Dolly Jolly 2022 part 1

The long awaited Dolly Jolly had arrived and we started driving north as soon as my daughter got out of school early. Despite the heavy traffic we made it to Darlington by 6:30pm so were in time for dinner at 7:00pm with the others who were attending - private dining in a large room with the windows open.

The first evening dinner included the raffle. I brought in the picnic prize I had made which Janet decided would be the final raffle ticket of the evening.

Raffle prizes including the picnic hamper, picnic rug and Easter bonnet outfit I had contributed

Raffle prizes galore!

We all admired the other prize table, displaying the prizes for the Dolly Bingo for the second evening, a tantalising array of top prizes.

The Dolly Bingo prizes table

Most people had brought one or more doll to dinner and after we had eaten I went round the table taking photos of the dolls. We brought Laura and Florence to dinner with us.

Florence in her Windmill 'Ted Menton' pinafore dress
and Laura in an outfit by Lorraine Tyler and a Dollydoodles hoodie

Dolls at dinner

Harry Potter with Hedwig and Dobby

A little sweetie with her toy dog and bear

Two little Helen Kish dolls

Three doll friends

A Gotz Sasha with a Dionne Quintuplet

A glorious rag doll, very huggable

Two beautiful Sasha girls

A Zwergnase girl having a glass of wine!

We bought several strips of raffle tickets and were amazed to win 12 lovely prizes (I haven't taken photos of them yet). Thank you to all those who donated prizes, everyone attending won more than one prize. It was such a fun evening and so good to catch up with previous doll friends plus meet some new doll friends.

The following morning Teddy, Alice and I went shopping for our contributions to the picnic which I had organised for that day. It was a glorious spring morning, so we were hopeful the picnic would not be rained on. 

Tricia had coordinated the room hopping - this involved those who had dolls they wanted to display putting them on show in their hotel rooms, each of us being given the list of room numbers plus the times they were open. There were 5 rooms in the morning session and 5 in the afternoon session. My daughter and I did not have a room display because she was revising for her examinations in our room, so I visited the morning rooms after returning from picnic grocery shopping. My photos only indicate the order I visited the rooms, I am not labelling these to indicate ownership of any of the dolls and scenes depicted.

Sasha Bakery in Room 1

Sasha Bakery in Room 1

Sasha Bakery in Room 1

Sindy room in Room 1

Sindy room in Room 1

Lenci doll in Room 1

Sasha dolls and friends in Room 1

A mixed collection of dolls (including Sasha, Maggie Iacono, Lati Yellow, Topper Dawn, Schoenhut, Pongratz, Ruby Red and Ten Ping) in Room 2

Some Sasha and Gregor dolls in Room 3

A Roddy doll with Roddy and Rosebud friends in Room 3

Some Sasha dolls in Room 4

Trendon Sasha sisters joined by their Gotz Sasha sister in Room 4

Close up of a Sasha in Room 4

Sasha, Lenci, Frozen Charlotte and the Dionne Quintuplet in Room 4

The Dionne Quintuplet in Room 4

A mixed collection of dolls (including Pippa, Jakks Pacific, Helen Kish, Ball jointed dolls, Xenis, Rainbow High) in Room 5

Some of the dolls in Room 5

Rag dolls, Rainbow High, Chrissie and others in Room 5

Ball jointed doll in Room 5

Two restored dolls in Room 5

Then it was picnic time! 

Unexpected identification of doll cabinet residents

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.

Identifying Susie (and Chrissie)

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

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

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.