Jean Warren

Handmade Textile Dolls

I like most crafts. Not all, but most. Someone suggested that I make the Ruthie doll from the book The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, and I honestly had not thought about it. After reading the book, I made a pattern for a period-appropriate doll just for myself. I still have that original doll in my collection. Later on, I began to make the dolls for the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree store. I simplify the doll every time I make it now. Simplicity is good at my age.

I was the oldest of four children. When I was a child, my mother taught me to sew on an old treadle sewing mill (not the electric kind) that she had inherited. I remember it was very hard to sew well on that machine – you had to pull a lot of knots out of whatever you were working on. When I was about to go to college, at the age of 17, my mother fell ill. I decided to postpone my plans for school at that time and help out around the house. Eventually, my mother’s health improved, and I went back to school. I attended Meredith Baptist Women’s College in Raleigh, where I met my husband, Don. He went to NC State, and we got engaged during my senior year.

Jean Warren has been married to Don Warren for fifty-four years. They have five sons and twelve grandchildren and have lived in Spruce Pine for nearly forty years . When her children were young, she did not have very much time for crafts, but she still enjoyed sewing, making all of her children’s clothes as well as doing some custom sewing for other people. From that, she says, came her doll making.

Although the Ruthie doll is period-appropriate, both in fashion and construction, Jean also works with newer materials on a variety of different subjects. One example is her Santas, on which she uses special clays, which she shapes, bakes and paints herself. Mrs. Warren sends these and more of her crafts to Homemaker Handmades each year.

Many of Mrs. Warren’s creations go on to the NC Extension and Community
Association, Inc., which is the state level of Homemaker Handmades, at which event several of her dolls (including a few Santas) have won blue ribbons. Mrs. Warren has an extensive collection of dolls, with everything from antiques and her own handmade dolls to Teddy Bears and Barbies. The doll collection has no doubt grown in the past few years.

Mrs. Warren says that since the children have grown up she has had more time to pursue doll making, as well as other crafts and jellies.