Birthdays

Today is my Mom's birthday - Happy Birthday GramMarion!

As a birthday gift to her, I thought it would be fun to share the birthday gifts that she's been sending to me. You see, my presents have been mom-made doll clothes. She used to knit and crochet clothes for my Barbie dolls when I was young, but now is creating clothes for my Sasha dolls. I am such a lucky girl!

Three years ago she bought a set of the Golden Hands patterns on eBay and surprised me with several outfits for my birthday. Aren't they marvelous?!

Last year my Mom had been testing knitting patterns for Susanna Lewis, so I received the items that she made - a ribbed sweater and an assortment of socks (these patterns are in the new book Sasha Dolls, Clothing and Patterns). The chest of drawers in this picture was part of Kendal's table hostess gift at the recent Sasha Festival in Stratford. I haven't introduced this girl yet, but you may know her as Shelly's model Addison - now renamed Raven.

This year she created crocheted summer jackets, modeling them after a jacket that my Grandmother made for one of my Mother's dolls when she was a child. I think I have seven different colors of the jacket, plus one made up without sleeves as a little cape. Alas I ran out of photography time today, so here is a picture from Stratford. Alison is wearing the cape, while Calla, Rose, and Kitty have on three of the jackets. I'll post more pictures at some point in the future.

Thanks Mom!

Fairy Dresses

For the festival's Sunday Brunch, I dressed Alison in a fairy ballet outfit made by Ruth Briggs. Imagine my surprise to see Betsy's doll wearing the same outfit in a different color. What a fun coincidence. I took a few hurried pictures of them together while the room was being cleared. Wish I'd brought my purple version for one of Boo's dolls to wear ...

Sasha Festival 2012 - post 9

I probably should have included this next picture in my previous post, since it was the "Lucky Dip" gift that Boo received for helping show the auction items. Each of the young helpers received something different, and all that I saw were fantastic. Boo is thrilled with her fairy outfit, which fits with the theme of the festival.


I bought another pram from a friend, who also threw in diapers, socks and tights for Boo's babies, and a few treats for me. The red and blue berets are the perfect colors for one of my sales table purchases.


I would have put a beret on Alison if I'd thought about it when I was taking this picture. Here are the clothes and shoes I bought from the sales tables (plus another knit baby outfit in white).


I was a bit rushed taking photos, so I left these sweaters in their boxes. The weather in NC is hot right now, but I'm sure you'll eventually see them on my dolls in future posts.


It's hard to tell with nothing else in the picture for reference, but those books are the perfect scale for Sasha. I had been admiring them online, and plan to buy more in the future.


Boo chose some clothes for her dolls from the sales tables. The middle baby outfit has a kitty pattern for Kitty to wear.


She also chose some little props from the sales tables, though the silver case, colorful purse, and tiny coins were all gifts from dear friends. Yes, the whoopee cushion works. She has all these treasures tucked inside the locking case (along with the hippo baby outfit).


I think these are the remaining new items we're bringing home. Boo won the puppy outfit in the raffle (it's not a baby outfit, but works on baby "Puppy"). The pink jacket was a gift to Boo from someone who won multiple raffle items. Along the side are three half-meter pieces of Liberty fabric that I purchased on sale in Stratford.


Hopefully I didn't miss anything while I was taking pictures in the hotel room. It's hard to believe how many extra things I have to pack, including several large delicate items. I'm heading home soon, and will work on a labeled picasa album/slideshow like I've done in past years. Until then, I'll leave you with a picture that I took as we were gathering our things at the hotel - Calla and Rose wearing their new frog dresses.

Sasha Festival 2012 - post 8

Here are pictures and descriptions of the auction items that Boo and I won:

(24) PAIR OF GREEN SHOES made and donated by Rosie Bloomfield. Worked in pale green leather, the sandals have a diamond open work pattern on the front and close with studs at the side.
(55) PAIR OF RED SHOES made in red leather with a side fastening and donated by Rosie Bloomfield. The shoes have their own matching shoe box.


(32) TURQUOISE SUNDAY BEST. A joint donation with a flowered cardigan knit by Lora Garrison coordinated with a turquoise dress smocked and sewn by Norvell Jones. Outfit includes underpants, socks, and burgundy Mary Janes.


(50) BERIBBONED BEAUTY made and donated by Marti Murphy. The dress is vintage cotton eyelet with various coloured ribbons threaded on the bodice and skirt. Petticoat, underpants and socks included with peach shoes donated by Jean Jenson.


(51) BABY DOLL AND CRIB donated by Dawn Law. The blonde baby has a beautiful pink decorated crib with mattress, pillow, fleece blanket, and coverlet. The baby has a white sleep suit, with a white smocked dress and panties, petticoat and pink shoes. (Baby Kitty is wearing the second outfit in this picture.)


(79) PRAM SET knitted and donated by Sue Palmer. The set comprises a jacket with ribbon accent, leggings, bonnet, mitts, and includes a wrap over vest and panties.


(86) GARDEN FURNITURE and depression glassware by Carolyn and Dominic Ruscio, donated anonymously. (This is from the 2000 Sasha Festival held in Huddersfield.)


I originally planned to include sales table and other items in this post, but am going to save that for tomorrow when I have more time to sort through photos.

Sasha Festival 2012 - post 7

I always like to take pictures of the festival souvenirs. The more time passes and the more festivals I've attended, the more likely it becomes that I will forget what came from where. I took speedy pictures at the hotel on Sunday afternoon, since I know life will be busy when I return home and it could have been ages before I got to it.

I included Boo's name tag, auction card, and mug in this photo, but she has a duplicate of all the other items too. The festival bag was a red tote bag with the Sasha logo and festival information printed on it. It contained: the festival journal (which I've only managed to skim so far, but is fantastic!), catalog of auction items, auction cards (I was #51, the picture on the backside of Boo's is just to the right), name tag on printed lanyard, booklet from the Museum Lindwurm, card with information about the new Sasha clothing book, and printed pen. Also included in the bag but not shown in the picture: flyers advertising Sasha clothing websites, and pamphlets of things to do in the Stratford area. There was also a printed mug and another pen at each place during Saturday's luncheon.


I've showed pictures of pieces of the souvenir outfit as we received them, but it's far nicer to see the entire outfit on a doll. Since we had three girls with us, I put two in the different colored warm-up suits, and one in the shorts, singlet, and sneakers.




Here are a couple of close-ups of the embroidery on the warm-up suits.


I'll finish this post with a picture of the table hostess gifts that Boo and I received. I love this festival tradition, as each gift is a reminder of the table hostess and a link between the 10 people at the table. Only one mask is shown, because I managed to lose one after brunch while I was rushing around taking pictures. Fortunately it didn't stay lost forever.


Next post will be auction and sales table purchases.

1968 Blonde Quartet

While I was taking pictures of my fringe girls for the last post, I decided to take a few pictures of ALL my 1968 blondes. Here is Audrey with Allegra and Alison. She also has a wide cord dress, but hers is quite faded.

Audrey's bangs are several rows deep, starting higher up on her head than those of the fringe girls.

And lastly, a picture with my waif Adeline. She seems to have a wider face than the other three. Another wide dress, but not corduroy; this one was made by me last summer from the Migros pattern.

1968 Fringe Girls

I have two 1968 blondes with a single fringe - one is wispy while the other is more even. Both have gorgeous blue eyes. I thought it would be fun to photograph them side by side for comparison.

They are wearing their wide corduroy dresses, Allegra in blue and Alison in brown.

Alison will be coming to the festival with me. This may be out last hurrah together, as I'm contemplating selling her. Never easy to part with a Sasha, but my collection is still a bit unwieldy.

Meet Alison

Having purchased several "special" Sasha dolls recently, I'm having a hard time picking my favorite. This doll is certainly one of the contenders. She has absolutely gorgeous pale blue eyes! Alison is the 1968 fringe girl that I had on layaway and finally finished paying for in December. She arrived in time to don a red checked dress and join the Christmas photo.

It has been a rainy, overcast week which makes it hard to take nice Sasha pictures (I should probably invest in a good light source). Still, I'm going to let the pictures do the talking, as they can "tell" you far more about her than my words. If you click on a picture, you will see a larger version.






Here you can see how wide her dress is. This is not her original outfit, but it came from another 1968 fringe girl so it suits her well.


And finally a view from the back, to give a better look at her hair.

Merry Christmas!

My "playing" dolls are all dressed up for Christmas, and have been joined by a special new friend. I finally finished paying the layaway on my 1968 fringe girl! I will formally introduce Alison in a future post, but wanted her to share in the holiday fun.


Alison is at the far left wearing a red checked dress of unknown origin. She looks so petite compared to all these girls from the 1980's. Next to her, Cindy wears a smocked dress with a gingerbread men print from eBay seller specialdelivery2006. Then comes Calla in a Nellie-Rose gold star dress with matching bow from eBay seller maudie-mays. The Santa hats are also Nellie-Rose Doll Fashions. On the other side of the tree, Cathy, Cybil, and Chloe all wear festive dresses labeled "Hand Crafted By Molly". I purchased them second hand, but believe that eBay seller molly31_7 is the same Molly.

Sasha Addict?

I think my obsession is becoming an addiction. I was originally looking for a Sasha doll or two that I could dress with my daughter. Something like the dolls I saw in my childhood, which were probably from the early 70's. I decided to purchase dolls from the 80's, as they are plentiful and I figured they would have fewer hair and stringing issues. We now have four "playing" dolls and a mountain of clothes. But I didn't stop there because I longed to have a whole collection of Sashas that I could display and admire. I decided to focus on the Gotz dolls from the second production as they can easily be found in "as new" condition in their original outfits, many only removed from their tubes briefly. Plus that put a limit on the number of dolls to choose from, as there were roughly 30 different girls produced in this time period. I picked my favorites and set about acquiring them, both on eBay and from private sellers. I was originally planning on a dozen, but am thinking it may be more like 15 or 16 before I'm through. I thought it would be easy to stop at that -- some dolls for play and some dolls for display -- but the early girls keep pulling at me. Not the early Gotz or no philtrums, but the late 60's blondes. Their hand-painted eyes and stylish hair make their faces so compelling.

Here are photos of my latest purchase, currently on layaway (you may have seen this picture on Kelly Wenarsky's sale page). She is a Fringe Sasha from 1968, wearing a brown cord dress from the same year (not her original outfit, though she would likely have been dressed similarly or in blue cord or gingham).


Kelly kindly washed her hair for me and left it down for this picture. A very different look from above, and yet equally stunning. I can't wait until she's paid for and I can see her in person. I feel like a kid at Christmas!


UPDATE: She's finally paid for! I have decided to name her Alison.