Happy Christmas to the dolls

The dolls in our home had a small Christmas tree, a visit from Father Christmas and some lovely gifts for Christmas 2013.

Last year at the Sasha Festival in Stratford upon Avon, Laura in Devon won the American Cora and all her clothes and accessories.  She recently decided that one or two of the outfits were not being used by her doll family and mentioned them on the Sasha Mart.  She then contacted me privately to find out if I'd be interested in a particular outfit - to swap for one of my Garden Games sets.  I was very happy to do the swap and she included lots of additional doll sized items she no longer wanted, which was very generous of her.  Several of these items turned into Father Christmas presents for the dolls - thank you so much Laura.

On Christmas Eve I found a delightful little fireplace in a local charity shop. It has little hooks for hanging stockings and a tealight holder behind the fireplace which makes it 'come alive'.  Jenny and Lexie my Heather Maciak dolls laid claim to it as soon as it was set up. I made a couple of tiny felt stockings for them to hang up (rather hurriedly late that evening). I had bought them a pair of outfits via ebay a month before, so having the fireplace to set the scene was a bonus.

Lexie and Jenny await Father Christmas with their stockings

Our fireplace (temporary, work in progress) and Christmas gifts for the dolls

The cloth Advent calendar my girls have enjoyed for the past 9 years and the temporary fireplace

Laura with her wonderful Sasha Festival Raffle cowgirl outfit (thanks to the other Laura) - my younger daughter was delighted with it

Nicholas James with his Elliott Shirt and jeans (Passion for Sasha) - see http://absolutely-sasha.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-elliott-shirt.html

Baby Leo unwraps his snowman suit (thank you Laura) 

Peter unwraps his trumpet (I've had this hidden in a drawer for 3 years)

Peter tries his new trumpet

Reuben was pleased with his new sweater (thank you Laura)

Matilda was thrilled with her cow glove puppet (thank you Laura)

Jayne received some new plimsolls (also lurking in a drawer for ages)

Harriet adores her teddy with a lilac flower (thank you Laura)

Samantha thought the tartan dog glove puppet was super fun (thank you Laura)

Florence was overwhelmed with her new
blush pink Ruth Hartley shoes (thank you Laura)

Miranda discovered a Hattie hat and white tights in her parcel (thank you Laura).
I had finished sewing her Christmas dress on Christmas Eve.

Baby Mabel received new Christmas tights (I bought these from Michelle at the Chat n Snap)

Baby Mabel in the Christmas dress I made from the classic yoke dress pattern
 in the 3 Anns book and her new tights

Belle received pink bunny slippers (thank you Laura)

Matroshka received some miniature pencils (found in a local Charity shop)

Anna received some miniature playing cards (thank you Laura)

In addition, my younger girl received a Sylvanian families mini food set in her Christmas stocking which had come from Laura as well.

I will blog separately about Jenny and Lexie and what they received (it was too big for their stockings).

Later on Christmas Day we went to my cousin for 2 days hence the delay in posting this. I also unwrapped my Secret Santa Sasha swap gifts which had arrived on 23rd December, however I haven't had an opportunity to photograph them yet.  I will soon blog about them and what I sent.

Decorating the Christmas tree

On Friday evening my family decorated our Christmas tree.  We always have a real cut tree rather than an artificial one, even though we inevitably get a bit of needle drop during the 2 weeks the tree is in the house, however the smell of the tree in the house is well worth a small amount of mess.

The whole Sasha family helped with hanging baubles on the tree, even the babies.  I took photos of them all, but only 2 were worth sharing.

Laura hangs the handmade decoration her young owner made

Florence hangs the violin decoration

I'm doing some Christmas sewing for some of the dolls, but not as presents (I don't want eleventh hour present wrapping as the past 2 years!).

Sasha Festival raffle stay at home

Back in the summer I entered my name in one of the 'stay at home' raffle draws for the 2013 Sasha Doll Festival which were posted on the Sasha Mart and was lucky enough to win one.  It was a lovely knitted sweater made by Tricia from a pattern by Erica Mcleod and made in wool which Erica had sent to her friend in England.  Tricia asked for a donation to a children's charity, so I sent a donation to Save the Children and I also sent Tricia a dress I made - one of the two Union Jack dresses I made as copies of the one I made for Erica for the 2012 Christmas swap.

Tricia was very pleased with the dress (she doesn't sew) and a few weeks later I received an unexpected packet in the post, containing a fat quarter of some very pretty Mabel Lucie Attwell fabric from Tricia, for me to make a dress for baby Mabel.  I was delighted because at the time Mabel didn't have a dress and what better than a fabric named for her!

I completed the dress in time for the Chat n Snap in October and baby Mabel wore it to that event.  But it is only now that I've finally got down to writing about it properly.  The dress has matching underwear and today I have made a bonnet to complete the outfit.

The sweater is a lovely soft pink and I think it goes well over the pinafore I made for Florence.  Yesterday I made her a pair of tights out of some patterned socks.  So for the colder weather Florence has tights and long sleeves to go with her autumn pinafore.

Thank you Tricia for the lovely sweater and fabric, as you can see from the photos baby Mabel and Florence are very pleased with their new clothes.

Florence and baby Mabel in their new clothes 

Baby Mabel in her Mabel Lucie Attwell outfit

Florence wearing the Erica sweater knitted by Tricia in wool from New Zealand 

Florence's patterned tights

side view showing baby Mabel's bonnet 

close up of the smocking and baby Mabel's eyes

Travelling baby Drake visits us

Earlier this year Ronny wanted to help the homeless and decided to set a baby Gregor, called Drake, on a journey to several temporary homes on his quest to find a forever home.  The idea was for each of the host families to give him a good time and give him a gift, then send him to the next person.  So the baby who started out with nothing would have several things to take with him to his permanent home when he is auctioned.

Baby Drake arrived from Dee of Sasha Village a couple of weeks ago.

I made him a romper with matching sun hat in the South African shweshwe fabric, a felt ball and 5 felt blocks with his name spelled on them.

Drake's felt name blocks

Drake wearing the summer outfit I made and his new toys

 Drakes last day with us (with thanks to my younger daughter who helped with this story):

Drake has been playing with his friends baby Mabel and baby Leo

They were having fun sharing toys

Leo and his rattle

Drake plays with his felt blocks and ball

Laura comes to tell the babies it is time to put the toys away as it is bed time

Laura puts the toy owl on the chest of drawers

Baby Drake collects all his blocks...

...while baby Leo and baby Mabel put toys in the cart

Baby Drake puts his blocks into his hat

Baby Leo likes the pig glove puppet

They all snuggle down to listen to Florence read about the Christmas donkey

The story is all about a little donkey who carries Mary to Bethlehem

Baby Drake likes the story

and wonders when he will be going on a journey to his new home

baby Mabel cries and baby Leo gets upset too as they don't want their friend to leave

So they all snuggle into the cot together for one last sleep before Drake's journey

We have enjoyed hosting baby Drake and hope that he finds his forever home soon.

Knut the polar bear

In the pinafore swap Anne in Germany sent us lots of additional Autumnal/Halloween goodies with the lovely pinafore she made.  So I decided to give the Sasha Commoneo Crew a bear to say thank you for all the lovely things they sent.  They have all been wishing for bears and the elder Sasha and Gregor children have sent the younger ones on a bear hunt in their garden (there are several posts, so look for the others on her blog).

I found a free pattern for a miniature bear on-line (designed by Lesley Shepherd) and resized it slightly to suit.  I made the miniature bear out of white felt which is easy and quick to hand sew, turned the pieces the right way out (this was the fiddly bit) and carefully stuffed the pieces and sewed them up.  I used small white buttons on the outside of the arms and legs as an anchor for the threads stitched through the body to make the limbs pose-able, then stitched the nose and eyes with black embroidery thread and stitched on the little ears.  For Knut I made a scarf out the multicoloured 4 ply wool I had used to make Susie's cardigan (blues and greens/yellows), for the similar polar bear I made for Dee as a thank you for the Chat n Snap I knitted a scarf from the wool I used to make Florence's cardigan.  I also made the bear in a light tan coloured felt, with a big red ribbon bow.  I did take this bear to the CnS but didn't put him out on the table to sell, I just wasn't sure how to price him (he is a bit fatter than the polar bears, he ate more honey than they did!).

This is a photo of the 3 bears just before I went to the CnS.

Dee's bear, the tan coloured bear and Knut

Each little bear is small, when standing up it is only 8 cm (just over 3 inches) tall.  In Anne's parcel I put one of my little skipping ropes (in a presentation bag) and Knut the polar bear.  It looks like Knutie has been made welcome by the Sasha Commoneo Crew who have also tried out the skipping rope.

Chat n Snap 3

I realised that I didn't take a photo of baby Mabel in her new onesie at the the CnS last weekend, so this evening took some quick photos.

Baby Mabel is sharing her carry cot with baby Leo.  I don't think this carry cot is a Sasha baby cot though it is similar, it is a little bigger and came with a soft doll in it from a church fete some years ago. Baby Leo is holding his teddy which Chris M gave him as part of the swap for the chair my girl made.

Babies Mabel and Leo share Mabel's carry cot and babble about their teddies

Baby Mabel proudly wears her  Sashapotomus onesie

Close up showing Mabel's eyes 

Close up showing Leo's eyes

These photos aren't great (artificial light) and I need to use the tripod and daylight to get their eyes completely in focus for a better comparison.  Mabel is a sexed waif and Leo is a sexed early boy with gorgeous eyes (possibly painted by Sara Doggart).  Mabel's eyes are lovely, they are hand painted.

I've now created a page about the toys and games I've made so far for Sasha/Gregor dolls.