Sasha Secret Santa Swap 2013

Once again I participated in Lorraine's Secret Santa Swap for Sasha dolls.

I was asked for the following:

My wish: I would like someone to sew for either my Sasha babies or Gregors. We live in Australia so summer wear would be great but the Gregors are happy to wear long pants. Maybe a romper for the baby. We are happy with surprise. Many thanks, Sonya

I asked what Sonya's boy dolls were called and their hair colour and she sent the following via Lorraine:

My red head boy is named after my red head son, Jacob. My blonde boy is twin to my blonde son, Ben. Rodney is my brunette boy named after my hubby and Caleb was named by trendon! My sexed baby boy is Jack.

I set to work at the sewing machine to make summer clothes and came up with the following:

• (for Caleb) This dashiki with hat and summer shorts is 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.  So this set is my own design based on African designs.  It could be worn by a girl or a boy.
• The t-shirt, shorts and hat (for Rodney) and baby romper and hat (for Jack) I made too, using patterns from the three Ann’s book (though I adapted the t-shirt pattern slightly from a simple top).
• (gift for Sonya) The beads are traditional African beads, Sasha dolls could wear them around their waists, in their hair or you could wear them as bracelets. 

Baby Leo models the romper and hat for Jack

Nicholas James in the elephant themed outfit 

Reuben in the Dashiki outfit

African beads

Reuben, Nicholas James, Leo and visiting baby Drake in the outfits I sewed during November 

I received the following message from Sonya when the parcel arrived in Australia:

I hope you do not mind, I asked Lorraine for your email so I could write to thank you so much for my beautiful Sasha gifts! I didn't wait for Santa before opening them. You have such creative talent! I wish i could sew. Only very basics for me! I do knit a bit. I love elephants so your choice of fabric for Rodney was brilliant! We have a spoilt dog in our house so I loved the doggy paws fabric for Jack too! Caleb is so handsome in his African outfit, they are sitting next to the Christmas tree looking very festive for our Aussie summer. Thank you so very much. God bless and merry Christmas
Love sonya

Rodney, Jack and Caleb in Australia wearing their summer outfits

I asked for any 3 of the following:

• baby boy shoes (t-bar or lace ups, blue or white) for baby Leo
• miniature book(s) for babies or Sasha/Gregor
• miniature pencil crayons for Sasha/Gregor
• boy dungarees for baby Leo (blond hair)
• winter duffle coat for Laura (red hair)

On 23rd December I received the following from Kim in the USA (which we didn't open until Christmas day):

• Khaki trousers and brown sweater for baby Leo
• Beige Crochet shoes which fit Gregor/Sasha
• Adorable sandals which fit baby Leo
• A domed treasure chest made of wood
• A crochet Christmas tree decoration
• A straw angel Christmas tree decoration
• A wooden nutcracker Christmas tree decoration
• An 'Our Generation' dolls backpack with apple, water bottle and pen set (for 18" dolls but fits Sasha nicely)
• A box of Christmas chocolates
• A sparkly mini notebook
• Christmas stickers

Thank you Kim - what a wonderful collection of goodies for the Sasha/Gregor dolls, they're going to provide a great deal of fun for my girls and me.

As it happens I had just made Baby Leo a pair of denim dungarees and Christmas fabric shirt which he wore on Christmas Day, so a different outfit from what I had requested was very welcome.  In the following photos baby Mabel helps Leo show off all the things we received (wearing her Christmas dress I made and new tights).

Leo wears his sweater, trousers, sandals and shows off the nutcracker

Mabel shows off the Christmas angel

Leo's sandals

The Our Generation backpack and accessories

Christmas stickers, domed chest, chocolates, crochet decoration,
sparkly notebook and beige slippers from Kim

Straw angel and wooden nutcracker from Kim

Mabel and Leo with the lovely swap gifts we received from Kim

Thank you Lorraine for organising the swap again - it was a lot of fun to participate (planning and receiving surprises).