A few months ago, I gave a discarded prototype doll (that had languished unfinished for several years) to the little girl who lives next door.

My six-year-old neighbour and I have had quite a few chats over the garden wall during the summer months. She had a friend come to stay for a while and she and her eight-year-old bestie had found in me a willing audience for their garden games and sweet showings-offs, whilst their own families were otherwise occupied.

Then her friend went home and my little neighbour was sad, so I gave her the doll as a cheering-up present.

Initially nothing more than a velvet torso with a cat-inspired face (though not as cat-like as I wanted, hence it’s initial rejection) I found some ready-made legs (with slightly dodgy feet, hence unused) and made a new pair of arms.

I finished the doll off by sprucing her up with a new outfit, made from fabrics from the charity shop pile, plus a little red basket I had lying around. A few weeks later, I was asked very, very politely if I could make another doll, so that when her friend came to stay again, they could both play dolls together.

So I did just that. Her friend preferred rabbits to cats, so…Now it is autumn and neither of us are out in the garden much as we were, so I don’t see my little neighbour so often. But on a rare warm day last week, we did have another chat.

I didn’t mention the dolls, because I don’t want her to feel beholden to me, or that she has to play with, or say she likes it / them.

But she dived straight in to tell me that Rosie (as the first doll has been named) has been played with a lot and could I guess what she has been playing? I couldn’t, but I should have –  because the answer was that she has been playing princesses.

Of course. What else?

Knowing that I had a bit of gold metallic fabric that I had no specific plans for, I offered to make Rosie a crown, if she would lend her to me for a fitting.And then, a little later, another very, very polite request came over the garden wall with Rosie – could I possibly make her a princess dress as well? And would the crown have jewels?

I could indeed. And I was pretty sure I could rummage up some jewels.

I have a small bagful of not-my-usual fabrics stashed away: mainly synthetics, shiny, or otherwise unsuitable for my usual makes. So I had a good rifle through that and found a piece of old, embroidered and beaded silk sari fabric in peacock blue, which I lined with pale blue satin (to make it more sturdy) and attached a blue tulle petticoat. It has press studs down the back, so it’s easy for little fingers to put on and take off.

A furry wrap will help her to stay warm whilst in princess mode during the winter.
After a bit of messing about with interfacing and sorting through old button boxes and a trip to the local charity shop’s haberdashery section, I managed to come up with a functioning golden crown – with the requested jewels.I also made Rosie some new felt boots, as her dodgy original ones were pretty much shredded (wrong fabric used – too thin – noted for future reference).

And I added some stars to her new boots, because… well, she is a princess after all. I enjoyed creating Princess Pussycat so much that I decided to make a few more, similar dolls.

I haven’t made any dolls in this sort of style for quite a while and it is a nice change from miniature bears – which I still absolutely love to make, but sometimes a change is as good as a rest, as my mum used to say.

So the happy ending to this tale is that there will be a few “Princess Pussycat” dolls for sale in one of my pre-Christmas Etsy shop updates.

They will each be a little different from the original princess pussycat, in size, character and dress, but then I can never seem to make two dolls exactly the same anyway, however hard I try… I haven’t handed Rosie back to her owner yet.

But when I do, I have an uncanny feeling that, just perhaps, possibly, in the not too distant future, it may result in a request for another princess outfit.

From a very polite little girl from over the garden wall, who has a friend with a would-be princess rabbit. ♥