Skating or ballet outfit

The other sewing I completed in February was for my daughter's 9th birthday gift.  I am teaching her to sew and knit so for her birthday I assembled a box of her own sewing goodies, including a sewing basket and contents, fabric (lots of fat quarters or half metres), mini mannequin and learn to sew books.  In the box I included some outfits for Laura, her Christmas Sasha.One of these outfits was the new ballet/skating outfit I made based on the ballet leotard pattern in 'Sasha Dolls: Clothing and Patterns'.

The leotard is straightforward - I made it from a white t-shirt overlaid with the filigree gold fabric I'd previously used for the tribute outfits to Torvill and Dean for the larger Gotz dolls.  The shoulders are fastened at the back with mother-of-pearl buttons. The tutu is stitched to the leotard and is made from several layers of tulle, overlaid with tulle with gold flecks in it, and petals of the filigree, topped by a gold ribbon waistband.

I had previously bought the Sasha sized skates for Susie, my Palitoy, however it looks like Laura has claimed them for her own.

All the dolls who have skating outfits came downstairs to watch the 2013 season of 'Dancing on Ice', and much to my family's delight Beth Tweddle, the Olympic gymnast, won the series.

Jakob and Laura in the gold skating outfits

close up of the tutu

Now that the DoI season is over for another year, Laura has changed into one of her other new outfits, a sweater dress and hat from Dee (and Hattie) and a pair of Ruth's dolls Mary Jane shoes.

In response to the previous post it was suggested that the felt baby could be made as a plaything for Sasha children.  Before the baby went to its new home, Laura held it.  I think the baby needs to be a bit smaller to fit the scale for Sasha dolls (the baby is 7 1/2" high).  I plan to experiment with a scaled down version, though might have to simplify the pattern even more.

Laura holds the auction baby

Big and little house moving

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

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.

Dancing on Ice - live tour

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

New skating dress for Dancing on Ice final

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

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.

Dancing on Ice week 1

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

 

 

A snowy welcome

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!

Caravanning dolls

I've been away caravanning with the family and the dolls! Back in May I made sleeping bags for the 4 Gotz dolls owned by the girls when we went caravanning, and these were very popular with both of them, and were also a good way to transport the dolls in the long car journey - they were slipped into their bags which protected them and their clothes and made them easy to grab and carry into the caravan.

Jayne, Peter and Harriet all comfy in their fleecy sleeping bags,
which have proper zippers

This time however I thought we might not take them, as we were taking my cousin's two children (boy and girl) with us, so space was at a premium. However not only did we take the four, but also my cousin's daughter decided to bring her three, and suddenly the caravan was overrun with 7 dolls besides all the humans (and the family dog!). For the purposes of sanity preservation, the dog slept in the awning for the whole 6 days (especially as he is danger to anything precious that is chewable).

Fortunately the two elder children decided that the 2 berth tent in the awning was the best option for their sleeping arrangements, so the table and seats which convert into a bunk could remain as a useful table - and ice rink! Because Dancing on Ice competitions was what the 2 younger children did all week with the dolls (thank goodness the table surface was scratch resistant). I didn't have time to take photos of this event, but inbetween cooking and co-ordinating 6 people, it was fascinating to eavesdrop on their competitions and the interaction between the two girls (aged 7 and 5). I've noticed that the doll play of my younger child has definitely developed and moved on since she acquired her first play (rather than baby) doll at Christmas. At first all she did was change the doll's clothes and perhaps have short conversations with the doll, but now the dolls 'talk' to each other or she holds slightly longer conversations with a doll, and storylines are starting to emerge, usually centred around the current event of the time (like getting dressed for something, preparing to go somewhere or treating a doll with a sore tummy).

Just before we went away, my elder daughter spent a whole evening quietly enjoying the Harriet and Peter dolls, and the horse! She has decided that the horse is Peter's, as the boy doll looks so smart in the dressage outfit. In fact she was the one to suggest that the dolls come caravanning with us again. She had just spent two weeks at 2 different camps with lots of other teens, and I commented that it was interesting seeing her playing with the dolls, to which she replied that she didn't often get the opportunity (term time is so busy). I think she was really appreciating having a chance to chill out on her own without all the socialising she had done in camp (both of which she enjoyed) and doll play was an undemanding, relaxing pastime. By the sounds of it there will be a certain amount of collaborative doll play this week during the holidays, and she has placed an order for Girlguide/Rainbow uniforms for the dolls to help celebrate the Centenary year! Help - it looks like I'll have to get the sewing machine going again soon.

New skating dress

I've been sewing again - this time for my cousin's daughter's dolls. I don't know which one of them will get to wear this outfit, but here it is being modelled by Samantha before we wrap it up tomorrow as part of a birthday gift of dolls clothes for Mia or Sarah (including skates for both of them).



I didn't glue the sequins and beads, I sewed them on individually instead. The reason for this was that the outfit will be for a child to play with, and gluing would have potentially resulted in some coming off, sewing them on firmly seemed the better solution. Also, I didn't have the glue!

Gotz girls (and boy)

It is a while since I have been able to spare the time to post anything (busy 6 weeks) but now at last I'm stealing a little time from other activities to put in a little more about the growing Gotz collection in our home. Because yes, it is growing.

The girls clubbed together soon after Christmas to buy a limited edition Gotz Ice Skating Sarah doll - in her lovely pink lacy dress and white skates, with tiara - we found her on ebay. The girls named her Jayne, in honour of Jayne Torvill, who was on TV at the time in the Dancing on Ice series. Here she is with the other dolls, all of them dressed in their skating outfits that I made.


Before Christmas I had bought a Gotz Bavarian Peter doll via ebay and kept him hidden for months from the girls. I wanted to see how their Christmas dolls would be received before bringing him out. He actually became the model for some of the clothes I made for their dolls before Christmas, as I couldn't resist unpacking him from his box. Finally, at Easter time, I devised an Easter Egg hunt around our garden - the girls had to find pretty cardboard eggs that contained clues - a pictorial puzzle of Jesus on the cross, and put it together. The written clues included some underlined words which spelled out Peter's name and his clothes as well as the words share. Because he was a shared prize, and they had to collaborate in the hunt to earn him. Funnily enough my elder daughter was more delighted with a boy doll than my younger girl, who prefers the new ice skating girl.

I had made Peter a denim jacket the previous evening - it took 4 hours as it was quite complex. Here is a photo of him sporting his new jacket, jeans and boots.

Discovering Gotz Dolls

In 2008, after seeing the Sarah ballerina Gotz play doll owned by my cousin's daughter, I went searching on the web for a Gotz doll for my younger daughter, and discovered the Bambolina website http://www.bambolina.co.uk/. I ended up buying the Gotz Zauberwelt Ice Skating doll, in her lovely winter costume and fur lined boots rather than one of the Sarah dolls. Something about her naturalistic face appealed to me and I knew that ice skates would be popular with my little one. She was intended as a Christmas present - but I bought her in July so kept her hidden for 5 months!

I showed the doll in secret to her big sister, and the green eyed monster emerged. I could tell that she really liked the doll too and really wanted a doll with skates but didn't want to admit it. After all which modern day girl of 12 wants to admit to being interested in dolls when her peers might consider it childish. So I showed her photos of some of the Sarah dolls to try and gauge which one would suit her, and she was torn! I did not let on that I might get one for her. Eventually I bought the Sarah and her Dog 2008 (cream outfit with black boots) as this is quite a sophisticated outfit and the hair colour matched my elder daughter's hair.

In the meantime, I was really taken with the Gotz Anna doll, with her painted eyes. Her face is very similar to the Zauberwelt girls, but seems slightly narrower, and her skin tone is more yellow. Her outfit really appealed to me, so hints were dropped, and in the event Christmas came for all three of us! Even the grown up 'girl' got a doll (I said he was tolerant).

The Sarah doll was named Harriet, for the little red headed girl in White Boots by Noel Streatfeild. The dark haired Ice Skating doll was named Samantha - because she liked the name!

Anna, Harriet and Samantha with Mia and Sarah (cousin's daughter's dolls) on Christmas Day

Harriet is wearing the fleece I made to match my elder daughter's fleece, and has borrowed the skates from Samantha. Samantha is wearing a blue jumper set I made which is now dubbed her 'school' outfit. Mia was a Christmas doll too (special edition Sarah) and the fairy outfit that Sarah is wearing was our present to her.

Before Christmas, I got sewing in order to provide the dolls with clothes to wear apart from what they came in, and the additional outfits I had bought. However it was only after Christmas Day that the following outfits were made for the three dolls:

Anna, Harriet and Samantha in their Christmas party dresses (pattern from the Joan Hinds book 'Sew the Contemporary Wardrobe for 18-inch dolls' which is available from Amazon).

And this was just the start of it all!