RAGGEDY ANN AND ANDY

Through the years I have made these dolls, I made them for my daughters, a friend and I made some one year for some kids that needed a comfort doll. I have enjoyed doing them and have worn out at least two sets of patterns . In case you don't know about them they are the rag dolls with yarn hair, She has a pinafore and he has a sailor type hat and overalls. These dolls have been around for probably 75 years.

When I worked for IRS one of our appeals offices, a gentle giant of a man , was known to mumble about things ending with ' I'm going to rip their face off". As I said he was gentle giant who stood about 6' 8". he was always willing to lend a hand at anything from moving furniture in the office or help others work in the yard, move furniture, whatever. When he accepted a transfer from Sacramento to San Francisco, I wanted to give him something that he could always remember me by. So I made him a face ripping doll. You start with an ordinary Raggedy Andy doll, Then you make an extra face. Sew strips of velcro on the head and on the back of the extra face. Be sure to add eyes, nose, and mouth to the extra face. Presto a face ripping doll. My grandson Joe had a friend who didn't beleive there was such a thing. So I recently made him one.

Joe also works as a therapist for autistic children. One of his clients needs to learn to do buttons,he asked me about how to get one or where to get one. Now I know there are learning dolls, that have buttons to button, zippers to zip, shoe strings to tie. But from what I have observed is that clothes now days have zippers for them to learn to use, most shoes don't have strings to tie.
So out came the pattern and I have created another in the line of fun dolls for kids and adults.
I think Joe will post them on the face book for me .If not I'll try to do it. I made pockets that can really hold things, tabs that button over the pockets, belts that button and snaps that can be snapped. All of this to encourage small muscles to work better.I had a lot of fun doing this Hope you will enjoy seeing them The clothes come off too