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Jean Greenhowe's Traditional Favourites
(20 pages)
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Teddy Bears, Humpty Dumpties, Play Dolls, Clowns and Baby Dolls are everlasting favourites that never lose their appeal. This was Jean’s first booklet on a nostalgic ‘times past’ theme.
Emily, Charlotte, Buttons and Pierrot are four different dolls designed around the same basic pattern. They are 38cm (15in) in height without the hats and all have jointed legs so they can sit down.
Emily is one of Jean’s most popular dolls. Dressed in Victorian style clothing she wears long pantalets under her charming high-waisted dress and a fetching flower-trimmed ‘straw’ hat.
Charlotte's ensemble is in the nautical style which was fashionable for both girls and boys in the nineteenth century. Her pantalets are knee length and the sailor collar is very easy to knit.
Buttons the clown is a riot of rainbow colours in striped baggy pants, clown’s hat and large knitted-buttons. He is a versatile doll suitable for both boys or girls.
A white-faced Pierrot clown would normally be dressed completely in white but Jean’s version is more colourful with contrasting bright pink pom-pons, picot edges and shoes. The ‘smock’ could have been quite complicated, with a front and back, shoulder and neck shapings, plus the sleeves. Yet Jean makes it all so easy. The body section of the smock is worked as one piece then the top edge is simply gathered around the neck. The one-piece sleeves (the arms) are sewn to the sides of the smock and the body, thus you can achieve a perfect smock effect every time.
Jean's Teddy Bears have been designed to look like the teddies from days gone by. The arms and legs are sewn into place yet they have an old-fashioned jointed appearance. But although the teddies are traditional in appearance the design itself is ingenious because each individual part of the teddy - head, body, arm, leg, is knitted in one piece.
Patterns for knitted teddies used to be designed in the same way as fur fabric bears, with awkward gussets and many separate flat pieces. Or they were made like dolls, with a separately knitted snout piece sewn into the face. But with Jean’s bears the three dimentional shaping is knitted-in because the increases and decreases are worked at intervals along the rows, not at the edges of the pieces as was usual in the past. There are no ‘flat’ pieces or gussets in Jean's Teddies and this is what gives her bears the unique three-dimentional look. This is a complete innovation - never achieved before which took Jean several months to perfect. The Standing Teddy measures 31cm (12¼in), the Seated Teddy 21.5cm (8½in) from the base of the body to the top of the head.
Henry and Daisy are a jolly pair of roly-poly Humpty Dumpties made from the same basic pattern. The main part - the head and body is knitted in one piece and very simply shaped at the top and the base. In the seated position they measure 19cm (7½in) in height. Henry
has cute ears and Daisy has knitted plaits which you have to make to discover just how to achieve this effect - with one piece of knitting for each plait.
The Little Darlings are an adorable pair of baby dolls made from the same pattern, with rompers for the boy and a pretty dress for the girl. They are both 19cm (7½in) in height. The tiny bootees are knitted separately and sewing them on is made easy because a knitted row on the legs marks the correct sewing position.
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Jean Greenhowe Designs 2006