Up to now, I’ve pretty much concentrated on porcelain dolls, and liking the old fashioned look, find myself dressing my modern dolls that way, but the other day I somehow stumbled onto Susan Fosnot’s website, http://www.susanfosnotdolls.com, and absolutely fell in love with her fantastic painted cloth dolls. I’d never seen anything like them! They’re old fashioned in appearance, and completely adorable! The dolls she offers for sale are one of a kind, completely designed and crafted by Susan from fabric, with flat faces which are so beautifully painted in portrait style that they appear to be three-dimensional, and then are dressed in vintage or antique fabric and trims in fashions that would fit right in with your antique or antique reproduction dolls.
Susan became interested in making dolls as a child, learning hand sewing from her mother and the use of a sewing machine from her grandmother. She studied Fine Arts at the University of Wisconsin with an emphasis on drawing and portraiture which prepared her for making these wonderful dolls. She developed an interest in early American doll makers and their products, which inspired her to develop a similar line of dolls.
Besides offering completed dolls for sale, Susan teaches on site workshops , has “Doll Starts Kits” which come with a face already painted and signed by Susan, fabric for the doll body as well as the pattern for the body and clothes. But the thing that most interests me are the doll patterns. My favorite so far is Rosella. This pattern was inspired by old china dolls and uses a Steuber type body, and is all cloth with applied ears and stitched fingers. She’s great! The face is lovely, and instructions for painting it and the pattern for making the underwear and a mid-19th century style dress are included. Oh dear, I’m thinking I need it! Maybe I could drop a few hints about what a cool Christmas present it would make? What do you think? Is it worth a shot?
Anyway, don’t miss these dolls! Check out site. I think you’ll fall in love with them too, and you’ll see why I think they’d go so well with our other dolls!
