Doll Mum's blog

Winning socks

2012-01-19T07:21:00.002Z

Last weekend I won a pair of Sasha socks! No, not via ebay, but by following another doll bloggger's site and just being lucky enough to check her updates at the right moment.

Petrana, of Made with love for Sasha Dolls, has been very busy knitting. During the past 3 months she has made loads of pairs of socks (90!), lots of different colour combinations, so plenty of variety. She sold some pairs on ebay, but didn't sell them all, so decided to run a fun give-away competition on her blog, and I was the lucky winner of the first pair. They arrived very quickly and my daughters and Sasha dolls are delighted with them (my elder girl waxed lyrical because of the colours and my younger daughter wanted to know if they would fit her 19.5" Gotz dolls). Florence and Nicholas James both wanted to wear them, but in the end NJ got first turn, because Florence is still wearing her lovely Christmas dress (which has matching tights) she received in the Sasha Secreta Santa swap. NJ has changed out of his Christmas sweater and back into the sweater I made for him, and the socks go quite well with his sweater and new jeans.

I haven't been able to take a photo of them on NJ yet, but for a photo of the socks visit pair of hand knitted socks. Thank you Petrana, they are lovely.

Measurements for cloth stable

2012-01-14T21:20:00.005Z

Here are the measurements for the cloth stable I designed and made for the 20 inch Battat Morgan Horse.

I've annotated a photo of the stable lying on its side, showing how the buttons and button flaps go for fastening the walls to the base.

measurements on the photo showing the buttons and flaps

the diagram I've drawn showing measurements of finished size

This stable was designed entirely by me. I don't mind if you copy it to make a stable for a toy horse you know (but not to sell). If you need the instructions to explain roughly how I made it, please email me at dollmum@yahoo.co.uk and I'll send you the PDF file which includes the diagram. It was pretty much 'trial and error', in other words I had an idea, drew it on paper, measured the material, mulled it over for a while, started sewing, made adjustments, struggled with the unwieldiness of the stable due to its size and especially once the foamex board was in its slots, and when fitting the roof rods. It took me a week's worth of evenings to make, so certainly isn't commercially viable! It is probably better to make something similar in wood or a strong cardboard box, but it wouldn't be a bag for carrying the horse unless you padded the insides to protect the horse in transit. A cardboard box wouldn't be so easy to fasten up to serve as a carrier if it also folded out, but maybe other creative parents or grandparents will have the answer. I just knew that for my daughter's horse cloth would work, even though I had to devise a way to make it stand up successfully.

It was definitely worth the effort for the expression on my daughter's face when she met her new toy horse for her Gotz dolls.

Sewing a stable for Christmas

2011-12-31T23:13:00.005Z

I know - it is a rather bizarre idea - how do you sew a stable?

In Bagpuss, the final of the 13 classic episodes is about Uncle Feedle and his cloth house which wouldn't stand up without being stuffed full of cotton wool, which meant the house had to be turned inside out so that Uncle Feedle could use his bed etc! Clearly, if I wanted to make a cloth stable for a horse to actually go into I had to find a way to make it stand up.

But I had better explain why I wanted to sew a stable for Christmas.

An earlier blog post I wrote about the Gotz toy horse showed my disappointment in the scale of the horse in relation to the size of the modern Gotz play dolls - it is not really designed for the doll to sit on the horse and does look a bit like a cuddly toy. The American Girl doll horses are much more realistic, but very expensive, however the 20" high Battat Morgan horse (no longer made) is the right scale and is incredibly realistic. Very occasionally the large Battat horse appears on international ebay, and in October I spotted one which had a 'buy it now' or 'best offer' at a sensible price, however the postage from the USA to the UK made me pause. In the end however I decided to make an offer which was accepted and the seller was very quick to ship it, so it arrived in less than a week (which made the high postage more palatable), and the horse is absolutely stunning and although not new, is practically in mint condition.

The horse was a gift for my younger daughter for Christmas. Initially I thought I'd wrap it in a box, but as I drove to work each day I started to think that she would want to transport the horse to my cousin's house straight after Christmas and perhaps at other times and as the horse is so big, this might prove a challenge to do it without damage. So it needed a bag sturdy enough to protect it. But a horse without a stable also seemed a shame - more play value with stable. I looked online at various toy stables to get ideas. The American Girl horse fold-out stable is made of cardboard and is not designed to carry the horse, and most other toy stables are made of hard plastic or wood. Cloth stables with toy cloth horses were small and cute, mostly with padded walls, but on a larger scale this wouldn't work. So my journeys to work involved some pleasurable problem solving in my head (though I promise I kept my eye on the road and other traffic too). My plan involved making a horse transporting bag which was also a stable, with the added twist of folding out to access the interior.

I measured the horse, drew my plans out on paper, discussed them with my husband (who has a handy workshop in our back garden) and decided that I could make the walls stand up by using a double layer of fabric with slots sewn to take supporting boards of some kind. My husband had some pieces of foamex, a slightly flexible board made for posters (about 3mm thick) and all he had to do was cut the pieces to length, because the existing widths were about right. So he cut 4 pieces for each long wall and 2 pieces for the back wall and 2 for the stable door. The floor had a single piece of hardboard cut to size slotted into the pocket of cloth (secured in place by press studs so I can remove it for hand washing the stable, the foamex is waterproof, but the hardboard is not). I had a large piece of brown corduroy fabric which proved to be exactly the right size for the job.

I had inherited my great aunt Gwen's button box which contained a lot of large buttons and the entire stable is fastened with 4 different sets of buttons (25 altogether). Thank goodness for the button hole stitch option on my sewing machine, it saved a lot of time. The roof sections hold their shape with hollow rods sewn into slots in the fabric (the rods were actually the expandable net curtain rods which we had taken down in our new home, as we didn't like the net curtains). The ridge pole rods make the stable easy to lift and carry. I had a left over piece of material which has a straw like pattern, so edged this to make a straw floor for the folded out stable.

The stable took a week to make (in evenings after work), and I finished it 2 days before Christmas, which meant some last minute knitting for Ron Weasley doll as I hadn't finished his sweater before I started the stable.

A week before Christmas our local 'antique' shop revealed a treasure at a reasonable price - a sleigh with a teddy in it. The sleigh was the right size for a 19.5" Gotz or 16" Sasha doll to sit in (we don't think the Aussie girls will fit). I brought it home and replaced the cloth seat with some Christmas material. My husband cut some towing reins out of clothing leather he has in his workshop and I tied these around the horse and to the sleigh. I managed to pack the sleigh into the stable with the horse, and bought a couple of small buckets for water and food. I had found a second hand book for children all about horses in our local Oxfam shop and put this in the stable too.

My elder daughter was let in on the secret of the horse and stable, though not the sleigh (she saw me make the stable). On Christmas Day afternoon, just after the dolls received their clothes, my younger girl finally unwrapped her horse and stable and was thrilled with it. She is able to manage the buttons and can carry it, so it did come with us to my cousin's house. She hasn't yet named the horse.

first reveal on Christmas Day - one amazed little girl

Samantha being towed in the sleigh

Samantha in the sleigh

The stable, all buttoned up

Jakob feeds the horse over the stable door

stable on its side, showing the buttons along the base

The stable opened out, with its 'straw' floor mat, it is not being propped up

Jakob feeds the horse, while Samantha looks on

Jakob's bendable knees make it possible for his feet to fit in the stirrups

20" Battat horse with the Gotz horse, showing size and style comparison

I hope you have a wonderful 2012 (I'm writing this while waiting for New Year GMT to arrive).

Sasha Secret Santa swap gifts I sent

2011-12-31T20:37:00.001Z

Lorraine has started blogging about the results of the Sasha Secret Santa swap, revealing names of who sent things to each other, so I can now show the photos I took before I posted gifts to Ginger in the USA for her blond Gregor called Finn. In these photos my Gregor Nicholas James models the sweater, boggin hat and underpants which I made for Finn, and holds the Christmas tree decoration I made for Ginger. We were asked to select 3 items from a choice of 5, with an optional gift for the doll's owner. From the photos on Lorraine's blog it looks like some people were very generous and sent more than the 3 items.

My Gregor models the clothes for Finn

close up of the underpants

close up of the pattern on the sweater

Christmas gifts for the dolls

2011-12-29T23:51:00.001Z

My Sasha secret Santa parcel arrived at the beginning of December and I saved it for Christmas day. No peeping, apart from noting the postcode (UK) and wondering who had sent it.

Our tree and gifts, the secret Santa is a turquoise blue parcel just under the branches

During November and December I was busy knitting sweaters and a cardigan for some of the 19.5" Gotz girls and boys, I had grand plans of making sure that each and every play doll in the house would have a small package under the tree on Christmas day, but this was not to be (my own dolls didn't receive anything apart from two of my three Sashas who benefited from the swap). Making clothes and labelling the gifts for the dolls was another way of giving my daughters Christmas presents. In the event I managed gifts for the following dolls:

Samantha (pink welly boots)
Harriet (blue ugg boots and blue tights)
Matilda (bolero top and black shoes)
Belle (bolero top and white shoes)
Peter (converse high top tartan shoes)
Matroshka (AG doll dark pink ballerina shoes)
Harry Potter (green sweater)
Ron Weasley (maroon sweater)
Hermoine Granger (sky blue cardigan and white shoes)
Jayne (silver shoes)

In addition, my elder daughter knitted a striped scarf for her younger sister's doll Samantha. I was pleased with how well she did with making it and sewing in all those ends - the scarf even has a fringe at either end. Just such a shame that her Christmas holidays have to be spoiled by the looming GCSE examinations (our next 6 months will be dominated by them) and therefore she has little time for craft work.

Many of the shoes I had bought over a period of time and stored away to match up with outfits I will make, I had hoped to sew a few dresses to match shoes in time for Christmas, but a bigger sewing project for my younger daughter (read about it in the next post) meant I ran out of time before Christmas day.

The girls decided to bring all the dolls downstairs even though they knew that not every doll would get a gift.

The dolls wait to find out which one will receive gifts

The Harry Potter knitwear was inspired directly by the description in 'Philospher's Stone' of Harry's first Christmas at Hogwarts - so in theory I was 'Mrs Weasley' when I knitted these items (though there is no record in the books of Molly Weasley knitting for Hermoine, I have no doubt that she must have done, especially as Hermoine eventually became her daughter-in-law). In a way, the idea of labelling each package with the name of the doll rather than my daughter's names came from this scene in the book as well. On Christmas eve morning I realised that I didn't have enough of the maroon sock wool to complete Ron's sweater. It was two old balls of 4 ply which I was knitting together to form 'double knit' thickness (actually more like Aran weight), and I knew I wouldn't find an exact match. Unlike Mrs Weasley, I couldn't conjure up more wool with a flick of a wand! A quick walk to my local wool shop resulted in a lucky find of flecked double knit maroon wool which blended in perfectly with the existing work knitted, so I completed the sweater in the early hours of Christmas morning. Whew!

Christmas packages for Ron, Harry and Hermoine

Christmas packages for Matroshka, Harriet, Peter, Jayne, Matilda and Belle

The girls didn't open the doll parcels until mid afternoon (church, lunch and other gifts first), however they were delighted with all the doll gifts and were particularly thrilled by Ron's sweater and loved the Secret Santa outfits for Florence and Nicholas James. I had requested a Christmas dress for Florence and a Christmas jumper with jeans for Nicholas James. Florence received matching tights and a flower for her hair to go with her lovely white dress - the dress has a velvet purple ribbon around the waist and the tiniest seed buttons on the bodice. NJ's red jumper has NOEL knitted into the front and I'm really pleased he has jeans now because all he had before was his football shorts, and I dislike making trousers.

Samantha's new scarf and wellies

Harry is dressed in his Mrs Weasley sweater

L-R: Hermoine, Florence, Nicholas James, Harry and Ron

Hermoine and Florence

Nicholas James, Harry and Ron

Matilda and Belle show off their new bolero tops and shoes

Sasha Santa secret swap

2011-11-10T23:28:00.003Z

I'm participating in my first online organised swap - the wish upon a star' Sasha Santa Secret Swap being organised by Lorraine who has a blog at 'Sewing & Knitting for Sasha'. I cannot of course reveal who I'm sending 3 Sasha related Christmas gifts to, but I have been knitting busily in the evenings during the last week or so ever since I received the email asking Santa for some gifts.

Wish upon a star swap

Some of my inspiration has come from the glorious colour combinations and patterning on Sasha Doll Style as well as from the wool in my collection. Nicolas James has been modelling the results so far (and is very envious of the doll for whom the items are intended). I've got one more item to make (we were asked to choose 3 from a wish list of 5 items). But as the third item is likely to be sewn rather than knitted, and I can't start sewing until the weekend at the earliest, I've started knitting a sweater for Matilda the Aussie girl who sadly doesn't have many winter clothes of her own since she came to these colder shores almost 2 years ago! Belle will get a sweater too for Christmas, in fact I'm planning that my daughters dolls will each get a little parcel from the Christmas tree which will contain new clothing made by me. So whenever I can spare the time(!) in the evenings until Christmas I shall be busy with the pleasurable fun of making doll things.

Sasha family

2011-10-29T23:43:00.006+01:00

I'm sure I'm not the first doll collector to think that ebay is dangerous. I've been looking at Sasha dolls on various sites including ebay for a while. But had always resisted buying one, though I'm not sure why. I suppose one of the reasons is that our girls have a large Gotz family now, and adding Sasha dolls to the collection seemed crazy, especially as Sasha dolls are so sought after and often sell for a lot of cash. I saw a Sasha doll a long time ago in a museum but haven't seen one 'face to face' since then.

I love the naturalism of the modern Gotz play doll faces so they seemed good compensation for not having a Sasha doll (of the Trendon or Gotz vintages). But it didn't stop me being intrigued and eventually in early September I saw a Sasha baby (early 1970s, girl with dark hair) which no one else had bid on and which appealed to me. I was the only bidder (at the last minute) and won her.

Mabel's ebay photo

A few days later she arrived. I knew the Sasha babies were small, but was struck by her smallness and slimness, especially compared to modern baby dolls which always seem so chunky and over proportioned. She nestles very nicely in a child's arms and I can see why Sasha Morgenthaler designed her that way.

Baby Mabel came with no clothes (or box) and she was a little grubby, though didn't smell bad. Her elastic is very slightly loose but she still poses well. Someone had taken a small chunk out of her fringe once but fortunately not right down to the roots. I carefully washed her, taking care to not allow any water into her body (using a cotton wipe damped with warm water and the mildest shower gel - Simple range) and carefully washed her hair. One or two hairs did drop (I was expecting this as some dark haired Sasha dolls have this tendency). Her face paint is fine.

One small yellow knitted jumper we had for another doll fitted Mabel and I knitted her a pair of knickers (she still has no nappy). I sent off for a pattern which I knitted in 4 ply rather than DK and with smaller needles (it was meant for a 12" baby doll which was a little chunkier than the Sasha baby) and have knitted her an all in one sleep-suit with hood.

A couple of weeks later I saw a dark haired Sasha girl on ebay which appealed to me. It is funny how many of them I could happily look at and continue the search, but on seeing this particular girl I knew I had to try and purchase her. It was a long week of watching. At the last minute another bidder made a bid, but I held my nerve, kept my budget firmly in mind and won her.

Florence's ebay photo

Florence arrived in record time and in beautiful condition. She had only ever been displayed, so although lacked her box, did come with her leaflet and with her clothes still perfect. Her hair is glorious - glossy and with the factory curl. She was the first full sized Sasha girl I had ever held and is a 1980 Sasha Marina. I bought a pattern for a bolero cardigan (grandmas_patterns) and knitted this for her in fuchsia pink with the picot edges worked in hand spun wool I've had for a long time (from a small collection I'd brought from a South African farm about 25 years ago).

Mabel and Florence join Amelia (Chiltern), Susie (Petalskin Palitoy), Anna (Gotz),
Jakob (Kids N Katz) and Doreen (Petalskin Palitoy) in my doll display

A brown haired boy was next on the wanted list. Although I like the blond Gregor boys, a dark haired boy was preferred by all the doll collectors in this household, so I kept watching. A few weeks later a 'buy it now' I'd had my eye on lowered the buy it now price and also gave an option to make an offer, so I offered and it was accepted. My Gregor came with his box, leaflet and even his football - he is the footballer from the mid 1970s. I don't think he had even been displayed and is in super condition. Although all three Sasha dolls are mine, the girls had a hand in their naming (referring to our baby names book!) and we settled for Nicholas James (which was the name my sister would have had if she had been a boy). He is James for short though.

Nicholas James's ebay photo

A pattern book for baby dolls from 12" - 22" yielded a simple sweater pattern which I adapted (it had shoulder buttons, so I made a back opening instead). I used two different colours from my collection of hand spun wool. I'm quite pleased with the results.

Florence's bolero cardigan

Nicholas James in his sweater

Mabel wears her sleep-suit

No more doll collecting for me this year - my doll budget is used up for the time being and my lovely Sasha family looks great and is providing a lot of entertainment. Almost every night at bedtime when I read a story to my younger daughter she asks for one or other of the Sasha's to hold and play with while she listens. Florence has even been to the theatre and to a concert cradled in my daughter's arms.

Comparing their eyes - NJ has softer brown eyes than Florence

Nicholas James, Mabel and Florence in our garden in their new knitwear

Meet Matroshka

2011-10-23T23:53:00.006+01:00

I've taken photos of doll happenings this year and haven't had the time until now to write about them. So this story starts on Easter Day.

Once again my girls did an Easter Egg hunt around the garden, this year I planted clues in the eggs and they had to match up questions and answers about Easter.

The completed Easter Quiz

Their prize were Real Easter Eggs (the only commercially produced egg in the UK with the Easter message printed on the box) and a joint gift of a Gotz Matroshka doll.

A Real Easter Egg

It seemed appropriate to give them this particular girl because Russian nested dolls, which always remind me of Easter Eggs, are called Matryoshka dolls. I did suggest they could call her Marie or Maria or Mary, but they decided to keep her exotic name.

My elder daughter examines the new doll

Matroshka from the side

She has the same face as my younger daughter's first Gotz doll (Ice Skating) whom she called Samantha. I like this face better than the more popular 'Sarah/Hannah' Gotz dolls (who are lovely). Matroshka has long blond hair and an outfit of tartan, faux fur and white jersey fabric which includes a Russian nested doll printed on her white top. Both my girls were delighted with her. I'd bought her in TK Maxx earlier last year at a much lower price than RRP, but was served by a rude young male cashier who commented that dolls were creepy. I refrained from telling him that it was the height of bad manners to pass derogatory comments on customer choice and taste to a customer's face, though it was tempting to suggest that he keep his thoughts to himself (I think he was too young to ever have watched 'Are you being served'!)

Matroshka quickly became a favourite in the doll family and when we travelled to Germany for May half term to the Black Forest for a Fair Organ Festival which takes place every 3 years, my girls decided to take Matroshka, Peter, Matilda and Belle. The Aussie girls hadn't been on a trip to Europe and for Peter it was like going home, as his original outfit is Bavarian. We have the matching girl outfit (Gotz Dirndl dress) so this was taken for our new blond girl to wear.

We always stay at a small family run Bed & Breakfast in a little valley above the town when we visit the festival. It has the most glorious views down the valley, a stream running endlessly beside it (which you can hear from the bedrooms at night), serves fresh trout as well as home made Black Forest Gateaux (the chef owns the hotel and it is his speciality) and the service is friendly and welcoming (my girls love it). My elder daughter is learning German for her GCSEs and practised her elementary German with their warm encouragement.

Matilda tries to share my younger daughter's ice cream in the hotel

Belle enjoys the glorious sunshiny view from our breakfast table on Saturday morning

Belle did visit the Saturday of the organ festival and Matroshka and Peter came out on the Sunday, but carrying the dolls about town all day is tiring for small arms after a while, so they only came to meals at the hotel after that.

A monkey and barrel organ at the festival - these monkeys are very rude
and squirt water at you if you get too close!
They are operated via a series of levers and have
various hand movements, some of them rather naughty!

A vintage doll for sale in a side street at the festival

Matroshka and Peter in front of an Alfred Bruder fair organ outside an organ workshop

Matroshka, Peter and my younger daughter outside an organ workshop

Matilda and Belle in their new party dresses in the hotel at dinner time

We stayed a couple of extra days after the festival was over and had a relaxing time exploring Waldkirch a bit more than we usually do. We came across a delightful toy shop where I held a baby Kathe Kruse doll for the first time and saw several others, they were beautiful and very tempting but I resisted.

Peter and Matroshka outside our hotel on the second last morning

In their Bavarian outfits outside Gasthof Altersbach, Kandel Pass, Black Forest

Matilda and Belle at breakfast the morning we left

(the clouds were low and heavy with rain)

Miniature books from Barbara Brear

2011-10-17T23:39:00.003+01:00

When we were in South Africa for Christmas 2010, we enjoyed a special visit to Barbara Brear who makes incredible miniature books. As a child growing up in Cape Town I thought I was the only miniaturist around, but have discovered long since I moved to the UK that the miniatures scene in SA is thriving. Several years ago I came across Barbara's website whilst searching for information about miniatures in SA. I subsequently saw one of her books in a museum display at Stellenbosch 6 years ago, and I've long wanted to own one (or more) of her 1/12th scale books.

Two years ago I finally decided it was time to invest in a couple of books and sent her an order. However instead of asking her to post it internationally I asked if it would be okay for my sister to collect my order and bring it to me, as she was visiting the UK. Barbara was very obliging and very kindly welcomed my sister and my nieces to her home to collect the books. They had the treat of seeing the beautiful dolls house which Barbara had built during a week long workshop in England and shipped out to SA for completion. I had seen the house on Barbara's website, and my nieces and sister were very impressed with it.

There was another book which I had my eye on, and having received the 2 beautiful finely crafted books (one 'open book' and one fully printed book), I knew I wanted a third, so I sent Barbara my order for the Victorian Children's poetry book and asked if I could collect it. She was very welcoming when we arrived and my husband, daughters and I were enthralled by the dolls house and Barbara's description of how she had made many of its contents and of course the amazing books. It was an enormous privilege to have met Barbara and her husband in their home and to have been made so welcome. Her work is very inspiring and it has made me long to get working on my dolls house again, however that has had to wait as our new home which we moved into only a week after returning to the UK has needed plenty of decorating (and 9 months on there is still work to do). My Greenleaf Westville reminds me every day that it is the main incentive for getting the human house done so I can concentrate on the mini house again! I have finally managed to find the time to photograph my three books, but my photos don't do them justice.

My three Barbara Brear miniature books are:

Rip van Winkle (a South African tale) - a fully printed book
Mrs's Beeton's Cookbook - an 'open' book perfect for the kitchen table
Victorian Children's poetry - At home again - also a fully printed book

Mrs Beeton, Rip van Winkle and Victorian Children's Poetry
(Mrs Beeton came temporarily mounted on a cocktail stick,
this will be removed)

Opening Rip van Winkle

These photos don't do the fine text justice - I couldn't get the camera
to focus closely enough, but the printing is clear and readable

Propping open the Victorian Children's poetry book
using Barbara's business cards

Propping open Rip van Winkle

using Barbara's business cards

Mrs Beeton's cookbook by Barbara Brear

And how about a few photos of my unfinished Greenleaf Westville dolls house:

Miniature Clock from Grahamstown

2011-08-04T23:30:00.003+01:00

Recently my aunt visited us from South Africa. She brought me my combined birthday/Christmas present which she had commissioned last year from a miniaturist in Grahamstown, as she had spotted his work at the annual Arts festival in the city.

A long time ago, just before I left South Africa, my best friend and her mother gave me a lovely little chair and occasional table made from Yellow wood and Imbuia wood, a popular and enduring combination in SA, and I was delighted. What a pleasure it was to discover that the new gift from my aunt was made with exactly the same types of wood.

This miniature Grandfather clock has a working movement. One of the weights had come off the chain in transit, and I haven't yet fixed it back on, so the photo of the front shows that the weight is detached. But apart from that the clock is beautiful. It was made by Koos Jonker of Grahamstown (he doesn't appear to have a website).

And the long blog silence? We moved into our new home in January. We ripped out all the old smelly carpets during the following weeks as we sought to get settled, we built a new much larger workshop in our back garden (with plenty of space left for the garden), then in April and May we gutted the old kitchen and installed the new kitchen ourselves just after the electrician completely rewired the entire house. We've also made improvements to the garden, have had some relatives to stay (meaning the spare room has been pressed into service) and my husband has been boarding the loft. My Westville dolls house sits on its table in our bedroom waiting for the various other full sized home improvements to be done (we have no wardrobes, so need to build them) so that I can get back to miniatures. I have given a talk to the local Trefoil Guild about my dolls and miniatures collection, and have done some doll related sewing during the past 6 months, and now that major upheavals in our home are less urgent I'm planning some more creative miniature work.

Tidying up

2011-04-23T22:22:00.000+01:00

Today I helped my elder daughter clean and tidy her bedroom. Why? Why couldn't she do it herself? Because teens always seem hopelessly lost in their own mess and this one did have good reasons - we've recently had the house rewired, so all rooms are covered in dust, we hadn't unpacked all the boxes in her room because it would have made the job even harder for the electricians and we needed a clothing storage solution for her (no wardrobe or chest of drawers, as our old house had built in). So I've bought her a cheap temporary clothing storage solution until we can put new flooring down and build in proper wardrobe, then we cleaned the room.

This meant moving her dollshouse (Mrs Harvey's shop) but at least it also meant being able to plug in the dollshouse afterwards, as the electricians have fitted a socket in the right place for the dollshouse. So we're one step closer to her being able to get Mrs Harvey's things out of the storage box again which is exciting, and by the end of the day my red haired teen was admitting that she was pleased that her room is at last starting to look like it should.

With all the work we're doing to the full size house (we're doing the kitchen up too, so are cooking, eating and washing up in the garden - thank goodness for the wonderful hot April this year), I keep looking forward to my next miniature goal - I'm planning to start sewing again in June and this will include encouraging my teen to finish the sewing of Mrs Harvey's curtains (half done).

Have you guessed yet?

2011-03-20T21:33:00.002Z

Sorry, since posting at the end of January, February flew by with so much to do in our new home, my younger daughter's birthday and my full-time job, so blogging and the dolls have had little of my attention. But I did mention a new addition to the skating doll family in the 26th January post, and I have managed to photograph him when I took some photos of the Greenleaf Westville house (which will appear here soon).

Ever since the first 6 Kidz 'n Catz dolls came out in 2009, I've had my eye on this little lad. Maybe it was because he reminds me of my elder nephew at a certain age, maybe it was because of the jointed elbows and knees, or his beautiful clothes, including a sweatshirt featuring the Eiffel tower. Even after seeing the more recent boys in the KnC range on-line, he is still my favourite of the boys. I finally purchased him in a 10% off sale from Bambolina in about September last year, but kept him hidden from the girls until after our move. I also got lucky on ebay about 6 weeks before our house move, as I managed to purchase the KnC ice skating outfit for £10 (it normally retails at £36), and although it smelled slightly smoky (brand new), 2 days in the sealed bag with a washing powder tablet soon removed the smell. This meant that his first outing was on the second night of the new Dancing on Ice series, when we'd only been in the house for 5 days and were still surrounded by boxes of books etc. I introduced him as my doll - they can play with him, but he lives with Susie and Anna in my room with Panda, Bruin and my husband's bear in the doll corner of the bedroom (my doll cabinet is now hanging on the wall above the chest of drawers where the bigger dolls sit, and my Westville house is on its table nearby).

Jakob sitting in his skates

I have kept his KnC name of Jakob. His original trousers don't really go very well with the KnC skating outfit, so he now wears Peter's spare black skating leggings with his burnt orange skates. I haven't had time to make him any other clothes, and will not be buying the KnC outfits as they are much more expensive than the Gotz clothes and I'm capable of sewing them myself. His feet are a little smaller than the Gotz dolls, but he can wear their shoes with socks.

Jakob

Jakob is 18" high, so is shorter than the Gotz girls, Peter and Ron, though is about the same height as Harry and Hermoine. His jointed arms and legs do make him a little easier to dress than the Gotz girls, though the elastic in them can pull into funny poses, which means reposing him to look more natural. His hair is a wig rather than rooted, but looks very natural, his face is beautifully sculpted and tinted. The girls like him because he is flexible so can really look like he is doing skating moves.

Jakob with Anna and Susie in their skates

Welcome

2011-01-31T23:21:00.005Z

I've been very remiss in not welcoming people to this blog recently. However I do think that being away on holiday for 3 weeks and then moving house in January are pretty good reasons to be a bit 'behind', so I do hope I am forgiven.

princessclaire1000, Aunt Lou and Korianne don't appear to blogs so I know nothing about them

Christine is in Australia, and like me enjoys collecting things, especially vintage dolls houses! You can find her blog at http://rosemyne.blogspot.com/

Julieta lives in Holland (she is Dutch and Mexican) and you can find her blog at http://lamunecajuanita.blogspot.com/

Olga seems to have several blogs (both in Russian and English), I like http://dollshobby.blogspot.com/ as she also collects Gotz dolls

'Never Grow up' is the name of Beast'sbelle's blog http://nevergrowupdollguide.blogspot.com/ - I'm with you on that one!

Carly at http://drearydomlarks.blogspot.com/ collects Robert Tonner dolls at 'Grimm's Fabled Academy for Girls'

Susan has a blog at http://susansminitalk.blogspot.com/ and makes and collects all kinds of miniatures

M and M specialises in miniature crochet at http://www.hotpinkhook.com/ for dolls, she has even made some yummy donuts!

Please visit their blogs if they've got one - welcome to you all and I hope you enjoy reading my doll blog.

Update - Korianne has got a blog, it just didn't show up for me when I looked at her profile - you can find it at mintydolls.blogspot.com and she collects mini play dolls of various vintages.

Big and little house moving

2011-01-26T22:11:00.001Z

Since returning from the SA adventure the dolls and us have had a hectic time because we moved house 2 weeks ago. Not far, but everything still needed to be packed up and with the amount of stuff we'd accumulated after 18 years in one home (including the addition of 2 daughters, 3 dolls houses, lots of play dolls, as well as my husband's hobby things) this was a mammoth task in less than a week. Our former neighbour kindly allowed us to put the dolls houses in her spare bedroom so we didn't have to move them with everything else, but I made sure all the doll family came in our car rather than the large removal van.

Since the move we've been very busy unpacking boxes (we have approximately 2,000 beloved books), flooring the loft, putting up beds and finding places for things in our new home, so it wasn't until Sunday afternoon that we were finally able to go and collect the dolls houses and put them into their new positions. The Triang has gone in my younger daughter's bedroom, so that her Christmas expanded Polly Pocket collection is able to make the most of it, Mrs Harvey's shop has gone into my elder daughter's bedroom and my unfinished Greenleaf Westville now lives on its special table in our bedroom. As yet the 2 larger dolls houses are unfurnished, as we've got further decorating to do to the full size house so there is no point unpacking things only to put them away again soon afterwards. But having the Westville in my bedroom is a constant gentle reminder that I started building that house about 21 years ago and it is about time I finished it! However for the past couple of nights tiling the full sized bathroom has been my main focus and I'm rather tired tonight, so the Westville will have to wait a bit longer before I can give it my attention.

We've got the TV set up so haven't missed an episode of Dancing on Ice since it started 3 weeks ago, and nor have the play dolls! What is more there is a new addition with skates to the play doll line up and he belongs to me. I'll keep you guessing though, as I haven't taken photos of him yet.

Samantha's South African adventure

2011-01-05T23:52:00.002Z

Blog silence during December was purely because we were preparing for and flying to South Africa for a long anticipated visit to see some of my family who still live in Cape Town (the last time we visited as a family was 5 years ago). One of the Gotz girls was lucky enough to join us on the trip. I know my little daughter would have loved to have taken 2 of the dolls, but she didn't have enough arms to carry both her favourite fluffy bunny, pull her hand luggage and carry 2 dolls, so Samantha, her original Gotz ice skater doll, was chosen. We selected a few outfits, and took the pink sleeping bag which proved to be a useful way of carrying the clothes inside hand luggage.

As you can see, Samantha wore sensible clothes for travelling.

On our third day in Cape Town we took our daughters, my nieces and Samantha on the open top red bus trip around the city of Cape Town, which all of us enjoyed.

Admiring Camps Bay beach from the red bus

Samantha loved the Agapanthus at Vergelegen Wine Estate, Somerset West.

We did take our girls ice skating at the wonderful Olympic sized rink in Goodwood, however although Samantha had the golden dress and the matching skates, we didn't take her to the rink because it was too crowded, so she had to pretend that she had been ice skating in hot South Africa! On Christmas Eve she came to the Nine Lessons and Carols in St George's Cathedral with us, wearing her pink summer dress to match her owner's dress. Fr Christmas brought her a new outfit and shoes which were perfect for the summer weather.

Fr Christmas and Samantha on Christmas Eve

After Christmas we went to Clanwilliam Dam for a few days. It was too hot (33 - 40 degrees some days), so shade was the thing - here you can see her sitting in her deck chair enjoying a view of the dam, wearing her new outfit (which I believe Fr Christmas sourced from a local craft market in South Africa).

Samantha's new outfit (including the shoes)

Relaxing at Clanwilliam Dam campsite - Lebanon Citrus

Now we are home again and she is telling the other dolls all about her fantastic holiday in the sun.

Introducing some new little treasures

2010-11-24T23:58:00.010Z

l-r: Patsi in Florida, Jenny, anniversary Patsi, Lexie, Patsi in California

The past 3 years have held their own emotional difficulties in my life, and apart from my immediate family and friends, my dolls have been a great comfort, a hobby I can retreat to and indulge in when other things become too much. With a full time job, other commitments and of course my family, I don't have much time to indulge, but I have spent several hours in the past 2 years exploring and learning about dolls online and have discovered some beautiful (but completely unobtainable due to price) dolls out there. However 3 small dolls caught my eye during this time, and last year I finally succumbed and bought my first Heidi Plusczok doll. I spotted 8 1/2" Patsi (the 25th anniversary version - 2005 http://www.heidiplusczok.com/seiten/archive_2005_1.html) and kept going back to her. Something about the delicate knitting of her hat and cardigan, gorgeous flower sprinkled dress and sweet pensive little face framed by soft red curls really got to me. I managed to source one from a doll seller in the USA for a good price (I spent several evenings comparing prices) and bought her.

l-r: Patsi in Florida, anniversary Patsi, Patsi in California

In the following months I also discovered that there were 2 other versions of Patsi, this time all vinyl bodies (anniversary Patsi has a cloth covered torso with vinyl limbs and head), and in due course I managed to purchase both Patsi in Florida (2006 http://www.heidiplusczok.com/seiten/archive_2006_1.html) and Patsi in California (2007 http://www.heidiplusczok.com/seiten/archive_2007_1.html), both for very reduced prices, from a doll seller in the USA. Shipping them over to the UK obviously added to the cost and this did make me pause a bit. There are slight differences in the way the dolls faces have been painted, the first 2 Patsi dolls have blue eyes (though painted differently) and Patsi in California has brown eyes, though all three have the red curls. Each of them comes with a complete set of outfits and shoes in a special box). They are very pretty, the outfits and shoes are Boneka.

Whilst looking for Patsi dolls I came across the small dolls of Heather Maciak, and instantly fell for Lexie and Jenny. However, like the Patsi girls, these 8" playmates are mainly available in the USA and Canada, the biggest market for dolls in the west. On ebay I discovered a Lexie doll being sold by someone in Germany, and after carefully checking the feedback on the seller and the description and photos of the doll, I decided to buy her earlier this year. Lexie is no disappointment, she is a love of a little doll, a real cheeky character and the red hair adds to this (well I live with a cheeky, strong willed red head and at least a small doll doesn't answer back!). A few months later I found a Jenny doll on ebay, this time in the USA, she wasn't in her original outfit but did come with her original box (she should be elfin Jenny but came with the 'playtime' outfit with no shoes), whereas Lexie didn't have her original box (she is 'all dressed up Lexie'). Heather Maciak has now stopped producing Jenny and Lexie, and there is a Yahoo group which is dedicated to them. They don't come up on ebay very often, so I feel lucky to have acquired them. They are porcelain, so are heavier than the vinyl Patsi girls.

Jenny in Playtime outfit, Lexie 'All dressed up'

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I've been doing a photography course, and yesterday I felt ready to try some miniature doll portraits. The photos shown here are the result and I'm pleased with them. I lit them from both sides (one side was natural light from the window, with the curtains pulled across a bit, the other side was a piece of kitchen foil which reflected the natural light onto their other side to even out the shadows). Jenny has borrowed a pair of shoes and a hat from one of the Patsi girls. There are plenty of outfits to share between them all, though I have bought a couple of sewing and knitting books for dolls of this size (if I can ever allow myself the time for this!).

Postscript: two of these girls feature in some photos I've sent to Papillon Bleu for her fairground themed birthday party - you'll have to wait until she publishes them on her blog in January to see what they are doing.

Welcome to Mrs Harvey's

2010-11-08T01:17:00.001Z

At long last, a promise I made on this blog several months ago has finally come to pass! As explained in my previous posting, I'm busy doing a photography course at the moment (in between everything else!) in the hope that my doll photography will improve. Today I felt suitably confident to try photographing my elder daughter's dollshouse and contents, which I've been wanting to do for ages, but after taking some really awful photos of my Triang last year, I was very aware of my shortcomings with a camera and miniatures.

Welcome to every child's dream shop - Mrs Harvey's cakes and toys. Mrs Harvey lives above the shop, and does a lot of her own baking. She has two grandchildren who often come to visit her (hence the train set in her sitting/bedroom), and today they are downstairs watching two other children choose some cakes.

My husband built this house from a kit soon after our younger daughter was born, for our elder girl, who was 7 1/2 when her sister arrived. He did a beautiful job of hiding the lighting wiring in grooves, so there are no ridges in the wall or ceiling papers, the switches are on the back of the house behind the staircase. I did the painting and decorating and painstakingly sanded and laid the floor tiles in the shop (next time it will be squared paper, not real tiles!). I also rebuilt the shelving unit in the shop which was bought ready built but needed to be adjusted to fit the space under the stairs, and I'm quite pleased with the result.

My daughter and I had great fun finding miniature toys at various fairs we attended, and we made most of the cakes from fimo including the hot cross buns which have real poppy seeds for the raisins. Mrs Harvey and her grandchildren are all Heidi Ott dolls, which came without clothes, and I dressed them (even doing smocking on the little girl's dress, and knitting the jumper worn by the boy). The two visiting children were gifts from my godmother and I haven't changed their clothes, even though they seem a little old fashioned in their attire compared to the others (the kitchen is fairly modern, so we think this shop is probably quite recent, despite some old fashioned toys).

Mrs Harvey's bed sitting room in the attic

The gaily woven rug which my daughter made on a toy loom

The kitchen area

Baking

Mrs's Harvey has 2 dogs

The dresser, including the mini tea set
with mouse on the teapot made by Fay of Cape Town

The middle floor

The cake and toy shop

Mrs Harvey's Grandchildren

Dog on the stairs

Customers for cakes

Toys

Cake Shop window from inside

Toy shop window

Shop windows from outside

Mrs Harvey's grandchildren outside the shop

They have now all been packed away carefully in a plastic box, as we are hoping that we'll be moving house soon (though you never can tell with these things). It is quite sad seeing the dolls house empty and knowing that it is likely to stay that way for the next couple of months while we move and get settled in our new home before we can bring all the dolls houses out and set them up again.

Welcome, and doll photography

2010-10-23T22:48:00.000+01:00

A belated welcome to Julieta who started to follow my (recently rather quiet) doll blog a couple of weeks ago. You can find her blog at http://lamunecajuanita.blogspot.com/. Julieta, who is from Mexico and blogs in Spanish, lives in Holland and has some wonderful costume dolls pictured on her blog.

I have been quiet on this blog recently because I've started a digital photography course, in the hope that I can increase my understanding of the technical side of photography, so that I'll improve the photos I take. Up until now I've been using the scene settings on my Nikon camera, and have been too uncertain about the array of other settings available to get adventurous, but with guidance am starting to make a little progress in the manual settings. I want to be able to photograph miniatures and dolls with greater clarity, and get the light balance right in dolls house photos, which can be a tricky challenge.

The other day I was alerted, via my Flickr contacts, that some of my Gotz doll photos I'd taken had appeared on a Russian Doll forum. The person who had borrowed them was genuinely interested in them and wanted to share them with other doll enthusiasts, but didn't say where she had found them. I requested that she acknowledge their source and she has updated the forum with the dollmum blogspot URL, however it has made me realise that I ought to watermark my doll photos that I post up on the blog and on flickr, so that people know their source. I don't have a problem with people sharing photos, I just prefer them acknowledged.

Childs play

2010-09-27T20:10:00.001+01:00

Yesterday we had some friends come to visit us for the first time. We hadn't seen them for a while and it was good to get to know the children a little as the dads talked about their musical common interest and I chatted with their mum.

My younger daughter brought out the marble run and a biscuit tin filled with glass marbles and in no time at all the two boys (aged 9 and 8) and their little sister (aged 4) were rolling marbles around our rug, creating pictures with them and inventing games. My 14 year old girl was very happy to get involved in this creative play (it made a nice change from GCSE homework!).

After a while I brought down the Triang dollshouse for the 4 year old and my 6 year old to play with (she was shown the 1/12th scale houses but was told they were for looking at) and they had great fun rearranging furniture and making up stories with the motley collection of dolls (old and new) which inhabit the house.

As they were leaving the 3 elder children rearranged our fridge poetry magnets and laughed as the silly sentences they made up from the collection of kitchen and garden words.

During the two hours they were with us, there was never a cross word, no arguments or fighting, just happy enjoyment. I'm under no illusions, I know there could easily have been disagreements, it was just a pleasure to see them talking and getting to know each other whilst they played with some old fashioned toys.

Gotz dolls in Scotland

2010-09-12T23:59:00.002+01:00

Since we returned from Scotland 3 weeks ago, life has been too busy for blogging, apart from my short tribute to Sarah Price. However 5 of the Gotz dolls did come caravanning with us, 3 of whom you've not met before in this blog!

About a week or so before our holiday I surprised my girls by bringing out from their year-long hiding place the three Gotz Harry Potter dolls I had bought via ebay during 2009. I had purchased Harry, Hermione and Ron dolls from the same seller at about half the RRP than if I had bought them new (they were complete with boxes but used), and had been upset by the fact they all arrived smelling distinctly of cigarette smoke (which is bad for vinyl dolls). I had tried the remedy I had discovered on the internet - a couple of concentrated washing powder tablets were placed with each of the dolls in their closed boxes for over a month in a cupboard where there was little ventillation, and when I removed them from their boxes, they smelled much fresher - the washing tablets had absorbed the smells and I didn't even have to wash their clothes. But for quite a long time I wasn't sure if I had been stupid to buy the dolls without querying whether they came from a smoke free environment or not, so consequently kept them a secret from the family. I also wasn't sure if my elder girl would appreciate or revile them, she is a Harry Potter fan (books and movies) but the dolls faces are character faces, they were designed before the movies came out based on the descriptions in the books, and it was just possible they would not meet her image of the characters. I need not have worried - my daughters were both astonished and delighted and immediately embraced them into the doll family. They decided to bring them caravanning, along with Samantha and Harriet.

Harry, Ron and Hermione in our caravan

As it turned out, a fair bit of scenario building and pretend play went on during the course of the 2 weeks with the dolls, with Harriet's red hair making her the perfect choice to be Ginny Weasley. Samantha went on a few outings with us during the first half of the holiday, including to the St Andrews Aquarium (where she enjoyed the fish, and was almost eaten by a crocodile), a restaurant in St Andrews called 'The Dolls House Restaurant' which doesn't have a dolls house on display but was given the name because the building reminded the owners of a dolls house (the food was delicious and the prices reasonable) and to a model railway exhibition. However the 3 Harry Potter dolls came with us on the highlight of our trip - the Fort William to Mallaig (& return) railway journey that includes the famous Glenfinnian viaduct, which featured in several Harry Potter films. We travelled on the Jacobite Steam train, there were a few carriages like the ones used in the films, but our seats were in a standard carriage. The trip was well worth the journey (we drove across the highlands to catch the train) and I did manage to get a few photos of Harry, Ron and Hermione on the train.

Harriet tries on Harry's glasses

Harry flirts with Samantha ...

... before deciding to give Harriet (Ginny) a cuddle!

Samantha enjoys the fish as St Andrews Aquarium ...

... but nearly gets eaten by a crocodile!

Samantha at The Dolls House Restaurant in St Andrews

Samantha watches the trains

Ron, Hermione and Harry look at the view from
The Jacobite steam train - are we getting near to Hogwarts yet?

Hermione and Harry look at a loch from the train

Hermioine, Harry and Ron in their Hogwarts clothes on The Jacobite train

Harry Rocks!

Harriet (Ginny) and Harry do the Wizard rock

Hermione tries the golden ice skating dress for size
(she is slightly slimmer than the Hannah/Sarah Gotz dolls)

Sarah Price and St Hils

2010-08-21T20:21:00.001+01:00

It is a strange place this blogging world. We 'meet' people via the internet whom it is unlikely we'd encounter in everyday life because we're scattered all around the world. I've discussed dolls and miniatures through blogging and flickr for over a year now with people as far afield as Australia, USA, Brazil, Russia and South Africa, as well as the UK. During the past 3 months I've not been in a position to keep up to date with other doll blogs and have only periodically updated the DollMum blog. I've been so busy at work and at home with various other matters. So I wasn't really aware that Sarah Price who created St Hilary's Miniature church had been unwell, and was diagnosed with stomach cancer. It was only when in WHSmith in Glenrothes last week whilst on a 2 week caravan holiday in Scotland with my husband and daughters that I picked up a copy of The Dolls House magazine (September issue) and discovered to my great sadness and dismay that Sarah died on the 18th June 2010 after a short battle with the terrible disease.

Sarah was kind enough to comment on some of the posts in my blog, and I occasionally commented on her blog which was full of interest surrounding the little world of St Hils, which she had created as a way of dealing with the loss of her beloved mother Hilary, who also loved miniatures. Sarah was inspirational, there are so many miniature houses, but very few miniature churches populated with loving attention to detail and enjoyable story lines connected with the Christian calendar which was Sarah's speciality. She was one of the miniaturists whom I hoped to one day meet at a fair, but that will never happen now.

Rest in Peace Sarah, and may St Hilary's miniature Church be a lasting memorial to a fine, gentle and special person with a great sense of humour (and of course to her mother).

Rockstar dress pattern

2010-08-05T00:00:00.002+01:00

I have traced out the pattern and my husband has scanned it into a pdf for the Rockstar outfit for 18"-19.5" play dolls. I have also typed out the instructions and put them into a separate pdf. If you would like a copy, please email me at:
dollmum at yahoo dot co dot uk
(I've written it like that to prevent spamming) and I'll send it to you.

Below are the progress photos of the second dress being made. These might help alongside the written instructions pdf.

The two halves of the dress with the yoke pieces pinned ready for sewing

Front yoke with the outside and inside pieces sewn on their top edge,
before turning right side out

Back yoke pieces after turning, before pressing and hand stitching

Sleeves pinned in place ready for stitching

Sleeves stitched in place, side seams sewn

Close up of sleeve before it was turned right side out

Headband, ends folded over and long seam stitched

Headband being turned right side out

Samantha and Harriet

To get a guitar you need to search ebay for 'miniature guitar' and buy one which is about 25 cm long. There is a whole range of them at this size, they are made for collectors who love different styles of guitars and display them as ornaments. They range in price from £4.99 to £19.99, and I've checked overseas ebay as well, so know they can be obtained in the US and Australia etc. Sometimes you can find them in their own case, but mostly they come with a display stand.

Rock group grows

2010-08-03T23:54:00.001+01:00

This evening I finally finished Samantha's rockstar outfit. I bought more shoes from releaserain on ebay (all the way from Hong Kong), and had previously bought the glittery tights (which are for American Girl) from a US seller based in London. The tights are a little short for Samantha but the dress and shoes hide that minor issue.

Here she is wearing her new rockstar outfit, and posing with the flying V 'Jimmy Hendrix' guitar which my elder daughter bought on her music trip recently. I have taken some photos of the progress of the dress to show how it is constructed, and will post those up tomorrow.

Samantha and Harriet rock!

Redcurrant jelly

2010-07-29T22:45:00.007+01:00

This evening I took a break from sewing Samantha's pop-star outfit. This was from necessity because the redcurrants were fully ripe and today my husband and daughters stripped the bush clean as requested while I was at work. When I weighed the bowlful before removing them from stalks and discarding the shrivelled ones, it came to 1.8kg, after my younger daughter and I spent over 90 minutes steadily de-stalking them, it came to just over 1.6kg. I wasn't sure that I had enough sugar to turn the whole lot into jelly in one go, so I did 1kg worth this evening, which after straining out the pips gave me just over 2 jars worth (one of which will be a gift for a friend this weekend). My elder girl who stayed up for the jelly making had a taste of the scraping from the saucepan and wanted more, so that is a good sign.

It seems like such a lot of work for a couple of jars (though there will be more tomorrow from the remainder which are ready for cooking), but as we stripped the berries from their stalks I explained (between younger girl's silly jokes and elder girl's comments as she sorted photos from her music trip) that jams, preserves and jellies were made from fruit as a way of preserving them for the winter months, so that people got a supply of vitamin C even when there wasn't any fresh fruit about. Modern international trade, airfreight and people travelling relatively easily around the world has given us the impression we can have any type of fruit at any time of the year, but not so very long ago seasonal was the only way to eat, and during the war, preserving produce was vital during rationing. The nicest thing about this evening was that we spent time together, even though the task was monotonous, the company was good.

It is now entirely too late to start sewing, especially as I've had a full, busy day at work, I've just heard the jelly jar lids pop as they cool (they've sealed nicely) so I shall go to bed shortly after a job well done.

Harriet's rock outfit revealed

2010-07-25T00:27:00.003+01:00

On Saturday morning I got up and worked on the microphone and stand. Actually I made 2 of each, calculating the other as being a present for my cousin's daughter later. My husband cut the dowel and the old wooden cotton reel (he was a bit unsure of cutting a 'museum piece' in half for this project, but I decided it wasn't particularly valuable!). He drilled out the centre hole to fit the dowel and there was the basic microphone stand. However the attachment on top to hold the microphone was the next problem, which I worked on during the morning. I found a piece of plastic tube in his workshop from which I cut a narrow ring. This ring I cut in half across the circle, to make 2 half circles. In the middle of each half circle I drilled a hole for the short number 4 screw and drilled a hole in the top of each 12" long dowel for the screw. I then screwed the half circle to the top of the dowel into the end grain. I was using the pillar drill, and hadn't lost my drilling knack (I used to use that drill a lot in a previous job when working with my husband) and it was quite a pleasurable way to start a Saturday morning.

Back in the house I covered each half circle with some thin wadding, glued on with evostick. Once this was dry I used some of the leftover silvery material from Peter's first skating outfit to cover the wadding, gluing it on in stages using Hi-tack glue. The glue soaked through the very thin material very easily and it was tricky not getting my fingers rather than the material sticking to the dowel, however after allowing each stage to dry a bit, I was able to make progress with it. Once the top was complete, it was a relatively simple matter to glue a long strip of the silvery material along the length of the dowel.

The top of the microphone stand
after I'd covered the plastic half circle with wadding

Each microphone was made out a 2" length of the same dowel. At one end I glued a strip of wadding, then I covered it with a piece of the silvering material taken from the edge, where there was a 1 inch wide band of white material rather than the silver, so this made a good distinction between the padded microphone and the handle. Once this had dried, I used a short length of elastic sewn on at the end and at the other end of the handle to provide a means for the doll or the microphone stand to hold the microphone without dropping it.

The microphones at various stages,
and the base of the microphone stand (half cotton reel)

comparing the two home made microphone stands for Gotz dolls
with the smaller version for Groovy Girl dolls

Close up of the microphone on its stand

Later in the day my elder daughter returned from her music trip. She brought back a few souveniors, one of which was a small guitar about the same size but a different style from the one I'd bought! She was delighted with Harriet in her new outfit, but the green eyed monster emerged when my younger daughter saw her sister get a new outfit and instrument for her doll, and there was nothing for Samantha doll (who received a new outfit in May but no instrument). So I've decided to make a similar rockstar outfit for Samantha (I had already planned to make one for one of the 3 dolls belonging to my cousin's daughter, for Christmas, and had bought a guitar for that purpose), so it looks like the pattern I made up based on the 'Hannah Rockstar' outfit, will be used again a couple of times.

Harriet in her version of the Rockstar outfit

Harriet rocks!

Harriet the rockstar

2010-07-21T22:13:00.000+01:00

As explained in my previous post, I've been sewing my verson of the Gotz 'Hannah the Rockstar' outfit. The outfit is now finished, the heartshaped sunglasses purchased and on her face, I've added a ribbon strap to the miniature guitar to help her hold it, and I think Harriet looks pretty cool. Even my husband was impressed, and that is saying a lot (he tolerates the dolls as a fact of living with 3 doll mad females, shows occasional interest in the play dolls but is more interested in the dollshouses especially as he built one of them from a kit).

However I haven't yet made the microphone and its stand to complete the outfit. This will require a couple of pieces of dowel, some wadding, and some silvery fabric to cover the dowel. However since finishing the outfit on Saturday night, I've been busy cleaning and tidying my elder daughter's bedroom while she is away on her second school trip in 2 weeks (this time a whole week away playing her violin), so I've had no time to make the microphone and stand. Hopefully I'll make a start on it tomorrow night.

I haven't taken photos of Harriet in her outfit because it doesn't seem complete without the microphone, so I shall tantalise you in the meantime with a description: The dress is red with contrast material of purple, green, brown & red strips inlaid with shiny thread, the bottom of the dress has a band of red sequin material to match her sequin hairband, she wears red tights, the tartan plimsols, and the lilac heartshaped sunglasses. The guitar is black. With Harriet's auburn hair, this makes quite an arresting sight!

Welcome Princessclaire1000 to my blog - from your profile picture I'm guessing you are interested in American Girl dolls, but I can't find a blog link for you.

Sewing again

2010-07-13T21:31:00.000+01:00

As explained in my previous post, this time of year in our family is always very busy. However the birthdays are over now, as are my daughter's music exams and I've at last managed to carve out a few evenings to start working on dolls clothes again. I keep wanting to get the dollshouse on the go but get distracted by outfits for 50cm dolls instead! The new Gotz catalogue is out, and my elder girl is particularly taken with 'Hannah the Rockstar' - she loves her outfit even though it is a deep rich pink (not my red head's favourite colour). The outfit doesn't come separately, Gotz are clever at attracting people to buying more dolls, but as we've already got an extensive family of Gotz, Australian Girl and Euro girl dolls, I don't want to buy another blond Sarah/Hannah doll. So I've decided to try and copy the outfit, though with different material.

I've got as far as sketching out the pattern based on a Joan Hind pattern for an A-line dress, though adapted to suit the pleats in the rockstar dress, and have just cut out the material, so am almost ready to start sewing. I have also bought a real guitar (black plastic) which is very similar to the guitar that Hannah is holding (ebay again), it even has its own padded case. Some months ago I bought some tartan plimsols which go with the two different materials I'm using for this dress. All of this planning, material matching and considering is happening while my younger girl sleeps upstairs and my elder girl is away for a few days on a school trip, so neither of them know.

I'll post more as the dress progresses. In the meantime, welcome 'all4dolls' to my blog.

Camera tripod, and welcome

2010-06-18T22:49:00.001+01:00

I like Amazon wishlists, they make it possible for me to let my hubby know what I want for my birthday without me having to write a paper list, it also means he can read the same reviews I've read about things, so can understand why I've picked a particular item. It was my birthday recently, and he gave me a pan and tilt tripod for my camera. What is more, he was delighted to get it as it is just the kind of techie present that appeals to him (as soon as I took it out of the bag, he was helping me set it up). Last year I treated myself to a good camera but I've found that even with the best effort I can't stand still enough to shoot decent video with it for any length of time, and setting up shots of dolls has been difficult as they sometimes do not always come out the way I want them to because I've held the camera in my hands, so I've been hankering after a pan and tilt tripod for several months.

I was able to take a photo of my birthday cake (decorated by my little girl and made by her godmother) with the family all posed around it (using the timer on the camera), and am hoping to start taking some new photos of my miniatures soon. However June and early July is a very busy month in this family, it is the birthday season for several of us, my elder girl is off for her Duke of Edinburgh Bronze expedition, we've been involved in loads of concerts recently with more to come, the weather has been reasonable for an English June (glorious yesterday) so it is hard to stay indoors doing miniatures or dolls when the garden calls and there are countless other activities taking my attention. I've not had any time at all for sewing since I made dresses for my daughters at the end of May (and we have been on holiday for half term).

Welcome to Minnie Kitchen who has decided to follow my blog. You don't appear to have a blog, but you do have a very delicious picture next to your name. I hope you enjoy my doll blog.

Welcome, and sewing for the girls

2010-05-30T01:22:00.000+01:00

Blog silence recently has once again occured due to my headlong, busy life. However despite my silence, two more people have decided to follow my blog:

Puppenstubennostalgie is German and has a great mini blog at http://puppenstubennostalgie.blogspot.com/ which is well worth visiting.

Altafulla has three blogs, the one being of the most interest to miniaturists is http://altafullaminiatures.blogspot.com/ she blogs in Catalan and English.

Welcome to my blog.

I have been busy sewing this week, but not for miniatures. For once I've actually made some clothes for my two daughters. In the sales just after Christmas, I found a pattern and some lovely material in John Lewis. I've finally made the time to make up the summer dress for my 6 year old girl. It is from a Simplicity Lizzie McGuire pattern, 4721. The material is 'city girl holiday by Kitty Yoshida' and was gorgeous to sew (no snagging or slipping). A few weeks ago my elder girl spotted some batik material in John Lewis and decided she wanted it made into a skirt, so she poured over the pattern books and chose Simplicity 2620, skirt view D. I also finally succumbed to a pattern I've had my eye on for a while, Simplicity 18" doll clothing 4364.

First I made up the dress, it took about 2 and half evenings. My little girl is small for her age, so I had to adjust the bodice, and therefore the skirt had to be gathered a bit under the arms to fit the bodice.

Then I made up the skirt. This took 2 evenings. Then, crazy me, I started cutting out pattern pieces and material for the doll dress at 11 pm on Friday night, and just kept on sewing. What possessed me I do not know, I had a DVD on which I've seen before (The Greatest Show on Earth - old fashioned, certainly not politically correct by modern standards, but a good story) and didn't want to stop that or the sewing. I finally went to bed at 2.30 am then was woken at 6.30 am by my bright eyed youngster! I spend part of the morning finishing off the dress for Samanta the Gotz doll and my little girl was thrilled.

I haven't yet photographed the skirt, but will do soon. In the meantime, enjoy these photos of Samantha in her little dress, and the summer dress for my daughter.

Samantha in her new summer dress, and the child's dress

I used flash for this photo - it shows up the printed gold in the fabric
(click on the photo for a closer view)

Aussie girls discover percussion

2010-05-04T22:26:00.003+01:00

Just before Easter I made play clothes for Belle and Matilda. This followed their quick Easter dresses. The play clothes were from slightly adapted Joan Hind patterns from her book 'sew the contemporary wardrobe for 18" dolls', adapted because the Aussie girls are a little bigger around the waist than most 18" dolls and their legs are a little chunkier. My elder girl had requested dungarees for Matilda so I used the top half of the denim jumper dress and the capri trousers pattern joined together to create the dungarees. I made the capri trousers for Belle, and the tank top. Both outfits were quite quick to sew (took a couple of evenings all told) so were ready for Easter when the girls got them instead of Easter eggs (they had plenty of eggs from other people, including an egg hunt at church and at a National Trust property) along with the trainers I had found on ebay. But apart from that gymnastics photo of my younger daughter teaching the dolls the 'bridge' I've not had time to photograph them in their new outfits.

Belle and Matilda in their denim play clothes
(not a good photo, taken as it was getting dark outside,
and I didn't get the exposure right)

Today they discovered the drum kit. This mini kit was given to my younger daughter for Christmas 2 or 3 years ago when she was very little. I think her Godmother was trying to convert her to be a percussionist as she has had several other rattles & shakers from her too. The kit is now actually a little small for her, but Belle and Matilda didn't mind it being a bit too big for them!

Look Matilda, I'm drumming

Oh wow, I want to play too

See Belle, I've got a shaker

Hey, I'm getting good at this drumming

Dancing on Ice - live tour

2010-05-03T00:24:00.000+01:00

I wasn't satisfied with Peter's silver Ice skating shirt. The colour just somehow didn't seem to suit him. When I made the Golden skating dress in time for the final of the 2010 'Dancing on Ice' show on TV, I realised that I had made Peter's shirt silver because his skates were silver (Gotz don't make Black skates and didn't sell the white skates separately in 2009). I had obtained some American Girl 2010 white skates via ebay which have gold laces and these went beautifully with the Golden dress that Anna has been wearing for over a month!

As a huge family treat I booked tickets for us to see the live tour of 'Dancing on Ice' at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre (not cheap). I realised 3 days ago that my little one would want to take a doll in a skating outfit to the show, then decided that Peter should have a matching outfit because the premise for 'Dancing on Ice' is couples skating together. But I didn't have enough of the gold material to make a complete outfit. Plenty of the lovely lacey material that forms Anna's skirt, but only enough of the gold to make a top. So I went to John Lewis on Saturday morning in the hope that they would have more, but it had been a remnant from the end of a roll that they have not repeated. However I did find some lovely black stretch shiny jersey with golden sparkles and this matched the tones and shade of the gold material beautifully. Luckily this roll was on a half price offer, and as I bought only half a metre (more than enough) it was very cheap.

I used the tights pattern I had used previously for his black skating leggings and sewed the toes so that the leggings wouldn't ride up his legs. It was really quick to sew - from cutting to finish was less than an hour. I had been looking at photos of Torvill and Dean and realised that their famous 'Mack and Mabel' outfits were all gold. Christopher Dean wore a smart shapely breasted jacket and a white shirt underneath with a gold bow tie. I decided that I liked the strong V shape but that a full jacket would take too much time (and material) to make, so a smart waistcoat would do the trick. I adapted an existing pattern for a V necked tshirt from Joan Hinds into a shorter waistcoat (the tshirt was quite long) and then decided that the lacey material would make perfect sleeves. The waistcoat was lined with the gold material (I cut the pattern pieces twice, then sewed 2 fronts to a back twice over, then sewed the two matching pieces round most of the edges and folded the right way out. I had also set the sleeves into the sleeve edges, and it all worked out well. Once the waistcoat jacket was stitched I sewed two sets of clear plastic press studs at the front and stitched on the sequins to match the golden dress. This top took the evening to make (while we watched a DVD - one I had seen before so I had half an eye on the screen) and I'm really pleased with how effectively it has turned out. Peter borrowed Harriet's American Girl white skates to match his new outfit.

I took photos last night, but of course the flash over emphasises the sparkly material. Sunday morning, my little girl rearranged them in a 'skating pose' and I took more photos.

Peter and Anna in their golden outfits

Striking a pose

Close up of Peter's sequins

Sunday evening my girls took Anna and Peter to the NEC for the live show. One or two other little girls spotted the dolls and looked interested. Our tiered seats were way back near one of the trailing spotlights, but despite being some distance from the skaters we had a good view of the show which was absolutely brilliant. It was great to see Torvill and Dean 'live' at last (not just live through a TV screen) and the TV studio rink was replaced with ice size two thirds bigger, which was a challenge for the weaker celebrities, but made space for a spectacular show. The costumes were great, the concept for the professional skater sections of the show was imaginative, and seeing Jayne and Chris doing their flying version of the Bolero with two long strips of purple cloth was breathtaking and just a bit scary - they flew quite high - so impressive. Taking photos wasn't easy, I didn't use flash during the show, and beforehand I experimented a bit to try and get the dolls in the foreground with the 'Dancing on Ice' set in the background, but the photos are not good, and the dolls were not posed well. I didn't have the courage to take them down closer to the ice for a photo at the end and it was late for the girls with over an hour's journey to get home.

Anna and Peter at 'Dancing on Ice', taken without flash

Anna and Peter at 'Dancing on Ice', taken with backlight flash

No, I haven't stopped blogging

2010-04-29T22:52:00.000+01:00

Nearly a month, and I've not had a chance to sew, nor have I had time to do much with the dolls or miniatures at all, though I've lurked a bit on other people's blogs and looked at doll photos on flickr. My girls have played with the dolls over the Easter holidays and have been back at school for 2 weeks.

Apart from my day job, and a 4 night caravan holiday, I've been up to my eyes organising a big musical event for my local church, which thankfully went very well so I have had little time for miniatures or play dolls.

I did some sewing for the Aussie girls just before Easter - play clothes to match some trainers I found for them on ebay. But no sewing since then, until a bit of cross stitch tonight in a minature rug I've been stitching on and off for the better part of 19 years! I just have the background to finish off, and take the rug on caravan trips as it doesn't require much equipment and can be picked up an put down easily. Trouble is, I've put it down more often than picked it up in recent years, but now want to finish it for my Westville dollshouse.

I'm hoping that this coming bank holiday weekend in the UK will provide me with the opportunity to get some crafty, miniature and play doll sewing done. I want to try teaching my 6 year old how to do cross stitch, not using a particular kit, but a small piece of aida and some coloured embroidery threads and just let her experiment. She is my practical child and loves making things. Her big sister is musically talented and slightly less practical, though does sew a bit if I can entice her away from her DSi!

Here is a photo of my little one demonstrating to Belle, Matilda and Samantha how to do gymnastics. This was inspired by their new sporty casual outfits that I made for the Aussie girls (Samantha's clothes came from Nellie Rose last year).

Belle in her crop jeans and top, Matilda wearing her new dungarees,
Samantha in her Nellie Rose sports outfit
and my 6 year old in her Charlie & Lola pyjamas

Quick Easter dresses for the Aussie girls

2010-03-31T23:53:00.000+01:00

After spending 2 weeks making one skating dress for the Gotz girls, I decided that Belle and Matilda's clothing requirements had been neglected far too long. They do not fit any of the jeans or trousers belonging to the slimmer Gotz dolls, had been borrowing party dresses and other outfits since they were unwrapped at Christmas and only had one new pair of shoes each compared to the good choice of shoes belonging to the other dolls. This has meant that they do get played with less than the other dolls (and my girls are still asking about skates for them).

At the weekend the quick trip to buy those tiny gold beads from Hobbycraft resulted in me also picking up two packs of fat quarters in lovely spring/summer colours. The material is quite stiff (really made for quilting) so I soaked it in fabric softener, rinsed it, then tossed it in the tumble dryer with a dry towel to spead up the drying process. This did result in softer material.

I cut a strip of material 30 cm high by 55 cm wide (the full width of the quarter) which left a strip 13 cm by 55 cm. I hemmed the bottom and top of the wider strip, using miniature ric rac braid on the bottom and a neat zig zag stitch on the top. I then cut 5 pieces of 5 mm elastic 29 cm long (after measuring their chests) and pinned these on the wrong side of the top of the strip with the bottom elastic being 8 cm from the top of the dress and the other 4 evenly spaced between that and the zig zagged top hem. Stitching elastic on whilst stretching it out to gather the material evenly was the trickiest part of the job but I succeeded without pricking my fingers too often! Thank goodness for the sewing machine - this job would have taken ages without it. I then sewed the back seam all the way from the top to the bottom of the dress after edging each side of the back seam. After neatening off the top and bottom of the back seam (pressing it flat) I fitted the dress onto Matilda (she got her dress first) and sewed the ribbons onto the back and front and tied them at the shoulders.

Belle and Matilda in their new Easter dresses

The leftover strip of material was folded over and stitched along one short and the long edge, then turned inside out to the right side and pressed with the iron, before closing off the other short end. This simple hair band was tied at the back of the neck. The material is stiff enough to hold without having to knot the hairband.

Belle and Matilda's new hairbands

Each dress and hairband took one evening to sew - quick spring dresses for Easter, though with the current weather (return to winter here, rain since yesterday and further north has heavy snow), I think both Matilda and Belle will be wishing I had made them some winter coats too!

New skating dress for Dancing on Ice final

2010-03-29T00:46:00.004+01:00

It has taken 2 weeks to complete the latest skating dress for the Gotz dolls (I haven't been able to work on it every night). When I wrote last, I was cutting out pattern pieces for a dress based on a full size Jalie skating dress pattern which I scaled down by eye. I then part made a prototype version of the dress in white T-shirt jersey material. This has a bit of stretch to it which is slightly different from the less stretchy material I used for the proper dress so I knew I'd have to adjust it a bit.

The dress consists of a cut down leotard, a simply shaped skirt which on the prototype was made of 6 panels stitched together and a strapless bodice which I designed based on a Joan Hinds pattern. The bodice was double layered to make tidy edges (sewn inside out then turned out) and to test the join of bodice to skirt and leotard I sewed both layers to the bottom half, even though this was technically wrong if I had wanted to use that version for a real dress, as it made a very thick seam just below the bust line. But the main purpose was to see that it fitted, not to finish this dress.

The prototype dress, showing the panel empire line skirt

The bodice seams on the prototype dress

Then came the exciting bit of cutting the proper materials - a gorgeous soft gold polyester and a shimmering see-through random weave of gold which has gold flecks in the thread. Both of these were remnants at John Lewis and I had seen the possibilities for a doll's skating dress as soon as I picked them up (don't you just love those finds!)

I sewed the leotard section first, and it fitted my Anna doll beautifully, better than any of the previous leotards I've made (maybe I'm getting better at the leg fit). I had decided that because the see-through material shows the seams, the fewer seams on it the better, so I recut paper pattern pieces - one for the front, one for the back based on the 6 pattern pieces I had previously cut. So the skirt has side seams and no others. The main straight seams were sewn with the machine, but all finishing the inside of the seams to make the edges lie flat and the hem had to be hand stitched. The skirt was then attached (by hand) to the leotard, before I sewed on the bodice (all done by hand, I could no longer trust the machine to not catch the lacy material).

The leotard

The skirt sewed to the leotard

I had some gold ribbon from a Christmas box of chocolates - just enough length to make the shoulder straps and doubled over waistband. I stitched the waistband on slightly too tightly so the dress has to be slid carefully over the doll's hips but it does come off and go on okay, so I didn't unpick. Plastic press studs were used for the bodice opening and the shoulder straps at the back of the dress.

After sewing the ribbon waistband and front bodice decorations

Perhaps the nicest, fiddly yet relaxing part of making the dress was sewing on the decorations. The tiny gold beads holding the sequins in place have holes too fine for the finest needle head, so had to be threaded by hand (I was constantly threading and unthreading the needle. But it was enormously satisfying work - I sat in the kitchen at the breakfast bar on a high stool (very comfortable and supportive backrest) for a while on two sunny weekend afternoons and stitched while keeping the dog company. The decorations probably took about 3 hours to stitch all told.

Close up of the front bodice decorations

At the last minute, just before Dancing on Ice the final started on TV this evening I made the hair scrunchy. Weeks ago I had bought via ebay a new pair of American Girl skates with gold laces. These complete the outfit.

The gold laced skates

My girls were thrilled with the result of all this effort, and I'm pleased too. All the dolls were changed back into their skating outfits (except for Belle and Matilda who don't have skates yet), and the whole family sat down to watch the skating. We were pleased with the winner too as she was our favourite.

Front view of the gold skating dress

Back view of the gold skating dress

Close up of the back decorations

All the dolls lined up for the Dancing on Ice final (l-r Anna, Samantha, Matilda, Susie, Jayne, Peter, Belle, Harriet and Elizabeth) Note that Susie is wearing Harriet's dress, and Harriet is wearing Anna's blue skating dress.

Designing a new skating dress

2010-03-15T23:19:00.000Z

This evening I've been fiddling about with pieces of strong tissue paper (actually the paper that came out of a Hotter Shoes box) to make pattern pieces for a new doll skating dress. As you know if you've read my blog for a while, my girls have several Gotz play dolls and they all have ice skates and skating dresses (or outfit for Peter the boy). Most of these outfits I've made myself, only Jayne came with a showy figure skating outfit (Samantha's original outfit is more for the smart leisure skater). Up until now I've made dresses with a classic leotard and skirt around the waist design. I based the leotard on the 'Sarah at the ballet' outfit. But in the Christmas sales I picked up some lovely fabric remnants at John Lewis that inspired me to do an empire line dress like some of the gorgeous dresses Jayne Torvill has been wearing for Dancing on Ice.

I follow the blog of IceMom, a mother in the USA whose daughter is progressing very well with her ice skating. IceMom sews Icegirl's skating outfits and reviews the patterns and how successfully they've made up. Her blog is extremely helpful, and it has pointed me to figure skating dress patterns, such as the Jalie range, which she really likes to sew.

I've found a Jalie pattern for an empire line dress #2674, and was lucky that they had the instructions for sewing to download free from their website. 4 pages of this pdf printed out was enough to give me the shapes of the pattern pieces and equally importantly how it all fits together. I've now cut out all the paper pieces, but it is too late to start cutting fabric tonight. I'm not going to cut the new lovely fabric first, this is an experimental pattern after all, so I'm using some plain white stretch jersey of a (new) T-shirt as my test piece. If it works out okay, and looks alright, I might even be able to use the test costume on a doll and pretty it up with some sequins, but at least I won't be cutting the beautiful fabric until I know that the pattern works.

Hopefully I might be able to do some more to it tomorrow night. I'll keep you posted.

A Mothering Sunday welcome to 6 new followers

2010-03-14T13:31:00.001Z

In the UK it is Mothering Sunday today (as part of Lent). My 6 year old took Samantha to Church this morning in her Kimono, at the end of the service the vicar handed out bunches of daffodils for all the children (and grown up children) to give to their mothers. For a little while Samantha held the daffodils. When we got home we found that some of the crocuses are in full bloom in a tub in the front garden, so this was a photo opportunity for Samantha. My little girl wanted to send the photo to someone, so I'm posting it here to share with everyone who follows this blog, whether you are a mother or not.

Samantha and the crocuses

In the past couple of weeks 6 more people have decided to follow my blog, they are:

Roberta (a cat lover like me) blogs in Italian and English http://ilboratoriodipitosfora.blogspot.com/ and makes some lovely creations (see her outdoor chair made of cardboard but looks like it is made of metal http://ilboratoriodipitosfora.blogspot.com/2010/02/ecco-la-mia-sediahere-it-is-my-chair.html)

Rosanne Saw sews dolls clothes for play dolls in Australia - it was her site that helped me in my hunt for a UK source of shoes to fit the Australian Girl dolls http://www.rosiesdollsclothes.com.au/

Maria Jose http://marivigano.blogspot.com/ lives in Spain and blogs in Spanish. She makes all sorts of lovely miniatures.

Franberry is a self confessed Sasha addict!!! http://sasha3times.blogspot.com/ She seems to have quite an extensive collection of beautiful Sasha Dolls, and a little girl to help her enjoy them

Montse blogs in Spanish http://montsesol99.blogspot.com/ and has a fascinating collection of all sorts of dolls

Marleen blogs in Dutch and English and makes miniature bears. She is lucky enough to have a whole 'hobby room' for her miniatures http://marleensminiaturen.blogspot.com/

Welcome everyone, thank you for reading my blog.

Poodle's disastrous day

2010-03-13T23:57:00.004Z

On Thurday our cocker spaniel got upstairs because one of us left the gate open. We were out of the house at the time, so unfortunately he wreaked havoc with my precious aged bears and Poodle, who were sitting up in the bedroom. Poor Panda has a couple of puncture marks in his body which I haven't yet repaired, Bruin's coat protected him and he is unscathed, but poor Poodle well and truly had a fight with our naughty destructive live dog.

My husband found his ears and body on our bedroom floor, but his tail and foot were in the dog's bed downstairs. I came home at the end of the day to this very sorry sight.

My poor injured Poodle, before surgery

Poodle without his ears

Ears, foot and tail

Fortunately the dog didn't actually do major damage to Poodle's body and head, although there was a gash under where his ear had been, and a puncture mark in his front leg. Poodle's paws had already been very loose (two held on with safety pins), and his body stitching wasn't great (I'd done a rough repair as a child with rather thick thread). So his disaster was a real incentive to do what I had meant to do for a while but hadn't prioritised - a proper repair.

Today my younger daugher has had lots of fun playing with the Gotz, Aussie, Euro & Palitoy dolls, changing clothes and arranging them for various imaginary holiday journeys. Her big sister went to Guide holiday on Friday evening for the weekend, so this was our chance to do things that 6 year old girls like without big sister around either being pleasant or horrible to her, which has happened a lot recently (no one can really predict the mood of a young teen, and little sisters can be very irritating to 13 year olds sometimes, so although they do often play nicely, the atmosphere can change almost without warning). After my 6 year old had gone to bed (having taken all the dolls back upstairs again) my husband and I brought the (live) dog into the living room and I got my sewing thread and some beige felt and started to repair Poodle while we watched a DVD together. It was one I had seen before but my husband did not know and was a real laugh (and very appropriate considering my repair work) ... "The Truth about Cats and Dogs"!

Here is Poodle at the end of the evening. I think you will agree that he looks much better than he did even before he got mauled, as he has completely renewed paws (I actually sewed the old paws inside new felt, then stitched them back on) and his tail has perked up again. If you think he looks a little wary but fully on his guard, this is because the live dog was only a few feet away (although asleep) when I took these photos!

Poodle repaired

His tail stands up again!

Ready to run just in case of another dog attack

Poodle sitting but on the alert

Welcome Elizabeth, and a Rainbow visitor

2010-03-10T22:49:00.001Z

A certain little girl had a birthday during February. She had requested 'another doll' and she got 'another doll' only this time it wasn't a Gotz or an Aussie girl, but a Euro Girl doll. I had found her on ebay about 3 months ago and she was sent from the USA. Euro Girl dolls are no longer made, and I liked this one because guess what - she came in an ice skating outfit complete with skates! I think there is a theme going amongst the play dolls in this family, except of course the Aussie girls whose feet are too big for the Gotz skates (I've still got to do something about that, as currently they sit in the deck chairs and act as the 'judges' for Dancing on Ice).

My little girl named her new doll 'Elizabeth'. As you can see from the photo, Elizabeth has dark hair, and wears a delightful white skating outfit with butterfly sequin design on her chest and fluffy decorations on the shoulders and round the waist. Her feet are smaller than the Gotz doll feet, she fits Sasha shoes, so her skates are the same as Susie's skates. She is the same height as Susie too, and has a lovely cheerful face.

Elizabeth, Matilda, Belle and Samantha

Here is Elizabeth with Matilda.
The flash has hidden the detail on her dress
(and the colourful bits are stickers, not part of the original dress),
I'll try to take another photo during daylight.

My younger child attends Rainbows, whilst her sister is a Guide. At Rainbows they have a mascot doll, who lives in a bag with her own travel book. This doll is given to a different Rainbow each week and the Rainbows record her adventures in the book. They draw pictures, write something if they can (Rainbows are aged 5 - 7) and stick photos of Olivia enjoying her week. This week she came home to us (the last time we had her was in July last year). She has been getting to know the doll inhabitants of our home.

Belle, Olivia the visiting Rainbow, and Anna

Creative Blogger

2010-03-02T21:06:00.000Z

Thank you My Reallity http://myrealitty.blogspot.com/ for giving me the Creativ Blogger award - what a nice surprise!

I believe I'm meant to select 6 blogs I like out of all those I follow - it is so difficult to make choices like this when everyone is so creative. However, here goes (and I hope no one is offended for not being chosen):

Salt and Pepper http://thecruetset.blogspot.com/
Tiny Treasures http://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.com/
Püppilottchen's Toy Blog http://pueppilottchens-spielzeug-blog.blogspot.com/
Une Petite Folie http://une-petite-folie.blogspot.com/
Sasha, Sasha, Sasha http://sasha3times.blogspot.com/
My Pretty Dolls http://agdfan.blogspot.com/

Shoes for the Aussie girls

2010-02-27T00:36:00.000Z

I knew when I purchased the Australian Girl dolls and had them shipped to the UK that I should have bought some of Emily's boots, and the trainers that Helen and Roy are selling on their site, because Matilda and Belle's feet are larger than the Gotz dolls feet. They most certainly DO NOT fit any of the American Girl doll shoes that we've got or the Gotz dolls shoes, except for Peter's original pair which are slightly loose on his feet. Since Christmas I've been searching on the internet for suitable shoes. Frustatingly some people on ebay would list the size of the shoe (one even claimed they were the internal dimensions) and on the face of it according to the measurements they gave, the shoes should have fitted, but every time I have bought some, they have been just too tight to slip onto Matilda and Belle's feet.

However in Australia a person called Rosie has set up a website from which she sells handmade dolls clothes for various sizes of play dolls, including the Australian girl dolls, and she very helpfully lists the actual foot lengths of each kind of doll. She also shows which shoes actually fit each doll. On her site were a couple of pairs I liked particularly and wondered if I could find them on ebay in the UK, as I could guess they were made in China and were probably available around the world. I realised from her list that the Aussie girl dolls were wearing the same shoes as some of the 19" baby dolls, such as Chou Chou. So I widened my searches on ebay, and as a result realised that what I should try was 85 mm length shoes, not 70 mm shoes. Result! I found a UK based seller of the Reborn baby doll shoes, and this seller was selling exactly the shoes I had spotted on Rosie's dolls clothes site. When they arrived they fitted beautifully and Belle and Matilda were both pleased to have some pretty new party shoes.

Matilda is wearing the white shoes and ice cream socks,
Belle is wearing the pink shoes and white socks

I've since also bought some other shoes for them, including baby doll trainers which don't look too babyish on them but I am keeping those 4 pairs back as an Easter surprise for my girls.

Matilda and Belle wearing their new shoes with borrowed outfits
and lounging on the deckchairs

Matilda wears the dress and top I made,
Belle wears the 'Nellie Rose' dress

Too much to do!

2010-02-22T22:07:00.000Z

I've been doing entirely too much recently, both at work and at home, so have had minimal time for the dollshouse and dolls blog. I work full time in an education setting (I'm the main breadwinner), I participate in musical activities (2 choirs, one band with other time consuming related matters) and of course have my family to look after. My husband helps with the children's after school stuff when I'm at work, and does some housework, but somehow a mother's work is never done, and I almost always have a pile of unalluring paperwork to get through when I'd far rather be fiddling around with miniatures or sewing clothes for the Gotz and Aussie dolls.

In the midst of all this recent crazy busy, I sewed an outfit for my younger daughter's best friend for her birthday. They've known each other since babyhood, and despite going to different schools now, we still meet up regularly because they are pals, and us mums get along. Little girls love dressing up, and this one loves dancing around in front of the TV pretending to be a cheerleader or ballerina or gymnast.

I sewed a red leotard out of jersey fabric (not stretch jersey, so I had to adjust the pattern to fit), a bolero top of red velour and a sparkly red sequin material skirt. I've got the material to make a royal blue version for my little girl, who has blue eyes and strawberry blond hair, but haven't managed to get the sewing machine out since making the first outfit because of the birthday party and the 100 other things that have been happening since. I'm pleased to say that this outfit went down a storm with my daughter's 6 year old friend, who wrote a thank you note for her 'red clothes'.

And my dollshouse sits invitingly near my computer, oh how I itch to get stuck into working on it again.

Welcome, and dollshouse is home again!

2010-02-20T23:22:00.000Z

Two followers in one day! Wow. I've got 50 people following this blog - I'm amazed and pleased - thank you everyone. The two newest followers are:

Núria blogs in Spanish and is creating a shabby chic house, though also uses playmobil figures to good effect. She blogs at http://mininuris.blogspot.com/

Traci at Random Aspects blog http://random-aspects.blogspot.com/ also has an etsy page http://www.etsy.com/shop/goodlifeminis. She has some very interesting projects (such as her Greek house), and is just about to start another one (restoring a colonial farmhouse)

Welcome to my blog Núria and Traci.

I'm especially pleased today because we collected my half-built Westville Greenleaf dollshouse from storage this afternoon, and although I won't be able to spare the time to do much to it within the next month, I can at least now feast my eyes on it again, dream and plan ;-) For the moment we've got our full size house off the market, as we work out whether our finances can stand the strain of a mortgage (we currently own our home outright, which is a comfortable position to be in). If we do think we can afford something better, we may put the house back on the market in the Spring, but in the meantime there is no point paying for storage, so we're bringing our clutter home again!

Welcome 4 more followers

2010-02-18T22:02:00.005Z

Despite the fact that I've been outrageously busy for the past 2 weeks and haven't managed to do any serious blogging, this little blog of mine has acquired 4 more followers:

Daphne L Williams has two doll related blogs. She has been making porcelain dolls for 10 years and clothes them http://finallyknowboneka.blogspot.com/ and http://porcelainvspolymerclay.blogspot.com/ - they are well worth a look as she does beautiful work.

Swantje has a dollshouse related publishing company - the latest book is all about Christian Hacker dollshouses and is one I'd love to own. See http://www.swantje-koehler-verlag.de/index_wp.php?start and http://www.swantje-koehler-verlag.de/blog/ (which is in German).

My Reallity owns 19 dollshouses!!! http://myrealitty.blogspot.com/ of all different kinds and styles. I like the photos of the houses all around the inside of the full size home, what an amazing collection.

Amica doesn't appear to have a blog but judging from the profile picture, loves dogs.

Welcome everyone to my blog.

P.S. We did some full size baking this afternoon, and my elder daughter decorated ginger biscuits and cupcakes.

Evacuees

2010-02-06T09:27:00.001Z

I mentioned some weeks ago that we had collected some items from the storage so that I could spend a weekend making miniatures. One of the items we brought home that day was the roombox. It seems appropriate to talk about it now, as we are almost upon the 6th anniversary of constructing this little scene.

I was about to give birth to our second daughter, and we had just bought the kit of the dollshouse that is now my elder daughter's dollshouse. We were very conscious of the fact that she had been an only child for over 7 years, and that adjusting to a new sibling was going to be difficult. So for Christmas we had bought her a doll's pushchair and her Godmother gave her the baby doll Thomas. These had gone down well. However at school that term her class was exploring WW2 from the perspective of children - what it felt like to be an evacuee, dig for victory and live during those times. Her class were making and drawing things to illustrate their understanding of the topic. I wanted to explore it further with her, so we bought a roombox kit (dollshouse emporium), my husband put it together for us, and we collected items together, including buying two cheap dollshouse emporium dolls which I redressed, and sundry other items including a pet food can!

The internet was a great source of information for things like how to construct an Anderson shelter and learn about rationing, especially the BBC schools website. She and I came up with the idea of two evacuees arriving in an English country village with their gas masks and their few belongings, to a world of fresh vegetables on your doorstep and sheep in the fields nearby. I sketched out the background scenery and my daughter coloured it all in and drew the sheep.

My younger daughter arrived (nearly 2 weeks late), then a few days later it was February half term! Any sensible mother would have postponed further work on the room box. Not me (well now at least I've admitted I'm not sensible!). My abiding memory of constructing the room box is sitting at the dining room table with the baby wrapped up in the Kari-me cloth sling, lumps of Fimo and tools, rolling miniature tomatoes, cauliflowers and carrots on a board on the table with my elder daughter. I was doing it one handed until I had the sling! (I've still got the sling, I will not part with it - for my children's children, if I'm lucky). I was very tired from disturbed nights and trying to keep everyone happy and this was my way of spending time with my elder daughter so she wouldn't feel left out.

The path is sand on glue, the vegetable plot is tea leaves and sand on glue! We were very proud of the Anderson shelter - my daughter had a ripple cardboard kit used for giving ordinary paper or card a ripple effect. The main body of the shelter is the pet food can, cut open and trimmed to size, the front and back of the shelter is rippled card coloured with a pencil to make it look like corrogated iron.

The tomato plants are made from coloured wire and green card (my first attempt at making miniature plants). The carrots were the best fun for my daughter to make, and we trimmed the tops with bits from my miniature Christmas tree.

Arriving in the country

Showing the background scenery

Approaching the front door

Close up of the garden

Anderson Shelter

Gas mask and child label on her coat

I made their coats from a pattern from Sue Atkinson's 'Making and dressing dolls house dolls'

Susie identified

2010-01-31T16:41:00.003Z

It has taken several months, and four doll identification books plus a fair amount of looking on ebay and the wider web but I have at last concluded that Susie is not a Roddy doll as I had first thought, but is in fact an unbranded Petalskin Palitoy doll.

I bought the 'Collectors guide to dolls and Toys of the 1960s and 1970s Vol II' only to realise after it arrived that it covered American not English dolls. However despite this, it did enable me to identify other dolls in my collection, so it wasn't a waste of money.

I also bought Frances Bairds 'British Teenage Dolls 1954 - 1984' but although this book was helpful for information and photos, because it concentrates on Teenage dolls which are different from child dolls, the only thing it helped me establish was that Susie was not a teen doll. However a lot of the teen faces were very reminiscent of Susie one way or another.

Susan Brewer's 'British Dolls of the 1960s' is a mine of information and photos, and did give me the clue that some doll factories swapped moulds and that well known stores in England would get the manufactors to make dolls for them which were not branded so are often difficult to identify today without their original box. This could have put me off trying to find out more, as Susie is unbranded, though is clearly marked 'Made in England 18D' on the back of her head. But by this time the sleuthing bug had well and truly bitten and I was less and less convinced that she was a Roddy, as none of the Roddy doll body shapes matched hers, though disconcertingly neither did any of the other well known brand British dolls of the era either.

I also purchased Colette Mansell's 'The Collector's guide to British dolls since 1920'. This is also full of interesting information and photos, but still nothing matched Susie.

More web searches followed - I couldn't find any website specifically dedicated to Palitoy dolls, the firm has gone out of business but I was becoming more certain that Susie was a Palitoy because despite the body shape being different from every doll I could see in the books and online, some clues were starting to emerge that matched the doll I've had almost all my life. On ebay sellers would list Tiny Tears dolls (Palitoy) and would often put their size markings in the listing - height and face design. I worked out that 18 stood for 18 inches and D stood for the face design. I haven't seen this convention on other dolls of the era, only on Palitoy. Could this mean that Susie was a Palitoy made for one of those department stores (such as Woolworths or Tesco)? Some of those unbranded dolls had been sold with no clothes. This would fit with my earliest recollections of her hand made knitted outfits but no shop dress. But what I needed to see was a doll with similar body shape that had identification marks or a box. So I started watching 'Palitoy' on ebay, and one day a doll appeared that had the self same body shape but a different face and was 2 inches shorter than Susie. She was listed as possibly a Palitoy, and with the markings that were the Palitoy convention. I successfully bid for this doll, she did not cost much. I had hoped to find something in her hair to tell me that she was definitely Palitoy, but beyond the 'Made in England 16' mark on the back of her head, she, like Susie, had no other identification. However interestingly her torso and arms are from the precise same mould, but her legs are a shorter version of Susie's legs.

The unnamed, unbranded Palitoy doll,
and close up of her 'Made in England 16' marking

More haunting of ebay continued, with other similar dolls appearing, but only one with a similar face to Susie, which I bid on but unfortunately didn't win. Then last week, cornfieldsdancing listed a mint in box vintage Palitoy Petalskin doll on ebay, and it was the missing link that I needed. That doll had the same face and body shape as the unmarked doll I had purchased, though was 18 inches like Susie, and was described as follows:

Palitoy 1967 Petalskin Doll

She is vinyl and can be dated as she is in the 1967 catalogue

Her name is Penny

I had planned to bid for the doll, but there was an option to buy it now or bid, and someone else decided to pay the £40 buy it now price, so I didn't get it.

None of the books I purchased mentioned the Petalskin Palitoy dolls, or showed photos of them. However the box of this doll was clearly marked Palitoy. The doll came fully dressed, with a night dress in a bag as well. It is just possible that Susie did have this dress once (the socks are the same length as appear in those early photos of me holding her) but it isn't something I recall, so it must have got lost. The seller mentions a 1967 Palitoy catalogue. I have not yet located any Palitoy catalogues online, but they must be out there somewhere.

When we were watching Dancing on Ice 2 a couple of weeks ago, with the girls surrounded by their dolls in skates, my little one suggested that Susie should have skates too. I knew that Sasha doll shoes fit her feet (the Gotz shoes are too big), so found a supplier who does the loveliest shoes for Sasha dolls http://www.the-doll-works.com/index.html and discovered that yes indeed skates were available. So I spoiled myself and Susie and bought the skates, some tights, a pair of socks and dear little pink shoes with bows. The package did not take long to arrive and although I had to loosen the laces on the boots completely to get them onto her feet (especially over the tights), Susie now has her own ice skates. I haven't had time to make her an outfit yet, so she is borrowing the Gotz ballet outfit (though the leotard is a little to long for her).

Susie in her skates and the Gotz ballet outfit

However yesterday I saw that the vinyl around Susie's repainted lips were discoloured a sort of orange colour, something I had not noticed before. I wasn't sure if the paint from the lips had done this, so scraped it off, as I didn't want further damage. So Susie now has orange coloured lips rather than the rosebud pink lips she has sported for the past year or so since her restoration. I will wait to see what happens to the discolouration over the coming weeks, I hope it fades.

Close up of Susie with her pink lips,
but clearly showing the orange stain surrounding them

close up of Susie's lips with paint removed, showing the orange staining

The unnamed doll and Susie: their face shapes are different, but torsos and arms are the same shape and size.
Legs are the same pattern, just different sizes

Susie and the unnamed, unbranded Palitoy doll
(Susie is wearing her skates, hence the marked difference in their height)

Susie again - and a sore throat

2010-01-30T22:36:00.002Z

I've got a raging sore throat this evening, so instead of composing the post I was planning, I must go to bed as I have to sing tomorrow morning in church and am hoping that warm Ribena, strepsils, gargling salt water, paracetemol and a good night sleep will enable me to sing without too much pain.

Susie has some new things, and I have worked out what make of doll she is. With that tantalising news, I bid you goodnight. Hopefully tomorrow I shall be able to spend the time I can't tonight to tell you all about my sleuthing.

Welcome

2010-01-26T00:13:00.002Z

During the past 2 or 3 weeks my doll blog has gathered 4 more followers:

Danitza Zarate doesn't appear to have a blog, just an email address so I know nothing about this person.

Sandra Morris runs a small business for which she makes minature dolls and toys. She has a small (live) dog with real character whose reaction to the recent snow was great fun to read about. You can read her Tales of the Toymaker at http://towerhousedolls.blogspot.com/

Püppilottchen (Nicola) lives in Germany, designs toy for sale http://www.pueppilottchen.de and collects vintage Lundby dollshouses and Kathe Kruse dolls. I enjoy looking at her doll photos on flickr as well as her blog at http://pueppilottchens-spielzeug-blog.blogspot.com/

Diepuppenstubensammlerin is the newest follower and collects vintage Lundby and Hennig dollshouses. She also lives in Germany and her blog at http://diepuppenstubensammlerin.blogspot.com/ is all in German, so I use Google translate because my German is minimal. She also has lots of dollshouse photos on flickr.

Welcome everyone to my doll blog. I'm planning some more posts shortly, I just need to take some photos.

Dancing on Ice week 1

2010-01-10T23:51:00.001Z

This evening was the first installment of the 2010 series of Dancing on Ice with Torvill and Dean. I had finished Peter's skating outfit a couple of nights ago, in time for the start, so at last he has something to wear to tie in with the girls. When the programme started my little one insisted that all the dolls with skates had to change into their skating outfits, and the whole lot of dolls, including the new Aussie girls ended up on the sofa with my girls to watch the programme. Somehow my husband managed to squeeze in too, as he likes the programme and usually has interesting things to say about each performance with the eyes of a layperson who has only skated once. Belle likes Harriet's original knitted dress, but I realised for the snow photos that it really is too short on her to be called a dress (although the dolls are the same height, the difference in their proportions does make a difference to how the clothes look on them), so I lent her Anna's skirt that I had made some months ago, as the elastic on the skirt isn't too tight for her waist. I think it looks pretty good with the cream jumper.

All the dolls: l-r Harriet, Anna, Matilda, Jayne, Belle, Samantha and Peter
my girls are hidden in there somewhere

My elder daughter was allowed to stay up for the skate off, but we recorded it for the younger one, as it was definitely well past her bedtime and she had a late night on Saturday.

Later Peter tried his skating moves with Harriet and then Anna. But I think he would secretly like to skate with Matilda, if only I can organise some skates for her and Belle. I suspect I shall have to buy some Gotz skates and use the blades on some home-made skates.

Harriet and Peter who is wearing his new black leggings and silver top

I french-plaited Harriet's hair

Showing Peter's top made with that difficult silver material

Peter and Anna

Aussie Girls enjoy the snow!

2010-01-06T11:14:00.000Z

This morning we woke to 3 1/4 inches of snow, and we had it light compared to some areas in the UK. The girls were up and dressed in record time (why is it that on a normal school morning my elder girl in particular won't get up, but on a snowy day she is all bright and breezy!). Both their schools were closed, as are most in the area, and where I work was closed too (though I could work at home as some of my colleagues will). But my neighbour suggested I enjoy the day with the girls and the snow rather than try and work with a house full of kids and dog.

Matilda and Belle with the snowgirl in our front garden.
Matilda even has snow in her hand.

My husband cleared the drive and provided us with a mound of snow for the snowgirl. Then Matilda and Belle borrowed warm clothes (the ones that would fit) from the Gotz girls. Fortunately Peter's original shoes are a looser fit on him and Belle's feet fit them snugly, so she was able to join Matilda on her snowy adventure. The Gotz girls and boy stayed indoors in the warm - we don't have enough warm coats for them all to venture out at once! So it looks like I need to get sewing again.

Close up of Matilda and Belle with the snowgirl

With our little Christmas tree in the back garden

See their feet sinking in the snow!

So here you go - the first photos of Australian Girl Dolls in English snow. Don't they look pleased!

A snowy welcome

2010-01-06T00:24:00.001Z

Because of my blog silence (almost) over Christmas, I've been remiss in not welcoming two new followers:

Neither Lúcia Soares and Pandora Box appear to have blogs, but both seem to be following several blogs - welcome to my blog.

Tonight it is snowing heavily again - it started here just before 8 pm. As it is Twelfth Night, I undecorated our little potted Christmas tree and put it out in the garden, about 45 minutes later it looked like this:

Since then my husband has looked out and and commented that it is now so covered in snow it isn't so photogenic. Poor little tree, going from a warm house to snow in one quick move! I hope it survives. We've got at least 2 1/2 inches now, and it is set to continue. Goodness knows if the schools will be open in the morning, and what the roads will be like. At the office today we were told to bring work home just in case, but I shall find it difficult to work if the girls are at home too so I'm hoping that the schools will be open and that we'll manage to get them there (and me to work). Apparently this is the worst cold snap that England has seen in 30 years. I'm hoping to photograph the Aussie girls Matilda and Belle in the snow tomorrow with the little tree, but am not sure what Belle will wear on her feet, as we've only got one pair of boots that will fit (Matilda's boots). So maybe they will have to take it in turns to go outside!

I've spent part of this evening continuing with Peter's skating outfit. A few days ago I bought some black stretch jersey material and made him some skating leggings. Now I am using the silvery material from which Lacey's skating skirt was made to make him a top, however because the silvery material is so slippery to sew, I've made the bodice double layered - with the black jersey on the inside of the top. It has turned out very well, and all I need to do now is sew the fastenings on the back and some sequins, but that is a job for tomorrow night, as it is late and I've burned the candle at both ends too many nights in a row.

Oh, it is tomorrow already - goodnight!

Happy Christmas tide, welcome Aussie girls and best wishes for 2010

2009-12-31T23:43:00.005Z

I've had little time for blogging in the past 2 weeks, as every night before Christmas Day I've been sewing more Barbie clothes and another ice skating outfit for my cousin's daughter's third Gotz doll she acquired for her birthday some months ago. Christmas Eve was spent frantically wrapping my own two daughter's presents whilst fighting off extreme tiredness, and I wasn't able to actually finish the skating outfit until the evening of Christmas Day!

Christmas afternoon my daughters eventually unwrapped their new Austalian Girl dolls, the first to arrive in England I believe. We always spread presents out over the day, and had gone to Church in the morning, so the large boxes waited beneath the tree until after we'd had Christmas dinner, been for a walk with the dog and eaten Christmas pudding! It prolongs the excitement to spread the presents over the day. Welcome Belle and Matilda - my girls are happy to have you. My younger daughter also got two Gotz deck chairs, a swimming costume and a paddling pool with accessories, so these were used to make the new girls from Australia feel at home despite the fact we still had the previous Monday's snow on the ground outside.

Peter is transfixed by Matilda's beautiful hair and forgets to tie his shoe laces!

Anna and Belle get to know each other 'Aussie style' despite snow on the ground outside

Harriet and Samantha showing off their new Kimonos from Hong Kong

Jayne models Lacey's new skating dress

On Boxing day we took the handmade Barbie clothes etc amongst other presents to my cousin's house and later that afternoon had the pleasure of watching them being unwrapped. The long blue dress and matching felt handbag was a definite hit and went on one of her many Barbies straight away. Prince Charming who had arrived for her on Christmas day was given some casual clothes (Bermuda shorts and Tshirt) and there were another couple of casual sets for her Barbies (she has about 10) too.

My daughter's Barbie showing off the handmade outfits just before they were wrapped

Prince Charming's casual outfit

She was absolutely delighted with the new skating dress, silver skates, silver shoes for off the ice and knitted bag I had found at a sale and changed Lacey into the dress immediately. We had taken ALL our Gotz girls and boy, my girls insisted that even my Anna doll had to be there, so we ended up with 8 Gotz dolls and 2 Australian Girl dolls whilst with my cousin! The men in the household were remarkably understanding.

The whole line up l-r: Sarah*, Jayne, Mia*, Matilda, Peter, Belle, Harriet, Samantha, Lacey* and Anna

Sarah*, Jayne, Mia*, Matilda and Peter

Belle, Harriet, Samantha, Lacey* and Anna

* Sarah, Mia and Lacey are my cousin's daughter's dolls
And now it is New Year's Eve, we are watching DVDs, eating popcorn and lazing at home whilst waiting for midnight, so I'm taking the opportunity to blog at the same time to wish every one a very happy continued Christmas tide (not over until the 5th January) and peaceful and prosperous 2010.

Barbie clothes for Christmas

2009-12-18T23:52:00.035Z

It has been another very busy week, especially with the lead up to Christmas: the children and myself involved in seasonal music making and the great card signing exercise before the postal deadline. However at last I have been able to return to the sewing machine for the next part of the countdown - to make Barbie doll clothes for my younger daughter's friend.

A few weeks ago I bought Burda pattern 8576, which features a variety of different outfits for Barbies and Ken dolls. On Wednesday evening I cut out most of the pieces and ironed out the folds.

I made a start on the long dress on Thursday night, but then found that despite cutting to the pattern, the doll's backside was too big to allow the dress to meet properly at the back! This was very frustrating as I had done quite a lot to the dress but was also struggling with the material, which is very slippery and would slide sideways in the sewing machine. So I recut the dress to allow for an additional seam allowance (these had been included in the pattern, so don't know why it didn't work first time, maybe it was meant to be for stretch material.)

The simple evening dress which took so long to make

Ironing the dress was also tricky once I had sewn the back seam, as it needed a cool iron for the fabric, but I also needed to get the centre front crease out. I ended up rolling up a tube of white felt and stuffing it up the dress, then ironing it bit by bit. This worked well. The dress is simple, it has a slit up the back of the skirt, a slit at the back for the fastening (I used a press stud, not horrible velcro as suggested) and a ribbon looped through the front top which pulls the top of the dress to a simple gather, tying the ribbon behind the neck. I sewed the ribbon in place at the centre front and hid the stitching with a decoration.

The dress seemed to take ages to make, but was worth the effort (my elder girl saw it and was impressed).

The jeans took about 30 minutes to make from cutting to finishing - they were incredibly quick, simple and effective to make. They have fold up bottoms, turning them into crop jeans.

The little top took a bit longer than the jeans. I cut two identical pieces of the material, sewed them together around the side and bottom edges then turned them the right side out, and sewed down the top folded over to the back. I trimmed it with green ribbon which doubled up as the shoulder straps which attach at the back. This little top is also fastened with a press stud.

The jeans and top

I shall be making these outfits again for my cousin's daughter.

Rag dolls

2009-12-08T21:00:00.004Z

I spent a fair bit of last weekend cleaning and tidying the house as it had got in a real state recently. Whilst my elder daughter was out at a choir rehearsal I finished off the job of tidying up that she had started in her bedroom, and took the opportunity to photograph her rag dolls and the patchwork cushion I had made for her some time ago.

Meet Brownie Guide, Trudie, Betty, Charlotte, Thomas and Madeleine the rag doll.

Brownie Guide, Trudy and Betty

The Brownie was knitted by a colleague of mine for her daughter some years ago, but was passed to my elder girl when she became a Brownie Guide. My step mother brought Trudy to us - she is a South African rag doll and her clothes are made from denim trimmed with the Moravian blue and white indigo print cloth which was made into dresses by English missionaries in the 19th century for Xhosa women to wear - it is called "Chwe-Chwe" and was absorbed into Xhosa culture in time. Trudy's shirt is a print of the patterns found on traditional mud huts in the Eastern Cape. Betty was a 'guess the name of the doll' prize for my girls at a church fete a couple of years ago (they guessed Elizabeth, it was the closest guess).

Charlotte and Thomas

Charlotte is a Zapf creations doll (West Germany), she is soft bodied and quite chunky compared to the Gotz girls, though she is about the same height. She is a toddler doll. She was given to my elder daughter when aged 3 for Christmas and is wearing a cardigan I knitted for her which matched one her owner possessed. Thomas is a baby doll from John Lewis which was given to my big girl just before her little sister was born nearly 6 years ago.

Madeleine the rag doll

We love Bagpuss, and I made this Madeleine for my big girl when she was 2 1/2. I don't think she had seen Bagpuss though at the time, the doll acquired the name later. Madeleine is made from a pattern I cut out of the newspaper in 1975. In fact I was lucky enough to have two copies of the paper, which meant that when I finally made up the doll from the pattern more than 30 years later, I was able to cut out the pattern without having to trace it.

The doll in the newspaper pattern

The uncut version of the pattern

The cut version of the pattern

I made the cushion cover from hexagonal patchwork pieces of cloth that was left over from various dresses - cloth from the rag bag. I had made my daughter a log cabin patterned duvet cover from the same selection of material, and it is still a favourite, more than 10 years later.

Brownie, Trudy, Betty, Charlotte, Thomas and Madeleine
sit on the hexagonal patchwork cushion

Painting the teddy

2009-11-30T23:03:00.000Z

It has been such a busy week since my previous update, and I've had little time for miniatures (though have been reading other blogs late at night when I should really go to bed!). However I had left the paints out from last weekend's efforts because there was one white metal miniature from the toy set that needed some additional preparation work before I could paint it. The jointed teddy came with only 3 of his 4 pins as one had broken off, and I wasn't willing to trust white metal cast pins anyway. So my husband chopped them off and drilled holes through his body and suggested fuse wire would be the best material for adding on his jointed legs so they can still move. He found an ancient card of three different thicknesses of fuse wire, and I chose the middle thickness, so he drilled the holes accordingly. I am a dab hand with the pillar drill, but as he was available, I asked him to do the drilling.

To paint the bear I threaded the four limbs onto a bent out paperclip I had been using to stir the Humbrol paint, and threaded the body onto the fuse wire. This way I didn't have the problem of trying to hold a tiny bear and paint him, so my fingers didn't get quite so messy, and it also meant he could dry without touching anything and smearing the paint.

The photos show that the bear is still work in progress, as I've really only given him 2 coats of yellow paint, and want to follow this up with brown detail for the fur and his features, but have had such a busy weekend with church fundraising activities and taking the girls skating, so teddy has to wait until I can spare a little time one weekday evening.

Teddy's painted body on the fuse wire (still on its card) so he could dry

Teddy's limbs on the paperclip propped up by a screwdriver resting on the tin

Results from a weekend of miniatures

2009-11-23T23:22:00.003Z

It was lovely making miniatures again this weekend. Sunday afternoon my daughter and I dashed into Hobbycraft (always a risky business going in there because there is so much variety of craftware to buy) and bought some Humbrol Enamel paints.

My girl wanted to paint the figures as well, so I gave her the challenge of the little doll's dress whilst I continued working on the Cuckoo clock. In my previous posting I uploaded a photo of the work in progress - the clock needed more colour but not too much as I didn't want it to look too bright or tacky. I printed out photos from the web of 6 different but colourful clocks to give me a guide on colour balance. None of them were anything like the same design, but they did help.

I made a start on the clown in between coats of paint drying on the clock and cooking Roast Lamb for dinner. My daughter did a pretty good job of the doll's dress and her face skin painting but then had other things to do (like getting ready for school for Monday). So I eventually finished the girl, including painting her features which I did at the same time as the clown's face.

Front view of the doll (white metal Phoenix Model)

Back view of the painted doll

The finished clown

I also glued the fire iron stand base and top to the upright, touched up paint a bit and the set was complete.

The fire iron set

This evening, after work and choir practice I have fitted the weights, chain and pendulum on the clock, so my daughter will get a surprise in the morning.

The finished clown and Cuckoo Clock

Close up of the Clock

An afternoon of miniatures

2009-11-21T23:18:00.079Z

It is a long time since I've been able to create anything really miniatures-related, as so much of my creative time recently has been concentrated on making clothes for play dolls and a baby's quilt. Additionally, since July my Westville Greenleaf dollshouse has been in storage while we had our house on the market for a while, so my miniatures are out of reach. Fortunately however my elder daughter's 3 storey shop is still very much accessible at home and today I got a chance to play with it!

We collected a few things from storage this morning, including a few of my tools (just in case), though in fact so far I haven't needed to use them. More about what we collected in another posting this week. After lunch we cleared the kitchen table (actually a breakfast bar, a good height for working at because you can stand or sit without breaking your back) and got the much used cutting mat out. At Miniatura about 18 months ago we had bought some cut-out your own board games and my daughter set to work with a scalpel and ruler after I showed her what to do. She got a bit confused at one point with the folding and gluing corner tabs instructions (the diagram was good for someone who had done these things before, but not so clear for a beginner) but ultimately did a very good job of the two boxes.

My daughter cutting out miniature boxes

Miniature Snakes & Ladders

Her two boxes of games, with a 50 pence piece

Whilst she was cutting and gluing, I borrowed my husband's humbrol enamel paints and painted the fire iron set and the cuckoo clock white metal kits from Phoenix Models. I had made up one of their cooking range kits in the past, so it was familiar territory for me. This was a cheap way of providing her with a set of fireplace accessories which, if made by a professional miniaturist using the proper materials, would have been 10 times as expensive, so although the bronze paint isn't really like the real thing, it is okay. We had looked at cheap ready made sets, but none of them looked authentic enough, whereas the Phoenix Models look right if painted correctly.

I needed my set of needle files to tidy up the metal on the clock before painting, but fortunately these were easily to hand in my husband's small workshop. The cuckoo clock is still work in progress, my husband's collection of paints are for his aeroplane models, and I need some brigher colours to finish it off, especially as we've got a Phoenix Model set of toys to paint, so I think a trip to Hobbycraft tomorrow is a must.

Work in progress on the fire iron set

Painting work in progress on the cuckoo clock

For a while this evening we dusted and tidied the dollshouse starting with the attic bedroom, working down to the kitchen followed by the shop on the ground floor. However the shop part isn't yet completely tidy, as we want to make some Christmas boxes and bags from the latest issue of Dollshouse and Miniature Scene, and a container is required for those skittles...

Hopefully we'll get some more mini making done tomorrow. The weather is awful at the moment, so spending time indoors making things is one good way to pass the weekend.

Welcome, and look forward to the weekend

2009-11-20T23:17:00.001Z

I'm looking forward to this weekend because it will be:

a) A lot less hectic than last weekend, when we had 3 different events on one day and two the next!
b) My elder daughter and I are spending tomorrow afternoon making miniatures!

I'd so love to go to the Dollshouse Festival at Kensington tomorrow, but for one thing my current bank balance just won't allow such indulgence (train fare and entrance fee before even buying a mini), and secondly I can't justify buying more minis when I haven't made up some kits we bought at Miniatura about 18 months ago. So we are devoting the afternoon (and possibly the evening as well) to making up kits, doing cut outs from recently purchased miniature magazines and generally giving Mrs Harvey's toy and cake shop a proper clean up in preparation for all those parents coming to buy Christmas toys for their children. I plan to take lots of photos this weekend of work in progress and I'm looking forward to sharing them with everyone who follows this blog.

With that in mind, I'd like to welcome six more people (wow, I can't believe I've got 37 people following my doll writings):

Mary in Italy specialises in crochet (something I can sort of do as I made a baby blanket once, but am not very good at, as I prefer to knit). She makes the most amazing crochet flowers - see http://not-only-flowers.blogspot.com/ and www.nonsolofiori.com

Lisette, who lives in the Netherlands, is already getting ready for Advent on her blog http://lisettesminiaturen.blogspot.com/. She, like me, has been passionate about dollshouses all her life.

Daisy, in Brazil, has great variety on her miniatures blog http://miniaturasdaisy.blogspot.com/ with lots of lovely 1/12th scale food, though she has several other blogs too.

Monica, like me, loves sewing, and has a collection of Sasha dolls http://maconstreetstudio.blogspot.com/. She isn't afraid to give them a repaint to great effect.

Roz & Aidy of Lilyelf miniatures create wonderful individual dolls which you can see at http://lilyelf.blogspot.com/

NikNik lives in Russia and makes all sorts of interesting things including some incredible doll modelling http://niknikm.blogspot.com/. She is the mother of Victoria who has been following my blog for a little while.

Welcome everyone, I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy yours.

Doll play - for teens

2009-11-16T00:22:00.000Z

We took our girls to a local church quiz night recently. My elder girl invited two of her friends to join us, and the other children on their team (the children insisted on a kids only team) were two nearly teen boys my girls know through church. My younger daughter decided to take along two of the Gotz dolls, dressed up in their Bavarian outfits (well we had just been to see the Sound of Music!). Funnily enough she actually took along the shared dolls, Jayne and Peter. Samantha and Harriet, who were still dressed in Halloween outfits, had to stay at home (we knew those outfits wouldn't go down well at a church quiz!)

The two visiting girls arrived at our house and saw my little one playing with her dolls, and my elder daughter's soft toys all over her bedroom floor. One admitted she loved her own soft toys, but my elder girl was careful not to admit that any of the dolls actually belonged to her. We had discussed this beforehand, as quite often my girls use elder daughter's larger bedroom floor for doll play, and I was concerned that she would be teased by her friends for playing with dolls, aged 13. When they all got into the car, one of the girls was very happy to play dolls with my little girl (they played 'hide and seek' would you believe!). I think it was partly the novelty of having a little sister for the evening (this child has three younger brothers), but at the Quiz I noticed she was quite happy to have the two dolls on her lap for a while in full view of lots of adult strangers and the boys, and later was happy to resume the hide and seek game when we took them to their respective homes.

I think it is sad that we expect our children to grow up so fast, and put away childish things. There is so much pressure to conform to being a teen as soon as they start secondary school (if you don't like pop music you are 'so not cool'). My elder daughter's friends are not the types who go in for heavy makeup yet (and are despised by some of the really trendy girls for being just a little bit different from the average), though they all enjoy pop music and Nintendo DS, etc. But still liking dolls isn't something they can readily admit even to their own peers, it would be social death in the dog-eat-dog school environment. So observing the girls with the dolls at the quiz night gave me a quiet sense of pleasure, I felt as if, albeit briefly, I had scored a small point for the regaining of their fast disappearing childhood just by treating the taking of dolls to a public event as perfectly normal and not commenting on their play which would have made them self conscious.

Patchwork Quilt, and another welcome

2009-11-11T00:28:00.002Z

I've spent the past 4 evenings sewing a patchwork quilt to welcome a friend's baby (due very soon). Although I have done patchwork before (a log cabin pattern duvet cover for my elder daughter's bed, and a hexagonal pattern cushion cover to match), I've never actually quilted before. I found the pattern in a book on patchwork projects, it is called a baby's quilt with matching dolls quilt (which I haven't made) and the instructions were straightforward, with clear photos illustrating what to do.

Because I don't know the gender of the soon to be born infant, the quilt had to be suitable for either boy or girl, so I settled on a rainbow colour combination. I used a pressed wadding for the middle of the quilt, which made it manageable to sew the quilting on my sewing machine. The quilt measures 34 inches x 31 inches.

I'm rather pleased with the results.

The quilt completed

Showing the back and front of the quilt

Close up

Whilst I've sewed, my blog has acquired two more followers:

Silken Purse who is an artist, has several blogs:
http://theplumedpen.blogspot.com/
http://theplumedpen-ofladyvelvet.blogspot.com/
http://thefrenchdressingroom.blogspot.com/
http://dressingtableheaven.blogspot.com/
http://youaresuchadoll.blogspot.com/

Dora is also an artist, her blogs are in Spanish, which I cannot read, but are still good to look at:
http://lasminiaturasdora.blogspot.com/
http://pinturascarmendora.blogspot.com/
http://premiosdora.blogspot.com/

Welcome to my blog, I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome and Jam

2009-11-03T23:16:00.001Z

This evening I have made a batch of real, full size Quince Jam. I've still got enough quinces for another batch, but one batch in an evening after a full day at work as well as feeding the family and listening to my elder daughter's violin practice is just about as much as I can manage in a day, so the last batch will have to wait (I made a previous batch about 2 weeks ago, and the quinces have been sitting on the table awaiting my time ever since). Thankfully, it is a fruit that doesn't go off quickly, so I was able to sew those Halloween outfits for the dolls without feeling too guilty about wasted fruit. I would like to make some jars of miniature quince jam one day for my daughter's dollshouse shop and my Westville house.

I've got four more people following this blog:

Suzan http://kankadolls.blogspot.com/ makes dolls from wire armature and papier mache. Her blog is in Turkish, so I can't read it but the photos of her dolls are amazing.

Snowfern in Singapore http://snowfern.com/ creates wonderful miniatures, especially food, some of which is sold on Etsy, and also contributes to http://dollhouseminis.blogspot.com/

Florine in the USA http://my-vintage-dollhouses.blogspot.com/ collects vintage minatures and houses, is very knowledgeable about them and like me browses eBay a lot ;-)

Debie is a doll artist who sells her wonderful original creations at fairs in the UK http://piskies-and-poppets.blogspot.com/ and on Etsy. Maybe one day I'll get to see her dolls and meet her at a fair.

Welcome everyone and thank you for following my blog.

Gotz doll halloween

2009-10-31T23:18:00.001Z

I've spent the past three evenings working against the clock to provide some Halloween costumes for the Gotz dolls. Too much midnight oil but my girls seem pleased with the results. Today I hadn't quite finished and we had a family day trip to London (Science Museum), so on the train my elder daughter and I did all the hand finishing work required, including sewing on press-studs. I was really proud of her for being keen to do it (she isn't always into sewing) and for sewing dolls clothes on a moving train without dropping any press studs! She had been experimenting with felt sewing this week, and made two items before today. When we got home this evening I ironed all the outfits and we dressed the dolls for their Halloween photo shoot and tea party (in the tent my girls set up in one of their bedrooms for half term!)

The pumpkin face being hand stitched onto the costume 3days ago

Samantha, Harriet and Jayne all dressed up for Halloween

Samantha in her witchy dress, hat and cape, Jayne in a cape
(with the green outfit made previously underneath)

Harriet in her Pumpkin outfit, with the felt trick or treat bag my elder daughter stitched,
and the choc pumpkins we picked up at the station on the way home

Peter in his ghost outfit hurriedly constructed
by my elder daughter when we got home

The whole scary lineup!

Halloween tea in the dome tent,
with Arctic Hare (bought today by elder daughter)
and his felt carrot she made 2 days ago

Samantha and Harriet - notice the scary touch to the tea pot!
that gruesome finger came with the pumpkins

Arctic Hare, Jayne and Samantha

Younger daughter tucking into the chocolate pumpkins!

Reader's Award

2009-10-27T21:32:00.002Z

Oh Rebecca, what have you started! Thank you for thinking of me in your Reader's award. I really enjoyed reading about all the different books that you could associate with people whom you've met in blogland, especially as several of the books are already familiar to me. I love The Shield Ring by Rosemary Sutcliff - the Lake District area where it is set is a place I love, and grew up with the Laura Ingalls Little House books and have them all. However what you chose for me was a book I had not encountered: The Adventures of Galldora. I discovered when searching on Amazon that a second book was also available about Galldora the rag doll, so I managed to buy both from the same seller, and they arrived today. This evening my 5 year old daughter and I enjoyed the first chapter - Galldora and the small reward - at her bedtime, so thank you for introducing these stories to us.

I'm supposed to obey the rules and think of books that I associate with the various blogs I follow, however, like Rebecca I'm going to cheat. Instead of dedicating books to any particular person, I'm going to talk about books I own and love that I associate with dolls and miniatures, and dedicate them to everyone who reads my blog.

One of the books Rebecca listed is Miss Happiness and Miss Flower. I adored this book as a child, and the sequel Little Plum, in fact they inspired me so much I made my own versions of Miss Happiness and Miss Flower.

Their heads, hands and feet are Fimo, and their bodies, arms and legs are stuffed cloth. Their wigs are black cotton thread stitched into a cloth pad which is glued to the head and their faces are very roughly moulded - I'm terrible at working with modelling clay - I carve and sew better than this. Although I tried to model their features, they were not very distinct so today when photographing them I re-drew their eyes, brows and nostrils with a black felt tip pen.

Miss Flower on the left and Miss Happiness
on the right before I re-drew their eyes

After their faces were re-drawn

I also made their clothes, though they are not authentic, and their sashes are made of tissue paper, one is a bit decayed now.

In the photo with them is a small box with a roll top lid. In the book their cupboard is a similar box, and when I found this one on a market as a teenager I thought it was perfect for my Miss Happiness and Miss Flower.

Ursula Moray William's Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse is similar in a way to the concept of Galldora, in that the horse leaves home and goes on many adventures before finally managing to get back to his beloved master with his treasure. I loved this book as a child, and was delighted when we went to Miniatura a couple of years ago to find a miniature horse very similar to this one, which is perfect for my elder daughter's miniature toy and cake shop.

Another book I love by the same author is Malkin's Mountain - all about toy makers, carving wood, families, love and community. What more inspiration could a budding wood carver want than a story such as this. I've recently acquired the two other books in the set.

The Ship that Flew was one of those books I only discovered when I went to High School, because a copy was available in my school library, it was one of the few books that wasn't a teen, adult or reference book in the secondary school library. It is a magical story about 4 ordinary children who get a ship in a bottle that takes them on wonderful adventures, including back in time. I was taken with the fact that the eldest boy found the ship in a strange antique shop filled with curious things, but that the ship was what attracted him and he loved it and gave all he had in his pocket for it. Who doesn't like browsing in antique shops, even if you can't afford most of what is on offer!

Another story series that is closely associated with miniatures is Mary Norton's The Borrowers. I have collected all the books in the set over the years, and even have managed to buy Poor Stainless, an additional borrower story. Not only were these stories a great introduction for a non UK child to various aspects of English culture, it was also a lovely way to get to know more about the English countryside, when Pod, Homily and Arriety venture out of the safety of the big old house in Buckinghamshire to find a new home, after their under floorboard sanctury is discovered by the humans. One day I plan to explore that area of Buckinghamshire (Mary Norton lived near Leighton Buzzard) because it is not too far from where I live now.

Although the Family from One End Street stories by Eve Garnett don't mention dollshouses, the detailing of the the lives of the Ruggles Children is fascinating social history source material for anyone building dollshouses based in 1930s/1940s England. Once again, these books were a good way for me to learn about a country I only visited once every 4 years during my childhood. There are three books, and my all time favourite is the third when Kate Ruggles enjoys a glorious summer holiday at the Dew Drop Inn in her beloved countryside, a far cry from her urban home.

I have so many children's books - I spent many happy hours browsing various second hand book shops when I was a teenager, and discovered several delights, including the Eve Garnet books. Our house probably contains at least 2,000 books (not all for children), but my children's book collection is very treasured, and I am especially pleased when my daughters discover kinship with books in the shelves, my library is meant to be used and enjoyed.

My doll cabinet - top shelf part 3

2009-10-20T21:11:00.000+01:00

The final two residents of my doll cabinet are two little fay dolls from Cape Town. They are very small, being only about an inch tall. Their heads are made of wooden beads, their hair looks like bright mohair and they are beautifully painted. They match the little jug and bowl sets in my Triang Dollshouse.

The distinctive fay marking - fay is still trading
and sells miniature items in the
Craft Market at The Waterfront, Cape Town

I hope you have enjoyed exploring my Doll Cabinet shelves and meeting the residents. Now I shall have to blog about my daughter's dollshouse, as mine is still in storage. I'm hoping to get it out before Christmas, as we've temporarily taken our house off the market, so have no need to be living in a show home!

More followers

2009-10-19T23:36:00.002+01:00

Welcome to my latest followers:

Firstly Synnøve who lives in Norway and is doing beautiful things to her dollshouse http://synnovesetdukkehjem.blogspot.com/

Anama lives in Argentina, her blog is all in Spanish so I can't read it http://anamavesi.blogspot.com/, she makes lovely little outfits for miniature dolls

Lize http://lizelund.blogspot.com/ is in Saudi Arabia and does some amazing minis

Debbie probably needs no introduction to many miniature enthusiasts and I am very pleased that she is on the mend after scary surgery http://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.com/ and is blogging again

Eva writes her blog in English and Spanish http://mini-escenas.blogspot.com/, she has been having fun with nautical scenes and building a tree out of clay

Moti is in Spain and does one of a kind miniatures at http://ooakminis.blogspot.com/ and http://solominis.blogspot.com/.

Welcome everyone - thank you for following my blog and making comments.

My doll cabinet - top shelf part 2

2009-10-19T18:58:00.000+01:00

The second set of dolls on the top shelf are a little smaller than the 5 Hong Kong dolls from my previous post about my doll cabinet.

These three little treasures are identical. They were made in Italy. The two in homemade costumes were part of the chorus line for the doll theatre, and I made their little outfits out of scraps of slightly stretchy material, their boots and bonnets are felt. Their elastic bands are perished, so their arms fall off, but they really are very cute all the same, with wonderfully natural moulded bodies for dolls so small. I have some even smaller baby doll versions with bent legs, but those are in storage at present. The doll in the centre is partly clothed in some national costume which had been glued onto the doll.

The arms on these three identical dolls are so detailed

On their backs is 'Made in Italy' with a logo showing a stork holding a baby. I don't know which Italian factory made them, and would like to find out.

The next two dolls are unidentical plastic dolls, both Made in Italy, but by different companies. The taller one has CS very clearly on its back and the other has a symbol/logo of some kind which looks like it could say FOLO, but I'm really not sure, as it could say FDLO. I would like to know which Italian doll factories made these dolls. They were picked up in my 20s from a table top sale somewhere.

The two Italian dolls of different makes

Markings on the shorter doll

Markings on the taller doll

Panda and friends

2009-10-18T23:53:00.002+01:00

My Panda bear was given to me for my first Christmas. He was very smart when new, and sported a lovely red bow tie and a growl box that really worked when tipped forward. Panda joined in with lots of games and teddy bear picnics on the back lawn which resulted in him slowly becoming quite grubby and worn, so unfortunately he is no longer in pristine condition. The picnics on the back lawn usually included all our dolls and teddies, and were held on my mother's travel rug, which had been on her bed when she worked in London during the 1960s. I still have this rug which is well travelled but still in usable good condition, and it was given back to me by my step mother recently.

Panda today on my mother's travel rug

Some years ago I unstitched his back and repaired his growl box which had got filled with stuffing, but it isn't working again, so I think some surgery is required once more. His label was removed when I was a baby so I don't know what make of bear he is and haven't gone in search of his maker identity yet.

Me with Panda when we were both new!

My mother had two teddy bears when she was a child. One she gave to my sister and I as small children, he was called Bruno and we loved him loads, and were able to share him quite happily. Unfortunately about 10 years ago one of my sister's dogs got hold of him and he was very badly mauled, so although she patched him up, he is in very bad shape. However my mother's first teddy was not one we played with, because even when we visited her parents on those trips to the UK, and were allowed to play with the contents of her toy trunk, the bear was always removed first. On her lone visit to the UK in 1981 my mother returned with the bear, as her parents were moving house, and she did not want to get rid of Bruin, he was clearly very cherished. As a child she had made him a smart grey blanket coat and red hat, which was a master stroke for preservation of his body, because he has been protected from the worst excesses of child play and is in very good condition for a bear in his 60s.

Bruin in his coat and hat

After my mother died, my sister inherited Bruno and I inherited Bruin. He has always been kept on display since then, not locked away in a trunk or a cupboard, so needs dusting occasionally. He doesn't have a label anymore. Some years ago I did a bit of searching around, and finally concluded that he is probably a JK Farnell bear, and will have been made in 1943/1944. Bruno was about a year younger, but was from a different English maker.

Bruin without his clothes, showing how good his fur is despite a long life

When I was about 4 I was given a soft toy Poodle dog which I adored. Poodle has character. He originally had no clothes, but his body got worn pretty quickly, so my mother gave him a 'dog tooth' coat. His paws are of the same felt like material as his original torso, and unfortunately have suffered too, and at least two paws are safety pinned on! (sorry Poodle). I did some awkward repairs when much younger (not a very good job), hence the safety pins. I also re-sewed on one of his ears, which gives him a lopsided look from face on.

Poodle prefers to sit, though he can stand up -
probably hurts to stand up with those safety pins!

Poodle is all the more precious because I lost him once within the first year of having him. We were visiting a garden centre one day, and somehow he got dropped and we went home without him. I was distraught. I can clearly remember that someone had put on the single record of 'Downtown' sung by Petula Clark and I sat miserably in an armchair listening, that song is now always associated with Poodle. I can recall that at first my mother was cross with me for being careless, then when she realised how truly distressed I was, she phoned up the garden centre and by some miracle someone had found him and handed him in. So while one parent rushed back to the garden centre to collect him the other stayed at home with us and soon I had Poodle again and was VERY careful after that with my toys when we took them on outings. Even now if my younger daughter takes a toy away from the house I remind her not to loose it or any of its attachments!

Panda, Poodle and Bruin as they are today,
sitting on my mother's vintage travel rug,
which she had in a bedsit in London,
brought on her travels, was used for family picnics
and now has a quiet retirement (still in very good condition)
as a display seat for my teddies.

So Panda needs surgery to repair his voice, Poodle needs foot and ear surgery and Panda needs a gentle surface wash to remove stains and a brand new red bow tie.

My doll cabinet - top shelf part 1

2009-10-18T21:54:00.000+01:00

The top shelf of my doll cabinet is the home for a collection of small plastic dolls, plus the two handmade jointed wooden dolls that I created myself. There are several of particular types on the shelf. Because of the way I've arranged the dolls, I don't want to work from left to right this time, but will talk about the dolls in categories, starting with the biggest.

The top shelf of My doll cabinet

Hong Kong dolls

These five plastic dolls have Made in Hong Kong on their backs, and came with outfits glued on. However as you will see from the photo, I made dresses for some of them and embroidered initials on the dresses, as each doll had a name. Some still have their names sellotaped on the top of their heads. I bought them all as a teen from one of those shops that was small but seemed to sell everything, including a nice selection of pocket money dolls. I had so many because I needed them for the chorus in theatrical productions! During our early teens my sister and I built a miniature theatre out of wood, wire rods, fabric and paint. It was rudimentary, but had rows of real side curtains like a proper stage and the main front curtains opened and shut when we pulled a cord. We spent hours devising a show to all the music of the famous Musicals, so the dolls had changes of costumes and were positioned differently for each scene. Sadly I never thought to take any photographs and after one season the theatre was abandoned and eventually broken up. But these dolls are survivors from that time. Their elastic bands holding their limbs to their torsos are perishing, so they are very wobbly now. Some of them have their original plastic shoes, two have knitted boots that I made for them. One of them had her eyes fall into her head, so I had to glue them in place, which means they no longer open and close. If you know which factory made these dolls, please let me know.

Two of the girls, one with a dress over
her original outfit, the other with the original dress

Award

2009-10-12T20:45:00.008+01:00

Este blog é um sonho = This blog is a dream

This morning I got a nice surprise - thank you Victoria http://vika-m.blogspot.com/.

Here are the award rules:
1. Post the picture of the award and publish the rules.
2. Post the links of the winners
3. Give the award to 10 other bloggers.
4. Notify the winners;-)

It is impossible to nominate a favourite blog out of all those I follow, but apparently I have to pick 10. So, reluctantly selective, here goes. I would like to pass this award to:

Ann at http://agdfan.blogspot.com/
Rebecca at http://rebeccascollections.blogspot.com/
Sarah at http://miniaturechurch.blogspot.com/
Mercedes at http://libertybiberty.blogspot.com/
Kathi at http://beautifulminiblessings.blogspot.com/
Casey at http://caseymini.blogspot.com/
Lori at http://ohminiofmine-loshcosh.blogspot.com/
Julie at http://yummyminiaturefoods.blogspot.com/
Sonia at http://minitink.blogspot.com/
Papillon Bleu http://papillonbleuuk.blogspot.com/

(My Panda says 'Hi' to Papillon Bleu's new Panda Prince)

Welcome and Thank you

2009-10-04T22:58:00.013+01:00

I think it is high time I welcome and thank everyone who has found my blog so far, taken the trouble to comment and / or follow the blog using Google Friend connect.

The first people to find it are very far away from me in Australia:

Ann at http://agdfan.blogspot.com/ who does wonderful knitting for play dolls - see also her photos on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/38224945@N03/ for more examples of her knitting for Australian Girl Dolls

and Rebecca at http://rebeccascollections.blogspot.com/ who collects vintage miniatures and is very knowledgeable about them

Sarah Price has a wonderful blog about her miniature church and its growing family of parishioners http://miniaturechurch.blogspot.com/. She doesn't have many followers yet though, so please pay her blog a visit.

Susan is new to miniatures and blogging but has already got 88 followers http://susanshouses.blogspot.com/ and collects vintage houses including some amazing finds from thrift shops

Sylvia http://lotjesdollshouse.blogspot.com/ has been building a lovely miniature candystore

Papillon Bleu does wonderful tea parties for her handmade dolls http://papillonbleuuk.blogspot.com/ - she is brave enough to endure variable, grey English weather though she comes from France

http://tallulahbelleoriginals.blogspot.com/ has created an incredible character filled doll called Kendo (see http://tallulahbelleoriginals.blogspot.com/2009/08/ladies-and-gentlemen.html)

Kathi is building a mini beach house http://beautifulminiblessings.blogspot.com/ and is new to miniatures

Katie http://dollhouseminiatureart.blogspot.com/ creates amazing miniature punchneedle rugs

Sinem is Turkish and unfortunately I cannot read her blog http://rose-blogum.blogspot.com/ which does not appear to be miniatures or doll related

Debbie at http://uneekmusings.blogspot.com/ creates unique character dolls made with wooden clothes pins

Sonia is Spanish http://minitink.blogspot.com/ and writes her blog about her miniature creations in English and Spanish

Lori http://ohminiofmine-loshcosh.blogspot.com/ builds the most amazingly elegant Greenleaf kit houses into something special, I wish I had the space for several lovely houses too!

Marlene is working on an 1820s town house http://somersethouseaproject.blogspot.com/ but is in the middle of moving house herself!

Julie creates yummy miniature food http://yummyminiaturefoods.blogspot.com/ and also sews and carves

Victoria http://vika-m.blogspot.com/ is tackling miniature wood turning to great effect as she is building a Russian village house

Jackie makes handmade cloth dolls http://plain-n-simpleblog.blogspot.com/ with painted faces

Maite is Spanish http://miniaturista-minisypx.blogspot.com/ and has an enormous dollshouse which looks like apartments

Minna is in Finland http://minnasdollhouses.blogspot.com/ and has several houses, including vintage and one she and her husband built recently

Mercedes at http://libertybiberty.blogspot.com/ is in New Zealand and has just had an article about her detailed miniature house and garden published in a Spanish Miniature magazine

Please visit these blogs if you haven't already - they are full of interesting surprises.

Unexpected identification of doll cabinet residents

2009-10-04T22:04:00.005+01:00

I invested in a couple of doll identification books in the hope of finding the maker of my playdoll Susie, but still no luck. However I was able to identify the maker of the sadly worse for wear occupant of the bottom shelf - Joy the disco diva. She is in fact a Rock Flowers Heather doll, though of course is in anything but mint condition! 'The Collectors Guide to Dolls of the 1960s and 1970s volume II' on page 165 shows two super examples of this doll, and also shows outfit #4052 Jeans in Fringe which I remember my sister had for Joy as well. The mint version dolls are wearing the orange sunglasses which I do remember (long since lost).

I was very gratified to find my Jasmine Pippa doll featured in the other book I bought - 'British Teenage dolls 1956 - 1984' by Francis Baird. There is a nice section on the Pippa family in this book, with some wonderful colour photos, and I was able to work out which Pippa my sister was given for her birthday - it was the Bridesmaid Pippa Gail with shoulder length brown curled in hair, but my sister named her Laura, probably after Laura Ingalls Wilder, as we were reading the 'Little House on the Praire' books at the time. I have a yet to fulfil dream of visiting all the Laura houses but have not managed to visit the USA so far.

The British Teenage dolls book also has a sizable section on Sindy dolls which I have yet to pour over properly. Unfortunately the only Roddy dolls in the book are the teenage ones, which are nothing like my Susie. So I have ordered more books ('The Collector's Guide to British Dolls Since 1920' and 'British Dolls of the 1960s') which hopefully will have what I'm looking for, and may perhaps help me identify other dolls in my collection.

My doll cabinet - middle shelf part 3

2009-09-27T00:10:00.007+01:00

Back to a posting about my doll cabinet after a spate of nostalgia regarding my first play doll.

Beside the German band set sits a pippa type doll with no name. She is wearing an overall suit that belonged to my sister's Pippa doll Laura. I came across this doll in a junk basket of dolls on a stall a few years ago, the lower part of her torso is missing, so she has to wear overalls to cover her exposed ball jointed legs, a skirt and blouse just wouldn't work.

My Pippa doll Jasmine sits alongside the nameless non pippa. I got Jasmine almost by accident. We had come to the UK to spend Christmas with my grandparents in 1978, and I had brought my Sindy doll with me as we couldn't bring bigger dolls due to weight and space in our luggage. So Susie did not make that journey. For Christmas my sister was given the Ballerina Sindy whom she named Sue (I had a plain one that I had bought with birthday money) and we were each given Sindy related furniture, I remember receiving the Sindy orange tent and a plastic sleeping bag for Sally (the name of my Sindy) whilst my sister was given a Sindy sideboard and crockery. However I was also given the Sindy dressing table but when it was removed from the box we found it was broken. My Granny was very upset as this my Grandparents gift to me, so she promised that we would return it to the shop and I could choose something else.

Taking me to a toyshop (Tunbridge Wells) just after Christmas was perhaps risky, and for me was a very exciting experience, I couldn't believe my luck in being allowed to select something. I think Granny thought I would choose an alternative item for my Sindy (the dressing table was out of stock), but as soon as I saw Jasmine I just knew I had to have her, despite this being 'yet another doll'!

Jasmine is a Japanese Pippa - she came dressed in a duck blue kimono (which I still have) and I think I fell for her because she looked so exotic and different from anything familiar (well who was going to be tempted by domestic equipment for a Sindy when you could have a far eastern doll who could add a whole different flavour to play story lines). I was soon making additional outfits for her, and did buy one outfit in that shop (of the few that remained after the Christmas rush - yellow and purple football kit of all things when I'm not into the game!). My sister was given her Pippa doll Laura at her next birthday. I made a brown felt trouser suit for that doll that my sister didn't appreciate! (Laura was a sophisticated doll, in my sister's view the suit made her look frumpish).

Jasmine is displayed in her straw hat that I got from somewhere and a dress I made out of scraps of stretch jersey fabric. I've still got a few of her original bought and home made outfits.

Jasmine wearing a home made dress, black shoes and a straw hat

Jasmine has thick (now rather wiry) jet black hair
which means the hat perches rather than sits.

Identifying Susie (and Chrissie)

2009-09-25T22:48:00.010+01:00

Posting up photos on Flickr has had some amazing consequences - I've succeeded in tracking down the pattern for Susie's clothes which inspired me to track down her coat pattern, and now another person on the other side of the world has realised that her doll is very similar to my Susie and wants to repaint her doll (Chrissie) using Susie's face as her model (Susie is flattered!) http://www.flickr.com/photos/beezmcs/3952062548/

However this has once again set me on the trail of trying to identify Susie. I suspect she may be a very late Roddy/Bluebell (Roddy Dolls were taken over by Bluebell Dolls in the mid 1960s), but have never been completely convinced because I haven't yet discovered a doll with a similar body shape, none of the Roddys I've seen online are exactly like her, as although some on ebay appear to have very similar length and shape arms, their legs and torsos are different from Susie's. See my post about Susie being restored for a photo of her body shape.

Susie has a vinyl head, a hard thick plastic torso and vinyl arms and legs. The only marking I thought she had on her head was a sort of G symbol near the air hole in the back of her head, but I've now discovered that she has "Made in England 18D" stamped on the back of her neck. She also has "14" stamped on the sole of each foot. Roddy dolls tend to have Roddy stamped on them and apparently Bluebell Roddy's have a distinctive circle around "Made in England" (which Susie doesn't have), but unless this has somehow rubbed off, I can't find such a clear identification mark of her maker.

Made in England 18D (but not in a circle)

The G type symbol (this photo is the right way up,
the G is on its face when Susie stands upright)

The soles of her feet with "14" stamped on them

The top of her feet, showing the detail of her toenails

A close up of one of her hands

I've found a small reference to the Roddy factory (in Tulketh Street, Southport, Lancashire) on a Southport forum http://www.southportforums.com/forums/printthread.php?t=50357618 but there is little else in the way of information about the firm online that I've been able to unearth. So I've sent off for a couple of doll identification books, and hopefully one or both of these will be able to help me identify who made my Susie.

Susie's face and shoulders in profile

Susie's vintage knitted coat

2009-09-24T20:53:00.010+01:00

I've located the original knitted coat pattern of Susie's pink coat and hat, thanks to ebay. The pattern is a Bairnswear pattern, with the coat knitted in yellow. I'm glad my Nanna decided to knit it in deep pink instead, as the yellow with a dark green hat is rather a strong combination that wouldn't have suited Susie (well maybe the yellow, but not the dark green).

The Bairnswear pattern, with the coat and hat on the middle doll

I was pretty sure when bidding that the pattern was the right one, and this was confirmed when it arrived today as I was able to tell from the stitching details shown in the photo on the front cover.

Comparing the detail on the pattern picture

with the actual knitted pink coat

I tried the coat on my Gotz Anna and as I had thought the sleeves are the perfect length for her (too long on Susie), and what is more it suits her beautifully. The shade of pink does look good on her, but I'm tempted to knit the coat in a slightly darker pink or a smart navy or royal blue (to match her eyes). But this won't happen for a little while, as my elder daughter is still waiting for a jumper I started last year, which she has probably outgrown, so I shall have to start that again!

Susie and Anna with the coat and hat pattern,
currently being worn by Anna

Susie and her vintage knitted clothes

2009-09-17T23:05:00.018+01:00

My doll Susie was given to me in 1970 by my Nanna who knitted clothes for her (I do not recall an original 'shop' outfit). The first photos of me admiring her are a bit blurred, but do show that she came to me in her knitted coat and beret, with white shoes and socks. However they don't show the dress, knickers and cardigan which could have been concealed by the coat.

Susie with her original hair - quickly getting messed up!

Certainly the photo taken a year later when I had a Triang pram show that Susie was wearing her green knitted dress.

Not the greatest photo of me,
but it clearly shows Susie in her green dress

Whilst browsing photos on Flickr at the weekend I came across a Gotz Sarah doll wearing a knitted dress, which although in a completely different yarn, was clearly the same pattern (though lenghtened a bit), and the description explained that it was from a vintage pattern - see http://www.flickr.com/photos/clothkids/3904043893/ so I searched through Clothkids photos and found two further photos of the dress in progress http://www.flickr.com/photos/clothkids/3723264427/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/clothkids/3701076566/in/set-72157606632892122/ and I instantly recognised the green dress on the pattern book in these photos. I made contact with Clothkids who told me it was a Hayfield pattern often available on ebay, and 3 days later I had my own pristine copy bought via ebay.

Susie in her green dress with the pattern
showing the green dress in the centre of the picture.
This photo doesn't show how close the green
is to the pattern photo colour, in reality they are the same shade

Susie wearing her cardigan over the dress, with my Gotz Anna.
This cardigan is the one on the bottom left front cover of the Hayfield pattern

I had noticed on the front cover of the pattern another dress that I remembered - the white yoke neck with pink pom poms - this was a dress that went missing during my childhood. On receiving the pattern I was able to confirm that the short sleeved white cardigan was also from this pattern book, as were Susie's green knickers that match her dress. It seems that my Nanna knitted the clothes using the colours shown on the pattern book.

Knitted knickers on Susie, and on
the boy Kathe Kruse doll in the pattern photo

However her pink coat and beret are not included in this pattern, so I'm now on the look out for the right vintage pattern. Her coat sleeves are actually too long so have always been rolled up, which means that the coat would fit the Gotz girls (I haven't tried). It would be nice to knit it for one of them, though in a different colour perhaps.

Pink coat and beret, not included in this pattern

Thank you Clothkids on Flickr for your help in finding the original pattern for some of Susie's vintage clothes.