❤ 2/24/2024 ~ I’ve been putting together class books for two new students, and also made 2 extra copies. If you have been wanting to take the class this is a great time to get immediate shipping on the class materials and a chance to start your Izannah Walker dollmaking journey at the same time as a few other fellow students. Online support for this class in a private Facebook group is included as part of the class.
Good evening, and welcome to the sale of my first doll of 2024! I’d like to introduce you to Hannah, who is a reproduction of one of the antique Izannah Walker dolls in my personal collection.
HANNAH – $2430 SOLD
Hannah is 18.5 inches tall. She has a pressed cloth head, just like Izannah Walker’s original dolls. Both her head and limbs are painted in oils. Her second skin body covering is a reproduction of an antique alphabet print fabric that you can sometimes find on the cloth bodies of various antique dolls. Hannah’s painted boots have sweet scalloped tops.
As something a little bit special to celebrate this first doll of 2024 I have sewn a wardrobe for Hannah. She has three dresses, each made from antique fabric and notions. Underneath her dresses she wears a chemise and petticoat that I made from antique cotton sheeting, just like you will find on the original dolls. Her pantalettes are antique ones, from that very large collection of antique doll undergarments that I purchased a few years ago. Hannah’s pantalettes are very plain, but they have one detail that I dearly love. If you look closely you’ll see that their maker had to piece the fabric on one half of them, because she evidently didn’t quite have a large enough scrap of fabric to cut them out whole. ❤
Hannah’s dresses and petticoat have deep hems and growth tucks. One of her dresses is trimmed in rows of antique black grosgrain ribbon. Each of the three dresses have sleeves that are of a different design than the other two dresses, all three have extra fabric in their skirts to make them very full. To go over her dresses she has a pinner apron, with a large pocket that is just perfect for holding Valentines and other treasures. Her apron ties in back with a wide sash that makes a very pretty bow.
Hannah also comes with a heart shaped pincushion that hangs from a silk ribbon. Eliza Leslie gave directions for just such a pincushion in the Amusing Work section of her iconic The American Girl’s Book; or, Occupation for Play Hours , Boston: Munroe and Francis; New York: C.S. Francis, 1831.
All of my dolls are sold on a “first come” basis. To purchase Hannah email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com . Please be aware of how much the doll costs BEFORE you send your request to buy. You are welcome to ask questions, but please note that asking a question is not the same as making a commitment to buy and will not “hold your place in line” if someone else asks to buy the doll. Checks or money orders are preferred, Paypal is also accepted for payment. Free priority mail shipping & full insurance to any U.S. address. International orders ~ exact postage + $25 handling fee to help offset the extra time required for international shipping ~ check with me to make sure your international address is one I ship to. No shipping to Russia.
I’ve had a few questions about the doll I am offering for sale Monday evening at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Many new people have asked to be on my “New Dolls” mailing list, so this post is for them, and anyone one else who may not be familiar with the way I sell my dolls.
I try to make selling and buying my dolls as easy and uncomplicated as possible. Essentially I make a doll and when it is finished I post it here on my blog IzannahWalker.com. The first person who emails me after the doll is posted and says they want to buy the doll gets it.
Tonight’s doll will be a reproduction of Hannah. You can see photos of the original antique dolls and some of my reproductions of them and read about the prices of my dolls here: https://asweetremembrance.com/…/izannah-walker…/ A few of the newest reproductions that are in development (such as Emma Blue, and a more time worn version of Isadora) aren’t pictured yet.
The Hannah that is going to be offered for sale does come with a wardrobe of 3 dresses, and possibly an apron that will coordinate with all of the dresses (if I get it made in time). I have not calculated the time and materials cost of the extra pieces of clothing yet, which do have extra antique fabric and more time consuming details. I WILL have that figured out by the time I offer her for sale. I took all day Sunday off to play with my granddaughter.
There is apparently a bit of confusion about whether or not I auction my dolls… The short answer is no, I don’t.
I do not do auctions. I simply post a description and many photographs of the doll that I have finished and ready to sell. There is no bidding, the price on each doll is a fixed price. The first person who emails me and tells me that they want to buy the doll gets it. The only tricky part is that the dolls take over 100 hours of working time to make, and usually another 100 hours total to dry between all the different steps.
I can’t make enough dolls for everyone who would like to buy one, so the dolls tend to sell very quickly. I announce when I will be posting them so that everyone has an equal opportunity to look at the doll, decide if they would like to have her/him and email me to say they want to buy her/him. As soon as the doll is sold I post that information immediately.
There is no bidding, the listed price doesn’t change, and I am selling them outright. Hopefully it isn’t stressful for anyone besides me I do my best to make it very straightforward and simple.
As always I am incredibly grateful for your interest in my work. Thank you!
(In case you are asking yourself why I don’t have a website with inventory control the answer is that it is too expensive. Especially when you take into account the limited number of dolls I am able to make in a year. )
I hope you will come back tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern time to meet my newest Hannah!
I’ve finished all of the dresses & underpinnings for the rather sizable wardrobe that comes with my latest Izannah Walker reproduction doll! She may still get an apron if I’m not totally worn out after spending tomorrow being a grandmother
Either way, apron or no apron, she will be available for sale on Monday evening at 8 p.m. Eastern time here at www.izannahwalker.com .
As always with all of my dolls she will be sold on a first come basis. I hope you will be able to stop by and meet her!
Dear Friends of Paula Walton’s Izannah Walker Journal & A Sweet Remembrance,
As I sit here writing to you from snowy New England, looking back on 2023 and forward toward 2024, we are already more than half way through January… I hope you all had warm wonderful holidays!
I know it may seem that I have been a bit absent lately, as I certainly didn’t make as many dolls in 2023 as I have in previous years. Creatively 2023 was a bit of a different year for me. I’ve written magazine articles for years and years, since the late 1980’s, but I’m fairly sure that I may have written more at the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023 than I ever have in such a short period of time. I also spent a substantial amount of time last year working on a rather challenging restoration of a wonderful antique Izannah Walker doll.
Some of the infant pincushions I created for my article in Early American Life’s Christmas 2022 issue, along with the covers of the February, March, and April issues of Antique Doll Collector that had my lengthy three part article about James ❤
While I do enjoy writing articles and doing restoration work, my true passion is doll making, and I have to admit that I have missed it! In fact, truth be told, I get a little cranky when I have trouble squeezing in time to do at least a little dollmaking. As I’m sure many of you know I live on just under 10 acres, which is the remaining remnant of an 18th century farm. The property contains my late 18th century home and three large antique barns. I am the chief caretaker of the house, barns, acreage, gardens, and all the newer studios and buildings. Thankfully my sons do give me a hand with some of the really heavy lifting, which makes it possible for me to (mostly) keep up with everything that has to be done.
I actually had a lot of plans and new dolls underway in November and December, but life got in the way. I wound up catching RSV, which is still lingering after almost three months. There have been a lot of viruses going around this winter, so it’s not surprising. I’m definitely OK, and certainly over the worst. I keep thinking it is going to go away, but it has just stayed put, like a very unwelcome guest. I made it through all of the holiday preparations, and family things (with lots of sanitizing and drugs) but have to admit that was really pretty much all I could do.
I still have Christmas decorations up all over the house. I’ve only taken them down in one room, and that was because I had to hang balloons, streamers and birthday party banners in there. LOL!
I am finally back to making dolls, quite a bit slower than normal, but that’s OK! It’s just such a joy to be creating! Since I’m working around my fatigue and the weather (we have snow and very cold temperatures) I’m not making any announcement about when the next dolls will be ready. What I can tell you is that I will be putting them up for sale one by one, not in multiples. Just as soon as each one is ready to find their new home I will be sending out emails to those of you on my “New Dolls” email list and posting the date and time each doll will be for sale on my Izannah Walker Journal, my A Sweet Remembrance website, Facebook and Instagram.
SNEAK PEEKS & UPCOMING DOLLS
I currently have a very sweet Hannah that is almost finished. I’m in the midst of making her a rather large wardrobe and anxiously waiting for her arms and legs to dry out in the frigid painting studio…
At the moment she has one pink dress finished and I am more than half way through making her blue dress… I’m also seriously considering a white dress with a tiny delicate black print and an apron to coordinate with all three dresses. I may have to scale back, but I hope not, as I am thoroughly enjoying sewing for her!
The next dolls that should be coming up after Hannah are all larger 20 inch dolls. I really try to rotate the different dolls I make, as I have molds for 18 heads ❤ Currently on my painting studio table are a lovely Tilly Lamb and some very sweet Isadoras, plus a brand new doll ~ a reproduction of my newest Izannah family member Emma Blue ❤ At the beginning of this newsletter I mentioned the doll I restored last year. As I was working on her I kept thinking how familiar she looked… The more I looked at her the more I was convinced that she must have been made from the same mold that Izannah used to make Isadora! I got out my Isadora mold and made a head so that I could compare the two. Side by side, other than the difference in the wear, aging and various over painting, they really looked like the same head. What particularly interested me is that I had always felt that Isadora’s head was a bit large on an 18 inch body, but that is the height of the original Isadora that I made my mold from, so that is the size that I have always made her. Since the wonderful, extremely well loved, doll I restored was 20 inches tall, I decided to make a 20 inch reproduction Isadora! I do sometimes see antique Izannah Walker dolls with the same heads on different size bodies. After so many months of working on the restoration of Isadora’s “sister” I actually fell in love with her very time worn appearance, so I may play around with adding a bit more “age” to an Isadora or two, for those of you who also find old, time worn, and well loved endearing.
Thank you all for your interest in my Izannah Walker reproduction dolls! I love being able to share my historically accurate reproductions of some of Izannah’s amazing work with you. I hope your 2024 is off to a great start and that you have an wonderful year filled with all the things you love the best, and dolls ~ lots and lots of dolls!
Paula
“Why, yes, that IS one more Christmas tree you spy…”
Good Evening and welcome to my studio! Tonight I am offering my three latest historically accurate, handmade reproduction Izannah Walker dolls for sale ❤
Please Read ~ I’ve always tried to keep buying my dolls as straightforward and easy as possible. I started out 13 years ago simply saying that the first person to email me and request the doll would be its new owner. Simple and right to the point… What could go wrong? LOL ~ As I found out quite a few things could! There have been a few “hiccups” along the way… So in order to be courteous to other buyers and to keep everything polite, simple, and easy please read and follow these directions. They will allow me to mark the dolls that sell “sold” as quickly as possible, collect the buyer’s payment and shipping information right away, and just generally get each doll on his or her way to their new home as quickly as possible. Plus it will also let everyone else know exactly what dolls are still looking for their new homes. Thank you!
In a perfect world I would have the time, money, and energy to completely redo my website and have automatic inventory control that would allow me to list one of a kind items. Until I win the lottery, and that magical day happens, I appreciate your patience with my current selling policies. Thank you!!!
All of my dolls are sold on a “first come” basis. To purchase a doll email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com , in your email specify exactly which doll you wish to buy . Please be aware of how much the doll costs BEFORE you send your request to buy. You are welcome to ask questions, but please note that asking a question is not the same as making a commitment to buy and will not “hold your place in line” if someone else asks to buy the doll. Checks or money orders are preferred, Paypal is also accepted for payment. Free priority mail shipping & full insurance to any U.S. address. International orders ~ exact postage + $25 handling fee to help offset the extra time required for international shipping ~ check with me to make sure your international address is one I ship to. No shipping to Russia.
The three little Izannahs looking for homes to call their own this evening are a 16 inch reproduction of Izzybelle, a 17 inch reproduction of Lizzybit, and a 17 in reproduction of Lily.
Please note* * * The lighting is less than perfect tonight, due to all the rain and heavy clouds currently here in Connecticut. The dolls all look so much prettier in person ❤
Lizzybit ~ SOLD
Lizzybit is 17 inches tall. She is dressed in the style of a mid-19th century child. Her dress is made of antique fabric and with an extra full skirt. Underneath she wears split pantalettes, a chemise and a petticoat. Her second skin is made from antique white glazed cotton, which is old store stock that had never been used. Her painted black boots have a blue band around their tops. She has a row of painted ringlets at the nape of her neck ❤
Email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com if you would like sweet Lizzybit to join your doll family! Checks or money orders are preferred, Paypal is also accepted for payment. Free priority mail shipping & full insurance to any U.S. address. International orders ~ exact postage + $25 handling fee to help offset the extra time required for international shipping ~ check with me to make sure your international address is one I ship to. No shipping to Russia.
Lily is 17 inches tall. She is dressed in the style of a mid-19th century child. Her dress is made of antique fabric and with an extra full skirt. Underneath she wears split pantalettes, a chemise and a petticoat. Her second skin is made from antique white glazed cotton, which is old store stock that had never been used. The back of her hair is painted with ringlets at the nape of her neck ❤
Email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com if you would like sweet Lizzybit to join your doll family! Checks or money orders are preferred, Paypal is also accepted for payment. Free priority mail shipping & full insurance to any U.S. address. International orders ~ exact postage + $25 handling fee to help offset the extra time required for international shipping ~ check with me to make sure your international address is one I ship to. No shipping to Russia.
Izzybelle is 16 inches tall. She is dressed in the style of a mid-19th century child, with one of my very favorite details, a “make-do” sleeve made from a similar yet different fabric! Her dress is made of antique fabric and with an extra full skirt. Underneath she wears split pantalettes, a chemise and a petticoat. Her second skin is made from antique white glazed cotton, which is old store stock that had never been used. Izzybelle has a row of soft little ringlets painted at the back of her neck ❤
Email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com if you would like sweet Lizzybit to join your doll family! Checks or money orders are preferred, Paypal is also accepted for payment. Free priority mail shipping & full insurance to any U.S. address. International orders ~ exact postage + $25 handling fee to help offset the extra time required for international shipping ~ check with me to make sure your international address is one I ship to. No shipping to Russia.
On Monday, September 25th, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time
to attend my virtual celebration of Izannah Walker’s 206th Birthday!
The little cloth girls and I hope that you will come visit us as we throw our annual birthday party in honor of the amazing dollmaker that created them.
Following the grand birthday celebration…
On Tuesday September 26th at 9:00p.m. Eastern time
I will be offering a few of my handmade, historically accurate, reproduction
Izannah Walker dolls for sale.
For the particulars about how my sales work please read below. Thank you!
How to buy one of the dolls that will be for sale on September 26th, 2023 ~ this is the IMPORTANT part, so please read this!
I’ve been trying to keep buying my dolls as straight forward and easy as possible. I started out by simply saying that the first person to email me and request the doll would be it’s new owner. Straight forward and right to the point… What could go wrong? LOL ~ As I found out quite a few things could! There have been a few “hiccups” along the way… So in order to keep it all simple and easy please read and follow these directions, which will allow me to mark the dolls that sell “sold” as quickly as possible, collect the buyer’s payment and shipping information right away, and just generally get each doll on his or her way to their new home as quickly as possible. Plus it will also let everyone else know exactly what dolls are still looking for their new home. ❤
In a perfect world I would have the time, money, and energy to completely re-do my website and have automatic inventory control that would allow me to list one of a kind items. Until that magical day happens I appreciate your patience with my current selling policies. Thank you!!!
All of my dolls are sold on a “first come” basis. To purchase a doll email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com , in your email specify exactly which doll you wish to buy . Please be aware of how much the doll costs BEFORE you send your request to buy. You are welcome to ask questions, but please note that asking a question is not the same as making a commitment to buy and will not “hold your place in line” if someone else asks to buy the doll. Checks or money orders are preferred, Paypal is also accepted for payment. Free priority mail shipping & full insurance to any U.S. address. International orders ~ exact postage + $25 handling fee to help off set the extra time required for international shipping ~ check with me to make sure your international address is one I ship to. No shipping to Russia.
Isabeau and Sarah Alice have come up with their own personal tips as well ❤
Today is the day I will be posting the schedule for my annual Izannah Walker Birthday Celebration, so be sure to check back here to my Izannah Walker Journal later today, or visit my business Facebook page Paula Walton’s A Sweet Remembrance or asweetremembrance on Instagram
For those of you who are familiar with the Facebook group Friends of the UFDC Doll Museum you will be aware that the theme for this week’s posts is PINK. My contribution to the challenge was a compilation of some of the many pink dresses I have made for my reproduction Izannah Walker dolls ❤ I’ve looked a little further back into my photo archive and found even more pink dresses! I hope you enjoy seeing them all again as much as I have.
… you may be able to tell that all the Izannahs and I are excessively fond of pink.
All the little cloth girls and I were so glad that you could join us yesterday, as we celebrated the 205th anniversary of Izannah Walker’s birth! It was a joyful day in the doll’s very tall house! Today is much quieter, since there were plenty of English muffins left over for breakfast and quite a bit of cake for dessert too. The doll’s also received another birthday delivery from Mr. Twigg and his faithful horse and wagon. Thankfully this parcel was much easier to bring inside.
This evening’s after party is a chance to sit back, relax with friends and chat about all the tea party particulars. ❤
The little christening pincushions shown throughout the doll’s house.
The Little Christening Pincushions Shown Throughout the Doll’s House
If you have been curious about the small decorative pincushions that Sarah Alice and Isabeau were making you will be able to read more abut them in my upcoming article about the history of infant pincushions, titled Welcome Little Stranger which will be in the December 2022 issue of Early American. The article also include instructions for making some of your own. The all three versions pictured, as well as other larger pincushions are included in the article.
Baking for the Tea Party
Sourdough English Muffins
Yes, I did make really tiny sourdough English muffins from scratch, then cut and toasted them in a hot skillet! The jelly and jams that the dolls served at the tea party were also homemade, wild violet jelly made from the violets that I picked from my farmyard this spring, black currant jam made with currants from my garden, and peach jam made with peaches from a local farm. I added a generous pinch of cinnamon to the peach jam to make it taste like peach pie. If you’d like to make your own English muffins I suggest the King Arthur recipe, which is the one I use. I made my own sourdough starter using wholewheat flour. When I bake these sourdough English muffins I use at least 50% wholewheat flour. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-english-muffins-recipe
Prairie Stack Cake
Tillie Lamb’s Gingerbread Layers
This is the recipe that I used for the gingerbread layers of the doll’s latest birthday cake.
Rum Gingerbread
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
2- 1/2 cups flour
1- 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup molasses
3/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup rum
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
Combine butter, sugar and egg. Stir in dry ingredients alternately with the molasses, water and rum. Pour into a buttered 9 x 12- inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. You may substitute buttermilk for the water and rum.
front side2nd side ~1 teaspoon nutmeg – 2 cups nuts ~ which I never add – 1 tsp. vanilla
Pumpkin Cake and Spice Cake
Here is the hand written recipe card that I copied from my mom’s recipe for Pumpkin Cake 40 years ago. The recipe for the spice cake came from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book that she gave me in 1975. I substituted raisins for nuts in the spice cake because the dolls and I like it much better that way.
Cake Frosting
Use your favorite cream cheese buttercream frosting ❤
Alphabet Cookies
Fun Fact
I had to open eleven out of twelve individual packs of Mini Alphabet Cookies to be able to spell Izannah! Surprisingly there were abundant “I”s and “Z”s. The letter that took the longest to find was “N” followed by “A”. I purchased the cookies at Aldi.
Settle by Seth Tudor
The Mysterious Delivery of the Large Wooden Settle
At the end of the birthday celebration the unseen Mr. Twigg leaves a large wooden settle at the front of the doll’s house. Mister Twigg is the little cloth sister’s neighbor who runs a delivery service along with his trusty horse and large wagon. Mister Twigg delivered my birthday present to the dolls. The settle was lovingly made by Seth Tudor, Tasha Tudor’s son. It is 1/3 scale and is a miniature version of a settle that was in Tasha’s house. He makes them in three different scales. This particular size will also work for American Girl’s dolls. The three drawers on the bottom are functional. I’m fairly sure that you can reach him through https://www.tashatudorandfamily.com/ , though I contacted him through the Take Peace Facebook group that I am a member of.
The little cloth girls and I will be painting their settle a custom color once the girls stop squabbling over exactly what that color should be!
Flowers
All of the flowers came from my gardens ❤
One Final Surprise!
The dolls were quite thrilled when Mister Twigg came again today to deliver a parcel. It was a lovely birthday present from their dear friend Kay, who often spoils them with holiday gifts ❤ Thank you Kay!
Thank You for being a part of our twelfth annual Izannah Walker Birthday Celebration ❤ ❤ ❤
I do my best to make it very straightforward and simple.
Izannah Walker Journal 