Emily Dickinson Doll

Sometimes, I get these wild compulsions, and they don't leave me alone until I follow through. When I saw Mimi Kirchner's pattern, available free (for personal use) at the Purl Bee blog[link] my mind jumped to the famous (and only confirmed) portrait of Emily Dickinson immediately. I couldn't tell you why--all I know is that I suddenly couldn't rest until I had made it.

My doll version of Emily Dickinson uses Mimi's wonderful pattern my foundation, and I made a few modifications--I gave her a long skirt, added a bodice piece to her dress, and embroidered it to mimic the look of Dickinson's portrait dress--since I couldn't create a mini-replica of her dress with felt, I mimicked the details (the smocked and gathered bodice, the ruffle at the top of the sleeve) with embroidery, and intentionally made it a little rustic, to suit the style of the doll--gave her a little white collar (which is hard to see in pictures, because it blends into her skin color, but I promise that it's there!), gave her a bun, and embroidered her hair. Ta-da! She is completely handsewn out of all wool felt.

I'm really pleased with her--she's not a perfect portrait doll, but she -is- darling.

When I ran out and bought felt after deciding to base a doll on Emily Dickinson's portrait, I bought dark brown for the hair without even thinking about it--even though I HAD known, at some point, that Emily Dickinson was a redhead (and incidentally so was another important American female poet, Edna St.Vincent Millay).
Fortunately as I was compulsively browsing the internet I ran across an article that mentioned Dickinson's hair color, but when I went back there was only one shade of red available in wool felt (the wool felt selection in Fort Worth, Texas is pretty sad). I felt it was too bright, so in an attempt to tone it down I decided to embroider over it with brown. I really like the effect (although I wish I had plotted out the lines before I started--but I think it's still nice). It may be my favorite detail of the doll.

I decided that my Emily needed some accessories, so I made her a little book and a letter (Dickinson is famous for being reclusive in her later life, but she did carry on a number of long correspondences).