“A Doll for Bethany” ~ Lucinda’s Wardrobe

Have you ever hand stitched doll cloths???

Bethany and her doll, Lucinda.  Lucinda is wearing tiny red leather shoes and a rather elegant coral seed bead necklace.

“One of my mother’s favorite diversions has been designing and sewing dresses, petticoats and tiny shoes from the style of the 1860’s,  as she has done for my doll, Lucinda” – Bethany Tudor

“A Doll for Bethany” ~ Lucinda Tudor, Lovingly hand crafted by Tasha Tudor

Lucinda’s Swiss dot dress is so elegant ~ accented  with it’s pretty pink satin ribbon.

“As children, we all entered wholeheartedly  into the fantasy world of the dolls. They seemed real living people to us, and certainly had very individual personalities”  – Bethany Tudor  ‘Drawn from New England’

Lucinda’s warm winter wool coat, hand knit mitten, socks and a crochet hat.

Oh my, look at the tiny dainty pearl buttons and button holes on Lucinda’s coat. The tiny mittens have string running from sleeve to sleeve, with the mittens attached at each end. Bethany said a friend of her mother crocheted the hat. Look at the lovely grey Vermont wool yarn! Lucinda will  indeed be knitting herself a Tasha Tudor style “Kindred Spirit Shawl” 😉

Lucinda’s Winter Wardrobe ~ did you notice that Lucinda is wearing long johns? Just as soon she finished knitting her shawl she will be all set to stay warm and toasty through Vermont Winters!

Our Dolls, plush ducks, and bears led very interesting lives, with the encouragement of my mother’s remarkable gift of fantasy. ~ Bethany Tudor

Bethany shared that Tasha has on several occasions crafted dolls not only for family, but for a few  appreciative friends including a Danish friend who came to visit.

Daisy Brownthrush with her extensive wardrobe. Daisy and her wardrobe were handmade by Tasha Tudor for her granddaughter, Jennifer.  Daisy Brownthrush was part of the Unending Delight exhibit at the Tasha Tudor Museum.

 

You can read the first part of my story here;

A Doll for Bethany ~ The Beginning….

Happy 100 Birthday Tasha Tudor

Bethany has written a warm and Loving biography of her mother ~ the life story of Tasha Tudor.

“Drawn from New England, Tasha Tudor A Portrait In Words and Pictures” By Bethany Tudor.

This is the perfect time to enjoy this book of Tasha’s life as this year is her 100th birthday.   Kindred Spirits are not so scarce ….as Tasha, Bethany and I share the same Birthday month of August. So please join us in celebrating.

If you do not yet own Bethany’s book, you can sometime find used ones available on line.

Please do come back and join me  for the continuing story of  “A Doll for Bethany” as Lucinda Meets New Friend……

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I have designed and hand-knit a “Kindred Spirit – Cottage Elegance Shawl” in the true style of Tasha Tudor. and… we can’t forget ours dolls. You can find shawls for you and your doll – hand knit for you here :

https://www.etsy.com/listing/166646477/tasha-tudor-style-vermont-70-percent?ref=shop_home_active_3

Tasha wearing her “Cottage shawl” – while sitting in the garden drawing,

and one for your doll , here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/253011631/china-doll-hand-knit-tasha-tudor-style?ref=listing-shop-header-0

Tasha Tudor style doll shawl. Your doll would love wearing a custom knit Tasha Tudor style shawl.

PDF to Knit your own shawls :

PDF Pattern – To knit your own shawl in Two styles, Cottage scarf and hand-warmers Plus many tips – Doll shawl etc

Have a wonderful day playing with your dolls!

~Take Joy ~ Melissa

 

Just a friendly reminder –

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All photo’s and content  of this blog and F.B. are  under copyright to Melissa O’Connor. PLEASE do not use with out my permission. Please do not pin!!

A Doll for Bethany ~ The Beginning….

Today I would like to share with you the story of Bethany & Lucinda Tudor.

Bethany and her mom, Tasha Tudor, enjoying tea with their dolls ~                Emma and Lucinda. (sourced from the internet)

A Doll for Bethany – “Lucinda”.

Lucinda was loving handcrafted for Bethany when she was about fourteen, by her mother, Tasha Tudor. Tasha also hand stitched many of Lucinda clothing and accessories.

Bethany shared that elegant Lucinda, has quite an ancestry.

Bethany shared that Lucinda has quite an ancestry.

When Bethany was about fourteen her mom, Tasha Tudor first crafted a mold for the head of a doll that she was creating for a friend of Bethany. The doll named Alex was part of the wedding scene in the movie “The Golden Key”.  Bethany shared that her mom would make first make a head of sculped clay, this was left to dry. The sculpted head was then covered in plaster and after the plaster dried, Tasha would split the plaster in half -to use as a mold to pour the plastic wood to create a doll head.  After the Lucinda’s head was created in the same mold  using plastic wood, Tasha then hand stitched a body and carved the arms, hands, legs and feet of wood. And after adding eyes of glass……. with the magic of her paint brush Tasha artistically painted life-like facial details.

Lucinda does still look very elegant for being about 60 + years old (shhh, don’t let her know I gave away her age) ….

Tasha Then created Lucinda for Bethany from the same mold and artistic crafting that she had used to make Alex.

Just look at Lucinda’s beautiful red hair…. Bethany shared that her mom had a special loom used for meticulous weaving of delicate animal hair into wigs.Then the wig is glued to the dolls head for hair!! And how realistic it does look. Tasha had such addition to detail. Has we shall further see……

Lucinda’s lovingly fashioned wardrobe….

True to Tasha’s fantasy world of dolls, she hand stitched an elegant wardrobe for Bethany’s doll. Lucinda is wearing a daily chore kerchief on her head with a lovely calico print dress, with tiny button adorning the bodice and, of course an apron. In her wardrobe Lucinda has a lovely red print dress with little puff sleeves ~ I wonder what event she might find that befitting, maybe an afternoon stroll through the gardens.  Oh my, look at the edging on that petticoat ~ all set to show in true Tasha fashion…..

Oh Lucinda…..

Tasha stitches such pretty petticoats that she and Lucinda are quite proud to show them off ~ just as Tasha showed us her petticoat when I first met her 😉

Lovely Bethany and Lucinda……by Tasha!

I invite you to come back for another visit with me as I continue my story of  “A Doll for Bethany ~ Lucinda’s Wardrobe”.  You can find the second part of my story here:

“A Doll for Bethany” ~ Lucinda’s Wardrobe

And ” A Doll for Bethany ~ Lucinda’s New Friend”  ~  where I will introduce you to yet another type / style of Tasha Tudor dolls

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have designed and hand-knit a “Kindred Spirit – Cottage Elegance Shawl” in the true style of Tasha Tudor. and… we can’t forget ours dolls. You can find shawls for you and your doll – hand knit for you here :

Tasha Tudor style doll shawl. Your doll would love wearing a custom knit Tasha Tudor style shawl.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/253011631/china-doll-hand-knit-tasha-tudor-style?ref=listing-shop-header-0

Tasha Tudor style ” Cottage Elegance Shawl.” hand – knit of Vermont wool and Mohair

https://www.etsy.com/listing/166646477/tasha-tudor-style-vermont-70-percent?ref=shop_home_active_3

Sally Anne ” How many more Tasha Tudor style shawls to we need to knit for our kindred spirits? My arms are getting tired. I think we should sell the pattern to those who would love to knit a kindred spirit shawl for them self or a friend”
I agree with Sally-Anne, and you can find the PDF pattern here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/236659762/pdf-hand-knit-pdf-patterns-cottage?ref=shop_home_feat_2

We wish you a pleasant day knitting and playing with your dolls-

~Take  Joy ~ Melissa and my dolls

 

 

 

Just a friendly reminder –

All content and photos copyright 2014 – 2016 by Melissa O’Connore