Sasha Celebration Weekend 2019 - Part 2

This is the second of my 2 posts about this year's Sasha Celebration Weekend.

One of the highlights of every Sasha Celebration Weekend is the raffle - there are always lots of prizes and there is a separate table for the gold ticket prizes (ones which are extra special or valuable).  I didn't have much time for making anything this year but somehow the raffle prize I devised grew and grew, thank goodness my younger daughter helped with some of it or it would not have been completed in time.  This year, due to the SCW Charity Course doll project, we were asked to provide some raffle prizes for the large course/studio dolls along with prizes for the 16" production Sasha dolls.  So I did both in one prize, which became a gold ticket prize.

We made a set called 'My Favourite Things - Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes'. It consisted of:

Clothes for Sasha:

Dress and sandals set for 20” Sasha doll
(studio or course doll)

Dress and sandals set for 16” Sasha doll

Each set consists of
1 sleeveless pinafore dress with blue satin sash
1 pair sandals with kumihimo braid straps
1 crochet headband
1 pair panties
White stars fabric with satin ribbon sashes and sandals

Matching clothes for Sasha’s doll:
Dress and headband for 6.5” American Girl mini doll
1 sleeveless pinafore dress with blue satin sash
1 crochet headband
White stars fabric with satin ribbon sash

1 American Girl mini doll (Luciana, 2018) with her
complete original box, dress, boots and book

Picnic items
Picnic mat
Pink fabric with machine embroidered edge

Mini tea set and mugs for a picnic

Crochet headbands handmade by DollMum’s daughter
Kumihimo braids for sandals made by DolllMum and Dollmum’s daughter
Dresses, sandals and picnic mat handmade by DollMum

(Miranda, our blond Sasha girl models the 16" Sasha dress in the following photos, she was not included in the raffle prize)

Miranda in the 16" outfit 'Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes'

Back view of the dress

The 'My favourite things' set

The list about the 'My favourite things' set

Closer view of the 'My favourite things' set

The mini AG doll in her white dress with blue sash

Close up of the 20" dress showing the stars in the fabric

The raffle was originally set up in the room where the doll making took place on Friday and Saturday so people could see all the prizes during the day, to encourage raffle ticket buying.  However because of the extended length of the workshops this year, it wasn't possible to hold the raffle during its usual afternoon slot before the Sales tables, so it was held after dinner on Saturday instead.  This meant a small group of us moved all the prizes to the dining room (which had a lot more space).

Gold ticket raffle prizes in the workshop room

Gold ticket raffle prizes in the workshop room

Gold ticket raffle prizes moved to the dining room

All the other raffle prizes in the dining room

There are always some dolls on the dinner table at Sasha gatherings.

The dolls on our table - at this stage the twin babies were on their best behaviour

Laura with her new toddler, bought at the sales tables after the craft workshops were over (Laura lead the embroidery workshop)

The twin babies getting up to mischief

Before the main raffle the Christine Toyne photo competition winner was announced and the special international raffle prize draw was made - both were live streamed by Alan so those from overseas who had entered the competition or bought tickets could join the fun. My daughter had entered the photo competition, which had the theme of ballet, the prize was £50 donated by Carol in memory of her mother who loved Sasha dolls. The international raffle prize, a doll with eyes painted by Janet, and wearing a bespoke ballet outfit, was won by Carol, which seemed rather fitting.

My daughter's photos are below, she took them with her new camera she had saved up to buy, she didn't win but enjoyed participating:

DollMum's daughter recreated the cover of Ballet Shoes for Anna

Nina learns to dance while Reuben and Melanie supervise the budding ballerina (patience was required by the young photographer when she was setting up this pose!)

In the main raffle to get through all the prizes in good time, Diane called up people a table at a time to draw the tickets from the bag while Madeleine checked the winning tickets before winners went to choose their prize.  Every so often it was announced that the next ticket would be a gold ticket and the lucky winner could choose one of the top prizes.  Our raffle donation was won by Gillian.

We won a few prizes on the raffle, including one gold ticket raffle prize near the very end. In addition to the raffle were vintage fabric donations - each person who had made an SCW Charity Course doll was called up one by one to choose a fabric. I chose a packet of fabric which turned out to be seven fat quarters of different patterns in turquoise shades.

There was a presentation to Janet from everyone to thank her for 5 years of Sasha Celebration weekends, as she stepped down from organising them.

Tricia presenting Janet with her card, gift and flowers

Another element of this SCW was the doll exhibition - this year it was a mini me display or alternatively depict a mini version of a famous person.  My girl and I picked a photo of to recreate, this is what we displayed with Laura and her doll:

Laura - Sasha Whitedress and a mini American Girl doll

In 2012 we attended our first Sasha doll festival which was held in the UK at Stratford upon Avon. Miranda was the surprise doll I had bought secretly a few weeks earlier in preparation for the festival.  I made a dress for my younger daughter and a matching dress for Miranda to wear for the Friday evening meal at the festival. This photo shows 8 year old DollMum’s daughter enjoying her first Sasha festival with Miranda, in their matching dresses.
Sadly, little girls out grow their dresses and although we still have the dress, it is far to small for a 15 year old!
We decided to recreate this photo—this time Laura wears the dress which had been made for Miranda and I made a new matching dress for the mini American Girl doll.

DollMum’s daughter made the miniature bows for the mini doll dress and the tiny headband.

Laura with her doll in the dress made for Miranda (photo Alan Hinchcliffe)

On the Friday evening I took my mini me to dinner as I was wearing the sweatshirt which was part of it, subsequently this is what we displayed about Louisa and teddy when they joined Laura the following day in the display:

Louisa - Gotz Sasha toddler
2019 is 50 years of the The Open University where DollMum has worked for nearly 26.5 years! 
Besides being an Open University graduate, it just so happens that DollMum shares the same birth year as the OU.
The OU at 50 mini t-shirts in white and blue come on OU teddy bears, one of whom has kindly loaned the blue shirt to Louisa, while DollMum wears her new OU at 50 sweatshirt.

The hotel was so warm it wasn't possible for me to keep wearing the sweatshirt all weekend!

Louisa in her OU at 50 t-shirt and OU teddy at dinner on Friday night

The following are my photos of the Mini me dolls, taken on Saturday and Sunday:

Mini me dolls 1

Mini me dolls 2

Mini me dolls 3 - Louisa, teddy, Laura and her doll (joined by Ed Sheeran and Luke Skywalker)

Mini me dolls 4

Mini me dolls 5

Mini me dolls 6

Mini me dolls 7

Mini me dolls 8

Mini me dolls 9

Mini me dolls 10 - Sasha Morgenthaler and her party dress doll

Mini me dolls 11

Mini me dolls 12

It was a wonderful weekend - we had a lot of fun, loved meeting with familiar friends, making new friends and being creative together in the craft workshops.  There are plans to organise the SCW in the future to continue what Janet has started, with several volunteer enthusiasts staying behind afterwards for a discussion about working together across the miles to make the SCW happen again at the same venue during May next year.