Rags to Stitches As Raggedy Ann approaches her 90th birthday, the traditional rag doll still inspires creativity and love

Muslin dolls wearing embroidered smiles and pleated white aprons sit shoulder to shoulder like well-behaved children inside Debby Ciampa’s shop on Route 1 in Hancock. Their soft cloth arms are outstretched as if they were waiting for someone to come along and give them a hug.

Ciampa is perched on a stool behind her cash register, watching over the tiny dolls like a grandmother looking after her grandchildren. She talks about their outfits, about their loopy yarn hair and their hand-stitched eyes.

“They are all a little different,” she says with a prideful smile. “Each seems to have a personality of its own.”

Farther down the coastal highway, in Gouldsboro, Bette Corsey dotes on her own dollies, setting them upright on wooden shelves and straightening out the creases in their cotton dresses.

Her rag dolls, with their curly hair, floppy limbs and black-painted booties, have proved as popular with adults as with children.

“I think it’s a tradition, something to hand down,” Corsey said.

The women are among the handful of local crafters who make their own rag dolls inspired by the most famous rag doll of all time – Raggedy Ann, who will celebrate her 90th birthday on Sept. 7. Generations of children have grown up with the whimsical character, a scrappy little plaything who comes to life when no one is looking and embarks on adventures with her brother, Raggedy Andy.

The story of Ann’s origin is bittersweet. She was “born” in 1915, when cartoonist and illustrator Johnny Gruel drew a face on a tattered old doll he found in the attic and gave it to his daughter, Marcella. Gruel would make up stories about the doll to entertain Marcella, who died at the age of 13 from an infected smallpox vaccination.

A few years later, a publishing company began printing Gruel’s written stories about Raggedy Ann, the same tales the cartoonist used to amuse his daughter. The books since have become classics.

“He realized this was a way not only to remember Marcella but also a way to feed the family,” his granddaughter, Joni Gruel Winemaker, said during a telephone interview from Areola, Ill., the original doll’s birthplace and home to the Johnny Gruel Raggedy Ann & Andy Museum. “He realized this was a good way to take care of his family.”

Born in 1942, Winemaker never knew her grandfather, but she was named in his honor.

Winemaker says just about every day a museum visitor shares a heartfelt story about why they love Raggedy Ann as much as they do. Recognized for her funny face and the embroidered heart that adorns her chest, she has become a symbol of comfort and love.

“You can’t be sad when you see a Raggedy Ann, with that big smile and heart that says ‘I Love You,'” Winemaker said. “She is Americana.”

Local crafters say making hand-sewn rag dolls is no easy task. Each of Ciampa’s creations takes eight to 10 hours to assemble. She begins by cutting the body pieces out of muslin, a plain-woven cotton fabric. She double-stitches the sections together to make the torso, head, arms and legs, which she stuffs with polyester filling. Then she embroiders the faces and tailors the tiny clothes. She lines them up on a park bench inside her shop, Maine Made Gifts & Crafts.

The work is fun but requires great patience; the hair alone takes about 90 minutes to sew into place.

“It’s a lot of work putting them together,” she said. “But there is some joy when they are all assembled because then they just come alive.”

Corsey makes rag dolls of all types for her store, Rag a’Muffin Doll & Quilt Shop, in Gouldsboro. There are floppy-eared giraffes wearing checkered trousers, long-legged paupers dressed in bloomers and larger dolls with mounds of brightly colored hair.

Some have even been sprayed with a coffee-and-vanilla solution and baked in a warm oven for an aged, folk-art flair.

“It gives them that look like you just found them in the attic,” she said.

Orland crafter Marcia Barker estimates that she has made hundreds of rag dolls over the past 25 years. She stitches them in her sewing room in the evenings. The activity helps her relax. She sells her dolls, which take about six hours to complete, at the H.O.M.E. Inc. craft store at the corner of Route 1 and Schoolhouse Road.

The most important part of the doll is her face, and getting it just right is critical.

“If you mess that up, the whole doll is ruined,” Barker said. Hers are embroidered with round black eyes, red noses and wide smiles. She also signs and dates each of her pieces.

As Raggedy Ann approaches her 90th birthday, she is as popular as ever, Winemaker said. In 2002, she was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, N.Y., where she joins the yo-yo, jump rope and 28 other toys of historical significance.

Over the years, Winemaker has heard stories about how Raggedy Ann has helped children and adults during times of illness, death and other tragedies, and she is pleased that her family’s legacy has meant so much to so many people.

“They don’t want to let go of this little doll. She’s too important,” she said. “We are really happy to see the interest continue.”

Wendy Fontaine can be reached at 664-0524 and bdnnews@downeast.net.