Isabella

I was approached before Christmas, by a lady in America. She wanted a bespoke ragdoll for her daughter, who was at Boarding school here in England.

She also wanted the ragdoll to become a family heirloom, and had a list of special little details that she wanted me to include. She had seen my ragdolls whilst doing an internet search, and said she really liked my style and the level of detail I include on all my ragdolls.

Here's what this special ragdoll needed to include:

• Lavender (dried and added to the stuffing)
• Blue and cream check fabric
• Light brown hair
• A little pocket for a family locket
• A little pocket for a note from Mother to Daughter
• Somehow include fabric from a blouse belonging to the daughter's Grandmother (sent to me all the way from America!)                

And here she is!  

 

When the daughter received her at Christmas, she decided to call her Isabella, her grandmother's name...funnily enough, I had the name Isobel in mind when I was making her :). The little rabbit was an additional extra of my own. Although I put lots of French Lavender inside Isabella, once she was dressed, you couldn't really smell it unless you gave her a good squish. I thought about adding a lavender filled pocket to her pinny, or making her a little bag to wear. I did some research to see if there was something simple I could do.

Suddenly, inspiration struck! She needs a little toy rabbit!...and I could stuff that with lavender!! Perfect! I designed the pattern myself, and cut it out of brown felt. The eyes and nose are hand stitched. Before I packed up the ragdoll for shipping, I sewed the rabbit to the inside cuff of her sleeve. That way, the rabbit won't get separated from the ragdoll, and also, it dangles in a pleasingly 'Winnie the Pooh' way when you pick the ragdoll up to hold her.

The Grandmother's blouse turned out to be a very old silk scarf, which had been hand sewn into a clever little top with collar and buttons. However, silk becomes very fragile with age, and this severely limited my options.

I decided to sew a band of it onto the bottom of the petticoat, so that the silk was fully supported. You can just see it peeking out from under the blue and cream check dress. The lace trim on the bottom was sandwiched in between the petticoat and the silk.

You may just be able to make out the pocket for the locket in the first photo. It is on the tabard of the petticoat. It keeps the locket close to the ragdoll's heart.





And the secret pocket for the note from Mother to Daughter?...Well, that's a secret isn't it ;-)

This is me holding Isabella before she went off to America.

Lots of Love
Rebecca xx