New Offerin's at WSOAPP!

I've just been over poking around at WSOAPP and noticed some wonderful new creations and a few just-can't-pass-up goodies in our SALE category! Stop on by for a visit.

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Civil War Era Dolls and Toys

Join us on ebay April 3rd and all through the month in our WSOAPP shoppes for:

Civil War era children enjoyed simple toys and games powered only by their imagination.

 Circle games, singing games, and group activities were enjoyed by all ages. And children of different ages played together.  The older children were expected to watch out for the young ones, and to include them in their play.  Girls joined in all the rough play and fierce competitions as boys did.  Only when they reached maturity were they expected to develop into demure damsels, as boys were expected to become gentlemen.

Most children had dolls and toys that were home made from whatever materials were on hand. Corn husk dolls and dolls made of home made cloth and scraps were the norm. Little girls often had their first sewing experiences creating dresses, hats, and quilts for their dolls. They often had embroidered or button eyes and might have been stuffed with feathers, cotton or even straw.

Only a few privileged children might have lovely dolls with porcelain or wax heads and limbs, however, they didn't stand up to active play.

Stuffed Animals were common, but were made of fabric, not fake fur. For little boys, soldiers were crafted of wood and fabrics.

Wooden toys were usually building blocks, toy soldiers, wagons, animals, cup and ball toys, jacobs ladder, pull toys wooden guns, cannons, swords, hobby horses and even carved whistles.

Many games that remain popular today were played back then: Blind Man's Bluff, Hide and Go Seek, and Duck, Duck, Goose, Squeak Piggy Squeak, Drop the Hanky, playing cards, Blind Man's Bluff, Hide 'n Horsy, Jacks and Marbles, Yo-Yo's, and Hide and Go Seek. Little girls loved to play house while boys threw old blankets over tree limbs to make tents to play under. Older children and adults enjoyed 20 Questions, Anagrams and Charades. The board game LIFE was created in 1860 and it's popularity spread quickly.

Singing games were very popular among the younger children. They included games such as Pop Goes the Weasel, Farmer in the Dell and Ring a Ring of Roses.

Children also had instruments and noisemakers such as drums, whistles, bugles, rattles and clackers, horns and cymbals.

Children would get together to play a popular new sport called Baseball. Races, Croquet, and Graces, which is is a fun game played with ribbons tied to hoops and rolled with sticks.

Basically the Make Do spirit was alive and well in this simple but turbulent time. Even though chores were many, children found time to play and stretch their imaginations, swim in a nearby pond, lay on their backs in the grass and see what shapes the clouds would make for them today.

Civil War Quilts

Through the predawn of April 12, 1861, the first Confederate shell arched through the sky and exploded behind the walls of Fort Sumter.  It touched off one of the deadliest wars in America’s history. 

By April 20, 1861 President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 men to join the militia. And within five days of the call going out, the women on the home front got involved. 

All over the country, Union and Confederate women, composed of the mothers, sisters, wives and sweethearts of our brave soldiers, rallied to the war effort. Patriotic passion abounded on both sides, certain the war would be short and decisive.

The U.S. Sanitary Commission was funded and supplied by the efforts of Northern women volunteers with the object of "doing what the government could not". They rolled bandages, sewed quilts, clothing, purchased medicines, and held fund raisers called "Sanitary Fairs".

It is rare to find a quilt that survived such hard use but diaries, letters and family lore tell about the quilts. Usually they were made using simple block patterns such as the 9-patch or snowball. The fabric was most likely a cheap basic calico or checked dark print. The dirt showed less if dark colors were used.

To prevent theft, all quilts distributed by the Sanitary Commission were stamped with the U.S.S.C. oval logo.

Northern women gave quilts to Northern soldiers from the beginning of the Civil War until the end. They made special quilts as well as utility quilts. Some quilts were inscribed in ink with the names and dates of those who's hands had sewn them. There was a story about a soldier that had been injured, was unresponsive and near death. They changed his bed and covered him with a quilt . He began reading the signatures on the quilt and found his wife's name. He immediately began improving and survived.

In 1863 the U.S. Sanitary Commission requested cot size quilts (approximately 48 x 84 inches) that the soldiers could also use as bedrolls and this amazing group of volunteer women made an estimated 150,000 - 250,000 sanitary commission quilts in addition to providing an abundance of other relief services.

Many Southern women tended to stitch with their family rather than forming sewing circles or societies. Some may have had little experience in sewing for themselves due to having people in the household who might have done that particular work for them. However, Southern Relief Societies were formed as the war dragged on but none were coordinated like those in the North.

The biggest challenge facing the women of the south was fabric shortage. Southern women cut up heirloom quilts and used carpet, drapes and linings from their dresses to make blankets and quilts for their soldiers. Later during the war, southern women spun cotton and made homespun fabric to be utilized for quilts and clothing. In some of their diaries they write about the roughness of the homespun fibers and of making clothing from bed ticking and basically anything else they could salvage. Due to the high cost of fabric and severe fabric shortages, they often resorted to using newspaper as quilt batting.

As you can imagine, not many of these Civil War quilts made for soldiers survive today.  Many were completely worn out after the war and did not seem worth saving as well as many soldiers were buried in their quilts.

 

Quilts in the Civil War era seem even more precious under the dire circumstances and reasons for their creation.

We invite you to check out WSOAPP's ebay auctions beginning  April 3rd  to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the onset of the Civil War... and all month long we'll be adding Civil War related creations in April in our WSOAPP shoppes.....

We would like to give a warm welcome back to our Lisa, of My Raggedy Doll House. Lisa has been with WSOAPP almost from the beginning, and through the years we have watched her sweet style become what it is today! We have just opened her shop today, keep watching for when she gets it filled with her one of a kind pieces. Drop her a note to welcome her back!