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This great grandmother never had a doll growing up - now they're her life (15 photos)

Doll clothing and accessory maker 'Athlea' was among 100 vendors at the Bushplane Museum's 5th Annual Holiday Gift & Craft Show

To her recollection, she never even had a doll as a child, but now, at 72, Athlene Dupuis has made dolls her life.

“Back then you didn’t have that many toys, not like kids have now,” said Dupuis, who was selling doll clothes and accessories at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre’s annual Holiday Gift and Craft Show on Saturday.

In the 1960s, when Dupuis started having children, she made clothes for them and their Barbie dolls.

When grandchildren came around in the 1980s she continued sewing and knitting, now for 18-inch sized dolls.

In the early 2000s, her now 15-year-old granddaughter Daphne took a strong interest in 18-inch dolls and it inspired her to get even more into sewing.

People would see her work and would ask her to make items for them so, six or seven years ago, she started the business Athlea — the name is a play on her name and a popular Canadian doll brand.

20171104-HolidayGiftandCraft-JK-6Athelene Dupuis has been making doll clothes for decades. On Saturday, along with 99 other vendors, Dupuis was at the Canadian Busphlane Heritage Centre's Holiday Gift and Craft Show. Jeff Klassen/SooToday

Dupuis suspects she may be making up for her own doll-less childhood and she definitely lives somewhat vicariously through her children customers.

“I love children. I was a teacher’s assistant and now… when people bring kids to me I really enjoy seeing them picking out what they want to buy,” she said. “(However) the main reason I do this is because I enjoy it. I like that it’s always making different things and it’s never boring.”

For a lady in her 70s Dupuis is pretty comfortable with technology.

“It’s a big process actually,” said Dupuis, describing how she uses the online selling marketplace Etsy.com to reach a global market.

Dupuis takes her own digital photos, enters item descriptions and other information, and answers emails herself.

“Some people my age don’t even want have a computer but I’ve had one since 1992. I try to stay up to date,” she said.

Dupuis speculated on why children might like dolls.

“Maybe it’s like a little mother thing,” she said. “They have motherly feelings and use them with their dolls. They love dressing them and changing their clothes and doing their hair.”

“Not all girls play with dolls to be honest, people tell me things like they might have four girls and only one will play with dolls. They either like them or they don’t. My granddaughter plays hockey and all sorts of stuff as well but she still likes dolls,” she said, adding that although mostly girls play with her dolls, she has had some bought for boys as well.

Dupuis makes the doll clothes with her cousin Pauline Armstrong.

For both of them it’s a way to continue doing something they love — being creative with sewing and knitting.

“It’s great seeing the end result and seeing something pretty,” said Armstrong.

Armstrong described her path to getting into doll cloth making.

“I had two dolls as a kid as a child, and sewed clothes out of old curtains then my interest just got bigger and bigger and I started buying patterns and making better clothes... for our children. I sewed everything from the time they were born and when they got their dolls we made clothes for them, then for the grandchildren, and then the great grandchildren. It’s a way to continue sewing.”

Saturday was the first day of the 5th Annual Holiday Gift & Craft Show which runs Nov. 4,5, and 11.

Each day there are 100 vendors, with 30 different ones on the 5, and 100 new vendors on the 11.


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Jeff Klassen

About the Author: Jeff Klassen

Jeff Klassen is a SooToday staff reporter who is always looking for an interesting story
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