First Edith Flack Ackley doll

To Greet a Little Girl - my 1st EFA doll

Another long time to-do item for me was to make a doll from Edith Flack Ackley's wonderful 1938 book, Dolls to Make for Fun and Profit. This book has a lovely collection of cloth dolls to sew charmingly illustrated throughout by Edith's sister Telka Ackley. I've had this book for a long time but didn't get around to making any of the dolls until now.

detail of her embroidered features

One thing that's refreshing about the book is that Edith encourages her readers to make the dolls to sell themselves. It's something I'm considering but I've found after making this first one that they're quite time consuming to make if you're fussy like me, and want the clothes to be removable and the hems finished by hand etc. This particular one has six garments, an undervest, pantalettes, petticoat, dress, pinafore and shoes.

back view

I joined the Yahoo group (edithflackackleydolls), which I recommend if you're interested in these dolls as you can see all the great photos of other dolls made by people in the group. That's also where I found the pattern for this doll, called "To Greet a Little Girl". The book has patterns as well but this one was nice and complete with more specific instructions. I always appreciate it so much when people take the time to share things like this!

the dress without the pinafore

I was inspired by Margaret McInnes' beautiful "Belinda and Lucinda" dolls made from a EFA pattern from 1934. Margaret was kind enough to share her copy of this pattern which you can find on her blog: A Doll Shop of my Own.

Undergarments: undervest, pantelettes and petticoat

So Belinda and Lucinda are the next Edith Flack Ackely dolls I'll be working on. It's hard to explain why a particular thing will captivate you, but this sweet pattern has, and I can't wait to make them.