Friday morning of the Sasha festival 2022 and the first event of the day was 'Dress a Sasha'. Set up was from from 7am in the lobby area where buffet breakfast was served at 8am.
This was our third Sasha Festival (previously we attended 2012 and 2017) and at each festival both my younger daughter and I have participated in the 'Dress a Sasha' competition. The rules are always no more than 3 dolls in the 18" x 18" space allowed. There are 2 categories (outfits made by the entrant, scene and outfits assembled by the entrant) and 3 age groups (adult, teen 13-19, child up to age 12).
As the overall theme of the Festival was 'Christmas in July', the organisers had suggested the following themes for the 'Dress a Sasha' entries: a favourite Christmas carol, a Christmas activity, a Christmas movie or a Christmas story.
This time because she had been doing examinations until a month before the festival my younger daughter did not have time to make any outfits as she had done in 2017, so she raided our large collection of Sasha doll clothes, plus our Christmas decorations to put together a Christmas activity scene: decorating the Christmas tree. We had been given a pop up Christmas tree a few years ago by a Sasha friend, so brought some lights to string around the tree, and found some bows on elastics from old crackers to use as the decorations to add to the existing baubles on the tree. Timothy, Louisa and baby Nina were the 3 dolls chosen for this activity. She used the placemat I'd brought from Yangon in November 2019 as a rug under the tree and some ready-wrapped little parcels we've used for the dolls in previous displays. Baby Nina played with a felt wreath while Timothy and Louisa put golden bows on the tree. Timothy wore a red Dollydoodles long sleeved t-shirt with Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, baby Nina wore a red dress set decorated with snowmen and Louisa wore a sundress I had made for her one Christmas in green and red.
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| Timothy, Louisa and Nina enjoy the Christmas activity of decorating the tree |
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| Nina plays with the felt wreath, while Timothy and Louisa add bows to the tree |
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Timothy and Louisa choosing where to hang their bows on the tree
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I had spent so much time on the Shakespeare Dream Coat, I didn't have much time to make the 2 outfits for my 'Dress a Sasha' display. I had chosen my favourite Christmas Carol for very personal reasons.
'Once in Royal David's City' is my favourite Christmas carol because for me at least it heralds the start of Christmas, after 4 weeks of Advent, on Christmas Eve, when a solo chorister sings the first verse then the choir joins in harmony for the second verse before everyone else joins for the rest. Most of my childhood Christmasses were in hot weather, the equivalent of 'Christmas in July' in the USA, so my memories of the coolness of St George's Cathedral, Cape Town on a hot sunny Christmas Eve conjures up a familiar and special atmosphere of excited anticipation of Christmas Day. My late brother Russell was a boy chorister in the Cathedral (he became Head chorister) during the 1970s and sang the first verse one Christmas. Many years later, his niece, my elder daughter, sang in the Nine Lessons and Carols service in York Minster when we were able to be there (Christmas 2021), the choir started with that carol while standing under the Heart of Yorkshire window which is above the great west door. In that vast space the sound of that beautifully tuned choir intoning the start of Christmas was sublime and it brought tears to my eyes.
A few weeks before the Sasha festival we had visited my elder daughter as she sang in York Minster (she finished her choral scholarship the day before we flew to the USA, so we were unable to be with her for the reading out of the singers who were leaving, but watched that Evensong live on YouTube). After the Sunday Evensong we attended in June, she took us to the robing room and held up her hood and the surplus (the flowing white gown which goes over the robe) for me to photograph, showed me how the red robes were designed, and how the amice (the white collar around the neck under the red robes) was tied on. I was able to put the photo of her graduation hood into Publisher, trace around the outline with a drawing tool then print off that drawing as the basis for the pattern on A4 paper, it was just the right scale for a Sasha doll. The hood is a curious shape.
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| Sewing the hood - just after I'd finished stitching it together and had clipped the seams |
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| The sewn hood waiting to be turned right side out |
Once the hood was made (her University graduation hood is bright salmon and orange, with royal blue trim), I drafted patterns for the robes, adapting a pattern which had originated in the Venus A. Dodge Dolls Dressmaker book when I'd previously adapted a jacket to make Reuben's red tailcoat when he played trumpet in the Muppet band at the 2018 Sasha Celebration Weekend. I scaled the robe pattern down to suit a toddler after drafting it for a Sasha. Once Laura and Edmund had their red robes, I designed and made their white surpluses, a simplified version of the surplus my daughter wore as a choral scholar.
These were all sewn just a few days before the festival. I packed a few sewing accessories, including some white bias binding in my luggage so I could do any last minute adaptions, and made the white ruffled collar for the chorister in the hotel bedroom the night before 'Dress a Sasha' from the white bias binding by hand stitching the tiny pleats. The amice was some white woven tape about an inch wide, wrapped around their necks, crossed over their chests and tied at the back of the waist, in a similar fashion to the amice my daughter wore.
The backdrop for my Dress a Sasha was slightly problematic - it needed to be very portable and lightweight and I didn't have an A3 printer (which would have been ideal) to layout all the pictures I wanted to include and print on one large sheet. So I printed out the pictures on white card and took those with me to cut out at the hotel, along with the portable stand my daughter had used for the Happy Birthday banner for her 2017 Dress a Sasha entry. I tied red patterned ribbons to the dowels in the stand and used mini plastic pegs to attach the individual pictures to the two pieces of ribbon stretched between the dowels (I provided tension between the top of the dowels by tying ribbon to the tops and stretching that round underneath the stand, it worked quite well).
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| Backdrop for my Dress a Sasha entry, showing all the photos of York Minster (left top and bottom) and St George's Cathedral (right top and bottom) I attached to the ribbons |
I made little music sheets for the dolls to hold from thin card. I brought blutak with me for the dolls to hold their music, but when setting up on the day couldn't find the blutak so Pat P very kindly let me use some of her Mini-hold wax paste (I later found the blutak where I had put it inside the box of mini pegs!).
I borrowed my younger daughter's two red-haired Sasha dolls for this scene with Laura representing my elder daughter (wearing her graduation hood over her robes and surplus) and Edmund representing my late brother Russell. My younger daughter carefully did Laura's hair in a long braid/plait which is often how my elder daughter wore her hair when singing in the Minster.
The photos of the backdrop are of York Minster's Heart of Yorkshire window (including a photo of my home Advent window version from 2020 made with black paper and tissue paper), the York Minster Advent wreath, nave choir stalls and magnificent newly restored pipe organ, plus my photos of St George's Cathedral's wonderful stained glass windows including one depicting Mary, Joseph and the donkey on the way to Bethlehem, the great rose window and the Ascension window, plus my home Advent window version from 2018 of the boy choristers, including my brother, singing (tissue paper).
I used dark green fabric with tiny gold stars as a mat to disguise the doll stands and the backdrop stand, it set off the red and white outfits really well.
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| Laura and Edmund in my Dress a Sasha of 'Once in Royal David's city' carol on Christmas Eve |
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| 'Once in Royal David's City' - my favourite Christmas carol |
This was what I put on the card introducing my entry:
"Once in Royal David’s City is my favourite Christmas Carol, as it is used at the start of the traditional Nine Lessons and Carols service on Christmas Eve in churches and Cathedrals around the world. The young chorister represents a red-haired boy singing the first solo verse in a hushed large space, in St George’s Cathedral Cape Town in the 1970s. The older choir member represents a red-haired young woman singing as an alto choral scholar (with the tenors, basses and counter-tenors) in the vast space of York Minster, York, England in 2021. She wears her graduation hood of orange/salmon/blue."
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| Side view of Laura, showing the graduation hood |
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| Laura and Edmund have their sheet music for 'Once in Royal David's City' |
I was pleased with how my 'Dress a Sasha' turned out, considering how little time I had to make the outfits and my elder daughter thought I'd done a fairly accurate copy of her graduation hood.
As at the 2017 festival, my daughter was the only teen entry. There were 3 entries from children (all assembled by entrant), 4 entries for adult made by entrant and 5 entries for adult assembled by entrant.
All the entries were really impressive with several being humorous, others very imaginative and ingenious, and the other 'made by entrant' entries were all very well designed and constructed outfits.
Child - all items assembled by entrant
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| Child entrant 1 - fireplace, wreath, cards and tree all made by the entrant |
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| Child entrant 1 - a lot of excitement with all those gifts |
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| Child entrant 1 - lovely gifts and felt tree for these lucky Sasha dolls |
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| Child entrant 2 - waiting for Father Christmas/Santa |
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| Child entrant 2 - peeping through that window at Father Christmas bearing gifts |
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| Child entrant 2 - the baby Father Christmas in the sleigh with gifts, and a spotty reindeer |
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| Child entrant 3 - Baby enjoying a bumper Christmas gift selection! |
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| Child entrant 3 - what a lucky baby receiving all those vehicles for Christmas |
Teen - all items assembled by entrant
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| Teen entrant 1 - Decorating the Christmas tree (my daughter's entry) |
Adult - all clothing made by entrant
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1 comment:
Loving your detailed description of Dress a Sasha!! All the entrants put a lot of effort into their displays. Great photos💕 excited to hear who won, I missed some when they were announced.
JoAnn
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