Felicity, Hitty's Mason & Taylor Friend

Hitty #1:  Hitty Faith

When I turned 60 and revived my lifelong love of dressing dolls, I quickly found Hitty.  Hitty: Her First Hundred Years was one of my favorite books as a young girl, so I was thrilled to find that there was a thriving community of Hitty enthusiasts.  I began where we all begin, by purchasing a Hitty, in my case, a resin model from DeAnn Cote.  At that point, she was just named Hitty.  I started replicating the clothing in the illustrations of the original book for her.

Hitty #2:  Hitty Hope

I had made a rule for myself, that I would buy just one of each type of doll, to try to limit what I knew could so easily become an out-of-control doll collection.  But then I learned about the revised edition.  I was not as enchanted with the revised version as with the original, but the illustrations were charming and DeAnn Cote just happened to have a resin version of the more childlike Hitty in the revised edition.  So I chucked my one-of-each-type rule and bought DeAnn's Hittykin 2.  Both dolls could not just be called "Hitty," so they became Hitty Faith and Hitty Hope.  While Hope was the second Hitty that I bought, she had to wait a long time for her clothing, which replicated the illustrations in the revised edition.

Hitty #3: Hitty Charity

I began googling Hitty, to find out all that I could about her.  Whilst googling, I found Gail Wilson's website, which had a plethora of furniture and accessories that were just Hitty's size.  I envisioned a mansion in which my two Hittys would live, but settled for a bedroom and a sitting room.  Gail Wilson also had her own version of Hitty, with a cloth body and paper mache head.  To my mind, that didn't count as a real Hitty.  Real Hittys are wood!  Then I realized that my two Hittys were resin, which wasn't exactly wood.  So the GW Hitty came to live at our house, named Hitty Charity.  She got to have clothes made from the patterns that Gail Wilson sells for her.

Hitty #4: Hitty Prudence

So there were Faith, Hope and Charity, living in their two-room mansion.  I planned on stopping there, as three is a good number of dolls to have.  But then, when making the clothes for Hitty Faith, I realized that the bridal gown illustrated in the original book was so elaborate, that once it was finished I would never want to take it off the doll.  So I decided to buy one more Hitty, who would dedicate herself to the wearing of the bridal gown.  Thus Hitty Prudence, made by Susan Sirkis, came to live with us.  She is named Prudence because one should always be prudent when deciding to marry.  [Yes, the bridal gown is done.  I just need to get blogging.]

Hitty #5: Hitty's Friend, Felicity

Four Hittys plus their rooms!  Oh my!  The one-of-a-type rule certainly got thrown out the window.  But with four I planned to stop . . . until Gail Wilson came out with Hitty's friends, the 6" Springfield Woodens, who had a real carved wood body and a paper mache head.  Could I resist?  Of course not!  Felicity came as a kit, with wood blanks for the body, arms and legs and an unpainted paper mache head.  I took up wood carving, which I'd never done before, to shape the body parts, then stained, painted and varnished them.  I painted the head, a task that I find enormously challenging.  I painted her as a Mason and Taylor doll, with blonde hair and the Mason and Taylor blue boots. 

My friend Edna sent me several little knit hats, capes and shawls that were the perfect size for Felicity.  I made simple dresses to coordinate with the knitties, which are shown below.  I should note that Felicity's blue shoes coordinate with absolutely none of her outfits.

Here is a photo of Felicity with Hitty Faith and Hitty Charity in their sitting room. Hitty Hope does not appear, as when this photo was taken, Hope still had no clothes of her own.   Felicity is wearing a dress borrowed from Hitty Charity.