60's and 70's Dolls

Vintage Dolls Presents:
Dolls of the 60's & 70's

Here I am, Christmas 1967 with my brand new walking talking Baby First Step. My original doll was lost somewhere over the years. I do still have a lovely pink velvet, silk lined cape my mom had made for her. And of course I did find a sort of replacement on eBay. The doll is in kind of sad shape but she has a wonderful like new minty dress that a friend sent me. Someday I'll get a better replacement doll. I did touch up this little girls color a bit with some blush. These girls all, at least originally were mechanical walkers and used batteries.

This is Baby First Step with the pink cape my mom made me when I was a little girl.

Here she is with the non-talking version of Baby First Step, who's redressed.

This is another similar doll, that I had as a child. She is also a replacement and called Small Walks.

To the left, is the Ideal Shirley Temple doll from 1972. This is another doll from my childhood. She came in a plain box, which got lost somewhere over the years. These dolls were sold through Sears. Shirley came from my Grandma Hannawalt. She bought one for my cousin and I. I never really played with mine, I was told she was a collectable and I shouldn't, so I didn't. Still her hair has come undone a bit, the back especially, since she lay flat for so many years. The elastic in her clothes is pretty much shot and I need to put some new elastic in, and she's a bit dusty and could use a light overall cleanup. Still she's in pretty nice shape and is complete.
The doll to the right is an enexpensive doll that I purchased at a doll show. She just looks so perfect for her era, with that makeup, dress, and black hose. I thought she was so cute. She was wearing white shoes that when I got her, but I thought the black ones went with her outfit better.

Below is the Rhonda doll. Ok not really but my husband has decided that's who she is. She's actually an Effenbee doll. She's gotten a little red headed brother and brunette sister Punkin doll now. I have a little brother and sister and thought it would be a fun trio to make clothes for.

This is diminutive Dawn. These dolls are only 6 inches high. I used to have quite a few of these when I was a young girl, and have replaced most of them, and even added some new ones. I still need to get Dale and Van. I used to play with my Dawn Dolls in my avocado green Marx Little Hostess Kitchen set from Sears, which I've replaced. I really need to take some new photos.

I made this little Dawns outfit. I thought a 70's girl should be wearing bell bottom jeans and a peasant blouse. Her jeans are hand stitched to imitate pockets and fly. Her blouse is trimmed with vintage macrame lace, and she has a granny square handbag I crocheted, to keep her things in.

Reproduction and new Dawn dolls have come out again in the last few years. There are often many of them available, both new and old, on eBay auctions.

And finally the last doll on this page is the bed doll below. She used to sit on my Great Grandmother's bed. Her dress used to be red and was made by my mother. I think the bedspread was a white candlewick. But what the doll went with were the beautiful curtains. I remember those curtains well. They were dark red. The fabric had strips of solid fabric running up and down and in between were threads of the same fabric that draped between. They were absolutely gorgeous. I've never even seen fabric like that since. I have the bedroom set and doll now. the curtains are long gone. The dress faded to orange after the doll was in a fire at my Grandmothers house (for some reason we seem to have had more than our fair share of fires in this family) and my Grandmother washed it. I seem to recall that she couldn't get the smoke stains out and had to clean it with 409. I've thought often of re-dying it back to the red it was originally. She also used to have a large metal skirt underneath to hold the dress out, but that's long gone too. The kids poked her eyes out and I had to have her fixed at the dolly doctor. I need to take a new photo as this one was done before she had her operation. Her hair was fixed up then too. She isn't a valuable doll but does have a lot of sentimental value and is totally irreplaceable to me.