The Prairie Dolls My Mother Made

The Prairie Dolls My Mother Made

When I was a little girl growing up in the Flint Hills of Greenwood County, my Mother spent many evenings crocheting rag rugs. I remember one winter she used some of the rag strips and made my sister and I matching rag dolls. I carried my doll everywhere I went and I slept with her hugged in my arms. She was always just “my doll.” Being nameless seemed to fit her personality.

Mother made aprons for the dolls from some of her pretty handkerchiefs and a bonnet to keep the Kansas sun from her button eyes was fashioned from some left over dress trimmings.

Every Monday when Mother washed our clothes I would slosh my doll up and down in the warm, soapy wash water and Mother would wring the water out so I could swim her around in the rinse water colored with bluing. Then I stretched her rag arms out wide and pinned them to the wire clothes line with Mother’s snap clothespins to dry in the blustery Kansas winds.

My heart just broke when she froze to the wire one winter day. Mother saved her by placing her warm hands over the frozen spots until they quickly thawed. After that I hung my doll on a wire hanger near the heating stove in the front room in the winter.

My sister, who was four years older than me, just sat her doll on our bed in front of the pillows. Cute idea but I thought it a waste of a lovely play mate and when she wasn’t looking our dolls had a fun time together. Although when mine faded and became more ragged than when she was new, Melba’s was still just as pretty as when Mother made her.

In recent years when my husband and I began making wagon wheel rugs I remembered “my doll.” Then I started making them from rag strips left over from the rugs. Some even matched the rugs.
One lady ordered rugs and matching dolls for her two granddaughters going away to college. They hung their dolls on their dorm room doors.

One of the problems making the rugs was the quantity of threads raveling that we had to contend with as we tore the sheeting into strips for weaving. I had the inspiration to use the raveling for hair for the dolls. We made Blondes from yellow sheets, and we gathered threads for redheads and black & brown haired dolls. Even had some grey hair for a grandma doll. I also gathered up hankies and trimming from garage sales and anything I thought could be used to enhance the dolls. I first made them for our five daughters, seven granddaughters and now making them for our great granddaughters.

In 1998 I showed the Andover Baptist ABW women how to make them. Everyone had a different idea on what to make the bonnets and aprons from. Some included small baskets of flowers for their doll to carry and others made shawls and scarves instead of bonnets and aprons. All were lovely. When finished the group had fifteen prairie dolls to send to an Indian mission school for Christmas presents.

In 1997 the Butler County Museum borrowed one of my prairie rag dolls & displayed her in a tiny red chair by the Christmas tree in the lease house for their special “Christmas at the oil field lease house.” What an honor!

My parents grew up when the way to live was to recycle everything. Who knew when you might need it. Mother’s rag dolls were a prime example of that creed and the dolls have come a long way. This memory of Mother and the prairie dolls are a heritage worth passing down to my children and grandchildren.

Story ID:	835
Written by:	Gail Lee Martin (bio, contact, other stories)
Organization:	Kansas Authors Club
Story type:	Family Memories
Location:	El Dorado Kansas USA
Year:	1929
Person:	My mother & me