Guess the name of the doll raffle

 About 18 months ago when we were on one of our night time dog walks around our town, my daughter and I spotted a modern play doll in a charity shop window. The following day I went to buy her, she was in very good / almost unplayed with condition and her long hair was very shiny and smooth, not tangled and matted like many played with dolls. She is an 18" Chad Valley DesignaFriend doll, usually sold at Argos in the UK. She has a soft body and vinyl head, arms and legs. The commercially made dress she was wearing was clearly not original to her (very short, different scale). My daughter brushed her hair and plaited it then for a year or more she languished on a box in my doll/craft room waiting for attention. 

When I was working with a friend on the craft stall plans for our annual church Christmas Fayre this year, I decided to sort out some outfits for the doll, and turn her into a Guess the name of the doll raffle prize.

In the event, I was able to buy 3 pairs of DesignaFriend shoes, plus a pair of DesignaFriend boots with jeans. In our stash of 18" doll clothes, my daughter and I found a blue/purple/pink shirt, the pink, purple and white stiped hoodie and a small pink rucksack we'd won at a Sasha Celebration weekend raffle a few years ago. I bought a new doll hairbrush and got to work on outfits to go with the 3 pairs of shoes.

In July while we were in the USA, after the Sasha Festival, our friend took my younger daughter and I to a wonderful fabric shop not far from Boston, where we spent time finding buttons in the button bin (quite a relaxing pastime filled with interesting discoveries) plus some fine print red/white/blue fabric and a couple of other pieces of fabric. I made a dress with the fabric (using Simplicity 4364 18" doll clothing pattern), found some pink fabrics in my off cuts box to make a tank top (which uses 2 of the pink flower buttons from the USA) and boxer shorts, and make a plain turquoise A-line skirt with an elasticated waist, using patterns from 'Sew the Contemporary Wardrobe for 18-inch Dolls' by Joan Hinds. My friend and I made scrunchies for her hair and wrists.

I took photos of the doll wearing each outfit. 

The tank top (with pink flower buttons), boxer shorts and pink sparkly slippers

The shirt, skirt and turquoise trainers outfit

The hoodie, jeans and boots outfit

The dress and smart shoes outfit

My daughter wrapped a large shoe box in silver wrapping paper, I stitched 3 of the outfits onto pink card and dressed the doll in the dress. My daughter did super French plaits for the doll (after I'd taken the outfit photos!). In the display the jeans and hoodie with boots outfit was put in the lid of the box, while the other 2 outfits were placed on the table in front of the doll.

The doll with her 4 outfits before we took her to the craft stall

My daughter and I compiled a list of over 200 names into a spreadsheet, I printed these out with spaces for people to write names and contact details alongside their chosen name(s). 

The doll and her outfits on display on the craft table at the Christmas Fayre

We sold several names at the Christmas Fayre today on the craft stall and will continue to sell names until a week before Christmas (I don't expect to sell all the names!). The chosen names will be put into a spreadsheet and a random number generator used to pick the winning name (so as my daughter said, it should have been 'Pick the name' not 'Guest the name' because we've not pre-chosen the name. This was a fun project to do on the fringes of my spare time, will hopefully raise a bit of money for our church funds and become a played with doll by another child after her first owner no longer played with her.

USA 2022 - Sasha festival part 3

Festival fun continued on Friday morning of the Sasha Festival after we had set up our 'Dress a Sasha' displays and had breakfast.

While voting for 'Dress a Sasha' was going on during the Friday morning, we enjoyed looking at all the 'helper raffle' items and the Children's Fund auction items (more about that in part 4). We also had enormous fun doing a photo shoot of the Shakespeare Dream Coat and Peggy's wonderful cape also inspired by a Susanna Lewis wearable artwork. 

Peggy's cape was placed in the Auction rather than part of the raffle doll. Peggy had chosen to make a cape was based on but not copied from Susanna's original 'Off We Go into the Wild Blue Yonder' (1977) which was Susanna's second tapestry/cape and was inspired by her love of the idea of flight. Although Susanna said she was scared of flying in aeroplanes she wished to commemorate her father's service in the Army Air Corps during WWII (Art to Wear, Julie Schafler Dale, page 87-88). So the original piece featured aeroplanes, clouds, angels and stars along with a quote from a war song "off we go into the wild blue younger, climbing high into the sun" around the bottom edge of the cape. Peggy's cape featured waves, swallowtail kites, butterflies and starry constellations. It is pieced and embroidered fabric, with very detailed hand stitched decorating. Peggy and I shared photos with each other when we were working on our respective wearable art pieces for Sasha in memory of Susanna, this is what Peggy said to me about her cape:

"It's based on Susanna's cape, "Into the Great Blue Yonder," but I changed the theme from military planes & insignia to birds and butterflies. Mine is inspired by Susanna's original, it is not a copy ... I focused on the colors of Ukraine and used swallowtail kites and butterflies rather than military insignia ... Lined in a night sky fabric with matching dress." (Peggy L, 2 May, via messenger)

Peggy also explained that Ellen C gave her much encouragement and support during the making of the cape, sent her a pattern for the hood and donated the wonderful Norwegian clasp that completed the cape so beautifully.

Peggy, JoAnn and I decided that we needed to take photos of both the coat and the cape together as they were unlikely to be won by the same person, so this was our only real opportunity in the busy timetable of the festival before the Children's Fund Auction took place that evening. We used the low podium and curtains for the photoshoot. We had not brought my tripod or my daughter's lighting equipment with us so had to make do with hand held camera shots and the existing lighting in the large conference room. My daughter and I took these photos using my camera.

Front view of 'Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha' by DollMum and 'Off we go into the wild blue yonder cape' for Sasha by Peggy L in memory of Susanna Lewis

Slightly different angle front view of 'Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha' by DollMum and 'Off we go into the wild blue yonder cape' for Sasha by Peggy L in memory of Susanna Lewis

Facing the camera front view of 'Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha' by DollMum and 'Off we go into the wild blue yonder cape' for Sasha by Peggy L in memory of Susanna Lewis

Back view of 'Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha' by DollMum and front view of 'Off we go into the wild blue yonder cape' for Sasha by Peggy L in memory of Susanna Lewis

Back view of 'Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha' by DollMum and 'Off we go into the wild blue yonder cape' for Sasha by Peggy L in memory of Susanna Lewis

Slightly bleached out back view of 'Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha' by DollMum and 'Off we go into the wild blue yonder cape' for Sasha by Peggy L in memory of Susanna Lewis

Left side back view of 'Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha' by DollMum and 'Off we go into the wild blue yonder cape' for Sasha by Peggy L in memory of Susanna Lewis

Right side back view of 'Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha' by DollMum and 'Off we go into the wild blue yonder cape' for Sasha by Peggy L in memory of Susanna Lewis

Back view of 'Off we go into the wild blue yonder cape' for Sasha by Peggy L in memory of Susanna Lewis

Back view of 'Shakespeare Dream Coat for Sasha' by DollMum in memory of Susanna Lewis

JoAnn took these photos of my daughter and I during the photoshoot!

DollMum's daughter posing Peggy's doll and cape for the photoshoot (photo JoAnn S)

Dollmum getting down to doll height and taking a photo of the coat and cape (photo JoAnn S)

After the photoshoot it was time for the gift exchange. Each person who had donated a gift for the gift exchange (wrapped in tissue paper by the giver, then placed in a bag by the festival organisers) was asked to stand in a large circle and given a gift bag. The caller stood in the centre of the circle and gave instructions to hand the bags so many times to the right or left, sometimes asking individual people to unwrap a gift, or do a direct exchange across the circle with someone else, to mix things up. The gift exchange went on for a while, with some laughter. We had donated a Jadzia coat we had won in the raffle at the Dolly Jolly in May, plus a pair of large Christmas style woolly boot socks as a single gift, so my daughter took part while I watched the fun and took a few photos, but I've decided not to show them on the blog as this is very public and I don't have permission from everyone who participated to publish the photos of them in the gift exchange. My daughter was pleased to eventually receive a skirt and top outfit made from a linen tea towel. Melanie decided it would suit her and says thank you to Maria L who donated this gift.

Melanie wearing the gift exchange outfit my daughter received

Friday lunch was the first of the 3 meals when we received Festival souvenirs, there were no table hostesses though. The theme of this lunch was Christmas Cookie Exchange, so the souvenirs reflected that theme. We were each presented with a gift box. Strapped to the outside of the box were some wonderful paper dolls which had been created by Sasha enthusiast Carol Ann Sliwka in 2007 and reprinted for this festival in her memory.

The Friday lunchtime Christmas Cookie Exchange souvenir boxes with Carol Ann Sliwka's paper dolls

Inside the box was a baking set, some gorgeous little red oven gloves, a pretty hand made Christmas baking apron, miniature Christmas cookies in a tin and a wooden rolling pin. The aprons were different fabric designs. I didn't make a note of what the festival organisers told us about who made the aprons and oven gloves.

Our Christmas Cookie exchange souvenir gifts

Then the results of the voting for the 'Dress a Sasha' competition were announced. All the entries received a small prize for participating, with the first and second prize winners getting an additional prize.

First place 'assembled by' child

Second place 'assembled by' child

Third place 'assembled by' child

My daughter won the Teen category with the only entry. The little lantern prize contained a knitted snowman figure.

First place in 'made by' adult

Second place in 'made by' adult

Honorable mention in 'made by' adult

Honorable mention in 'made by' adult

First place in 'assembled by' adult

Second place in 'assembled by' adult

The other 3 'assembled by' adult entries all received honorable mentions.

This was followed by craft activities. We were given 3 different craft kits. 

My crafts - bucket of snow, sledge and almost completed felt deer

Some people chose not to do their crafts and went off to do their own thing (the indoor swimming pool was popular), but we sat and did some of the crafts. We started with the bucket of snowballs because it was quick and easy, moved onto the sledge, then I started on the felt deer, though didn't quite finish it as I ran out of black embroidery thread used for the blanket stitch edging. Thank you to those who compiled these crafts, I know how much time and energy it takes to assemble all the bits in advance, having run craft workshops for the Sasha Celebration weekends.

After the crafts, my daughter wanted to swim, the pool was much quieter by then so I sat and watched her enjoy the water (I didn't have the energy to get in the pool myself that day). Then we had some food before going back to the festival room for the Children's Fund Auction, but that is for another post.

Reference:

Julie Schafler Dale, Art to Wear (1986), Abbeville Press, New York ISBN 0-89659-664-8