006 : 12:31:45 PM
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Hmm, never had seen or heard of the purse dolls before, Llin, and we're close in age.
Jean Greenhowe has books of the double sided dolls. I believe she calls them Topsey Turvy dolls. By the time I have the time to try one, my granddaughter will have outgrown them.
Vicki near Seattle |
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Knitrageous
Permanent Resident
USA
1445 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2006 : 2:03:58 PM
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I used to make them and another one where there was a baby head with a blanket attached and you put your fingers in the baby's head and it made a puppet. I crocheted them.
~~~~Jamye
I don't have a problem with authority, I just have a problem with people telling me what to do. |
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VickiKK
Seriously Hooked
934 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2006 : 4:30:11 PM
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sounds cute, Jamye
Vicki near Seattle |
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llinn
honorary angel
USA
1650 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2006 : 8:07:02 PM
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I can't remember the name of the series, but back in the 80's there was a leaflet or small book manufacturer that had all the bazaar type patterns.
For the purse baby, you made a bed and lining that fit into the bleach bottle bottom, then poked holes around the edge and crocheted all around till it was long enough to look like a bassinet ruffle. The a drawstring went through the edge of that. Gather it up and you had your purze. Very simple.
I've gpt a trocl memory. Some stuff never goes away.
Llinn |
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mamid
Permanent Resident
Canada
1568 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2006 : 8:12:16 PM
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I had two of those. I had to give one up when we moved from Ontario than my grandmother sent me one that Christmas. I had to replace my dollie a few times. There was a hobby store near me that had the right size mini doll for the new jugs too.
The Last Thread |
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Jenny B.
Gabber Extraordinaire
USA
440 Posts |
Posted - 09/03/2006 : 07:01:08 AM
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I have searched a number of times for this exact pattern - a purse that turns into a doll. Does anyone have it? Knit or crochet, I don't care, I would be sooooooo happy to get my hands on it. Please email me if you've got it.
Thx
Jenny B. |
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bigeyeblue
Gabber Extraordinaire
USA
358 Posts |
Posted - 09/03/2006 : 10:26:32 PM
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Hey please post the pattern if you have it! I too had the little red riding hood version and thought it was the best toy ever.
Eleni
http://www.holyknitbatman.blogspot.com |
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Jenny B.
Gabber Extraordinaire
USA
440 Posts |
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kcholm
Chatty Knitter
USA
104 Posts |
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VickiKK
Seriously Hooked
934 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2006 : 7:07:52 PM
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thanks, that is so cute.
Vicki near Seattle |
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Mean Mama
Permanent Resident
USA
1138 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2006 : 8:53:48 PM
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This thread has tickled me no end! When my oldest was born, 1972, a friend gave me one of these for my daughter. Subsequetially, my MIl copyied it into a crochet pattern for her church crafts group.
-- Mean Mama
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KnittAR
Gabber Extraordinaire
USA
575 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2006 : 07:42:29 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by eclair
We had one of those double-ended dolls! One end was little Red Riding Hood and the other end was the Big Bad Wolf in Granny's nightgown and bed cap.
Quite gruesome, now I come to think of it. But then, most fairy stories were, weren't they? They didn't call them the Brothers Grimm for nothing!
Eclair
I had one of those, too. It was really old, I'm not sure whose it was first, but I really liked it. I bet my dd would love a purse doll. She carries some baby or toy every where we go, I think!
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take....But by the moments that take our breath away."
Later....AR
Come visit my blog
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llinn
honorary angel
USA
1650 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2006 : 1:06:22 PM
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Grandma spent 35 cents for a pattern around 1960 she made up for my cousins and little sister. She sent for it from the ad that ran about every week in the newspaper. There'd be a little display ad, couple of column inches, in the home section on Sunday and Grandma sent for quite a few. They came on huge single sheets of paper that were folded all kinds of odd ways you had to unfold and read to follow the instructions with some fairly bad hand drawn illustrations.
I don't know if that was the first incarnation of those dolls or if some unknown lady had circulated the pattern and the newspaper pattern people just printed up their own version.
I'm nearly certain that Annie's Attic had a version back in the 70s to go along with the baby bootie boutique and the crocheted birds. There were 5 or 7 books in a series from a small pattern house in the 80s I carried that had all the bazaar giftie stuff. They had the L'eggs egg humpty dumpty and the double sided potholders and the infamous crocheted turkey pin/magnet.
People viewed pattern copyrights a whole heap differently then than now. So it's really hard to track the origin of a lot of these patterns.
Even into the 80s there were a lot of patterns that just swamped the industry and that never got printed at all. One was the original "condo sweater" it used one size 9 and one size 15 and was a sleeve to sleeve dolman. Stores all over the northeast were passing the pattern out, but no one ever seemed to know where it started.
Same thing for the round tablecloth shrug (a circle with sleeves), but that we did eventually find in an early sixties Ladies Home Journal special (I think) in the crocheted version. The knitted version seemed to appear like fungus--it spread everywhere.
Llinn |
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Dspen89
Chatty Knitter
330 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2006 : 9:13:16 PM
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Good memories! I had one in the 70's when I was a kid. I loved carrying around my purse/baby bassinet! I wish I still had it but having a big brother it was probaby buried in our back yard along with my barbies.
I made some for my girls a year or so ago but crocheted them. I didn't use a dishsoap bottle bottom as there are many different patterns out there.
I remember at that time my mom was making those crocheted rings with the beads on top out of really thin string. Those were cool too! I just love the good ol days!
Dawn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawnzknits/ |
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