Secret Santa Swap 2014 - part 1

I participated again in Lorraine's Secret Santa Swap for Sasha dolls this year, even though I was really short of time to make things.  In the event I was a week late posting the items I made for Marijke in Canada, however fortunately she received them before Christmas (and the parcel got through Canadian customs despite the dire warnings I had received at my local UK post office about customs and importing toys to Canada).

The following message came to me from Marijke about what her Sasha and Gregor family hoped to receive:

Dear Santa,

My Sasha family consists of 5 girls: Sasha blonde blue gingham, Kiltie, Pintucks, Cora flower dress and Sasha red hair white dress; four boys: Gregor dark blue jeans, Gregor schoolboy blond, Caleb (early, small) and Gregor red hair blue suit; and two babies, Baby Bear brown hair and Baby white suit (also early), both girls.

Five of the family arrived quite recently, and are in need of clothing like jeans, shirts and hoodies for the boys, and overalls or sleepers for the babies. None of the dolls have pajamas as yet, although there is quite a bit of flannellette (winceyette?) hanging about my sewing table. I very much enjoy sewing for my Sasha family, but time can be a deterrent; for example, at the moment the sweater knitting has had to be put off as there is a wedding shower gift being made for next week, and I signed up for a Christmas bazaar at the end of the month. My real life daughter has bought all kinds of sock wool, for Mom to knit up for her, and there are sweaters for both my daughters’ BJD’s partially finished that need to go off to their owners.

My Christmas list would include: a boy’s shirt

                                                      unisex jeans (fake fly fronts most welcome!)

                                                      a masculine hoodie

                                                      a baby overall

                                                      a baby sleeper

If there are non-sewing Secret Santas,  a ball of fine yarn would be wonderful as it is very difficult to find that here; also, enough fabric to make a pair of jeans or a sleeper. The kids are collecting toys at the present, but toys are weighty, and these kids live in Atlantic Canada, so mailing costs need to be kept in mind. There is only one book at present in their size. Colouring pencils would be great, as would backpacks or school bags. Another useful item would be tiny hair clips, all those girls have so much hair! And wool felt for berets, which has to be ordered via the internet here; the shops only carry polyester....

Thank you.

In the event the clothes I made were unisex jeans and a baby overall. I also enclosed a Passion for Sasha long sleeved t-shirt which I'd bought at the Chat 'n Snap in October (I didn't have time to make a shirt or hoodie to go with the jeans).  I included one of my model sailing boats (the one with the dolphin on the sail) and one of my skipping ropes and some mini Christmas chocolate eggs.  Fortunately these toys were not too heavy to post.

Nicholas James and baby Mabel model the clothes,
with the toys and chocolates for Marijke 

baby Mabel wears the overall/romper

The pocket detail on the back of the jeans,
the front had an opening fly (fastened with a press stud)

As you can see from Lorraine's blog post about what people received, Marijke's Sasha family are making good use of the toys and have worked out who wears the clothes.

My daughter and I compiled a wish list for Secret Santa which I emailed to Lorraine.  When our parcel arrived, we put the little presents in my sewing room to wait for Christmas day - see my next post.

Chat n Snap

My younger daughter and I attended the Sasha Chat n Snap yesterday organised by Dee of Sasha Village and we had a great day.  The event ran in her local village hall in Hertfordshire with Sasha enthusiasts from all over the country attending.

We arrived 30 minutes before the official 11 am start and had plenty of time to set up the few items I had made to sell, chat to others as we set up and admire each other's dolls and accessories.  Sale start time wasn't until 12 noon which meant later arrivals still had time to set up.  We were pleased to be between Gill and her wonderful knitting and Chris M and her variety of accessories and dolls.  Early on we made a beeline for the dolls which Angela was selling (she had brought about a third of her collection) and were attracted to the early 70s sexed baby boy she had for sale, as I've been looking for one for some time.

My girl helped set up our stall, prowled around all the others spotting items she wanted us to buy and chatting to people.

I had made some Garden Games sets, inspired by the prototype set I had created for Lorraine for the Simple Summer Swap, with the addition of a fourth game.  It has taken some development, a lot of drilling, sawing, sanding, filing, painting and gluing (and a lot of pleasure, I have particularly enjoyed using the pillar drill in our small workshop).  Each set contained 1 rope ladder, 1 skipping rope, 1 quoits set and 1 croquet set (which was the most time consuming to make).  I had no idea how it would be received at the CnS, so was gratified to sell 3 of the 8 sets I had made and take an order for a garden quoits only set.  My daughter had made 3 of her lolly stick chairs (with my help) and although we succeeded in dropping and breaking one during the day (oops) she sold the other two (one was a direct trade with Chris M who had a felted hat my girl liked, and proceeded to spoil her with a few other items).  I had also made two hobby horses, inspired by the one I owned as a child.  Neither of these sold, however there was plenty of interest (maybe the price was too high) and I did sell one of the 5 skipping ropes I had separate from the Garden Games sets.  I need to calculate how much postage and packing will be for the unsold items.

Theresa pointed out to me that the baby boy for sale had eyes very similar to those of a baby boy doll who had been painted by Sara Doggart, we compared the eyes and I decided to buy him.  We immediately went to Michelle who was selling the Sashapotomus outfits and bought the new baby his own onesie with a VW Combi on the front (we had already bought one for baby Mabel).  My girl took him to the playpen where travelling baby Drake (just back from Spain) was playing, took possession of the camera and experimented with photographing our new baby.  She tentatively named him Joey, but when we got home and checked the name book, we chose Leo as his new name (Angela had not named him) and I had personal reasons for favouring this name.

The 3 shop fronts which Paul had made for display were a big hit with everyone, as were the boys polishing the car they were too young to drive.  One of the shop fronts was raffled (along with a few dresses), we didn't win anything though.  Buffet lunch was available for donations to the Alzheimer's Society.

I will write separately about the other items we bought in addition to baby Leo.  I had a number of good conversations with people during the day, it was lovely to catch up with people I had met at the festival last year or at Dawn's house in June as well as meet others I hadn't met before.  I wish there had been more time, it was all over too soon!!!

I would like to thank Dee, Paul, their family, Gill and her daughter and everyone else who helped organise the event - it was a fun way to spend the day and I hope Dee has the energy to organise another similar event in the near future.

Nicholas James demonstrates DollMum's Garden Games set

Baby Mabel watches Nicholas James and the Garden Games

Theresa's Sasha with the chair made by DollMum's daughter

Laura, Reuben, Miranda, baby Leo, baby Mabel amongst the other Sashas

Drake and Leo in the playpen

Drake and Leo in the playpen, Leo's new onesie

Drake standing up in the playpen

Leo sporting his new Passion for Sasha hat

Hattie holds baby Leo

Leo in the swing

The three shops and the Gregor graffiti wall

Admiring Hatties dress and hat shop

A lovely tribute to the late Jean Jenson, who died 2 days before the CnS

The Christmas toy shop

The baby boy with Sara Doggart eyes

Toddlers and some other happy Sasha and Gregor dolls, with a bicycle

Baby Mabel proudly wears her Mabel Lucie Attwell smocked dress I made

Drake and Leo in the playpen again

Hattie's dress and hat shop, after the shop front was won

Simple Summer swap and a question

In the Simple Summer swap I gave Lorraine the following for her Sasha family (she has blogged about it):

A dashiki with hat and summer shorts made using traditional, genuine Shweshwe fabric from Cape Town, South Africa (made by Da Gama fabrics http://www.dagama.co.za/).  A dashiki is a colourful top from West Africa – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiki.  It normally isn’t made with shweshwe, which is a South African fabric.  For the history of shweshwe see http://www.dagama.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102&Itemid=164.  This set is my own design based on African designs.  It could be worn by a girl or a boy.

A soft toy frog for Rory.  It was left over from a bag of mini soft toys I used for party bag contents about 5 years ago and has been lurking in a drawer ever since.  I'm sure Rory will not keep it in a drawer!

A prototype Garden Games set of my own make and design, inspired by Sasha’s love of creating original playthings for children.  I really enjoyed constructing the set which includes a rope ladder, garden quoits and two skipping ropes (one for Sasha/Gregor and one for Sasha toddler).  Lorraine has given me some friendly feedback (the rope ladder is a hit, the garden quoits work though could be improved a little and the skipping rope handles are okay though I plan to improve them).  I made the box myself from odd bits of card, but if I were to make a few more sets I think I'd get some ready made boxes to use and put the label on top. I'm also considering another garden game, though need to experiment and source some materials before revealing my idea.

Finding Sasha size accessories in the UK is really hard, there are a lot more toys and props available to North American collectors as the market is so much larger.  There are many things for Sasha I'd love to buy from the USA, but the shipping costs are prohibitive (if sellers will post internationally) so I've stopped buying anything from the USA though I still like to look.  The Garden Games set was my response to this frustrated desire to find some useful fun props for our doll family.  I have the skills and tools for some woodwork and like using the pillar drill to drill holes which I needed to do for the garden quoits frame and the rope ladder.  Finding the time in my busy life is always a problem, so I'm never going to be doing big productions of anything I make (I prefer making limited editions or 'one of a kind').  My question to those who collect Sasha dolls and others of a similar size is: would a Garden Games set be something to include in a doll accessory collection - would you want such a thing?

Nicholas James was very happy to model the outfit and test out the games before they were posted to Henry and friends.

NJ and the rope ladder

NJ climbs the rope ladder

NJ hangs off the rope ladder - how did he keep the hat on!

NJ models the dashiki outfit
 with the skipping rope and Rory's frog for company

NJ admires the roses (Young Lycidas) while showing the back of the dashiki outfit

NJ loves the red hot poker flowers

The prototype Garden Games set

The Garden Quoits (which have instructions in the box)

Garden Games all packed in the box