Christine LeFever | Maker of Dolls in Early Styles

M A K I N G D O L L S I N E A R L Y S T Y L E S Christine's dolls come from her heart, imagination, and hands. She makes each part of each doll completely by hand, inspired by treasured dolls from the past. Here you can learn more about the styles of the dolls and the actual process of creating them.Christine's dolls are based on dolls from the mid 1700s to mid 1800s. For some, actual vintage dolls have served as the prototypes. For others, she has created the dolls based on her interpretation of the early styles. Whenever possible, she incorporates vintage fabrics into the period clothing. Her dolls have been praised by curators of some of the country's leading living-history museums as being of true museum quality in their accuracy and workmanship.Here are details of how Christine makes the dolls, as well as the many styles of her dolls and some of Christine's special inspirations. Go straight to The Styles. Go straight to Inspirations. For a photographic tour of Christine's house, including her doll studio, click here.

M A K I N G T H E D O L L S The many individual steps that go into making each doll guarantees that each is a one-of-a-kind original.
The Heads Actual dolls from 1820 to 1860 serve as the basis for most of the papier-mache busts Christine creates. Her handmade molds capture the distinctive facial features and hairstyles of dolls of the period. She uses a papier-mache material that dries several days in the mold. After removing the bust from the mold, she sands and refines its surface before painting it. Painting the face is one of the most important aspects of the dollmaker’s craft. Christine is a trained primitive-portrait painter and has been widely complimented for painting pleasing faces that are historically accurate. Each head is delicately aged to enhance the doll’s vintage appearance, and each is varnished to protect its painted finish.	Christine painting faces in her doll studio
Dolls getting their bodies	The Bodies Depending on the particular style of doll, her arms and legs may be papier-mache or they may be cloth. Christine uses the same technique to create the molded arms and legs as for the doll’s heads, from casting through painting and finishing. Cloth arms and legs involve creating the original pattern, then cutting, sewing and stuffing each piece before stitching it to the doll’s body. Christine designs her doll bodies with proportions based on the most historically prevalent patterns for the particular style of doll. For some models, she ages the bodies, arms and legs by individually tea-dying them.
The Clothing Christine designs clothing for her dolls based on apparel of the appropriate 18th or 19th Century period. A number of drawings and paintings, such as those found in Godey’s Lady’s Book, have inspired many of the patterns she has created. She pays particular attention to selecting dress fabrics with historically accurate colors, textures and designs. Whenever possible and appropriate, she uses genuine antique fabrics for her dolls' apparel. Clothing varies according to the type of doll. Some wear simple dresses. Others are more fully adorned with petticoats and pantalets, a chemise, or an apron. Her dolls often have fancywork accessories, including pincushions, reticules and floral bouquets, all made by Christine and based on patterns from the mid-1800’s.	Dolls waiting for their dresses, each with Christine's painted-on emblematic pansy for rememberance
Dolls dressed and waiting to have their pictures taken.

T H E S T Y L E S

TESS & TILLIE The Tess and Tillie dolls are based on the rare Queen Anne dolls of the 18th Century. Queen Anne ruled England from 1702 to 1714, but most of the dolls bearing her name were made during the reigns of George I, George II, and George III, from 1714 to 1820. Only a few of these treasured dolls survive. They have distinctive white faces, rouged cheeks and black pupil-less eyes with dotted lashes. Christine’s rendition Queen Annes have papier-mache heads and busts, cloth bodies and painted shoes and stockings.

IZANNAH Christine's rendition of the rare Izannah Walker doll uses some of the same techniques associated with this pioneer of the American cloth doll. Izannah Walker created her dolls in the mid-1800s. She used layers of glued fabric pressed into molds to create the front and back of the head, which were then sewn together, with the ears attached separately. Christine's Izannahs use the challenging pressed-cloth method with the sewn-together head, and features the applied ears and thumbs. The doll's face, body, and clothing are closely based on those of the surviving Izannah Walker dolls.

	HANNAH The Hannah dolls are inspired by an authentic 1858 Greiner from Christine’s collection. These dolls, like the original, are usually 28 inches tall. As with the original Greiners, the Hannah dolls have papier-mache heads, with bodies and limbs of heavy fabric. Christine has studied the homemade bodies and clothing on several Greiners to design Hannah’s to be accurate and appealing.

EMMA The Emma dolls are inspired by an original 1820s milliner’s model in Christine’s collection. These models were used in the early 1800s to display clothing styles and coiffures, and were not intended for play. The face, hairstyle, body, and limbs on the Emma dolls all closely resemble the original. Christine uses papier-mache for the head, bust, arms below the elbows, and legs below the knees. The body is fabric. Like the original, the Emma dolls are 13 inches tall.

	ANNABETH These dolls are inspired by the French carton dolls of the late 1700s. This type of doll was sold by street vendors at the time of the French Revolution and only a few battered samples have survived to this day. These charming dolls incorporate the early art of quilling, mostly on flowers on their dresses and in baskets.

HATTIE Hattie dolls are inspired by an early Greiner mache head, with a hairstyle marked by hair tucked behind the ears, generally regarded as the style earlier than the 1858 patented Greiner. Christine was fortunate enough to locate the early Greiner bust and create a mold based on it, then designed the cloth body and limbs, based on styles typical of the era. Hattie dolls are about 30 inches tall.

	AMY The Amy dolls are inspired by a papier-mache doll from the mid 1800’s. The original doll is about 18 inches tall and has no markings to identify her creator. She came to Christine’s collection from Florida in remarkably good condition. The original doll has blonde hair with body and limbs of fabric and leather.

CLAIRE The Claire dolls add a sweet, decorative touch to a home. They are inspired by an M & S Superior doll in Christine's collection, from the mid-19th Century. Like the original, the Claire dolls have papier-mache busts and cloth bodies and limbs and are about 14 inches tall.

	MAGGIE Maggie dolls are based on a small, early doll, believed to be a mid-19th Century Greiner doll's doll. The original - like Christine's rendition - has a papier mache head and cloth body. While the original has glass eyes, this doll's eyes are accurately reproduced as part of the mache head. The Maggie dolls, like the original, are 15 inches tall.

MARY The Mary dolls originate from a rare, 1850 handmade wooden model doll head Christine acquired in Maine. The head was likely the basis for a mold, and that is how Christine has used it. Because the face and hair are reminiscent of girls in primitive portraits, Christine often paints and dresses the Mary dolls to reflect that style. Mary dolls are about 24 inches tall.

S P E C I A L I N S P I R A T I O N S Christine’s inspiration comes from many times and places, from people as well as things.
Eliza Leslie Eliza Leslie was born in Philadelphia in 1787, and died in Gloucester, New Jersey, in 1858. During her lifetime she became one of America’s most popular writers of cookbooks, etiquette books and juvenile fiction. In 1831 she published The American Girl’s Book, which included a number of sewing projects such as dolls and fancywork. One of Miss Leslie’s concerns was that, as children and their parents became more highly educated, they would forget the joy of creative play in their lives. She went on to write a number of books on cookery and housekeeping, all marked by her common sense and quiet humor.	Christine is fortunate to own an 1831 first edition of The American Girl’s Book and has created several of Eliza Leslie’s projects for sale. A number of the book’s illustrations appear throughout this web site.

Ludwig Greiner An original 1858 Greiner from Christine's collection. Little is known about Ludwig Greiner other than he was a German immigrant and was listed in the 1840 Philadelphia city directory as “toy man.”	But on March 30, 1858, he was issued the first patent in the United States for dollmaking. He had developed a method of molding papier-mache heads using white paper, dry whiting, rye flour, and paste, then notably reinforcing them with linen or muslin. Ludwig Greiner’s doll factory in Philadelphia produced only the distinctive doll heads and relied upon the purchaser to make the body and clothing at home. Even so, Greiner dolls became among the most popular and recognizable papier-mache dolls ever produced.

Milliner's Models Papier-mache dolls are among the most distinctive of 19th Century dolls. Early in the century, Europeans discovered that paper and pulp waste could be molded cheaply into mass-produced dolls. By the 1820’s a more sophisticated type of papier-mache doll appeared, known as the “milliner’s model” or “dressmaker’s doll.” The heads were attached to bodies of kid leather or fabric and their limbs were molded or carved. These dolls, resembling miniature adults, were designed to exhibit the latest fashions in clothing and coiffures and were not intended for play.	An original 1820 milliner's model from Christine's collection. Milliner’s models were produced until the 1860’s and can be dated most easily by the doll’s hairstyle.