Sewing for Sasha Festival 2013 Raffle

I wish we could attend the 2013 Sasha Doll Festival in the USA, however funds won't allow, so the best we can do to participate is send donations for the Children's Fund Auction, or main Raffle or Helper items.  I was contemplating sewing or knitting something to honour Sasha collector Erica who was my swap partner last Christmas - sadly she died earlier this year.  However just as I was considering ideas, along came an email from another England based Sasha collector telling me about the donation for the one of the main Raffle prizes which the English collectors are putting together to celebrate the wonderful time we had at the 2012 festival, and I was glad to join in.

The message was addressed to both me and my younger daughter, and we both got to vote on the name of the doll who is crossing the Atlantic with her marvellous wardrobe of clothes and accessories.  A list of items to donate was included and we had fun choosing what we wanted to send.

My daughter decided to make the gardening apron and gym bag so I dug out some fabric from my collection for these.

From her birthday pattern book my girl found an apron sized for a Barbie or Sindy doll and I showed her how to scale this up on some paper.  She wanted a pocket in the front of the apron (to hold the seed packets or gardening tools) so she cut out a rectangle for this.  I showed her how to use the iron to double fold the edges so there would be no frayed fabric then helped her with the machine stitching (the curved bits were the trickiest).  Once the pocket was stitched on she found some embroidered transfers in my sewing box and arranged these on the pocket, then ironed them carefully in place.  The finishing touch was stitching on the ribbons - I showed her how to hand stitch these in place and she did a great job.

close up of the gardening apron pocket, with the iron on transfers

hand stitched on ribbon ties, sewn by DollMum's daughter

The gardening apron, made by DollMum and daughter

The gym bag needed to have the doll's name embroidered on it.  My girl was delighted that the most popular name chosen was the one she had picked (my favourite came lower down the list).  I showed her how to use the lost thread cross stitch method - using soluble cross stitch canvas to provide the guide for the stitching, then wetting it and removing the threads with tweasers to leave the cross stitch in place on the base fabric (apparently some soluble canvas literally dissolves on wetting, water dissolves the glue holding the canvas together on the canvas I use).  She decided that the doll had to have ballet shoes on the bag and the Olympic Rings, to celebrate 2012.  Once the embroidery was complete we stitched cord runners in the tops of the bag, stitched the sides of the bag together and had fun working out how to thread the bag correctly for drawstring operation!

my girl trimming threads on the gym bag

trimming threads carefully

the gym bag, made by DollMum and daughter

The Olympic side of the gym bag, made by DollMum and daughter

One very proud young sewer, with the gym bag and apron

Rosemarie S sent me the Liberty fabric for the dress (I wanted to do the smocked dress) and I was pleased to see that it was the same fabric as had featured in the 2012 Sasha Festival programme - Berry F dress (on page 23), however I chose to use a different pattern from the programme (Red B) as I wanted to do puffed sleeves and no collar, and my own design of smocked stitching.  I made a pair of matching knickers from the remaining fabric to go with the dress.  I am pleased with the results and Rosemarie made kind comments in email correspondence.

Miranda models the dress, gym bag and apron for Charlotte

Miranda models the gym bag and dress in our spring garden

Knickers to match the smocked dress, by DollMum

Back view of the smocked dress, by DollMum

close up of the back view of the smocked dress, by DollMum

Miranda models the smocked dress, by DollMum

Miranda looking wistful in the smocked dress

close up of the smocking, by DollMum

I checked with Rosemarie before publishing this - I didn't want to spoil the surprise for those lucky enough to attend the 2013 Sasha festival.  As our contribution is just one small part of this wonderful Raffle prize, this post will just provide a taster of what is coming their way in July and Rosemarie is happy for me to share this on my blog.

Skating or ballet outfit

The other sewing I completed in February was for my daughter's 9th birthday gift.  I am teaching her to sew and knit so for her birthday I assembled a box of her own sewing goodies, including a sewing basket and contents, fabric (lots of fat quarters or half metres), mini mannequin and learn to sew books.  In the box I included some outfits for Laura, her Christmas Sasha.One of these outfits was the new ballet/skating outfit I made based on the ballet leotard pattern in 'Sasha Dolls: Clothing and Patterns'.

The leotard is straightforward - I made it from a white t-shirt overlaid with the filigree gold fabric I'd previously used for the tribute outfits to Torvill and Dean for the larger Gotz dolls.  The shoulders are fastened at the back with mother-of-pearl buttons. The tutu is stitched to the leotard and is made from several layers of tulle, overlaid with tulle with gold flecks in it, and petals of the filigree, topped by a gold ribbon waistband.

I had previously bought the Sasha sized skates for Susie, my Palitoy, however it looks like Laura has claimed them for her own.

All the dolls who have skating outfits came downstairs to watch the 2013 season of 'Dancing on Ice', and much to my family's delight Beth Tweddle, the Olympic gymnast, won the series.

Jakob and Laura in the gold skating outfits

close up of the tutu

Now that the DoI season is over for another year, Laura has changed into one of her other new outfits, a sweater dress and hat from Dee (and Hattie) and a pair of Ruth's dolls Mary Jane shoes.

In response to the previous post it was suggested that the felt baby could be made as a plaything for Sasha children.  Before the baby went to its new home, Laura held it.  I think the baby needs to be a bit smaller to fit the scale for Sasha dolls (the baby is 7 1/2" high).  I plan to experiment with a scaled down version, though might have to simplify the pattern even more.

Laura holds the auction baby

Auction baby

In February my husband's niece ran an online auction via Facebook to raise some cash for the baby loss foundation she founded in memory of her second daughter who was stillborn 5 years ago at 38 weeks.  She discovered on suffering this dreadful loss that stillbirth, miscarriage and young baby death is still a taboo subject in many quarters and that support networks are hard to find, so she wanted to build one locally to help other parents in similar situations.

I volunteered to make something for the auction and she asked me for a rag doll.  After looking through lots of pattern books and at my fabric stash, I settled on a 7 1/2" miniature baby felt doll by Jean Greenhowe.  I made the carrycot as well, which was loosely based on one she had designed for a teddybear.  The baby needed to be unisex, so the new owner could decide whether to add girl or boy clothes.  I made a nappy of white fleece, mint leggings with matching top, a white bib trimmed with lace, a mattress and blanket.

The doll and carrycot got several bids and sold for £7 which was a bit disappointing as I would have liked it to have raised more for the foundation, however there were only 3 bidders and no reserve.  The winning bidder seemed pleased, and the baby in its cot now lives in Pembrokeshire.  However the auction did raise over £300 altogether which was a good total.

Baby lying on the mattress in the carrycot

the nappy, bib, clothes and blanket

the felt baby, its cot, clothes and blanket

felt baby wearing nappy and bib

felt baby with hand embroidered hair

felt baby with hand embroidered face

felt baby in carrycot wearing all its clothes

carrying the cot and baby

carrying the cot and baby

Jenny and Lexie play Little Red Riding Hood

My Heather Maciak dolls Jenny and Lexie demanded to participate in the Little Red Riding Hood outfit creating challenge on the private Yahoo group recently.  It gave me the perfect excuse to do some miniature smocking, to try out patterns from Rosemarie Ionker's 'Fashions for Small Dolls', to design and create my own patterns for the 8" dolls as well, and I had a lot of fun in the process.

The dress for Jenny used one strand of embroidery thread for the smocking detail, it was based on patterns from Rosemarie's book Fashions for small dolls, though I did the smocking layout myself.  The felt cape was scaled down and adapted from several patterns.  Lexie wanted to be a wolf - first she demanded the hat (inspired by seeing 3 children walking to school in their wolf hats in our recent snowy weather) then she decided I had to make her a fleece onesie and felt slippers to make the transformation complete.  I designed the wolf hat myself. 

The book is a puppet theatre, with 4 characters, a stage surround (which I didn't really use) and the story with scenery in each double page.  It is illustrated by Helen Floate (published by New Burlington Books), 1994.

Lexie said she likes her wolf suit, but now wants a smocked dress like Jenny's (different fabric though).

the girls discover the book and get excited about the story

Jenny wants to show Lexie her new smocked dress but Lexie wants to get on with the story

Lexie and Jenny start to read the story and decide to act it out

LRRH (Jenny) sets out with her basket of goodies for Grandma

Just as she picks some flowers LRRH meets the wolf!

The wolf (Lexie) runs ahead to Grandma's house

The wolf pretends to be Grandma when LRRH arrives

"What big teeth you have Grandma"

"All the better to eat you" growls the wolf, "Help!" cries LRRH

Lexie the wolf!

"I wouldn't really eat you Jenny" promises Lexie

The girls hold hands after an exciting time playing LRRH and the wolf

Jenny calms down to show off the smocking

the girls pose with the theatre props

My daughters loved watching me put the costumes together, and were full of suggestions for how they should look.  I rediscovered the book on my younger girl's shelf (it had been given to my elder girl years ago) and it gave me the perfect foil for the story, as I don't have many Jenny and Lexie sized props (I have 1/12th scale in abundance but they're too small).  My little one had fun helping me with the photo shoot, and at the same rediscovered my part-built Westville Greenleaf dolls house (a project which waits for our own home redecorating to be completed before I dare start to finish the Westville).  We used the table the dolls house usually lives on for the LRRH photo shoot, so the dolls house was moved onto the double bed and she had fun dusting it out and fishing the furniture and dolls out of the plastic crate where they've been stored.

Jenny and Lexie Christmas

Actually Jenny and Lexie didn't get out much this Christmas, however once we'd packed away the decorations at Epiphany I brought them downstairs for a mini photo session with the little wooden horse I picked up in the local sales last January (it bears a close resemblance to the main character in one of my favourite childhood stories - Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse).  Jenny is wearing the lovely Rosemarie Ionker smocked dress she won in a photo challenge we participated in during the summer, and Lexie is wearing the Rosemarie Ionker white dress she won in the Valentine photo challenge.

Jenny in her lovely Rosemary Ionker dress

Lexie and Jenny with the Little Wooden Horse

Afterwards, they raided my basket of fine patterned fabric to choose what they want me to sew for them, they say that the Sasha and Gotz dolls have had plenty of my attention and now it is time for them! However I am back at work, school term starts in the morning and even the coming weekends will be busy, so finding precious sewing and knitting time is going to be more difficult than during the Christmas holidays, I will do my best though to carve out some 'me' time.

Jenny and Lexie with a feast of fabrics

JJ shoes from Finn and Ginger

In 2011 I sent some gifts to the USA for Finn who belongs to Ginger for the Secret Santa Swap, I subsequently sent two pairs of socks to complete the outfit.  Finn and Ginger were very pleased with the surprise addition to their present, and sent me a gift to say thank you - a wonderful pair of shoes by Jean Jenson.  The shoes arrived ages ago, and I planned an outfit to match, however everyday life busy stuff and room decorating got in the way of me sewing for a while, so the project was delayed.  However during November at last I found some time and used the section in the 2012 Festival booklet about smocking for inspiration as well as an ancient book on smocking and my Readers Digest sewing dictionary and played around with fabrics, decided on a scheme, and got sewing.  I had to stop the project for a while when the actual smocking was finished because I needed to make gifts for Christmas, however during this past week I've resumed and completed the outfit.

Jean Jenson shoes from Finn and Ginger

This outfit was my first attempt at smocking for a Sasha doll, previously I had only done very basic miniature smocking for 1:12 scale dolls, which doesn't allow much scope for stitch and colour combinations.  My smocking is quite tight (though I think this makes it look 'in scale') and I used several different stitches and about 4 different colours.  Despite these beginner shortcomings, I am really pleased with the result.  I now want to smock for my Lexie and Jenny dolls (Heather Maciak).

Florence in the JJ inspired lime green and blue outfit

Florence is very happy to model the new lime green and blue outfit.  Miranda says it will also suit her, but for the moment Florence gets to wear it first.  And Laura is asking for a smocked top and crop trousers too!

The fabric for this outfit was from two different packs of fat quarters from Hobbycraft.  The spotted fabric is lovely, soft and pliable, the other two fabrics are much stiffer and a little thicker.  They are more suitable for patchwork.

Smock and head band

close up of the smocking

My younger daughter helped me make the headband: I showed her how to measure and design the band, and she helped stitch it on the machine.  She has asked for a design amendment to the headband for Laura's outfit.

Matching blue shoes

I had planned but didn't manage to sew some matching ballet shoes for Laura the new doll in time for Christmas Day, however after Christmas I used my new gift for the pattern.

New gift?  Yes, my lovely husband took my Christmas request seriously and sent off for the wonderful new book of patterns 'Sasha Dolls: Clothing and Patterns' by Ann Chandler, Susanna Lewis and Anne Votaw.  It was shipped to a colleague of my UK based cousin in the USA who brought it over to England on one of her frequent business trips.  On Christmas Day my husband gave me an envelope with the errata sheets carefully printed out, and on Boxing Day, when we arrived at my cousin's house, he was able to give me the book.  Two days of relaxing with my lovely cousins, eating and drinking also included studying the book closely and trying to decide what to make first!  I had handled a copy of the book at the 2012 Sasha Festival, but unfortunately it wasn't available for sale at the festival because Ann Chandler couldn't bring a load of them over to the UK - her luggage would have weighed a ton.

So I carefully traced the ballet shoes pattern and made them in two layers of the blue satin.  I sewed them by hand as the fabric was so slippery my machine would have choked and shredded them very quickly, so it was easier to make them by hand.  They aren't perfect and I think another time I'll make a bigger seam allowance if sewing with satin, which tends to fray with narrow seams.  The shoes were ready in time for a visit to the Pantomime last week so my little girl got into her blue dress again, Laura was re-dressed (she had tried on the green velvet dress won by my girl in the Festival raffle) with the addition of her new shoes, a miniature Olympic badge pinned to her bolero and a ribbon in her hair.

Laura proudly wears her new blue ballet shoes

Close up of Laura with her velvet bolero and the Olympic badge

Blue satin ballet shoes

The stain removal on her legs continues.  We've actually had a day of sunshine (new year's day) so she spent most of the day with her legs on the windowsill (her face was covered with curtain to protect her) to help speed along the bleaching out of the stains.  The photo below shows the progress (compare this to the photo in the previous post to see the difference).  We'll concentrate on her arms and shoulders later.

Leg stains fading progress 6 January

My little daughter had a friend to play this afternoon, and her classmate's reaction to Laura was heartfelt 'Oh she is pretty', and 'she looks like you'.