Sunday, November 11, 2012

THE JINGLE-CHEER DOLLS


I was cleaning my closet and found some doll/puppets I made several years ago. These dolls have a purpose: to bring cheer--and fun-- to the recipient.
The dolls are about  12 inches high.  The arms and legs are made out of circular pieces of fabric, sewn at the edges , gathered and secured at the center. 


 Fabric is also used for the body and head of the doll.

On the back of the doll there are two loops for fingers. Underneath the two
loops is a pocket into which a piece of paper can be inserted.  Bells are sewn
on to the arms and legs of the doll. The doll becomes a hand puppet.



The idea is to  put a wish or a message of cheer for a person, and shake the
doll so the bells ring. It is like ringing the message for the person. I made several of these as birthday gifts.  Many of them were clowns.




I used the  Jingle Cheer concept to make some dolls/puppets for  a series of ten stories for children  collectively called 
The Willy-Silly Stories. (click for the story menu)

The stories are about three royal children who live in WillyNilly Land.  Prince Jay, Princess Kay and Princess Fay  live in a way we can recognize.  They visit SillyDilly Land where people live quite differently. The two royal children are 
Princess Peek-a-Boo, and Prince Hop-A-Lot.  The royal children do not wear crowns..
they wear green pigs.  The people of SillyDilly land wear boxes. 





I used the  Jingle Cheer concept to make the dolls/puppets for these stories.






3 comments:

carrly said...

These dolls are so cleverly made. And you just had to add music (jingles) to them, Susan. I am making a Dressy Bessy doll for my great-grandgirl for her birthday. My next project is Amish dolls for my daughters to go with an Amish book by Julie Kramer that she autographed for me. The Amish dolls have no faces as in keeping with Amish tradition.
Love your stories,
Lynn from EatonPlace

Carmen said...

These bring back memories! I learned to make these in elementary school waaay before any of you were born. lol I made clowns many years ago to give to little ones in the hospital. They are fun to make and an excellent way to use scraps of fabric. One year my fourth graders made them using samples from books the fabric stores used to give away. Do I date myself? Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

hi.......very nice dolls.this is so cute.........
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