Sunbonnet Sue
By Becky Brown
Sunbonnet Sue or the Dutch Doll was a very popular twentieth century pattern.
Is she a baby or a faceless woman? The ubiquitous doll can
remind us all the girls who've rebelled
against becoming "an entirely ornamental young lady."
as a nurse during World
War I
Vera Brittain came of age 100 years ago in the era of
England's Suffragettes. In her memoir Testament
of Youth she became the voice for her generation whose lives were destroyed
in the Great War. Even before the war began in 1914, Vera typified what was
later called a "generation gap," the battle caused by young people
whose goals, experiences and attitudes were greatly different from those of
their parents.
Testament of Youth
begins with Vera's account of the conflict with her affluent parents who
persistently determined "that I should be turned into an entirely
ornamental young lady," shaped in "the trivial feminine mould which
every youthful instinct and ambition prompted me to repudiate." Their
goals for her were to acquire "a brilliant husband" and then to be
subservient to him for life.
Vera had "a desire for a more eventful existence and a
less restricted horizon." As an adolescent she was so bored she was in
danger of "dying of spontaneous combustion." Her biographers discuss
the conflict further. Her beloved brother was given the academic education Vera
longed for. Her well-meaning father had "nothing but contempt for me and
my knowledge...as he has at heart for all women because he believes them for
some unknown reason to be inferior to him.... I have been impressed in this
home of mine with the disadvantages of being born a woman until they have eaten
like iron into my soul."
A clockwork doll
"Mrs Brittain could only sigh and declare that she
would much rather have an ordinary daughter like other girls."
Vera found a way to go to college, which subjected her
mother to abuse from her peers, the unofficial team in charge of reinforcing the social mores:
'How can you send your daughter to college, Mrs. Brittain!'
''Don't you want her ever to get married?"
The voice of her unlucky generation caught up in the War,
Vera also speaks for every girl who disappointed parents longing for "an
ordinary daughter" who shared their values.Vera tried to please her
family, to look and act like her peers, to deny her authentic self and be the
person they thought she should be. But she was not ordinary and somehow that
authentic woman escaped to become the writer who documented women's role in the
Great War.
Sunbonnet Sue is number 47.1 in my Encyclopedia of Applique. The pattern here is drawn from the quilt above, made about 1935 when she was quite a fad.
Or click on these drawings for 8" or 12" blocks, copy to a word file or a jpg and print.
Many of Sunbonnet Sue's variations are more in the folk tradition of patterns handed
around rather than published.
She has her origins in Bertha Corbett's
illustrations for children's books.
Sunbonnet Baby
By Dustin Cecil
Becky says,
"I'm not much into clothes and fashion so I have no idea how to do her little outfit. If it's a sunbonnet, then she should be wearing a sleeveless sundress which would make her arm flesh colored. It's not! So in my version she has matching hat and shoes - how cute it is! I added a narrow piece of bias on her purple hat, but made her Metropolitan Fair (pink) hat out of 2 pieces. I used freezer paper and pressed the seam edges onto the shiny side of the paper and whip stitched them together. (I did the same on her shoe - it doesn't go up under her dress)."
Read a short biography of Vera Brittain here
Hear a podcast of Vera's own daughter's family memories at
the BBC by clicking here:
And read a preview of Testament
of Youth at Google Books here
Here's a full-length biography: Vera Brittain: A
Life, by Paul Berry and Mark Bostridge, (Chatto & Windus, 1995) .
Georgann put her foot down on this one
so I had to Photoshop a red version.
I have always loved Sunbonnet Sue, but felted this pattern lacked a hand.
ReplyDeleteMy parents are from this era of women should find a husband and not have a college education. That was 1970 for me.
It has been very interesting for me to read about women's right. I have been trying to tell high school and middle school students to read your post. I even bring my quilt block of the week to say a statement as I sub-teach in different place each day. Thanks for doing this post. I am sure learning.
Linda- glad to hear you are using the blocks and the information in your classes.
ReplyDeleteSleeveless Sunbonnet Sue made me smile. But long sleeved, long skirted, big bonnet Sue is authentic. My red-haired, freckled aunts, born and raised on a farm in the Oklahoma Panhandle where summers hit 100° and trees were sparse, had to cover up just like that for protection from severe sunburn. I imagine it was the same for many descendants of the British Isles who migrated West. Poor girls. No sunscreen.
ReplyDeleteI've always loved Sunbonnet Sues and have quite a collection of patterns gleaned from a variety of sources. This simple one is always a favorite.
ReplyDeleteThis was loveely to read
ReplyDelete