It was Christmas 1939 when each of my two sisters gave me a doll. One was a Shirley Temple and the other a Debu Teen doll. Shirley was a 13 in. Ideal Toy Co. doll, all composition with sleep eyes. She had a curly wig of mohair that seemed to need resetting all too often. My sisters did their best to help but gradually Shirley had fewer and fewer curls. After awhile both her mohair wig and her filmy dress from the movie Baby Take a Bow became limp and bedraggled. So, my mother and sisters made new clothes for her and I loved them for it.
The 1940s Fashiondol mannequin dolls were a learn-to-sew doll and came with a set of patterns. The dolls were used during World War II to teach girls to sew. The doll was made by the Latexture Products Inc. and the patterns by the Simplicity Pattern Company. The patterns were scaled down versions of the adult patterns available in the store. In this way girls could learn to sew using a minimum of fabric. After making the scaled down version of the dress, a girl might then be able to talk her mother into buying the full size pattern to the actual dress.
