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Kerri is Emmi's sister. She is 31cm tall and loves that she is a red-head. And contrary to conventions, she loves to wear pink!

She was purchased for an older girl (I think 12 years old) who had never played with dolls, but her mother felt that she would still be well received. A few days ago I saw my client and she told me that her daughter opened up the present and exclaimed: "This is the best present ever!" and rushed over to kiss her mother (much to the surprise of her and her grandmother who was there with them). It is for these wonderful stories that I love creating the Olive Sparrow Children.

Kerri's tunic is made from up-cycled linen fabric and has a free-hand machine embroidered little heart on it's front. Her hat is knitted from a wonderful alpaca yarn.

This is just a teaser to let you see the tiny stitches I use to sew the bodies. I also sew each seam twice for sturdiness. Kerri's hair is high-quality merino wool that I hand-dyed to give it variegation, more like natural hair. She has a lovely head of hair, ideal to fashion into many styles. 

I also embroider the lips with a few stitches, rather than one very long one. I want to ensure that the lip threads do not get caught on anything. It also provides me with many possibilities in altering the expression of each little soul.

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.