Sasha and the Pollinators donation for festival raffle dolls

This year the theme for the annual Sasha Festival in the USA is 'Sasha and the Pollinators'. We are not attending unfortunately as I've already had an overseas trip (to South Africa) this year so it isn't in the budget. However, thanks to the kind help of a Sasha friend in the UK who is attending the festival, I can send over a donation for one of the raffles compiled by Heidi - a pair of sister outfits for the raffle sisters donated in memory of Millie Dingham, who was a wonderful seamstress for Sasha. This is how Heidi describes the raffle sisters:

"Sisters- Blonde Sasha and blonde baby in memory of Millie Dingham. Millie was a long time Sasha lover and dear friend to many of us. She was a wonderful seamstress. If you attended the 2013 Festival in Cincinnati, Millie made all the smocked dresses. She was very generous with her CFA auction items and they often consisted of sister outfits or outfits for all 3. We are looking for anything you feel fits the theme."

Sunflower and pollinators dresses for the Raffle sisters

My simple A-line summer dresses for Sasha and her baby sister use a fabric by Lewis & Irene called Sunflowers - Beehive on Cream (from their May 2023 collection). It has sunflowers and bees and beehives, with little daisy inspired flowers. I had some bright yellow fabric which I used for the lining and some floral buttons I had purchased in a wonderful haberdashery store my younger daughter and I visited with my friend in Boston after the Syracuse NY Sasha festival in 2022. I designed the pattern for these dresses, they are not perfect - if I made them again I'd make the seams a little deeper to bring the shoulders and underarms in a bit more, so these dresses could have long sleeved winter tops under them (in yellow of course) to make them slightly less spacious. But they're okay and I hope the winner of the sisters raffle likes these dresses. I wish I'd had time to make matching underwear and hats but it wasn't to be - this year my 'spare' time when not working has been entirely taken up with important local parish matters which came to fruition this week and I have also needed to spend time in my garden and that of my elder daughter in North Yorkshire, so have been spending plenty of time with pollinators being inspired!

Have a wonderful time all those who are attending this year's Sasha Festival, we shall miss seeing many of our doll friends.

The inside lining and back view of the Sunflower and pollinators dresses

Back view showing the floral buttons on the Sunflower and Pollinators dresses

Baby Daisy and Katie wearing the Sunflower and Pollinators dresses before I posted them