Steiner dolls / Waldorf dolls from the 1980s and 1990s

Do you know what Steiner dolls are? Or maybe you are accustomed to call them Waldorf dolls? I used to have these wooly, homemade-looking toys when I was a child. My family called them Steiner dolls back in the days – as far as I know, this is the most common way to call them here in Finland.

From what I have understood, Steiner doll and Waldorf doll mean the same thing. In this blog post, I will use the name Steiner doll for consistency, as I am used to calling these dolls with that name.

My own, old Steiner dolls originate from the 1980s and 1990s. They still exist today (though in a rather weary condition) and they dwell at my mother’s home at the moment.

Our Steiner dolls from the 1980s and 1990s in their original clothing.

The typical Steiner doll is made by hand. You can create one yourself if you know how, but if you don’t have the craft skills, you can also buy one ready-made. Steiner dolls tend to have a wool filling, a cotton fabric on top of the filling and wool yarn as hair. Sometimes the stuffing inside the doll is shaped with yarn during its making, to give a more natural look to different parts of the body, such as the head, wrists and ankles.

I have heard from those who have made Steiner dolls themselves that they have learned the technique of doll-making from a doll-making course, from studying at a Steiner school, or simply by following the instructions in a library book. From what I have understood, making a proper Steiner doll is quite a complex process. I haven’t ever made this kind of doll myself, but my mother made two of these from scratch just to give it a try.

My mother made two Steiner dolls herself in the 1990s. Here they are today, called Molli and Laura.

When making a Steiner doll, it is essential to choose materials that are as natural and non-toxic as possible. I guess that this was the main philosophy that got my mother interested in these kinds of toys back in the 1980s and 1990s.

At that time, lots of toys were made of plastic, they had striking colors and they were not very serene and peaceful-looking in general – not to even mention their chemical composition (the chemicals used in small kids’ toys were not that strictly controlled back then, unfortunately).

Steiner dolls (and toys alike) were a healthier choice for a child in my mothers opinion, as they were deliberately made non-toxic with much emphasis on the choice of materials, and they had no loose parts that a small child could tear off and swallow either.

A penny for your thoughts!

Unlike many traditional dolls, the facial features of a Steiner doll are intentionally minimal. Two embroidered eyes and a hint of a mouth are enough. These dolls never have a big wide smile on their face – in fact, sometimes they don’t even have any facial features at all.

Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Steiner / Waldorf education, suggested that children’s playthings should be largely unformed in order to encourage the imagination of the young child. When the doll doesn’t have a fixed expression on its face, it gives more freedom to the child to imagine the variety of different emotions and their changing from one feeling to another. The doll can laugh, cry, feel hungry, tired or happy… however the child imagines it to be.

I won’t go deeper into the early origins of the Steiner / Waldorf dolls, or the philosophy of the Steiner / Waldorf education, in this blog post. More can be found in the literature, or by digging around on the internet, if you are interested to know more of it.

I did try to find a bit of information about the origin of these dolls when I was starting this blog post, mainly about when the manufacturing of these dolls first began, but my findings were scarce, especially in Finnish material (I write my posts in Finnish first). Ragdolls of this kind have been made since the dawn of time, I guess, without any specific label on them. But when did the first “Steiner / Waldorf doll -branded” dolls arrive, and who made the first ones? I don’t know.

The concept of Steiner / Waldorf dolls still exists today, actually. Brand new Steiner dolls on sale in the 2020s look surprisingly similar to my 1980s and 1990s dolls. The philosophy of these dolls seems to have remained largely the same, too, over the years, in terms of their looks and also in terms of their material choices.

A Steiner doll for a newborn baby from the early 1980s.

The oldest member of our Steiner dolls family is this flat and soft-bodied doll shown above. It was given as a baby gift in the early 1980s.

The doll is not in very good condition anymore, sadly. Over the decades, it has been stored here and there, probably also in a cold outdoor storage room. This doll might have had some name in the past, but I don’t remember it anymore.

A ready-made Steiner doll Molla from 1987 in her original clothing.

The second oldest of the bunch is this doll with braided blonde hair. Her name is Molla. My mother remembers that Molla arrived at our house in 1987. None of us can remember anymore, though, where we actually bought her (Molla was bought ready-made) but when she arrived, she was wearing these same clothes that are shown in the picture: a pink shirt and short white trousers. For a long while, these were her only clothes, until we started making her a variety of different clothes (and finally, she had a gazillion of self-made clothes).

Molla is still in reasonably good condition. The outer fabric has been torn a little from some spots, but other than that, she has survived pretty well, taken into consideration that she used to follow me indoors and outdoors and get muddy and dirty sometimes, too.

My mother made this doll, called Molli, as well as these wooly clothes in 1993.

In February 1993, our family received a third Steiner doll in the mail – or, to be more precise, the postman delivered a box with doll materials inside it. My mother had gotten the idea to try making this kind of doll herself, and she ordered the materials and instructions from somewhere. I was so excited about her project that I even wrote about it in my diary on 22nd February 1993. Once this doll was ready, he got the name Molli.

My diary does not say how long it took from my mother to create Molli, but in May 1993 the diary states that she knitted a sweater for him. So the doll was probably already finished at this stage. As far as I remember, the doll kit included a cloth for the skin, wool for stuffing the doll and wool yarn for the hair. There were also materials for the first clothes.

Moll was supposed to be the same size as Molla, but eventually he turned out smaller. Despite the size difference, Molli and Molla looked very much alike in my opinion, so I thought of them as siblings. Molli became Molla’s little brother.

Laura, the other Steiner doll my mom made herself, pictured in a jeans outfit.

Making the first doll was fun, so my mom wanted to try making another one. In June 1995, another doll package arrived in the mail. My diary (7th June 1995) tells about the completion of the second self-made doll: “Today we got Laura doll’s hair done and she is ready. Laura has a dress and underwear.” Laura’s first clothes that my diary mentions have disappeared, unfortunately.

It didn’t take very long to complete this doll – she was made within a few days according to my diary entries. I thought that Laura looked a bit older than Molla and Molli, and she also looked a little bit too different to be their sister in my opinion. So, instead of imagining her as their sister, I thought that she was their friend.

This ready-made Steiner doll dwells at my mother’s home, too. He is supposedly from the late 1990s.

I remember that I used to play with Molla, Molli and Laura as a child. But there is one more Steiner doll at my mother’s place that I don’t remember so well. This doll with blue clothes was probably bought in the late 1990s or early 2000s. It is in a neat condition, which suggests that it is newer than the previous ones and has seen less wear and tear in the playground.

The clothes sewn for Molla doll also fit on our newest, nameless Steiner doll. In this picture, he has a homemade yellow winter coat and a crocheted hat.

Over the years, Molla, Molli and Laura got a lot of clothes that my mother and I made together. My own, old worn-out clothes were their material. New fabric was almost never bought for this purpose. Now looking at these doll clothes, they give a pretty good impression of what real kids clothes looked like back in the 1990s.

Making clothes for our dolls developed into a hobby that my mother and I shared. We also made outfits for some other dolls, for example Barbie, but I remember that there was something especially fun in creating clothes for our Steiner dolls. I enjoyed designing and making these clothes even when I was quite old myself (almost a teenager) and didn’t really play with the dolls anymore – it was just fun to make clothes.

Laura and Molla got jeans, for example, that were made from my old jeans. Molla’s jean pants have the zipper and button from my real jeans. Laura’s jeans have, too, and they even have a small Lee Cooper logo on the back pocket like the original pants did.

Molla’s jean pants were made from my old jeans.

Laura’s pink Lee Cooper jeans look pretty much the same as my own old jeans from which they are made of.

Big sister and little brother got some matching outfits made from the same fabrics.

Of course, older sister Molla and younger brother Molli sometimes had to look alike in identical clothes. These trousers in the picture above were made from my own old trousers, or maybe it was a shirt, I don’t remember so well anymore… The material for the two shirts came from my old nightdress, one half of which was turquoise and the other half yellow.

Let it rain, let it rain… Molli’s doll-sized raincoat is a scaled-down version of a real raincoat worn by human beings.

These wool-filled dolls were not exactly designed to be outdoor toys, but nevertheless, they were often taken outside, too. Of course, the dolls had to be able to go out in all weathers. When it rained, dolls were equipped with raincoats. When writing this blog post, I was able to find only one raincoat, although I remember that there were at least two of them, if not three. Rubber boots they didn’t have, though!

My mother liked to knit clothes for dolls, too, such as these two wooly sweaters.

Dolls’ wardrobe accumulated over the years and included many different kinds of shirts, trousers, skirts, blouses and jackets. My mother, who is good at knitting, made wooly hats and sweaters for the dolls, too. At first, I helped my mother to make the clothes. A little later, I was able to make some doll clothes by myself.

Old random pieces of fabric from home were put to good use. These clothes are made for Molli, except for the pink skirt in the lower right corner, which is Molla’s ballet costume.

Who remembers wall calendars made of fabric? These shirts were made of such calendars.

The backsides of the calendar shirts reveal a piece where some months and dates are still visible.

I designed underwear for the dolls, too.

Some hats were also made. For example, my mother knitted a couple of winter wooly hats. Molli got a fur hat which was simply made by putting a leather baby bootie on his head. Popular TV shows of the era inspired my dolls’ hat designs, too.

In the 1990s, I was a big fan of a TV series called Little House on the Prairie. I was particularly impressed by the girls’ summer hats – they were called bonnets, sunbonnets or something similar. I just thought that they looked so cute! Of course, we tried to create something even remotely similar to Laura and Molla.

When you live in Finland, a proper winter coat is a necessity. We made warm winter coats for our dolls using a variety of materials, such as my mother’s old leather jacket, a pretty lining fabric of an old jacket, a worn-out faux fur overalls from my baby years, and so on.

Molli’s pretty winter coat was made from the lining fabric of my mother’s worn-out old coat that had a bad outer side. Molli’s leather hat is a baby shoe.

Molla’s white faux fur jacket was made from a baby’s outdoor jumpsuit. Looking closely at the sleeves, you can see that they are made of the actual sleeves of the jumpsuit. When used as a baby’s overalls, the cuffs could be turned to protect the baby’s hands.

Laura’s wooly hat was knitted by my mother. The black and brown furry winter coat is made from my mother’s old leather jacket.

Did you have your own Steiner doll as a child? Or maybe you have made one of these dolls yourself? Has it ever happened that making doll clothes swept you up in the world of sewing like it did me and my mother? Please let me know – I would love to hear from you!