Three of us have been planning pram day since before the Chat 'n Snap - Alice H asked for some help and advice with her pram (a Red) which she had purchased from someone in the USA and I suggested she some to visit us, then we invited
Jane S and Teddy who were interested to see the pram work in action and it became doll and pram day.
Alice's pram had been delivered to her via a friend with the hood detached from the body of the pram and with some loose stitching on the hood, so the inner lining was coming off the frame. Alice wasn't sure how to attach it. Thankfully all the nuts and bolts were present and the pram was in very good condition, with only a few minor scrapes to the paintwork. These could be touched up using a fine paint brush, or left alone. We inspected the hood to see if it was aligned correctly, it was a bit stiff to make the hood clip up so my husband gently but firmly manipulated the hood wires a little so the hood fabric wouldn't catch on the inside of the straps which hold the hood up. I stitched the lining back in place then my husband fitted the hood back onto the chassis and Alice's pram was complete once more. This happened while we talked non stop about the various dolls which Teddy, Jane and Alice had brought with them.
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| Alice's reassembled 'Red' pram, with a miniature Baby Born resting on the cushions |
Both Teddy and I have Heather Maciak's wonderful Jenny and Lexie 8 inch dolls (and I have Annie and Emily as well) so he had brought his Jenny and Lexie as well as his two 7 inch Helen Kish dolls (Riley and Tulah). He also brought a Sasha girl and boy. I brought out my four Maciak dolls plus the three Patsi dolls by Heidi Pluszcok.
Alice brought her new 10 inch Boneka doll Valetta (similar to the Little Darling dolls) which she had redressed. At one point during pram day this little girl tried on the sundress I had made for 8.5 inch Annie and it fitted her fine.
Jane brought along three Sasha dolls, the long haired blond had frizzy hair ends. She had been treating the lovely two tone blond hair with conditioner and argon oil but the ends were dry. Teddy asked for a spray bottle with water in it, the iron and ironing board and proceeded to demonstrate the technique for improving dry frizzy nylon hair. He combed out a section of hair flat onto the ironing board, sprayed it with water then ironed it firmly with the iron on a nylon setting. It was amazing what a difference this made as he slowly worked through all the hair on her head. Jane was delighted.
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| Combing out some hair before spraying it with water |
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| Ironing the hair! |
We cleared the dining room table for lunch and plenty more doll talk. Some of our 19.5 inch Gotz dolls came downstairs to join Louisa and Florence who were hosting the visitors.
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| L-R: Teddy's new boy, Teddy's girl, Claire with her newly ironed hair, Florence in her 2017 Sasha Festival outfit and Jane's boy in his new striped sweater |
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| Toddler Louisa with her new bobbed haired friend Lucy (Jane's girl) |
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| L-R: Harriet in her purple skating outfit, Jayne in the background, Louisa and Lucy |
After lunch we went upstairs to the doll/sewing room as Jane was keen to see Belle and Matilda, the Australian Girl dolls and decided they were a nice combination of cuddly and attractive to look at (the lower half of their torsos are cloth, while the top part is vinyl which means they can wear summer clothes without showing the cloth bodies). Mrs Harvey's toy and cake shop was shown off, the other Sasha dolls who hadn't already come downstairs to greet the visitors were admired as was the modified Our Generation doll kitchen and the Gotz Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley dolls. Then we looked at my unfinished Greenleaf dolls house, my doll cabinet, Susie (Palitoy), Anna (Gotz), Jakob (Kids n Kats) and Betsy (Schoenhut) as well as the teddy bears Bruin and Panda with Poodle.
Downstairs I held a doll photo session of the visiting dolls along with their host dolls, my pram and Alice's pram, which temporarily held one of our miniature Baby Born dolls.
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| L-R: Teddy's blond Kish (Riley), my Emily, Teddy's Lexie, my Lexie, Alice's new Boneka doll Valetta, my Jenny, Teddy's Jenny, my Annie, Teddy's blond Kish (Tulah) |
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| My Lexie and Jenny with Valetta, the Boneka girl |
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| Jenny, Jenny, Annie and Tulah (Kish) |
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| Riley (Kish), Emily, Lexie and Lexie |
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| L-R: Jane's boy, Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy, Teddy's girl, Florence, Claire with her newly ironed hair |
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| L-R: Jane's boy, Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy, Teddy's girl, Florence, Claire with her newly ironed hair |
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| Teddy's girl, Florence and Claire |
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| Jane's boy, Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy and Teddy's girl |
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| Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy, Teddy's girl and Florence |
Our full size pram chassis holding our little street organ also became part of pram day when my husband played some music on the organ for Alice, Jane and Teddy.
While we continued to talk dolls everyone reluctantly packed their dolls and Alice's pram away for their journeys home.
We had fun hosting pram day.
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7 comments:
What a lovely time you all had. It's lovely when you get a chance to meet up with doll friends and work together to get things, done plus share some knowledge and tips on how to do things.
Jane, Teddy and Alice have a lovely range of dolls, not just Sasha's which adds to the fun.
Thanks for sharing the photos of all the dolls and Teddy doing the 'ironing!' :)
Wonderful photos! I always admired these prams. It must have been so much fun to meet, chat and play with the dolls and their prams.
I'd like to try ironing the hair of one of my girls who also still has dry ends after conditioning, but I find it a little scary, as I don't want to melt poor Uma's hair. Is there a cloth between the iron and the doll's hair?
What a great way to spend the day! And a productive one too, Alice must have been very happy to get her pram sorted out as you all chatted.
It was nice to see Teddy in your photos, as it is many years since I've seen him, we met up last time in Leicester Square with our BJDs much to the amusement of the other customers in Starbucks as we got our dolls out all over the table!!
I have often thought about taking the iron to dolls hair but have never been brave enough, maybe I'll give it a go one day!
Ironing tghe hair is a littel fiddley in that you need to keep the iron from touching the vinyl of the doll's head, but, so long as the iron is set no higher than the nylon/synthetics setting it shoudln't melt the hair.
I do it a small section of hair at a tume, each section is combed out, sprayed with water, combed flat against the surface of the ironing board then I press the iron firmly down on the hair and pull the head away from the iron, drawing the hair out from under it.
It may need to be repeated several times, combing it out each time, and spraying again if it has dried-out (experience will tell you this so if in doubt spray again the first time you give a doll this treatment), then move on to the next section. I find it's best to do the whole job in three or more sessions with a rest in between becuase pressing down on the iron and pulling the ehad away can be wearing on the back and shoulders - but that may just be my advancing years.
Results tend to vary frorm doll to doll - some come out of the process with their frizzed hair vbeautirully smooth to the very tips, some have varying degrees fo frizz left at the ends so you might still need to give a teesie trim to the very ends if you can't get the last of the frizz smoothed-out.
Hope this helps
Teddy
What a great day! Thank you for sharing the photos with us. It is nice to see many different dolls and so wonderfully dressed. I appreciate learning about the hair ironing steps from Teddy very much. I think you and your DH are pram experts now. I remember fondly your previous posts of how you restored your gorgeous green pram. Fantastic! 😊 xxx
I like the ironing frizz idea...don't know if I am brave enough to ever try it!!
What a wonderful day you had, and how lovely Jane, Alice and Teddy were able to come for the day. I haven't seen them for a couple of years now and remember the fun time we had last time I saw them at the SCW, I think the first year it was held. Some super dolls!
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