My new year’s resolution is to share the fun of Hitty with others. A great way to do that is by gifting a doll to a friend or relative. The people who make Hitty dolls, clothing, and accessories are hand-crafting each item with love and care. By supporting these artisans, you are helping to keep the legacy of Hitty alive and thriving. Once you have gifted a doll to someone, the fun can begin. Sewing, crocheting or knitting for Hitty, bonnet-making, miniature making, or the excitement of searching out and finding tiny treasures all await. Traveling with Hitty and taking photos, then sharing them with others can bring great joy.…
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MICRO Mini Hitty Book
January 2025 marks a special milestone for fans of Hitty. Under U.S. copyright law, any book written in the year 1929 is now in the public domain. That includes the book, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field and Dorothy P. Lathrop. To celebrate, I designed a miniature Hitty book which contains the entire first chapter. This was created from a scan of the original book. I also used my “Hitty Book Cover Classic” design (see The Book Cover Dresses) to make the cover. You can print as many of these books as you like or even sell them if you choose, as long as you give credit to…
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Bill Fifer’s Gift
Recently, I was contacted by Bill Fifer, the Hitty carver and miniature artisan. He had saved photos and other information about Hitty over the years and wanted to pass it along to someone who would appreciate it. Bill had heard of my article in Doll News magazine about Hitty’s wardrobe and wondered if I would be interested in his treasure trove. You can imagine how surprised and honored I was to hear from him. I promised him that I would preserve his archive and share it with others on my website. Below is a brief biography and history of how Bill and his wife, Pat Fifer, became so involved in…
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Meet Lacie
This month I took Kitty to a special “Afternoon Tea Time” event at the Ohio National Doll Show. The title was, “From Clay to AI, the Changing Landscape of Doll Design.” In the center of the table were special gifts for everyone courtesy of Rachel Hoffman and Virtual Doll Convention. Each guest received a t-shirt and boots for a 16” fashion doll and other trinkets. A small paper box shaped like a teapot held chocolate candy. Everything looked so sweet and appealing. The guest of honor was legendary doll designer, Robert Tonner. He had prepared a selection of fantastical images to showcase the potential of AI as a doll design…
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Hitty’s First Dress
When Phoebe Preble wanted to play with her newly created doll, “Hitty,” Phoebe’s mother insisted that she needed a dress first. This dress, as described in the book, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, was made from “a buff calico strewn with small red flowers.” Six illustrations by Dorothy P. Lathrop in the book show Hitty wearing her very first dress of calico roses. When she was accidentally left behind at the Preble’s church, she spent a harrowing few days underneath a pew, frightened by a bat and hemmed in between a footstool and an illustrated Bible. I loved reading the part when she tried to get the attention of the…
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3D Printed Kitty Doll
In Chapter 1 of my book, A Tale of Two Hittys, readers learn that the author, Charles Dickens, commissions a woodcarver to create a small wooden doll in the image of his beloved granddaughter, Mekitty. She instantly falls in love with her new doll, “Kitty,” who then comes to life. Mekitty begs her grandfather to retell the story about his encounter with the wooden doll named, “Hitty,” when he was on a reading tour in America. That is how my book begins. My two inspirations are the book, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field, (see Who is Hitty?) and an antique paper mache doll named, “Kitty,” (see Meet…
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The Book Cover Dresses
A few months ago, I received a request to make a fabric design based on the Hitty book dust jacket. It took me a while, but I finally finished. There are two color variations based on different editions of the Hitty book. Both designs are now available in my Spoonflower shop. New Hitty Book Cover Designs on Spoonflower Hitty Book Cover Classic The first design is based on a jacket from the September 1946 Macmillan edition, which has a dark red background and greenish-gold crosses with off-white flowers in the middle. There is a also a faint white line along one edge of the crosses. Hitty Book Cover Bright The…
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Tutorial: A Visit from St. Nick
The American poem known as, “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” turns 200 years old on December 23rd. The poem first appeared anonymously in an issue of the Troy Sentinel, a New York newspaper. Fourteen years later, Clement Clarke Moore claimed that he had written the poem for his children. A family friend visiting from upstate New York, where the Troy Sentinel was published, heard the poem and submitted it to the newspaper without his knowledge. I thought my dolls would like their own copy of the poem, so I found the original newspaper on the Troy Public Library website and made a miniature version. I removed some columns and enlarged…
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Kitty at the Book Fair
Fall is here, the season of school book fairs. Kitty attended one recently to promote A Tale of Two Hittys. Here are some photos from the event.
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Tutorial: MICRO Mini Book
My Hitty dolls loved the Mini Books I made for them. However, Kitty has mentioned that they are a little too big to fit on Hitty size bookshelves. So I decided to make an even smaller version, which I call the MICRO Mini Book. The finished size is a mere 1 1/4” x 1 1/2”. One benefit of the smaller version is that I was able to fit TWO books on one double-sided page. The instructions below are written for a single book, and I recommend making one at a time. That way, if you make a mistake, you can correct it for the second book. Print out the .pdf…
