Display Cabinets

We're adding a puppy to our family (he'll be here tomorrow!). In preparation, I needed to make sure that all of my Sashas are somewhere safe. My sister had picked up a second display cabinet for me on a trip to IKEA, which sat in boxes for ages before my husband kindly assembled it for me. He also drilled additional holes in both of the cabinets so that I could create smaller sections at the top and bottom using the adjustable shelves. I plan to buy some archival binders and boxes to store my paper paraphernalia and special clothing in those spaces.

It took me a while to decide where everyone should stand, with lots of shuffling. Since almost all of my dolls are in the cabinets now, I decided to share some pictures. One cabinet contains my Gotz dolls, and the other contains most of my English dolls (my five "dressing dolls" are elsewhere in the house).

Here is the Gotz cabinet, grouped by age:


Here is the English cabinet, grouped by hair color (alas, poor Giselle's stringing is too loose for her to stand safely):


I'm really pleased with how these look so far. After the holidays I plan to spend some time organizing all the bits and pieces.

Meet Miranda

The weather hasn't been cooperating lately; we've had rain or overcast skies whenever I have some free time to take pictures. I finally gave in and took pictures anyway.

Miranda is a stunner, purchased from the collection of Audrey Femmer. She is my fourth Gotz no-navel. Like Muriel she is a brunette from 1970, but unlike Muriel she has long uncut hair. She arrived nude, and I've dressed her in a yellow corduroy dress from Dayzees by Randall Craig.




Hopefully we'll see the sun soon, and I can take some pictures of Miranda and Muriel together for comparison. Muriel looks forlorn to me, while Miranda looks shy.

Ballet Costumes

As a talented ballerina, Giselle has done a lot of dancing ... and acquired a couple of costumes along the way.

Instead of the traditional short white tutu, she wears plum when portraying the Sugarplum Fairy. This special outfit was made by Ruth at the Etsy shop from daisy daisy, and is simply stunning. Here's part of her description from the listing: "The ballet dress is made in a combination of lavender silk dupion and ivory tulle. The bodice is lavishly hand-embroidered with pure silk ivory ribbon rosebuds and hand-beaded with tiny faux pearls, and is underlined and lined with cotton lawn." It really is as luxurious as she makes it sound.



I'm particularly fond of Giselle's portrayal of Princess Aurora in the ballet Sleeping Beauty. Here she's wearing a pink sparkly Wee Wardrobe outfit that I found at Beverly's Doll & Bear Boutique, and a tiara crown purchased from ebay seller lovvbugg.



Doll, ballerina, princess ... I'm living my childhood dreams in middle age. :-)

Meet Giselle

Giselle is a very special Sasha doll. She is my first "no philtrum" (this groove between the nose and upper lip was added to the mold in 1968), and will probably be my only one since they are hard to find and quite expensive. As a redhead, she started life as either a "dungarees" or a "ballet". For a change of pace from my other early redheads (who all came to me with their original dungarees clothing), I've dressed her in a Repro Ballet Outfit from Ruths Dolls.




Giselle's neck/leg stringing is fairly loose, but she can stand by herself. And I'm still working on taming her hair, especially her bangs. She's beautiful now, and with a little work I'm sure she'll be even more spectacular.


Here's a final shot of her eyes. I just love her feathery lashes.

New Fall Dresses

The weather is finally cooling down here, so I've changed the "five amigos" into some lovely fall dresses made by Patty at The Sasha Wardrobe. I was thrilled to find five coordinating dresses at a reasonable price, and even more thrilled when I saw them in person. Perfect! It took a while to get all five girls dressed, mostly because I had a hard time deciding who should wear which dress, which shoes, and which tights/socks. And of course they all needed to have their hair brushed. Whew!

I wanted an outdoor picture with leaves in the background, which was easier said than done. They're all looking upward, since otherwise the sunlight overhead cast shadows on their faces from their bangs. It's as it they're watching something in the sky off in the distance -- an airplane, the clouds, or perhaps a hawk flying past.


I moved them onto the porch where the light was less harsh, but still no one wanted to look at the camera. I think they look lovely in their new dresses regardless.


Cameo (Honey Blond Silk Dress) is definitely the shortest of the bunch; she seems quite petite in comparison to the others. I'm pretty sure she's the oldest of the quintet.

Baby Clothes

Like many baby girls, Cleo has quite a wardrobe. Unlike a real baby though, she won't outgrow her clothes. It would take me weeks to find enough free time to photograph her in everything, so I'm going to start with just a few of my favorites.

This shiny red satin outfit is by Käthe Kruse, and fits perfectly. I think it's a nice change from all of Cleo's pastel-colored clothes, which make photography hard since they look washed out when I have enough light to see her features clearly. I found this wicker chair for her on eBay, and she usually sits in it when she's not having her picture taken (and sometimes when she is).


I bought this pink and white dress and lace-trimmed bonnet (and the unseen shoes and diaper she's wearing) at The Sasha Wardrobe, along with several other baby items. The dress was part of the 2009 Summer Collection. Cleo has four teddy bears, but I'm keeping my eyes open for other suitably-sized baby toys.


I couldn't resist these frilly baby pants from The Doll Works. My daughter Boo had several similar pairs when she was young. The doll quilt Cleo is sitting on is from my childhood.


This white smocked dress and matching bonnet is also from The Doll Works. It is so sweet, that I'm tempted to buy the pink version too. I bought these shoes there as well, though I had a hard time keeping them on her feet as you can see. Too bad they don't make those snap-on shoelace covers (you know, the ones with the bells on top) small enough for dolls.


This three piece layette is from eBay seller misspatau, who sells "Knits by Trish". The sock monkey is Boo's (a baby for the two full-sized sock monkeys my Mom made for the kids), but she let Cleo borrow it for a photo session.


UPDATE: I meant to include another photo when I created this post. Here's Cleo wearing a cute pink babygro from Ruths Dolls. My daughter wore very similar outfits when she was a baby (only much larger of course). Very sweet!


That's definitely all for now, but I'm sure I'll be taking pictures of more baby clothes sometime in the future.

Sasha Festival 2009 - post 6

I said that post 5 was my last post about the festival, but I've decided to add one more. Now that I have a Sasha baby to model them, I can share the two baby outfits that I won.

The first outfit was made by Geraldine Brodt for the Children's Fund Auction. It's a sweet pastel plaid dress with tights ...


... and a pale pink coat and bonnet. The coat/bonnet fabric reminds me of my childhood blanket.


Geraldine donated several handmade outfits to the auction, and had a table in the sales room as well. I especially admired her ethnic African outfits and jewelry (they were modeled after the clothing of a certain country, which I can't recall right now). She has a website in progress SASHA Couture by Geraldine, or can be reached via email.

I won the second outfit in the Helper Raffle. I'm not sure who donated it, but it has a tag from The Doll Carriage (a now-defunct doll shop in New Hampshire).


I think Cleo needs a different hair ribbon (or perhaps ribbons) for when she wears pastels. I guess I need to sort through my sewing supplies and see what I can come up with.

Meet Cleo

After seeing all the lovely dolls at the Sasha Festival, I added two new dolls to my wish list. One was a dark black baby girl. Not long afterward, I managed to find what I was looking for on Ruby Lane. She came in her original box with a styrofoam cradle; using Susanna Lewis' charts, I was able to date it/her as being from March 1972-1974 (a type II-A box). Her arms don't want to stay up, but I know that's easy to have fixed. Otherwise she is just perfect!




I have lots of clothes for her, and will take more pictures when the weather cooperates. She needs good sunlight or her features get lost (I have similar problems when taking pictures of Chloe). I followed the same naming tradition as my other "dressing" dolls (who are from the 1980's) -- starting with C, Greek origin -- but she has four letters rather than five since she's smaller.

Marshmallow Roast

I managed to find a campfire for Calla and Rose to sit around in their chairs. And some marshmallows to roast too. American Girl makes a "Campfire and Treats" set as part of their Campfire Collection. I bought it for Boo for her birthday last week. Boy was she thrilled!


The campfire lights up and plays four "classic summer camp songs" (The Bear Went Over The Mountain is one). It comes with two sticks with marshmallows to roast, pretend packages of graham crackers and chocolate, and two s'mores treats. Rose and Calla tried it out today, joined by their new cats Misty and Toby (Pawparazzi Pets, a birthday gift from her big brother). Fun!


They aren't labeled, but I'm pretty sure that both of these outfits are by Nellie Rose.

Nellie Rose

Several days ago I received an email from Karon Brackley in the UK, who used to sell her "Nellie-Rose" tagged Sasha clothing on eBay as the seller maudie-mays. I own quite a few of her creations, some of which I've shown in various posts (here, here, here, here, and here). After running a shop on eBay for over a year, she's decided to set up her own online store: Nellie Rose. I've added it to my LINKS section in the left sidebar for future reference.


Check out her clothing and accessories for Sasha, Gregor, and Baby (as well as for various other dolls)!