Victorian-era housewives may have spent a LOOOT of time doing chores, but that doesn't mean they weren't creative!
They prettified their kitchen and sewing chores with these adorable, elegant "half dolls."
You're saying "What on earth is a half doll?"
Simple - it's top half of a porcelain doll that was attached to all manner of household tools, from pincushions to whisk brooms.
Pincushion Half Doll
This is a vintage German half doll from the 1930s in a spanking new "gown". You can find all kinds of these on eBay.
This poor soul is still sitting in her original clothing from 1920. Think it's time for a change?
Now let's do some half doll whisk brooms:
I like this gal. She's so cool and elegant.
And now we have something completely different - Hansel & Gretel whisk brooms!
Adorable, right?
I also came across this unique trinket dish half doll. So creative!
It appears that some of the half dolls were sold as stand alone items, to be attached to the household tool of choice, while others were sold already attached.
Here's how they look before attachment:
You can see the two holes in the porcelain through which the whisk or pincushion was attached to the doll.
In the below whisk, you can see how it looks when attached, before the meeting point is decorated with ribbon:
This Japanese made half doll was sold already attached and decorated - in fact, it's from an old stock of half dolls that never made it off the store shelf! Still has the original rubber band around the whisk bristles:
My conclusion when discovering these gems?
Victorian ladies had to slave away in the kitchen all dolled up in a long dress and petticoats. So it's only natural that they expected their household tools to dress up for them as well :).
Did all this put you in the mood for cute household trinkets?
Feed that urge.... it might make housework just a bit more exciting!
Here are some cute little whisk brooms to start you off:
And some truly creative pincushions to spice up your humdrum button sewing and hem fixing:
This adorable elephant also has a side pocket to store sewing scissors!
A crocheted pincushion + pot holder pair - how sweet is this?
Now this delicious cupcake pincushion is delightful. Love the wooden base!
This is for the avid sewer - a pincushion that let's you organize your needles according to use:
A handmade pincushion sewing station:
Collectible sterling silver swan pincushion:
Bizzzy bizzy beehive pincushion:
This highly practical and pretty piece is a brooch pincushion - it has a clip in the back so you can wear it on your chest for easy access while sewing:
Another practical and modern option is this magnetic wrist pincushion:
And we'll finish off with this funny little hat pincushion:
