When I look at primitive doll faces I can't help but melt as they are so darn cute. I was first introduced to primitive dolls with something I saw many years ago during a shopping trip to Sturbridge with my mother. In one of the crafts stores we liked to visit I was looking at a box filled with patterns and just started laughing my head off. Of course, my mother asked, "what's so funny?" So, I showed her the pattern I was looking at and she burst out laughing, too. It was for a primitive cloth doll which was so ugly it was actually beautiful. So there we were - two grown women standing in the middle of a store laughing our heads off.
As I scanned through the box I found other patterns for primitive dolls that were just as ugly and just as beautiful. So, of course, I bought a few and could hardly wait to get them home so I could make them. And, make them I did.
The popularity of primitive dolls - especially "raggedies" (which are versions of raggedy ann dolls) continued to grow and grow. Primitive decor seemed to take over with all sorts of primitive decorations that could be made for one's home - dolls, raggedies, make-do's, shelf sitters, holiday and seasonal primitive decorations, primitive animals, primitive graphics, primitive woodcraft's, curtains, rugs, furniture and so on and on.
Around this same time primitive decor was all the rage and gaining in popularity online which created a ton of primitive websites, blogs, and groups. It seemed there were primitives everywhere and no shortage of freebies for creating all sorts of primitive dolls and crafts for home decor, but especially "raggedies."
So, given how much I love dolls, history and old books I decided to see if there were copies of some of the old dolls books out there and found a lot of different dolls books out there on
Project Gutenberg, which displays books that are in the public domain. Surprisingly there were two for "Raggedy Ann and Andy", which were as follows: 1) "Raggedy Ann Stories" written in 1918 e-book and 2) "Raggedy Andy Stories"written in 1920 e-book.
As far as Raggedy Ann is concerned, one of the legends surrounding her creation is that a little girl was rummaging around her Grandmother's attic and finds a battered old doll with only one button eye. She brings the doll down to her grandmother who sews on a missing button eye. While reminiscing about playing with Raggedy Ann as a young girl she decides to give it to her granddaughter and in doing so introduces her granddaughter to the world of Raggedy Ann. And so Raggedy Ann was born.
