| These
dolls are bought as a length of fabric with the doll, clothes and
instructions printed on. Pre-printed panel dolls were
fwere of the outline/pancake style.
`Betty Boots`
Repro commercially printed soft doll by Deans
picture courtesy of Susan Brewer
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1980's panel printed cloth Raggedy. |
As
a result of the invention of the sewing machine and magazine pattern
printing, home made rag dolls gained greater momentum in the nineteenth
century.
Rag dolls began to be produced commercially from about the 1850's
and were printed on cloth or had their features hand painted in oils.
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Bought from Bethnal
Green Museum 1968
from a flat pre-printed piece
of cloth,
cut out sewn and filled
with foam chips!
Like
the Topsy-Turvy style dolls, some pre-printed fabric panel rag dolls were made to tell a story.
|
As featured in Susan
Brewer's article
in Doll Magazine |
The Bobby Snooks printed doll was manufactured by
Toy Works in the 1980's
and was sold with a rag story book. The doll showed Bobby dressed smartly on
one side and when you turned him over a more disheveled, patched version of him
with a plaster on his nose was printed on the other side.
Apparently, such rag dolls
with different faces were used centuries ago by rag merchants as shop sign
advertisements and were called 'Moggy Dolls'. |
Pictures courtesy of Susan
Brewer |
|
Advertising
Printed Dolls
|
The manufacturer of Force Wheat Flakes produced a
printed rag doll, based on a caricature of an 1800's gentleman, to
promote their product in 1905. They called him Sunny Jim and This
doll is probably one produced in the 1970's. |
 |
Aunt
Jemima Cloth Doll, 1929. Advertising Aunt Jemima Pancake
Flour. Measures 17" wide by 17 1/4" high.
These uncut pre-printed panels of material and also includes Betty Rose doll
|
Advertising icon Aunt
Jemima originally
created as a trademark for self-rising pancake mix (1889); first
employed as a living trademark to promote the mix (1893), portrayed
by Nancy Green (1893-1923), Anna Short Harrington (1935-55) &
Ethel Harper.
|
The original Aunt Jemima,
Nancy Green, a black cook from Kentucky, made personal appearances
all over the country until her death in 1923. Quaker Oats bought the product and name in 1924.
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Strawberry Shortcake |
 |
Printed Pillow dolls
could be bought as
pre-printed panels
of fabric. When cut, sewn and stuffed, they
become dolls and pillows all in one.
|
MODERN
PRINTED DOLLS:
With today's technology it is possible to transfer any image onto fabric.
If you own a computer, scanner and colour printer you can give your doll a
face from a photo, or perhaps you'd like to transform her into a chic
fashion icon straight from a Versace catalogue!
There are also some companies that sell printable cloth (see Information
Links ) or you can iron on an A4 piece of freezer paper to a piece of
strong, thin cotton material.
Use a rotary cutter to cut the material to
the size of the paper with nice crisp edges. This will help when you pass
it through your printer.
(NOTE: lightweight fabric will just slide off the
freezer paper and just end up bunching up inside your printer) . Using masking
tape at the bottom edge of the fabric will encourage it to be taken up better
by the printer rollers.
Sticking clear fablon to the back of your fabric to A4 size will also allow it
be be printed on. |
