Shirt Doll

One item that is very important in my life is the doll that my Grandma Sorensen made for me out of my grandpa’s old button-up shirt. “I think you’re old enough for this now,” she said to me on my thirteenth birthday. She made one for all of her granddaughters when she knew they were at an age where they would not play with it and ruin it. Because my grandpa has not been with us since I was two-years-old, this meant a lot to me to have something to remember him by.

My doll’s body is made of white cloth, stuffed to a plump, and it is wearing a dress out of my grandpa’s shirt. The white material of his shirt has dark pinstripes aligning in a vertical fashion, which adds a sense of elegance to the doll. The bottom of the dress is long and covers her white legs and feet. Around the edge of bottom, it is lined with white lace. She has no face, for her head is, too, made of the white material. A bonnet made of the same shirt material covered the top of the doll’s head; it looks like a old-fashioned bonnet like they would have worn in the olden-days.

This doll is my connection to not only my grandpa, but also my grandma. The material on the doll makes me feel closer to my grandpa, knowing that I have something that once belonged to him. The doll itself resembles my grandma’s notorious sewing ability and consistency in always thinking of others. Because she is no longer able to sew, it brings tears to my at the thought of her being incapable of creating such magnificent masterpieces such as that shirt doll.