Best Dressed Doll 1930 at the 4th Annual Winter Show and Exhibition at the King Edward Barracks, Christchurch

My Mum has a tiny doll in a tiny antique pram which weighs not much more than a feather. Even as a child it felt fragile to me. A not to be played with toy.

There were other dolls from Mum’s childhood that became part of the doll family I had as a child. Darrell (who I renamed Carol) and Josephine, who had been her younger sister’s doll. These two were composition dolls manufactured by a mixture of glue with sawdust which was heavier and denser than papier mâché and easily molded. They had hollow bodies and moveable limbs and head thanks to some contraption inside the body which seemed like rubber or elastic bands and hooks. Their facial features and hair were painted, and they both had eyes that opened and closed if you laid them down to sleep. Josephine was a taller doll and could stand up – if you balanced her feet correctly. Being wood based they were susceptible to damage from moisture though.

This other even smaller and more fragile doll was made of celluloid and first belonged to Auntie Hilda, the youngest sister of Mum’s father.

Celluloid was first created in 1863 and is one of the first synthetic plastics created from wood products that included camphor and cellulose nitrate. Doll makers began experimenting as early as the 1870s. By the early 1900s celluloid dolls were plentiful. Earlier dolls were breakable and fragile made from china and bisque. Celluloid although inexpensive is flammable, so not perfect, and one would imagine there could have been tears with open fires and coal range stoves. Dolls continued to be molded with celluloid as late as the 1950s though the majority were made between 1900-1940.

Hilda, my great aunt, was born in Christchurch, New Zealand in the summer of 1914. She was the youngest child with four older siblings. They lived in Middleton Road on a 3 acre block which was part of the original Wharenui settlement. Her father worked for the railways and her mother, most likely assisted by the children, tended the land and home. They had an orchard with fruit trees and rows upon rows of raspberries as well as other vegetables and a cow which supplied milk and butter. I am sure they probably had chooks too.

In my quest to build knowledge of the lives of our forebears, to keep their memories alive, I often search digitised newspapers for snippets about them and clues about their day-to-day life. Recently, while searching to see what I might be able to glean about school life and other social activities of my grandfather and his siblings I came across a couple of pieces of information that seemed connected to the little doll as well.

I had not ever really thought about her doll and the history attached to it, other than that it had belonged to her in a bygone era. I don’t know if it had a name and it is so fragile, I can’t imagine it was ever played with as we, or our children play with dolls in more recent times. Hilda like most young girls in her generation and earlier generations was a knitter and a seamstress. Like her contemporaries she will have learned these skills from her mother from a very young age. 

Prize List, Needlework, Winter Show and Exhibition 1930 from Press, Monday 11 August 1930, page 17.

Hilda would have been about 16 at this time, was the doll bought just to be a model for her handiwork? Or was it a treasured childhood toy? I knew that when given to Mum the doll was dressed in clothes which may have been made by Hilda or perhaps her sister or mother. But I hadn’t given it much more thought than that. Now though? Was she wearing those items that had won Hilda the prize? Is that why she had been kept all these years?

Two entries from secondary school students for Hand-knitted baby's jacket; first prize to Hilda (perhaps made for her nephew). Three entries for Most useful article; Very Highly Commended to Hilda (I wonder what it was) and three entries for Best dressed doll; first prize to Hilda.

Can you imagine sewing or knitting these tiny items in a room unlit by electricity? The detail is incredible, smocking, stitched lace, embroidery. The knitting (feather and fan on the cape) must have been at least 2 ply on needles the size of toothpicks!

These days, although she still wears her original undergarments and booties, she has a new cape and bonnet knitted by Mum and a dress knitted in feather and fan found at a craft market or fair. Her original dress, cape and bonnet are showing a little wear and have been carefully packed away to save further damage. Some of the ribbon ties have not survived the close to 100 years. Recently she made a trip back to her hometown of Christchurch and spent a few days being tenderly restored so that her limbs were no longer loose. Maybe with a little luck she will be cherished for another hundred or so years perhaps within the family, perhaps in a museum collection.

Q - Quilt

I have always secretly wanted to be a quilter. I hand pieced hexagons when I was at high school with friends, then put it all away.

When I was pregnant I decided to make a quilt for my baby’s cot. All hand pieced. It took a lot longer than I had envisaged. Thank goodness somebody else gifted us a cot quilt. That bought me another 12 months or so of time – although it made the job bigger because now I needed to make it single bed sized !

I did it though, and it kept her warm for many years – and is still holding together. I made some other quilts too. A patchwork square one for my brother – nothing fancy; and one for my parents which wasn’t so much patchwork or quilting; more a Escher inspired hand pieced twisted triangle which I appliqued on to a piece of fabric and then used that as the quilt topper.

In my cupboard I have some squares waiting for me to get out the sewing machine and whip up a new light quilt or throw, and in a box in the garage there are some bags of fabric which have travelled the world – waiting for me to make time and finish half done projects.

My love of handcrafts comes from my grandmother I think. She was a great knitter. I remember there were pieces of embroidery and tapestry too, some half finished at her home. I have a cushion she made with a tapestry cover, and a crochet blanket she made for my bed. There was a bargello cushion too, I wonder what happened to that one ? She crocheted a tablecloth with ecru cotton for Mum, hundreds of little squares individually hand sewn together. We all, my cousins and I and my daughter (her great granddaughter) were lucky to have home made knitted jumpers, cardigans – even dresses (except for the boys lol). I still have my knitted Noddy too, who last time I checked was still looking pretty good all these years later.

I remember her showing me embroidery stitches; lazy daisies, feather stitch and blanket stitch. Knitting was a shared task too, helping with the casting on, ribbing, cables…it takes a village, right ? We had a go at tatting together but neither of us really mastered it.

Cross stitch became my favourite for a number of years and Nana had dabbled with it too. A couple of years ago my daughter decided to give it a try, so it has passed to another generation. One of the first projects she completed was an unfinished one of Nana’s which had laid in the cupboard at Mum and Dad’s most of her life waiting for someone to pick up the needle again.

Life is like a tapestry. Everyone we meet weaves their way into our journey, some good, some not so much, like dropped stitches or knotty threads. But it is those interactions which make us who we are, and the little disasters (negative knitting and unpicking seams) give us the strength to carry on; to try again.

Family can be like a quilt; warm, enveloping, calming but giving you the freedom to leave while you spread your wings, knowing that the comfort and security they offer will always be there when you need it.

Right now, the whole world needs a great big quilt, and to know that everything will be alright. Eventually. Maybe I will get the sewing machine out this weekend.

#52Stories, Week 9, What were your favourite hobbies and pastimes from childhood ? Are you still pursuing any of them ?

I'm swapping week 9 & 10 around while I do some research on what is now week 10's topic.

Pastimes and hobbies is the topic for week 9.

I collected stamps for a while, diligently soaking them off the envelopes and putting them in to a stamp album. There were lots of letters and bills arriving in people's letterboxes then. Not so much now, except at Christmas. So I imagine stamp collecting must be a fast disappearing hobby. Dad collected stamps too - there are suitcases of them waiting forlornly for someone to sort them or sell them, or just look at them without feeling overwhelmed by the sheer size of the task.

I had piano lessons, belonged to a gymnastics club and a roller-skating club. I joined Brownies.I drew house plans on the spare plan paper Dad bought home from work. I knitted, sort of. 

Mum and Nana both knitted and were willing teachers, even when I dropped stitch after stitch for rows on end and sometimes made more stitches than required instead. I think the first garment I completed myself was a striped longline jumper with an oversized polo neck when I was about 14.

I wrote letters (it fed my stamp collection) and collected penfriends around the world and across New Zealand too. Mataura, Milton, Nelson and further afield Mauritius, Switzerland, France, Japan, Rhodesia (yes I am that old - Zimbabwe now), England, USA, Australia. Apart from friends and family I only correspond with one penfriend these days. Debby from Rhode Island; penfriends for over 40 years, and yet to meet.

I tried embroidery, because Nana did some and there were some incomplete attempts of Mums in the spare room at Nana's. I embroidered the bottom of my flares - it was the thing to do in the 70's - and some of my old school shirts.

I read as many books as I could lay my hands on. We went to the library every week, and I saved money to buy my own paperbacks, or was given novels at birthdays and Christmas.

We did jigsaws and crosswords as a family, learning new words and problem solving at the same time.

What do I still do ? 

Read - not as much, but I still love getting lost in the pages of a good book (not a kindle)

I try to write letters, mostly they are typed though, not longhand, and often only at Christmas. But I am going to change that and may the postal companies remember what they are supposed to be doing.

I knit, not as much as I would like, but I do. Mostly baby things.

Embroidery is the same, and cross stitch which I taught myself and did masses of in the early 90's. One day I will have time again.

I was a Brownie, Pippin and Adult leader with GirlGuiding New Zealand for 18 years - and some days I really miss the friendship and the activities and the girls.

I make cards, although most of my making stuff is packed away in boxes, so it doesn't happen so much right now. Except for Christmas.

I bake. If I have all the time in the world there is nothing I enjoy more than baking. Actually, it's been a while since I whipped up a batch of shortbread. Hmmm, there's a plan for my next free weekend.