I love vintage hankies and decided to use them to make dresses for some of the wooden dolls that I carve.
I needed to take a break last week, and my Story Door Dolls were beckoning me.
So, I used some of the vintage hankies that I have collected over the years to make them new dresses.
Lucky Pauline ended up with the most beautifully embroidered hanky.
I can’t bear to cut the hankies, so I do some crazy folding to make the hanky work as the skirt.
This is Tennie in her new hanky dress…. even though it’s not as glamorous as Pauline’s, she’s still very happy with it.
By folding and hand stitching the delicate old linen, cotton and silk hankies, the hankies remain intact.
This is a kind of archival use of the hankies, which preserves them, but uses them, instead of them languishing in a box.
I hand carve the dolls, which I call my ‘Story Door Dolls’.
They are all around 6 inches tall, and I use local woods for most of them.
They were inspired by Hitty dolls.
This little charmer was carved from Arbutus wood that was trimmed many years ago from the tree in my sisters in laws house in Victoria. I won’t be carving anymore Arbutus dolls as that wood is like iron! wow…. and ow….
And, yes, I do sell them…..
But not Pauline
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 
I find a break that includes Hittys to be very restorative. Your hanky dresses are quite delightful, and I am sure that your dolls appreciate all the care you have taken with the folding, to preserve the integrity of the cloth!
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A ‘Hitty Break’ is indeed a boon to the spirits! I just couldn’t bear to cut into the lovely old hankies, so working with them in the most non- destructive, friendly way was important to me. 🙂 Thank you for all the Hitty magic that you create, Kjerstin. Your blog is one of the highlights of my day! ❤
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what a beautiful new life you’ve found for these old hankies!
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Thank you so much 🙂 I love old hankies, and it was such a pleasure to bring them out of the dark and into a new way of being 🙂
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Do you need any more hankies?
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Charming! I have a tin box of hankies that belonged to my grandmother – and I’m 60 plus – and never had any ideas of what to do with them. I love that you have preserved the hankies intact. 😉
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Thank you so much! I have collected hankies over the years, and used them in various art dolls. I can’t imagine cutting into them… preserving them as best I can, while still using them in fun ways is important to me. 🙂
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Replying to Griffonsong- Yes please to the hankies. I am inspired by them, and I also share them with Chloe for her art. So, between the 2 of us, they are well and truly enjoyed and employed 🙂
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