Pram day

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.

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.

Combing out some hair before spraying it with water

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.

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

Toddler Louisa with her new bobbed haired friend Lucy (Jane's girl)

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.

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)

My Lexie and Jenny with Valetta, the Boneka girl

Jenny, Jenny, Annie and Tulah (Kish)

Riley (Kish), Emily, Lexie and Lexie

L-R: Jane's boy, Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy, Teddy's girl, Florence, Claire with her newly ironed hair

L-R: Jane's boy, Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy, Teddy's girl, Florence, Claire with her newly ironed hair

Teddy's girl, Florence and Claire

Jane's boy, Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy and Teddy's girl

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.