Matching blue shoes

I had planned but didn't manage to sew some matching ballet shoes for Laura the new doll in time for Christmas Day, however after Christmas I used my new gift for the pattern.

New gift?  Yes, my lovely husband took my Christmas request seriously and sent off for the wonderful new book of patterns 'Sasha Dolls: Clothing and Patterns' by Ann Chandler, Susanna Lewis and Anne Votaw.  It was shipped to a colleague of my UK based cousin in the USA who brought it over to England on one of her frequent business trips.  On Christmas Day my husband gave me an envelope with the errata sheets carefully printed out, and on Boxing Day, when we arrived at my cousin's house, he was able to give me the book.  Two days of relaxing with my lovely cousins, eating and drinking also included studying the book closely and trying to decide what to make first!  I had handled a copy of the book at the 2012 Sasha Festival, but unfortunately it wasn't available for sale at the festival because Ann Chandler couldn't bring a load of them over to the UK - her luggage would have weighed a ton.

So I carefully traced the ballet shoes pattern and made them in two layers of the blue satin.  I sewed them by hand as the fabric was so slippery my machine would have choked and shredded them very quickly, so it was easier to make them by hand.  They aren't perfect and I think another time I'll make a bigger seam allowance if sewing with satin, which tends to fray with narrow seams.  The shoes were ready in time for a visit to the Pantomime last week so my little girl got into her blue dress again, Laura was re-dressed (she had tried on the green velvet dress won by my girl in the Festival raffle) with the addition of her new shoes, a miniature Olympic badge pinned to her bolero and a ribbon in her hair.

Laura proudly wears her new blue ballet shoes

Close up of Laura with her velvet bolero and the Olympic badge

Blue satin ballet shoes

The stain removal on her legs continues.  We've actually had a day of sunshine (new year's day) so she spent most of the day with her legs on the windowsill (her face was covered with curtain to protect her) to help speed along the bleaching out of the stains.  The photo below shows the progress (compare this to the photo in the previous post to see the difference).  We'll concentrate on her arms and shoulders later.

Leg stains fading progress 6 January

My little daughter had a friend to play this afternoon, and her classmate's reaction to Laura was heartfelt 'Oh she is pretty', and 'she looks like you'.

Welcome Laura

The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed in my previous post that there was some red hair and blue velvet in the right of the photo of all the Sasha family and their Secret Santa gifts.

Ever since attending the Sasha Doll Festival in June 2012, my younger daughter has longed for a red-headed Sasha girl.  However finding one is hard because not so many of these lovely girls were made compared to the blond and brunette girls.  I watched some come and go on ebay for more than I could afford, looked longingly at several on Shelly's site which were also well out of my price range (aren't those early no philtrum red head girls absolutely stunning) and saw a couple I would have liked go very quickly from Shelly's site as they were snapped up by other lucky people.  However one girl stayed there for a while and her problem was probably the reason why.  I showed her photo to my younger daughter and explained the problem, but despite this my little girl was keen on her and kept asking to be shown her picture on Shelly's site.  Eventually I contacted Shelly and asked more about the problem (she sent me a photo) and how to hopefully cure it, made an offer which was accepted and the beautiful 80s red head with glossy hair arrived a day after being shipped.

Shelly's photo of the 80s red head girl, redressed

Her problem?  She had been redressed in a beautiful Russian coat, hat and boot outfit made from fluffy fur fabric, the seams of which had unfortunately stained her legs, tops of her arms and a little of her torso with almost black marks.  Baby wipes had not removed the stains which had soaked into the vinyl however Shelly was certain that daily doses of Oxy10 and patience would remove the stains eventually.  The active ingredient in Oxy10 spot treatment is Benzoyl Peroxide, however as I discovered, this product is no longer for sale over the counter in any UK pharmacy (unless you have a prescription).  Other spot treatments for skin problems do not contain this all important ingredient, so although I tried Clearasil for several days, it didn't appear to make much difference.  I found a UK-based seller on eBay who sent me a small tube of Oxy10 and I started twice daily treatment as it was only a few days before Christmas by this time.  After a couple of days I compared the photo Shelly had sent me with progress and could just start to see a small fading of the intensity of the stains and no damage to the vinyl which was very encouraging, so the treatment continued.

Shelly's photo of the stains

I washed the Russian outfit carefully and lots of dye came out in the water, eventually after several rinses the water ran clear, so hopefully all the potential to stain again has been removed.  The red head was originally an 80s white dress girl, but none of her original outfit had come with her.  I wanted to make a new dress for her, and will make a white dress of her own in due course, however I had long planned a blue velvet and satin dress for my younger daughter for Christmas and thought a matching outfit for the Sasha doll would be a good gift. 

Only a few days before Christmas I cut out the fabric for the child sized dress (I was sewing other gifts before this), followed by adapting a pattern and cutting out fabric for the doll dress.  Why do I always seem to do 11th hour sewing for Christmas gifts?!!  The child dress was complete 2 days before Christmas, and the Sasha doll dress completed at 2:45 am on Christmas morning (Santa arrived as I sewed on press studs!)

On Christmas morning I gave my daughter the dress to wear to church and she was thrilled with it.  The sleeveless bodice is blue satin (lined with the same fabric) with a long skirt of blue velvet, the outfit is completed with a long sleeved bolero of blue velvet, tied at the front.  My sewing machine hated the blue velvet but my daughter loves it.  During the afternoon, after she had opened several other presents (we spread gift opening through the day rather than doing it all in a rush at once), I gave her the exciting box to open and her reaction was perfect - she immediately hugged her new doll and wouldn't put her down.  I showed her the work in progress on stain removal and explained that brushing her hair must be done gently and only occasionally (she wants to keep it glossy and soft). 

After reading through the 'baby names book', she decided that 'Laura' will be the name of her new Sasha doll.

Opening the box

Oh wow! Look her outfit matches mine.

My little girl with her Sasha 'Laura' on Christmas day