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| Jenny in her lovely Rosemary Ionker dress |
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| Lexie and Jenny with the Little Wooden Horse |
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| Jenny and Lexie with a feast of fabrics |
Monday, 7 January 2013
Jenny and Lexie Christmas
Actually Jenny and Lexie didn't get out much this Christmas, however once we'd packed away the decorations at Epiphany I brought them downstairs for a mini photo session with the little wooden horse I picked up in the local sales last January (it bears a close resemblance to the main character in one of my favourite childhood stories - Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse). Jenny is wearing the lovely Rosemarie Ionker smocked dress she won in a photo challenge we participated in during the summer, and Lexie is wearing the Rosemarie Ionker white dress she won in the Valentine photo challenge.
Afterwards, they raided my basket of fine patterned fabric to choose what they want me to sew for them, they say that the Sasha and Gotz dolls have had plenty of my attention and now it is time for them! However I am back at work, school term starts in the morning and even the coming weekends will be busy, so finding precious sewing and knitting time is going to be more difficult than during the Christmas holidays, I will do my best though to carve out some 'me' time.
JJ shoes from Finn and Ginger
In 2011 I sent some gifts to the USA for Finn who belongs to Ginger for the Secret Santa Swap, I subsequently sent two pairs of socks to complete the outfit. Finn and Ginger were very pleased with the surprise addition to their present, and sent me a gift to say thank you - a wonderful pair of shoes by Jean Jenson. The shoes arrived ages ago, and I planned an outfit to match, however everyday life busy stuff and room decorating got in the way of me sewing for a while, so the project was delayed. However during November at last I found some time and used the section in the 2012 Festival booklet about smocking for
inspiration as well as an ancient book on smocking and my Readers Digest
sewing dictionary and played around with fabrics, decided on a scheme, and got sewing. I had to stop the project for a while when the actual smocking was finished because I needed to make gifts for Christmas, however during this past week I've resumed and completed the outfit.
This outfit was my first attempt at smocking for a Sasha doll, previously I had only done very basic miniature smocking for 1:12 scale dolls, which doesn't allow much scope for stitch and colour combinations. My smocking is quite tight (though I think this makes it look 'in scale') and I used several different stitches and about 4 different colours. Despite these beginner shortcomings, I am really pleased with the result. I now want to smock for my Lexie and Jenny dolls (Heather Maciak).
Florence is very happy to model the new lime green and blue outfit. Miranda says it will also suit her, but for the moment Florence gets to wear it first. And Laura is asking for a smocked top and crop trousers too!
The fabric for this outfit was from two different packs of fat quarters from Hobbycraft. The spotted fabric is lovely, soft and pliable, the other two fabrics are much stiffer and a little thicker. They are more suitable for patchwork.
My younger daughter helped me make the headband: I showed her how to measure and design the band, and she helped stitch it on the machine. She has asked for a design amendment to the headband for Laura's outfit.
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| Jean Jenson shoes from Finn and Ginger |
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| Florence in the JJ inspired lime green and blue outfit |
Florence is very happy to model the new lime green and blue outfit. Miranda says it will also suit her, but for the moment Florence gets to wear it first. And Laura is asking for a smocked top and crop trousers too!
The fabric for this outfit was from two different packs of fat quarters from Hobbycraft. The spotted fabric is lovely, soft and pliable, the other two fabrics are much stiffer and a little thicker. They are more suitable for patchwork.
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| Smock and head band |
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| close up of the smocking |
Sunday, 6 January 2013
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.
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.
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'.
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.
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| Laura proudly wears her new blue ballet shoes |
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| Close up of Laura with her velvet bolero and the Olympic badge |
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| Blue satin ballet shoes |
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| Leg stains fading progress 6 January |
Saturday, 29 December 2012
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.
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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Opening the box |
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| Oh wow! Look her outfit matches mine. |
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| My little girl with her Sasha 'Laura' on Christmas day |
Secret Santa swap gifts received
Having blogged about the gifts I sent to New Zealand, this blog post explains what I received.
I had sent Lorraine the following message for my Secret Santa:
My Sasha family have consulted with each other and decided that as baby Mabel didn't get a gift last Christmas she should have first choice, though my Gregor sport Nicholas James would love a cricket jersey as he wants to learn cricket. Mabel would like a sleepsuit in girl colours (not velour) with matching hat and she would also like some plain tights, either white or pale pink or red. A pair of hiking boots would also be welcomed by the bigger Sashas who say they will take it in turns to go for walks.
They had wished for walking boots, because as any doll collector will know, you can never have enough pairs of shoes, and this is something I haven't attempted to make yet myself.
Towards the end of November a parcel arrived from the USA. It was in a clear plastic bag because unfortunately it had got damp in transit (I half wondered if Hurricane Sandy had anything to do with this) and had come apart so Royal Mail had done their best to get it to me intact, however I don't think anything was missing, though some of the little packages had started to come undone. Fortunately nothing inside them was damaged and I decided I would keep the parcels to open on Christmas day. In the event they were the last thing we opened from under the tree on the 25th December, which was a lovely way to end the day, with all the Sasha family present.
This is what we received:
Miranda and NJ didn't try their new t-shirts and boots on straight away for these photos which unfortunately I took in rather a hurry because we were about to go away for a couple of days and I was meant to be packing. Now we are home again I'll get them changed into their new Christmas clothes while we're still in the 12 days.
The name and address on the parcel showed that our Secret Santa was Dorisanne Osborn - thank you for our lovely gifts Dorisanne, we hope you received something just as good as you sent to us.
I had sent Lorraine the following message for my Secret Santa:
My Sasha family have consulted with each other and decided that as baby Mabel didn't get a gift last Christmas she should have first choice, though my Gregor sport Nicholas James would love a cricket jersey as he wants to learn cricket. Mabel would like a sleepsuit in girl colours (not velour) with matching hat and she would also like some plain tights, either white or pale pink or red. A pair of hiking boots would also be welcomed by the bigger Sashas who say they will take it in turns to go for walks.
They had wished for walking boots, because as any doll collector will know, you can never have enough pairs of shoes, and this is something I haven't attempted to make yet myself.
Towards the end of November a parcel arrived from the USA. It was in a clear plastic bag because unfortunately it had got damp in transit (I half wondered if Hurricane Sandy had anything to do with this) and had come apart so Royal Mail had done their best to get it to me intact, however I don't think anything was missing, though some of the little packages had started to come undone. Fortunately nothing inside them was damaged and I decided I would keep the parcels to open on Christmas day. In the event they were the last thing we opened from under the tree on the 25th December, which was a lovely way to end the day, with all the Sasha family present.
This is what we received:
- a gift for Mabel - a lovely sleep suit with matching hat which she changed into straight away, and she was lucky enough to have her own fluffy Christmas stocking with some toys inside it too
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| Baby Mabel with her wonderful gifts |
- a gift for Nicholas James - a pair of black lace up walking boots and a Christmas t-shirt
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| Nicholas James's Christmas t-shirt, and the game |
- a gift for Miranda - a pair of dark red lace up walking boots and a Christmas t-shirt - this means they can go hiking together!
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| Miranda's Christmas t-shirt |
- a miniature version of Friends of Sasha
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| Friends of Sasha |
- A velcro ball and bat game for Miranda, Florence and Nicholas James (being held in the photo below by NJ and Florence)
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| Miranda, Mabel, NJ and Florence with their Secret Santa gifts |
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| Red boots and black boots for hiking |
The name and address on the parcel showed that our Secret Santa was Dorisanne Osborn - thank you for our lovely gifts Dorisanne, we hope you received something just as good as you sent to us.
Friday, 28 December 2012
Secret Santa Swap gifts
I participated in Lorraine's Secret Santa Swap again this year and was sent the following message at the beginning of November:
I already had some lightweight Christmas fabric, so did a repeat of the A-line dress nightdress I had made for the Sasha Festival Children's Fund Auction, and I made some matching knickers. I also made a Christmas stocking from this fabric and put in a candy cane and chocolate lolly.
During August I had made some union flag table napkins as a gift, and had some fabric leftover, enough to make a dress, matching knickers and headband. I chose to make the pleated skirt version of the dress I had sewn earlier in the year for Florence, and with the sailor collar. My children immediately demanded that I make the exact dress again in that fabric as they loved it so much, I think I might have enough fabric to do this.
I searched eBay for some doll sized Olympic souvenirs - a miniature metal badge and some postage stamps (I believe Erica collects stamps).
Florence and Miranda were happy to model the outfits for my photos,
then I stitched the outfits to card mounts for posting to New Zealand.
About a week or so after posting the package, Lorraine forwarded the following message to me:
To my Secret Santa and family -
I wish that you had been here to see the excitement when your parcel arrived! You could not know that I had Jacqui, a waif waiting for a wig and new outfit... and there were *two* stunning outfits, *and* the lovely pin and stamps as well as the Christmas goodies! Your sewing is exquisite, and I love the fabric and trim - so appropriate! Even more so, as we (almost locally) have a paralympic gold medallist!! Wonderful surprises from our Secret Santa - thank you so very much! You couldn't have pleased us more! (especially Jacqui!!, who is now posing prettily in her lovely Union Jack outfit, and pretending that she knew about it all along!!).
Our best wishes for your own Christmas - I hope that it will be as happy as you have made ours!
Erica and the Sashas
Next, I will blog about the wonderful gifts I received.
Dear Secret Santa,
Christmas again - isn't it fun?!
May I wish for three of the following gifts, please...
1. Olympic 2012 souvenirs for Sasha or Gregor.
2. Nightwear in lightweight Christmas fabric (for summer wear!) for Sasha, Gregor, toddler or baby.
3. Any sewn clothes (I don't like to sew!) for any of the family...
4. Surprises! (I love lollies!)
5. Toys for Sasha baby...
Thank you for reading this, Santa!
Love,
Erica
I already had some lightweight Christmas fabric, so did a repeat of the A-line dress nightdress I had made for the Sasha Festival Children's Fund Auction, and I made some matching knickers. I also made a Christmas stocking from this fabric and put in a candy cane and chocolate lolly.
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| Secret Santa gift 2012 - for Erica |
During August I had made some union flag table napkins as a gift, and had some fabric leftover, enough to make a dress, matching knickers and headband. I chose to make the pleated skirt version of the dress I had sewn earlier in the year for Florence, and with the sailor collar. My children immediately demanded that I make the exact dress again in that fabric as they loved it so much, I think I might have enough fabric to do this.
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| Front view of the dresses for Erica |
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| Back view of the dresses for Erica |
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| Showing the matching knickers |
I searched eBay for some doll sized Olympic souvenirs - a miniature metal badge and some postage stamps (I believe Erica collects stamps).
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| Olympic souvenirs |
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| Christmas nightdress and knickers |
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| British Olympic inspired dress, knickers and headband |
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| Secret Santa gift 2012 - for Erica |
About a week or so after posting the package, Lorraine forwarded the following message to me:
To my Secret Santa and family -
I wish that you had been here to see the excitement when your parcel arrived! You could not know that I had Jacqui, a waif waiting for a wig and new outfit... and there were *two* stunning outfits, *and* the lovely pin and stamps as well as the Christmas goodies! Your sewing is exquisite, and I love the fabric and trim - so appropriate! Even more so, as we (almost locally) have a paralympic gold medallist!! Wonderful surprises from our Secret Santa - thank you so very much! You couldn't have pleased us more! (especially Jacqui!!, who is now posing prettily in her lovely Union Jack outfit, and pretending that she knew about it all along!!).
Our best wishes for your own Christmas - I hope that it will be as happy as you have made ours!
Erica and the Sashas
Next, I will blog about the wonderful gifts I received.
Saturday, 22 December 2012
Dress for Hattie
This is another 'catch up' post - recent months have been unbelievably busy, so I've had little time for photo editing and my blog.
In August I made a dress for Dee's Hattie Bonham Carter to thank her for the two hats we received during and after the Sasha Festival. I wanted to make a dress which captured some of the spirit of Helena Bonham Carter's dress sense/style so had some fun looking for pictures of her and rooting through my fabric selection. I settled for black velvet, shimmery blue green and black lace!
Florence modelled the dress for a photo on the note which my crew wrote for Hattie:
I'm pleased that Hattie was happy with her new dress and matching hairband.
In August I made a dress for Dee's Hattie Bonham Carter to thank her for the two hats we received during and after the Sasha Festival. I wanted to make a dress which captured some of the spirit of Helena Bonham Carter's dress sense/style so had some fun looking for pictures of her and rooting through my fabric selection. I settled for black velvet, shimmery blue green and black lace!
Florence modelled the dress for a photo on the note which my crew wrote for Hattie:
Dear
Hattie and Dee,
Thank
you for the lovely hats, we really like them.
We thought you might like an outfit inspired by Helena Bonham-Carter
made by our mum. Florence is modelling
it in the photos and insisted on wearing the Olympic shoes, because Helena
often wears unusual shoes with her clothes.
But we think you’ll wear the outfit with more attitude than Florence,
who looks a bit serious (she was trying her best to keep still so the pictures
wouldn’t blur!)
We
don’t think mum got the gathers right on the skirt, the fabric was a bit tricky
to work with, and the gloves were a challenge, but we hope you like your Hattie
Bonham Carter outfit all the same.
Hope
to meet up with you soon.
Florence
and Miranda
I'm pleased that Hattie was happy with her new dress and matching hairband.
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| Florence models the dress (alongside our Olympic Flame rose) |
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| close up of a glove and the lace on the skirt |
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| hair band, and lace on velvet bodice |
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| back view |
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