Secret Santa Swap 2014 - part 1

I participated again in Lorraine's Secret Santa Swap for Sasha dolls this year, even though I was really short of time to make things.  In the event I was a week late posting the items I made for Marijke in Canada, however fortunately she received them before Christmas (and the parcel got through Canadian customs despite the dire warnings I had received at my local UK post office about customs and importing toys to Canada).

The following message came to me from Marijke about what her Sasha and Gregor family hoped to receive:

Dear Santa,

My Sasha family consists of 5 girls: Sasha blonde blue gingham, Kiltie, Pintucks, Cora flower dress and Sasha red hair white dress; four boys: Gregor dark blue jeans, Gregor schoolboy blond, Caleb (early, small) and Gregor red hair blue suit; and two babies, Baby Bear brown hair and Baby white suit (also early), both girls.

Five of the family arrived quite recently, and are in need of clothing like jeans, shirts and hoodies for the boys, and overalls or sleepers for the babies. None of the dolls have pajamas as yet, although there is quite a bit of flannellette (winceyette?) hanging about my sewing table. I very much enjoy sewing for my Sasha family, but time can be a deterrent; for example, at the moment the sweater knitting has had to be put off as there is a wedding shower gift being made for next week, and I signed up for a Christmas bazaar at the end of the month. My real life daughter has bought all kinds of sock wool, for Mom to knit up for her, and there are sweaters for both my daughters’ BJD’s partially finished that need to go off to their owners.

My Christmas list would include: a boy’s shirt

                                                      unisex jeans (fake fly fronts most welcome!)

                                                      a masculine hoodie

                                                      a baby overall

                                                      a baby sleeper

If there are non-sewing Secret Santas,  a ball of fine yarn would be wonderful as it is very difficult to find that here; also, enough fabric to make a pair of jeans or a sleeper. The kids are collecting toys at the present, but toys are weighty, and these kids live in Atlantic Canada, so mailing costs need to be kept in mind. There is only one book at present in their size. Colouring pencils would be great, as would backpacks or school bags. Another useful item would be tiny hair clips, all those girls have so much hair! And wool felt for berets, which has to be ordered via the internet here; the shops only carry polyester....

Thank you.

In the event the clothes I made were unisex jeans and a baby overall. I also enclosed a Passion for Sasha long sleeved t-shirt which I'd bought at the Chat 'n Snap in October (I didn't have time to make a shirt or hoodie to go with the jeans).  I included one of my model sailing boats (the one with the dolphin on the sail) and one of my skipping ropes and some mini Christmas chocolate eggs.  Fortunately these toys were not too heavy to post.

Nicholas James and baby Mabel model the clothes,
with the toys and chocolates for Marijke 

baby Mabel wears the overall/romper

The pocket detail on the back of the jeans,
the front had an opening fly (fastened with a press stud)

As you can see from Lorraine's blog post about what people received, Marijke's Sasha family are making good use of the toys and have worked out who wears the clothes.

My daughter and I compiled a wish list for Secret Santa which I emailed to Lorraine.  When our parcel arrived, we put the little presents in my sewing room to wait for Christmas day - see my next post.