MonPilou dolls, hand crafted with natural fibers and a lot of love!

Waldorf dolls find their origin in Waldorf education/school, founded bij Rudolf Steiner. He was an important thinker/philosopher around the 1920's. This philosophy is called Antroposophy. There are many Waldorf- or Steiner schools, all over the world. (I, myself and my children went to Waldorf school) 

The Waldorf idea about toys for children, is that they are simple and made of good quality natural material. The child needs to be able to fill in with it's imagination. This would mean, that the child decides, for instance, the mood or age of the doll.

I have learned to make traditional Waldorf dolls (Zonnekindpoppen in Dutch) many years ago.

Over the years, I have designed my own patterns and found ways to make the dolls of better quality and look more natural and child like. The techniques have changed, my dolls are a bit more detailed, than the traditional dolls. But they are still made of natural fibres, have a neutral expression and are made one by one, with a lot of love. This makes every doll unique.

My dolls are for everyone, but from a pedagogical point of view, I would say, 3 to 7 years old is the perfect age to give a child a MonPilou doll. Mouthing phase should be over. Make the moment of giving special, and be an example in taking care of the doll. You could put the doll, as a surprise, in a doll bed next to your child's bed (maybe with candlelight) so, it will find the doll, when he or she goes to bed. And once in a while, you could make or buy something new for the doll, together with your child (for example, baking doll cookies of salt dough or make a little bracelet). This will keep doll play alive.

Although, the dolls are made "play strong" for children, I can completely relate to adult doll collectors who adopt my dolls, as well. As I love dolls myself so much. Not only mine, but from many different dollmakers who I admire.

The dolls are filled with, clean, carded sheep wool, from Germany. The good thing about sheep wool filling is, that it makes the doll feel warm and almost alive. My dolls are firmly stuffed, for durability, but not "stone" hard. I like my dolls to feel cuddly, for children.

The doll skin is made of 100% cotton double knitted jersey (interlock). I use interlock from de Witte Engel/Meaningful crafts, mainly. All seams are stitched twice.

For the dolls hair, I crochet wigs, out of mohair yarns. I use Wild Mohair from Little Oke Dolls, mainly.

I love the nostalgic looks, for the doll outfits. The clothes and accessories are made of quality fabrics, like cotton pointelle jersey, linen and Liberty of London.

The dolls, clothes and accessories are designed and made by MonPilou©

And the lovely woolen felted shoes, are designed and made by Vaida Petreikis from Lituania. My dolls are wearing her shoes since 2016 and I still love them. In her own webshop, she sells these shoes from tiny 3 cm to a big men size. Vaida's shop.