When my sister and I were little, I used to make clothes for our dolls.
We had an old armoire in our bedroom and my mom took out the doors and we made it into a doll's house.
I made furniture for the dolls from scraps and things I found.
An old cigar box was decorated and turned into a bed, a shoe box became the wardrobe- with real doors that opened and closed, a candy tin was a perfect dining table.
I made clothes for the dolls. My mother taught me how to sew and I used to spend hours drawing pictures of fancy clothes for the dolls.
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After a long career as a fashion/custome designer, I finally found my passion on a cold winter evening, at my sons' Waldorf-education kindergarten.
Parents were invited for a doll making extravaganza. We all sat on tiny wooden chairs and made little star/bunting dolls for our children. It was a lovely, fun evening and it could have well ended at that but then, someone pulld a waldorf doll out of nowhere and I took one look and fell head over heels.
I spent the next couple of weeks glued to my computer, frantically trying to figure out how to make these dolls. I ordered every book I could find and bit my fingernails with anticipation.
But by the time the books arrived, I was already making dolls.
I love making dolls.
It is a long process and my fingers constantly ache from the pulling and tugging and sewing,
but I love to see how people react to my dolls. I am constantly thinking about new dolls, searching for better techniques, different material, but in the end, the beauty in making waldorf- inspired dolls is the simplicity of it all.
A bit of natural wool roving, cotton thread, embroidery floss and a bit of mohair wool, and voila!~ A doll emerges.
I work at home, in a lovely, spacious studio adjacent to the children's playroom, which is where quite a few of the dolls/toys end up, smudged in chocolate and bananas, after enduring some, err, affection from my 3.5 years old daughter, Sophia.
She likes to 'test-drive' my dolls and if I am not carefull, I will end up with nothing to sell. :-)
Thank you for reading and thank you for visiting Louie Louie Bebe.
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