Best Handmade Crafts

These days there's a whole generation of Americans who didn't have grandmothers or maiden aunts who liked to crochet, sew quilts or make doll clothes. Those of us who wish we did have that kind of crafty relation now can buy the stuff at the Senior Citizens Craft Shop, where the goods are made by more than 250 area seniors with a multitude of talents and skills. The 33-year-old shop (in a former office in the Independence Courthouse) is one of the few places in town where crocheted afghans have never gone out of style. Ditto for hand-painted devilled-egg dishes, embroidered dishcloths, toaster covers, lace doilies and dolls with skirts that cleverly conceal a roll of toilet paper. Former Kansas Citian Joan Crawford might even have tolerated this shop's wire hangers covered with crocheted tatting. The doll clothes sold here are conservative by current slutty doll-fashion standards, but a handmade taffeta strapless formal is timeless enough to make a blond-bimbo Barbie look as refined as Gwyneth Paltrow.