Sasha display for StonyWords 2026

In January 2025 I was permitted to use the display cabinet in our local library for a few weeks during the annual literary festival when I shared the Dress a Sasha displays from the 2024 and 2012 festivals. I combined the display with a literary treasure trail within the library for children as part of the literary festival which helps our town brighten up a dark month in the depths of the English winter. See Sasha Exhibition for the local library

This January, in collaboration with the literary festival organisers, the library staff, the town council and the local gardening group Stony in Bloom (who usually display their trophies in it), once again I am using the display cabinet for the literary festival. I swapped out the Christmas display a couple of weeks ago and set up displays with the following themes: traditional party games and a beloved fairy story.

The 2026 literary festival display

The traditional party games display features two games:

Game 1: Pin the tail on the donkey with Eeyore as the donkey, featuring my younger daughter's 2017 Dress a Sasha entry when we attended the Sasha Doll Festival in Washington DC. As it happens, this ties in nicely in 2026 with centenary of Winnie-the-Pooh coming into print (the first short story was printed in a newspaper 24 December 1925 and the book Winnie-the-Pooh was published in 1926). The clothes Laura, Edmund and baby Amy were wearing featured Winnie-the-Pooh characters redrawn from Ernest Shepard's designs by my younger daughter then printed on fabric by my sister's company. I was able to draw upon this for the literary treasure trail clues. 

Game 2: all our babies playing Pass the Parcel, with crumpled wrapping paper and general merriment.

The beloved fairy story was chosen by the library manager - she challenged me to the Elves and the Shoemaker. I had grown up with the 1965 Ladybird book version of this story with wonderful painted illustrations which brilliantly tell the story. So of course I wanted to recreate those illustrations using a pair of Gregor dolls by Sasha Morgenthaler. 

Recreating that scene on the front cover of The Elves and the Shoemaker meant finding a suitable pair of shoes which would approximate the style and colours of the shoes in the picture. I looked online and of course couldn't find anything suitable which I could just buy and not adapt. I went to our local cobbler and key cutting shop (yes, in this day and age we really do have a cobbler in our town who do shoe repairs - they're fantastic) and asked if they had anything but they don't make shoes, however they suggested finding a good condition pair in a charity shop and painting them. They also kindly consented to loan me a pair of vintage shoe lasts to include in the display (one was painted in bright stripes). So I scoured the local charity shops (the town has several) and found a pair of pumps which needed their heels building up higher but were roughly the right design and set to work on them.

I built up the heels with 3 layers of thick card cut to shape.

Then I started painting the shoes using acrylic paint.

The heels built up with thick cardboard glued on, and starting to paint

Starting to paint the green

I had to paint inside the shoes too plus hide the shoe size on the soles to make them less modern. For the heel which was to have the nail, I painted nail heads and used a real panel pin for the nail being hammered in. For the shoe having its yellow braid stitched on, I used thick thread stitched from inside the shoe to the outside, then threaded a large darning needle onto it for the elf to hold.

Close up of the elves hammering and sewing the shoes

I made the outfits for the elves from scratch. I found fabric in my stash which had the right rustic look and was reasonably close in colour to those pictured (for one elf I didn't have a washed out yellow so I used a cream colour instead). I had to make their clothes look ragged, so didn't need to sew any edging seams and snipped jagged edges all the neck, arm and bottom edges of their tops and the bottom of their shorts to allow a bit of fraying. The lighter colour top has two patches sewn on the back and a hole in the shoulder to roughly copy the illustration.

I knitted pointy caps for the elves then made ears (modelled over their real ears) from Milliput which I painted after it had dried then glued them on temporarily using tacky glue (it won't harm their vinyl ears, it was only a spot for each of them). 

close up of elf ear worn by Trendon Elliott

close up of elf ear worn by Nicholas James

Trendon Elliott sewing the braid on the shoe

I had painted the handle of the hammer to look like wood (it is an Our Generation doll hammer) and made a miniature pointer from the leftover blob of Milliput with a needle pushed into it, then painted when dry. 

the miniature pointer

I also made the candle holder and candlestick (from metal button and painted Milliput) and put this on a stump of wood (I didn't have time to make a three legged stool as depicted in the illustration). The flame on the candle was made from clippings of tinsel, my elder daughter says it looks like it is about to explode!

The candle and candle stick on the stump of wood

Setting up the display in the cabinet took about 90 minutes. Four of the dolls were in the Christmas display (Laura, Edmund, Davy and Nina) and needed to be in the Pin the tail on the donkey display, so they had a quick change of clothes at the library. The other four dolls from the Christmas display came home with me.

I set up the two party games first on the higher shelf which is where I already had the Stony in Bloom bunting from the Christmas display (I took down the Christmas bunting). I put up the Happy Birthday banner my younger daughter had made for her 2017 Dress a Sasha entry. The shelf looked quite crowded once I'd finished the party display as every one of our babies were included, though baby Amy is in the Pin the tail game while all the others are playing Pass the parcel.

Pass the Parcel being eagerly played by 9 Sasha babies

Mabel, Leo and Daisy playing Pass the Parcel

Theo with a book while playing Pass the parcel beside babies Nina and Davy (who had a quick change after the Christmas display)

L-R: Nomalizo, Ebony, Robin, Mabel, Leo and Daisy playing Pass the Parcel

Pin the tail on the donkey

Back view of baby Amy playing with her rattle and books

Laura guiding Edmund as he tries to pin the tail on Eeyore

Edmund wearing his Eeyore shirt and the blindfold while holding the tail

In her 2017 Dress a Sasha entry, my daughter had used a vintage book just below the birthday banner. One of the library staff suggested that the pop-up book about Eeyore's tail needed to be open and I couldn't put it under the birthday banner in the display cabinet because it wouldn't be seen. So I put it a space at the front corner of the cabinet which was not being used by either game and opened it to show Christopher Robin pinning the tail back onto Eeyore while Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet watch. 

The pop-up book open for the pin the tail scene

Christopher Robin pins the tail back on Eeyore while Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet watch

Then I concentrated on the Elves and the Shoemaker. I had raided our workshop for some leather pieces of various colours and thickness which are piled up behind the elves and raided my collection of vintage wooden cotton reels for two piles of thread, also our shoe polish box for some shoe polish brushes. The vintage wooden lasts on loan from the cobblers Kingsman Gentleman Cobblers were placed beside the elves hard at work. I pegged open the Ladybird book to the page showing the elves making the shoes and had copies of that picture and the book stuck on display cabinet, so at least the shoemaker and his wife could be seen peeping through the curtains at the busy elves. Ideally I would have painted a larger backdrop on a board featuring the shoemaker and his wife but didn't have the time beforehand to make this and also there were Stony in Bloom trophies at the back of the glass shelf which I didn't want to hide.

Nicholas James being an Elf with a hammer while Trendon Elliott is the elf with the needle and thread

The Elves and the Shoemaker display, showing the pointer in the foreground

The Elves and the Shoemaker display including the vintage lasts on loan from Kingsman Gentlemen Cobblers

The Elves and the Shoemaker display

On the wall beside the display cabinet I put up information about the displays.

The treasure trail was cards of simple clues stuck up around the downstairs walls and windows in the library (the children's section), with instructions to go upstairs to see the display when they had finished the trail downstairs. It was simpler and shorter than last year (which was too wordy for very young readers) and the Library manager was delighted with how it flowed, showing the link between traditional party games and the fairy story (an underlying theme of giving and receiving). Apparently families are enjoying it. Each returned answer sheet results in the participant receiving a shoe or boot template I put together which they can use to design a shoe or boot, I believe the library staff are encouraging them to return these for a display in the library.

I had plenty of fun devising and putting together this display and the treasure trail.

Goth themed Christmas sweater

In August 2024 my elder daughter and I co-designed a Goth Christmas sweater for her. She chose many of the elements she wanted me to include, found possible images to adapt (some from other knitwear, some from cross stitch designs) and in some cases drew what she wanted for me to chart up. I used the basic knitting pattern of a vintage sweater my mother had worn in the 1960s, which I still own. I had found the pattern online after sharing a photo of my mother's sweater in knitwear groups. It is called Norwegian Sportswear by P&B.

Vintage knitting pattern Norwegian Sportswear by P&B

My mother wearing the sweater my godmother's mum knitted for her (with me, my sister and my grandfather, in 1978)

I charted up the whole sweater using an Excel spreadsheet with tiny grid squares coloured with the different elements. For the raglan join, my daughter wanted a spider web (inspired by a vintage knit pattern she found online) and bats, so I carefully charted all the spiderweb lines to match up, and ensured the actual seams were not on the vertical white lines of the web. 

I started knitting the front in August 2024 and completed the front and back plus the first part of a sleeve. By mid December it was clear I would not have the sweater finished in time for that Christmas and was busy with many other pre-Christmas activities so didn't have enough time to devote to it.

The most tedious elements to knit were the ghosts and candlesticks, I didn't mind the skellies and haunted reindeer (my names for those elements). Knitting with predominantly black yarn was not my favourite as counting rows is harder with black yarn, I was glad that during 2025 I bought a magnifier lamp for cross stitching a stole for my niece's wedding in South Africa, as this helped with knitting the sleeves from October 2025 when I resumed this project. I finished it in the early hours of Christmas morning so my daughter was able to wear it on Christmas day 2025, much to her delight. 

The yarn used is Sirdar Country Classic 50g 4ply balls in black, grey, white and red. It is 50% wool, 50% acrylic blend and I would say is bordering on not the best choice for stranded knitting because there isn't enough wool to make the yarn 'stick' better, so in some places despite my best efforts, the short floats show through. To keep the floats tidy and reduce the chance of them catching when putting on the sweater, I mostly stranded every 2 stitches, which meant frequent untwisting of the balls of yarn until I invested in a yarn holding gadget which helped manage the untwisting of colours somewhat. It was a trade off using this blend to quell concerns about wearing wool next to sensitive skin (my daughter would never wear a pure wool sweater such as my Guernsey). This yarn was not bad for knitting generally, but not so good for stranded knitting in my opinion (a 60% wool, 40% acrylic blend might have been stickier).

back of a sleeve while in progress, showing the floats

We washed the sweater a few days after Christmas on a 15 minute 20 degrees C cycle as I was concerned about colour running and pounding the sweater too much, in the event this softened it a bit without colour running which was a relief.

The front of the sweater with the collar rolled down

closer view of the front with the collar up

The back of the sweater with the collar up

My daughter is delighted with the Goth Christmas sweater. I think it will get worn from Halloween onwards every winter! She is proud of it being one of a kind, so although she suggested I could sell the pattern via Ravelry, she is also revelling in admiring comments from friends who appreciate its uniqueness.

I might reuse one or two elements (most likely the skellies, which were from a cross stitch pattern, and haunted reindeer, which my daughter drew) as single motifs for Sasha doll knitwear. I will not knit another ghost! I have refused to take commissions and knit the whole combination again as it was very time consuming to make.

Sasha Christmas display in the library

At the end of November I set up a display involving seven of our Sasha dolls in our local library. This follows the display I did in the same cabinet back in January and February this year as part of a local literary festival. This time the dolls are all preparing for and celebrating Christmas as they are our two Dress a Sasha entries from the 2022 Christmas in July Sasha Festival in Syracuse, New York State.

The cabinet normally has all the trophies and certificates won by our local horticultural group Stony in Bloom, they very kindly removed these from the two upper shelves and rearranged their display on the bottom shelf of the cabinet. In honour of their achievements, I made sure to reference them in the displays.

I had about 90 minutes in which to set up the display before the cabinet had to be locked again, so only took two quick photos on my phone before the door was closed. All the other photos I took afterwards were through the glass with light reflection issues. The library staff had arranged to fix the lights in the cabinet (they weren't working at the beginning of the year) so the Christmas tree the dolls are decorating looks bright enough even though it has no lights on it. I added two more dolls to the Christmas tree decorating activity which was my daughter's Dress a Sasha in 2022 (for Dress a Sasha there is a strict limit of 3 dolls and 18 inches square floor space to work within). Baby Davy in the reindeer suit and Melanie in a blue and gold Christmas dress I had made years ago joined Timothy in his Rudolf sweater, Louisa in her Christmas sundress and baby Nina in her red and green Christmas outfit for the tree decorating action. The Stony in Bloom logo bunting behind them I made by printing the logos in triangles on thin card and stitching the ribbons to the card then cutting out the triangular bunting shapes. The fabric Christmas bunting was made years ago by someone local.

Decorating the Christmas tree activity - display in the library

On the shelf below the enthusiastic tree decorating group is my Dress a Sasha from the 2022 festival featuring my favourite Christmas carol, Once in Royal David's City, with the addition of Miranda wearing a white dress I had knitted years ago. Laura and Edmund reprised their roles as the young woman choral scholar in York Minster and the small boy chorister in St George's Cathedral Cape Town in the robes I had made. For this display I added the Advent wreath with candles on a stand (made from a coffee pot frame and a red bucket and an upturned brass candlestick). I also added the little wooden Nativity scene I've had since my childhood.

My favourite Christmas Carol and Advent candles - display in the library

I wish I'd adjusted the Christmas tree slightly as there is an odd gap in the spiral (it is a pop up tree) and young Edmund's stance (he leans forward on his doll stand when viewed from the side) before the cabinet door was locked, but never mind. 

The two Christmas scenes on display in the library

The description cards about each of these displays say the following:

Children enjoying the traditional pre-Christmas activity of decorating the Christmas tree!

Timothy and Melanie are hanging items on the tree with the help of little Louisa, while babies Davy and Nina have fun with the decorations.

The golden baubles, bows and miniature Stony in Bloom bunting acknowledge the
fantastic achievements of the Stony in Bloom volunteers who have won Gold awards for their wonderful horticultural contributions to Stony Stratford.

The festive dresses worn by Louisa and Melanie were made by DollMum. The outfits worn by Timothy and Nina were made by other Sasha doll collectors and Davy’s reindeer outfit was commercially made.

Once in Royal David’s City is my favourite Christmas Carol, it is used at the start of the traditional Nine Lessons and Carols service on Christmas Eve in churches and Cathedrals around the world.

The young chorister represents a red-haired boy, my late brother Russell, singing the first solo verse in a hushed large space, in St George’s Cathedral Cape Town in the 1970s. Background photos are included of the Cathedral and my 2018 Stony Stratford Advent Calendar window in memory of my brother.

The older choir member represents my elder daughter, who grew up in Stony Stratford, singing as an alto choral scholar (with the tenors, basses and counter-tenors) in the vast space of York Minster, York, England in 2021. She wears her graduation hood of orange/salmon/blue. Background photos are included of York Minster and my 2020 Stony Stratford Advent Calendar window of the Heart of Yorkshire window in York Minster.

Miranda, wearing her knitted white dress, prepares to light the candles on the Advent wreath. There is a candle for each Sunday in Advent and a candle for Christmas Day. Advent 1 The Patriarchs; Advent 2 The Prophets; Advent 3 John the Baptist; Advent 4 The Virgin Mary; Christmas Day The Christ.

The crib scene is a simple wooden depiction of the Nativity, given to me by a Cape Town friend many years ago. 

Laura, Edmund and Miranda’s clothes were made by DollMum.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Chat n Snap 2025

The tenth and final Chat 'n Snap was organised by Dee and her family, with the wonderful creations of her husband Paul taking centre stage. Paul built 8 different playground equipment items for Dee's 1970s playground and all attendees were invited to place one doll in the scene. 

Paul had built the following: a climbing frame, slide, box roundabout which really went round, a swinging rocking horse, a set of swings, a single swing, a witches hat and a see saw! All incredible for a display which was only up for a few hours. It deserves another showing somewhere.

I wish I'd sneaked my toddler Louisa onto the swings, as there was a spare swing. We decided that our two contributions to the scene would be my daughter's 2024 Sasha festival raffle win Archie and the girl I purchased at the 2024 Sasha Festival whom I called Katie after Rosie Shortell's daughter. Both of them wanted to try out the tall slide (that style of tall slide wouldn't pass modern health and safety standards but I recall many times using such a slide in the parks of Pinelands in Cape Town where I grew up).

Katie wore her Sasha logo dress (I think by JoAnn Staricha) and Sasha logo sandals by Monica Jarpey. Archie wore one of his two Catherine French sweaters and long tan trousers and boots (part of his extensive wardrobe of clothes from the raffle). He enjoyed the thrill of the slide with his arms in the air! 

Archie enjoys the slide

Hopscotch in the foreground while Katie looks up at the slide

Swinging rocking horse, swings and see saw

Swinging rocking horse, skateboarder and Sasha with her baby doll and pushchair

Toddlers on the swings

Skipping plus the swings and swinging rocking horse

The witches hat

Another view of the witches hat

The box roundabout

Hoola hooping and hopscotch and slide

Chilling on the box roundabout

Climbing frame, slide, box roundabout and witches hat

Witches hat with swings in the background

Quite a crowd of children enjoying this playground

Crawling along the top of the climbing frame

Climbing frame, slide and box roundabout

Playing conkers by the slide

At the other end of the hall, on a doll display table, I placed Trudi on her chair, Edmund, Louisa, baby Nina surrounded her while my daughter carefully adjusted the hairstyles for Laura, Miranda and Aurelia.

Laura and Miranda wore their 2024 Sasha Festival souvenir smocked dresses by Petrana for the first time (we hadn't unboxed them until Thursday evening). Aurelia had gone fully punk, including safety pins on her clothes and spikes in her hair. Edmund and Trudi were in their sailor outfits, Louisa wore a play dress by Lynne Field and Sasha logo sandals by Monica Jarpey. Nina wore the gorgeous little outfit Tricia had given my daughter as a table gift at the 2024 Sasha Festival.

L-R: Aurelia, Laura, Miranda, Edmund, Trudi, Nina and Louisa

Others in the doll display including some autumnal themed outfits

Babies in the foreground of the doll display table

Doll display in front of the St Ippolyts sign

Some lovely no philtrum dolls sitting in front of the doll display

Alice's dolls stood beside our dolls with the no philtrum dolls in the foreground

There were plenty of sales tables and we weren't allowed to purchase anything until Dee announced that sales were open. I was delighted to buy a book I have long sought - Sasha Puppen.

Sales tables

Sales tables

Sales tables

The raffle was epic as always - loads of prizes. We didn't win anything for a while, then after Sue M gave us one of her winning tickets (thank you Sue), we did win 3 on our tickets

Raffle time

Dawn and Dee in charge of drawing the raffle

Of course there was lots of chatting with old and new friends throughout the day and it really was over all too quickly - I certainly didn't get to speak to everyone I knew or all the first time to the Chat 'n Snap people.

Thank you Dee, Paul and all your helpers for such a fun day, Dmd and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

L-R: Aurelia, Katie, Louisa, Miranda, Nina, Trudi, Edmund, Laura and Archie the night before the Chat 'n Snap