Every kid needs a pet, right? Even paper doll kids need a pet. So this season the Oliver + S paper dolls have adopted a new friend. Here’s Pearl.

Pearl is a dachshund. We’re not sure if Pearl is a boy dog or a girl dog, but that doesn’t matter much because Pearl is a great companion to the Oliver + S paper dolls.

And here’s the exciting part. Pearl can be a faithful desktop companion for you too. More on that in a minute. But, first, some credits are due.

Have you heard of John Martin’s spool pets? We hadn’t either until April, of April 1930s, sent us some reproduction postcards a while ago. In the early 1930s, John Martin (1865-1947) illustrated several animals for a series of Coats and Clark promotions. Each animal was printed on card stock and featured a rhyme along with instructions for cutting out the animal and gluing the front and back sides to an empty spool to make a stand up, paper doll-like pet. Martin did a dog, a pig, a cow, a cat, a bunny, a horse, and possibly a few others.

We loved the idea and decided (in honor of Martin’s originals) to update the concept. Dan Andreasen, the illustrator of our paper dolls, painted Pearl’s front and back sides which we’ve turned into a new Oliver + S postcard featuring Pearl. (Dan illustrates some interesting things, but this was the first time he has been asked to do a dog’s rear end!) Like in Martin’s originals, there’s a poem on the card that tells a bit about Pearl, and then Pearl provides instructions for cutting and gluing the images to a spool to create a standing pet.

Pearl has been designed with Gutermann’s long, thin spools in mind. (Remember, Pearl is a dachshund. Get it now?) Here’s what Pearl looks like with our paper doll friends.

Starting next Tuesday, while supplies last, all website orders for Oliver + S patterns will ship with a complimentary spool dog postcard so that you can make your own standing Pearl. Postcards will also be available on a limited basis at select retailers who are carrying our new Fall 2009 patterns.

We hope you’ll stand Pearl up on your worktable to watch over you while you’re busy sewing the new Jump Rope Dress and School Days Jacket and Coat.

If you’re in New York, be sure to stop by Purl Patchwork on Sullivan Street to see their Oliver + S window display.

Purl is well-known for its outstanding selection of fabrics. The staff stocks beautiful Japanese prints, a wide selection of Liberty tana lawn, and a number of other exquisite offerings inside this jewel box of a shop.

For these samples Purl selected a sweet floral Liberty print for the Birthday Party Dress and paired it with a coordinating Kona cotton solid for the tab. Because Liberty prints are very light-weight and ever-so-slightly sheer, we used a white cotton lawn for the facings to be sure they didn’t show through. (The Liberty print sold out within two days of setting up the window display, so I’m sorry I can’t give you a link to it.)

The Sailboat Top and Pants are made from a fresh architecture-inspired Anna Griffin print and a Kona cotton.

We raided the fantastic button selection at Purl’s yarn shop just down the street for the finishing touch. Those buttons on the pants are wool felt!

And here are some views of the window from inside the store. How about those giant paper dolls?

Located in historic downtown McMinnville, Oregon, Boersma’s Sewing Center offers a tremendous range of products and services, from sewing and knitting supplies to long-arm quilting machines for rent and sewing classes of all sorts.

Because the store is located in a former department store, Boersma’s also has enormous glass windows at the outside of the shop. We’re thrilled to be featured as their fall window display; the large-scale paper dolls from our banner at Quilt Market look terrific displayed among the clothing samples made from our patterns, with giant scissors in the act of cutting out the dolls and their outfits.

You can see more photos from the shop windows on the Boersma’s Flickr set.

Dan Andreasen illustrates the Oliver + S paper dolls. We were able to speak with him recently about his background and some of his most enjoyable recent projects. (Part 1 of the interview can be found here.)

What do you like to illustrate most?
Right now I’m getting a kick out of illustrating my own stories. I like that a lot. After doing piles and piles of book jackets and picture books, I started writing my own stories. I’m working on my sixth book now to be published next year.

Do you have a favorite?
I do. It came out last year, and it’s called The Giant of Seville. It’s based loosely on a giant who moved to a small town and spent his life in the circus in the 1800s after the Civil War. His name was Martin Van Buren Bates. He weighed 525 pounds and was 7’ 11.5” tall. He married a woman who was a giant too. She was even a little taller than he was. The way I wrote the story, it’s fictional. It’s about someone who’s different and can fit into a community. I think it’s a neat book for kids.

How did you find out about these people?
I don’t remember how I found out about them originally. I must have stumbled across an article at the historical society. There are a couple plaques there now indicating that giants used to live there. In one of the shops they may have had a pair of his boots in a window case.

When my kids were younger, we used to drive through the town of Seville which is not too far from where we live. My son was in a car seat, and I told him that giants used to live here. His eyes would get as big as saucers, and he would look around like he expected to see giants today. I used to tell my kids about the giant couple who lived in this town, and I figured if they were that interested there was something there that I could write about.

My story is a fictionalized account of these real people’s lives. It’s a made up story the way I would make up stories to tell the kids. I’ve met some real sticklers for historical fact. It bugs them that I don’t tell the true story, but I had a story I wanted to tell. I used a little bit of historical fact and built a lot of fiction around it to allow me to tell the story of someone different and how he was accepted.

What do you like about the Oliver + S paper dolls you do?
I’ve enjoyed creating the paper dolls. I think it’s a clever and unique way to feature the patterns. And I think the retro look, in a strange way, is really fresh.

Dan Andreasen, creator of the Oliver + S paper dolls, began his career as a sculptor and illustrator for American Greetings Corp. Over the past 25 years, he has illustrated more than 35 picture books. His illustrations have also been used to advertise iconic American products ranging from Orville Redenbacher to Harley Davidson.

This is something that our customers wouldn’t necessarily know, but your original illustrations for Oliver + S are really small in scale. How are you able to achieve so much detail in such a small space?
Good glasses, I guess! I usually work to size. When I illustrate a season for Oliver + S, the whole thing (a paper doll and five outfits) fits on an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper.

My first job was working for American Greetings as an in-house illustrator and in their studio. I just got used to working small like that. It’s the way we did things. If I’m doing a book jacket, I’ll sometimes do that at 150 to 200 % of the reproduction size. But for most of my illustrations I work to size.

How did you get your start as an illustrator?
I was 19 years old when I was hired at American Greetings Corp. Back in 1980, I was at Kent State working on a fine art major. I decided to go look for a job, and I went to American Greetings with my portfolio.

When I was waiting for my turn to go in to interview, the receptionist took a phone call, and I heard her say she was sorry but there were no artist positions available—unless you can sculpt. Of course, my portfolio was filled with all two-dimensional work. When my turn came, I went in and showed my portfolio. The interviewer asked me what deep in my heart I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to sculpt. So they sent me home with a block of clay and told me to make something. I did. And I got the job.

I spent my first few years there using dental tools to sculpt figurine and picture frame prototypes. They would be shipped overseas to be mass produced. After a couple years of that I moved into the conventional design department.

Did you learn anything interesting from working in three dimensions?
I learned that I really wanted to paint, not sculpt!

I worked through the 1980s at American Greetings, and at the end of the 1980s I hooked up with an agent in New York who started giving me publishing work. So I started working for myself. I did two American Girl series—first the Felicity then the Samantha books.

When you illustrated the American Girl books, you based some of your work on your own children, didn’t you? What did they think about that at the time?
Anybody who hangs around my studio long enough ends up in one of my books.

My kids grew up with that. My oldest daughter is 22 now. Felicity’s younger sister and brother were my kids. Later when I did the Samantha books, I used my daughter as the model for Samantha and her best friend for Nellie. My youngest is five now, and she’s my new model.

I work with professional and neighborhood models too. When I hire someone to model for me, I pay them. So when my kids would pose for me, I would give them a few dollars. It was a real job for them, and they’ve always been good sports about it. When my oldest was in kindergarten, her teacher asked her what kind of work her dad did, and she said, “He colors.” As far back as their memories go, I was always working in my home studio.

Next: Dan discusses his favorite recent project.

We got fan mail!

Meet Oliver.

We needed a boy around here, didn’t we? This fall when the evenings start to cool down, Oliver and his friend, S, will both be sporting easy-to-sew, kimono-inspired pajamas.

During the day, Oliver and S can both wear their favorite Sandbox Pants to the playground, along with freezer-paper-template starfish painted on their t-shirts.

Meanwhile, S …

… has a few daytime options of her own. For playing paper dolls with friends, she might wear her Playdate dress.

If she’s headed off to school, perhaps it’s the 2 Plus 2 pleated skirt with gathered-front tunic blouse.

On weekends, her Sunday Brunch jacket and skirt look great at the neighborhood creperie, where she goes with her parents (with Nutella crepes for dessert!).

No matter what the occasion, we think they’ll both be suitably dressed.

All patterns will be available in August, with an expanded size range from 6 months through 8 years. And for the next two weeks, all website orders for Spring collection patterns will include a fall preview paper doll set, featuring both Oliver + S and their new fall outfits. Enjoy!

Remember that paper doll we were handing out at Quilt Market last October?

Well, how cute are these? Miniature versions of the paper doll, in postcard form! We’re sending these to shops who book our trunk shows as a promotional tool; they can send the postcards to customers or keep them at the counter as a takeaway to announce the show.

I haven’t tried to cut out the little doll and her dresses because they’re awfully small. Or, as S would say, they’re “teeny-tiny.” But if you had a lot of patience and a steady hand they could be lots of fun.

Paper doll number two (A boy! Hurray!) is on his way to the illustrator today. I’m sure he’ll be just as adorable as the S doll, and he’s based on a playmate and downstairs neighbor. We’ll call him “Oliver,” I suppose, although the real Oliver lives just a few buildings away. Eventually we’ll have all our friends and neighbors involved in this company in one way or another.

My weary husband plays a big role in the running of this little operation as well, although he probably won’t be showing up as a paper doll anytime soon, cute as he is. Today while he was attending to a potential computer problem he referred to it as a PICNIC error. Want to know what that is?

“Problem In Chair, Not In Computer.”

Unfortunately I was the one sitting at the time.