Does anyone remember this story - dolls made out of Poppies

[SquatBetty]

Think it was from a short story collection and possibly the first story in the book. Around the early 80s.

A little girl is at her Grandma's house. The Grandma has lots of different coloured poppies in her garden and picks some to make dolls for the girl. The dolls are made by folding the petals down and wool tied round the middle to form a skirt, pieces of stem are used for legs and pushed through the petal skirt for arms and finally stamens are removed from the seed head and a face drawn on the seed head.

I KNOW I have read this story and am trying to track it down - will let you know if I succeed!

Thank you @bookworm14 !

OMG yes, I definitely remember this but I can't think for the life of me what it was!

It's Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson I think!

Sorry I didn't really read your post so ignore my answer🙈🙈🙈

I remember this. No idea though.

It's "Bunchy" by Joyce Lankester Brisley, who wrote the Milly Molly Mandy books. Written many years ago, lovely stories. The one I remember was when Bunchy made pastry figures that came to life!

Trying to post pic!

SquatBetty have you gone?!

@Clawdy, those dolls are made from old fashioned clothes pegs.
OP, try Rumer Godden - but I'm not sure which book.

Doesn't Bunchy appear in one of the MM stories. I think It's MMM has a new dress. She fancies a different type of dress because she's bored of only having pink stripes, but there's only enough fabric for one dress of the flowered fabric her mum and Bunchy's grandma likes. So she decides to let Bunchy have it because of her name.

Footle this is from that Bunchy story : "By the wall there grew a great clump of Calfornia poppies, and some of the flowers were beginning to drop. Bunchy picked up two or three of the big shiny red petals from the grass and arranged them round the clothes-peg in her hand, tying them round its waist with a piece of ribbon-grass. "

I’m sure, though, that the story OP refers to just uses poppies not clothes pegs. I can see the pictures in my mind’s eye, possibly Shirley Hughes? It was in a collection of stories but I can’t find it anywhere. It could be the Bunchy one, but I’m not convinced!

Bunchy lives in her grandma's house, so it sounds very similar. We need OP back to tell us!

I'm back! Pretty sure it's not Bunchy - I don't recall the dolls coming to life and don't remember wooden clothes pegs being used