Chat n Snap 2023

A poignant theme of 1940s Evacuees was Dee's choice for the Chat 'n Snap this year. This was very topical in the light of wars happening around the world currently and fitting considering that Sasha Morgenthaler had been moved by the sight of refugee children arriving in Switzerland during World War II which subsequently influenced the Sasha doll face designs. 

Dee and her husband Paul created an incredible backdrop for a fictional St Ippolyts railway station (the nearest railway stations are Stevenage and Hitchin, there never was a branch line to the village of St Ippolyts) with young evacuees arriving in the countryside from bomb damaged London. More and more Sasha children arrived wearing 1940s clothes, carrying their gas mask boxes (and in some cases actual miniature gas masks made by their owners!), suitcases, teddy bears and parcels. Our blond boy Trendon Elliott joined the bewildered throng of evacuees. I brought along the Evacuees room box (1/12th scale) which my elder daughter and I had created when my younger daughter was born. I placed it at the end of the display, near our doll.

I gave my daughter the camera to photograph the scene as I knew she would do a better job than me and she did! I think she enjoyed getting some individual photos of some of the dolls and their accessories, the details achieved were incredible.

Trendon Elliott and his teddy bear joined the growing crowd of evacuees at the station

St Ippolyts station welcomes evacuees

Evacuees with their suitcases, favourite toys and the amazing red gas mask

Evacuees amongst the fresh produces and luggage trolley

Mostly girl evacuees in this photo

Warmly dressed evacuee Gregors and Sashas

Mostly boy evacuees in this photo

Sasha evacuee in her stylish coat, hat and handbag

Even her suitcase and boots matched her outfit colours

Trendon Elliott in his Argyll sweater and peak cap at St Ippolyts station

Dee announcing that the sales tables were now open

No philtrum Sasha evacuee

No philtrum Gregor evacuee (I understand he forgot to pack spare underwear)

Sasha evacuee at St Ippolyts station

This evacuee reminded us of Lucy from Narnia

Sasha evacuee with a friendly kitten

Evacuee kitten?

I think that kitten likes this evacuee, maybe she smuggled her kitten to the country on the train

Gregor evacuee

Very tidily dressed evacuee Gregors and Sasha

Gotz Gregor evacuee

Trendon Gregor evacuee

We had brought some other dolls to the Chat 'n Snap to go in the general doll display. For the first time my newly restored Sasha studio doll Trudi attended an English Sasha event, sitting comfortably on her chaise longue sofa with her quilt spread on it and a vintage book about the countryside to read. Alongside her a couple of want-to-be-Sasha course dolls sat down to chat (I don't recall who they belonged to). At the foot of her sofa, our toddlers Louisa and Edmund stood patiently alongside Miranda. Nearby was Laura and Nicholas James with Heilan Coo. 

Trudi (centre) with the two copy Sasha dolls and our toddlers

Trudi, Louisa, Edmund and Miranda

Trudi relaxing on her chaise longue and quilt

Miranda at the left, other visiting dolls, Laura and Nicholas James with Heilan Coo

There were plenty of other visiting dolls, including Dawn's recently refurbished wobbler.

Dawn's wobbler

Re-rooted babies playing together

Two Sasha girls

Molly and Heather according to their name tags

Some of the visiting Sasha and Gregor dolls

All the visiting Sasha's near the St Ippolyts sign

Four friends under the window 

A mixed group of friends

Sashas, toddlers and baby

Gregors in classic shorts and shirts, Sashas in smocked dresses

Colourful outfits and hair for this group of Gregors and Sashas

There were several sales tables and we prowled around looking first before making a few choices (my daughter was a sensible influence in helping prevent purchase of more dresses as our Sasha girls have more clothes than we do!)

General view of the sales tables with the St Ippolyts station of evacuees in the background

There was an adoption area too - for people to put dolls they wanted to sell (with the price) and for others to choose then find the owner to pay.

Adoption corner

There was a giant raffle, with 5 dolls (the draws for these took place at intervals throughout the raffle) and lots of other prizes - the raffle is always epic in length and towards the end if a ticket was drawn, the winner was asked to take 2 or 3 items to clear the table of prizes a bit quicker! We won an early brunette baby girl with 2 additional outfits, plus several other prizes.

Raffle prizes

More raffle prizes

Yet more raffle prizes

Raffle prizes including 4 of the 5 dolls

Raffle prizes including the wardrobe

The five raffle dolls (we won the brunette baby)

During the day we had lots of conversations with other Sasha enthusiasts, including some who were new to collecting Sasha dolls as well as plenty of familiar friends.

At the end of the raffle there was a special presentation to Dee and Paul to thank them for organising the Chat 'n Snap events from 2013 onwards (only a break in 2020). Dee had previously said this was the last one, there will not be one in 2024 because the Sasha Festival is taking place in England that year, however she said there might be a Chat 'n Snap in 2025 because she had an idea for a theme...

Tricia thanks Dee and Paul while Vanessa and Janet prepare to present them with gifts

Dee with her flowers

When we were tidying away at the end, I brought our evacuee to the rest of our dolls who were displayed beneath the St Ippolyts sign and took a group photo of them.

Trendon Elliott the evacuee in front of a sign for Norwich the Cathedral route

Our Sasha and Gregor family (with Heilan Coo) who attended the Chat 'n Snap 2023 in St Ippolyts

Thank you to Dee, Paul and all your helpers for a superb day (apparently over £1010.86 raised for charity at this event), we had a very good time and it was lovely to catch up with the Sasha community again.

Argyll sweater for Trendon Elliott the 'evacuee'

Inspired by our roadtrip in the Argyll region of Scotland during August with Laura and Nicholas James, I decided that the sleeveless sweater my 'evacuee' for the Chat 'n Snap needed to use the 200 year old Argyll diamond pattern, rather than be plain grey, which had been my original plan. The Chat 'n Snap is being held in Hertfordshire, England.

Last year when attending the Sasha Festival in Syracuse, I bought all three knitting and sewing books from the Marcy Street Doll company which had been reprinted in time for the festival. In the 'Seventeen Knitting Patterns From Marcy Street Doll Company' (designed by Debby Woodman Ronnquist) is a knitting pattern for an Argyle Sweater for Sasha (pattern no 162). The design was mapped out on a grid, using symbols but to check that my yarn colour choices were about right, I transferred the whole front view to a spreadsheet of tiny grid squares filled with colours to correspond with the symbols then printed it out for my own use. This proved immensely helpful when knitting. I knitted the back first (which was plain grey) to ensure I had got the size right before starting on the slightly more complicated front. Interestingly, the hand written knitting pattern didn't specify how many stitches to pick up around the neck and armpit edges for the finishing, so I worked it out and recorded this in the pattern book, just in case I decide to knit it again sometime.

My printed out colour version of the Argyll design by Marcy Street Doll Company

I already had the grey shorts and knitted socks from when I'd made replicas of my primary school's uniform 10 years ago. For the Evacuee outfit I used a Sasha/Gregor school shirt for the long sleeved shirt under the sweater and some black shoes from our collection of Sasha/Gregor shoes.

I wanted to knit a flat cap with peak but could not find a pattern which was Gregor sized, so instead found a pattern online by Debonair Designs for a Newsboy cap which was for an 18" doll. It was designed to use double knit wool and thicker needles, so I used the same grey 4ply wool and needles I'd used for the sweater and it came out the right size for his head (I made the peak a little deeper than the one in the design).

Close up of the Argyll Sweater and flat cap being worn by Trendon Elliott

Trendon Elliott is the evacuee, so his labels safety pinned on his sweater and tied to his suitcase have his name and 'please look after this boy' written on them (a nod to Paddington Bear). I made his gas mask box from some brown card and string.

Trendon Elliott as the 1940s Evacuee complete with his gas mask box, suitcase and labels

Trendon Elliott is all ready for the Chat 'n Snap 1940s Evacuees theme.