Halloween is a very special holiday at A Tale of Two Hittys. It is the birthday of Mary Angela Dickens, granddaughter of Charles Dickens, and also the day that she receives her doll Kitty on her 6th birthday, in my fictional tale. This year Kitty is making plans for a very special party with her friends. She tells them to come dressed in costumes, but not to bring gifts. Instead, she will share a special surprise with them. MacKenna dresses as as a candy-striper nurse and brings her new friend, Sienna, with her. Sienna is dressed as a doctor. Maeve appears as Robin Hood. Mabel and Cleo wear their costumes…
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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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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: Hitty’s Sunbonnet
This pattern was inspired by Ancestor Hitty’s antique sunbonnet in the Stockbridge Library Museum. I have created a replica of the fabric, but any lightweight cotton fabric will work. You can purchase Hitty’s Sunbonnet fabric in my Spoonflower store, Designs by Frendi, and an 8” swatch is large enough to make two bonnets. I recommend making a trial bonnet with practice fabric before you cut out the custom printed fabric. Click here to download Hitty’s Sunbonnet Pattern! The original bonnet was quilted. This pattern uses lightweight fusible interfacing instead, to get the stiffness in the brim without the extra bulk. Measure your Hitty’s head to see whether you need the…
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Tutorial: Tiny Crochet Lace
Those of us who sew for Hitty are aware of the difficulty of finding tiny trims and lace in the right scale. Purchased trim often looks too big and bulky. When we do find something tiny enough to use, there is rarely an option for any color other than white. This crocheted lace pattern makes great trim for doll clothing. It is very versatile: you can experiment with the hook and thread sizes for different results. Try making cute collars, as well as trim for dresses and petticoats. Download the Tiny Crochet Lace Pattern Here! Many thanks to the Hitty & Friends Facebook group members (Shelia B.W., Penny G., Sue…
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Hitty’s Library Dress
For the past few years, Ancestor Hitty has been displayed at the Stockbridge Library Museum wearing a copy of her original sprig print dress. This dress, also known as the “daguerreotype dress,” was the one Hitty wore when she posed for her daguerreotype photo. The original daguerreotype dress has shredded in several places, and it has been stabilized and put on display next to Hitty. But where is her dark red dress with oval blossoms, often referred to by Hitty admirers as “the library dress?” When I contacted a curator at the Stockbridge Library, I was told that they could not locate the dress. Furthermore, their records did not contain…
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Native Pueblo Manta Dress
The Pueblo peoples are Native Americans living in the Southwest, mostly in New Mexico. Pueblo is a Spanish word meaning “village,” and there are 19 pueblos in New Mexico, each with its own unique culture and traditions. You can learn more about them on the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center website. This off-the-shoulder dress, called a “Manta,” is a typical style for women of the Hopi and Zuni Pueblos. Traditionally, it was made of dark colored wool or cotton blankets. Some of the blankets had fancy red woven borders. Here is one example in the National Museum of the American Indian: Other blankets were white with elaborate multi-colored borders. Here is…
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Hitty Fabrics Part 1
UPDATE: July 2023 I can no longer find the website for My Fabric Designs! This is very concerning because I am not able to order any more fabric. When I find out what happened, I will post another update. I have disabled any links to their website as a precaution. I must admit that I have an obsession with fabrics: specifically, the fabrics used for Hitty’s dresses. Some of these dresses are fictional: they are described in the book Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field and appear in the illustrations by Dorothy Lathrop. Other dresses are real and belonged to the actual Hitty who now resides in the…
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Fortune Teller Dolls
We’re all curious about what the future holds. In the mid-19th century, many traveling peddlers and gypsies earned money by advertising their services as fortune tellers or “fate ladies.” In the same vein, Victorian ladies were soon creating miniature fortune teller dolls to predict their futures. The dolls had paper skirts which could be unfolded to reveal the fortunes. It became a popular pastime for ladies to read their fortunes while taking tea or at parties. Most fortunes painted a rosy future, but a few warned of trouble ahead. I find fortune teller dolls fascinating, and their scarcity makes them even more special. Most didn’t survive due to the fragile…
