Best Loved Doll Layette

When I was a little girl I had an old doll that my mother had had when she was a little girl. I LOVED this doll, just as she had, but this doll was UGLY! It had been given a permanent look of agony. It was meant to look as though she were crying and in great need of her mommy. What I loved about this doll was that it looked very realistic. This, indeed, was the effect it had on me, as it had on my mother. Others, though, found it downright frightful. The story told me by my mother's mother was that one day at the zoo, my mother had lost this doll. A man eventually stepped on it, and upon hearing the thing give out a "mama" looked down and got a bit of a fright by the look on the baby doll's face. This story always made my Gramma giggle. She must have loved this doll, too, because she kept her for almost 30 years, until I came along and was ready for her. She replaced her cloth body, and I kept her until my little girls were old enough. The problem by this time, however, was that whatever kind of plastic she had been made with was beginning to decompose. She was no longer soft and rubbery. She had become kind of sticky. I took one last long and loving look at her and chucked her in the garbage. Sad, but true. She just wasn't the kind of doll you display in a glass cabinet.

One of my favorite stories when I was little was The Best-Loved Doll by Rebecca Caudill which is about a girl who just loves her old worn doll enough to take her to a fancy tea party eventhough she has other more "presentable" dolls. So when my friend showed me her little girl's "best loved doll," and asked me to make a little doll sling for it, I was inspired. I took it straight home and gave it a good soaking by hand, so as not to hurt it in any way. Then, to make sure it dried out in time and didn't mildew, I put her in my supper-dupper washer on spin. Oops! She came out looking like she had just been reborn. Her head was smooshed in! Aargh! Lucky for me, and everyone involved, I was able to coax that head round again. And the best part is that I must have set her in there just right so that her winkin', blinkin', and nod eyes had popped right back into place. They don't look perfect, just a little less sunken in.

It didn't take long, and Aquamarine had a sling (made from an old dress), two new diapers, and a super-soft cotton velour gown. I added the pink heart and edged the diapers in pink, because that is the little girls favorite color.
And I do want her to be tickled pink with her new baby things. I'm just hoping that I didn't wash away that certain scent....
P.S. The link for the free doll sling how-to is http://crafts.sleepingbaby.net/kidsling.html