Doll Mum's blog: March 2013

Saturday 23 March 2013

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

Friday 22 March 2013

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.