In North Devon on the edge of Exmoor, I hand-craft traditional style calico dolls, with an extensive range of garments.

Alice Maud was my maternal great grand-mother. We shared the same birthday, and Alice is the inspiration for this lovely range of hand-crafted dolls. Alice Maud has been designed using traditional ideas and carefully chosen fabrics to reflect times gone by.

My great grand mother, Alice Maud, was born in Devon in 1884. I never knew her, but my mother Pamela, remembered her as lots of fun, adventurous and feisty with an eye for fashion. She travelled extensively going to New York on the big liners several times in her life and travelled across Europe. She was married twice, the first marriage at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

She taught my mother lots in life and encouraged her interest in fashion and fabrics. My mother was trained at the Shoreditch School for the Garment Trades, and then worked for Norman Hartnell couturier (dressmaker and designer) to the Royal family and celebrities in the 1940s into the 1960s, working to standards that possibly don’t exist anymore. As a perfectionist, she stood for nothing less than the best, and taught me from a pre-school age to adhere to that same standard. We started the Alice Maud range working together to perfect the design and workmanship of the dolls and the ranges of garments.

Alas Pamela is no longer with us, but I am committed to providing nothing less than the high standards she demanded in the Alice Maud dolls and clothes. We added a Pamela doll to the range this year, in her memory, and 10% of all sales of this doll will go to the North Devon Hospice.