One Christmas my sisters and I got Sound of Music dolls. As the youngest, I got Gretel. When Gretel came out of the box, her hair was braided and coiled around her ears (think Princess Leia). My first order of business was to take her hair down to brush it—and that was the end of the tiny, coiled braids. Nobody could figure out how to get them back. How I did mourn! Apparently, I was hard on poor Gretel in other ways too, because she spent many years looking more or less like this:
But the other day I said to myself, enough is enough! I enlisted my husband, and we set about surgically reattaching her head.
There was one minor disaster during the operation:
But it was nothing that a little elbow grease, some two-part epoxy, some tin foil, and two kinds of tape couldn’t fix.
After Gretel had healed from her surgery I made her a dress. Now she looks like this:
My niece Hannah says she will join me in next summer’s Pet and Doll parade in Ketchikan. She’ll bring her cat, and I’ll bring Gretel, and we will wear matching kerchiefs made from the rest of the kitty fabric. Stay tuned for summer ‘22, because I’m not letting this one go.
Awww. I still have the Brigitta doll. Remember the “Susie” doll you scalp d and amputated her finger
And Mama gave her hair plugs made from embroidery thread.
Do you remember the cloth doll you made that Mama dressed up?
That I made?
No, that Evelyn made.
Not sure if I do. But I do know that Mama was often rescuing my dolls in one way or another.
They are probably around somewhere, You took the cloth doll and your skipper doll with you back in 1994, along with all the clothes Mama made for them.