Adios Amigos

These pictures of "The Five Amigos" (formerly three, then four) were taken at the same time as the pictures in my previous post. 

I wanted to document these five as a group one last time. Unfortunately I needed to sell a few dolls, since I'd decided to fund all new Sasha purchases through the sale of other Sashas. Hard to say goodbye, but two of these five are gone now, along with two babies (Cleo and an unnamed nightdress boy). Adios my lovelies, and best of luck in your new homes.

80's Girls Original Outfits

A while back I was perusing Sasha group facebook posts and realized that the newer dolls are so often overlooked in the excitement surrounding the older dolls. Of course the newer English dolls aren't all that new, since they're 30ish years old themselves. And while they lack the hand painting of the earlier dolls, they are still gorgeous in their own right.

Here is a group shot of all the 80's dolls in the house at that time, my six and Boo's two. From left to right: Cathy, Rose, Cameo, Calla, Cybil, Chloe, Cindy, and Iris. This picture is currently on the main page of the sashafestival.com website. 

It was a long photo shoot, with lots of chatting between takes.

And here are just my six, the Five Amigos and Iris (who never really warmed to the idea of being an Amigo). The size differences are really apparent when they're all lined up.

Cathy: Blonde Sweater. She has the most serene face, and just might be my favorite of this group (but shhhh, don't tell the others). She wants to be a pilot someday.

Cameo: Honey Blonde Silk Dress. She is so petite compared to the others, and likely from the early 80's. She also likes to stand with her toes pointed out - ballet training in her past?

Cybil: Redhead White Dress. She came to me in mint condition, still strapped into her box. Not a great way to spend 25 years in my opinion, but she's made up for it since.

Chloe: Cora Flower Dress. She came to me in gingham, but given her age this is the correct outfit for her. She is the first Sasha doll that I ever bought. Hard to capture in photographs, but very pretty.

Cindy: Brunette Red Pinafore(?). She came to me nude, and could possibly have been a Dancing Dress, Marina, or Red Pinafore. She toyed with being Marina, but decided the pinafore suited her style.

Iris: Black Haired Sari. She was named for the color of her sari. At one point I had four of these girls, ~1% of all made! When I decided to sell all but one, she wasn't the one I originally planned to keep. But she was my mom's favorite, which prompted a second look - and a second decision.

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!

Happy New Year

My posts have been sporadic lately, but I came close to meeting last year's goal of blogging weekly -- I almost averaged once a week, with 49 posts for the year. I also succeeded in sewing a bit, making 10 tote bags and three pinafores, as well as starting (but not finishing) a Swiss dress. I still have about a dozen dolls to introduce, and lots more clothing, props, and display ideas to share. With a new job keeping me busy, I'm going to try and maintain the status quo rather than make new blogging goals for this year.

In addition to the pale blue tutu, I received two other boxes with Sasha goodies in the mail the week before Christmas. The first box contained a baby walker that I'd won from Shelly on eBay. I'm so glad that I won this because it is the perfect size for Cleo (who's wearing a Dollydoodles sleepsuit here). She's hard to photograph, but oh so adorable.

The second box contained eight pairs of DollyBlue boots (plus a surprise pair of bright pink shoes!). Here is Chloe wearing a pair of pink boots that I won on eBay, along with a Sharon Clancy outfit that deserves it's own backstory. I'd seen this outfit for sale on eBay back in the spring of 2009, and thought it was really cute. I noticed the dress and bits for sale this past fall, but decided against buying it without the cape. Then a few weeks later the cape was offered for sale. Oh how I wished I'd bought the dress when I had a chance. Fortunately I knew the seller, and was able to contact the new owner of the dress to see if she would be willing to sell it to me. As a reader of my blog she offered to give me the dress; I felt awkward being given something that I'd asked for, so we agreed on a trade: a pair of purple DollyBlue boots that I'd bought with the cape. Thank you Chris, and Nikita too -- I love this outfit!

And thank you Carrol, for making me all those boots. After winning the pink pair on eBay, I contacted her about buying purple boots to replace those I'd traded, plus boots to match my three folk outfits (blogged about here and here). My original thoughts were black for the central European, brown for the Bavarian, and white for the Swedish, but with custom boots I wasn't limited by those colors. Unable to decide, I bought multiple pairs; these are great boots and I know they could/would be worn with lots of other outfits. I also have a fourth folk outfit now, which needed no boots since it came with wooden shoes. I was made by Helena in Canada, AKA the eBay seller dolliepatch, and modeled after an old picture that I believe is of Dutch girls. Don't these four look stunning?!

Any thoughts on which color boots look best: red or white with the Swedish outfit, green or brown with the Bavarian outfit? Here's a close up of the five boot colors being worn by the dolls in the photo above.

Pinafore Challenge

Ted at the Sasha Street blog hosted an online Pinafore Challenge this summer, with an entry deadline of September 15th. I decided that I was up to the challenge now that I have a sewing machine, and created three entries. Since all the entries have been posted (73 total!) and favorites voted for, I am now publicly sharing which are my designs. These are my official entry photos as compiled by Ted (and included here with his permission):

Cameo - pink dragonfly

Cindy - blue duck

Cybil - green rabbit

We were supposed to submit two full-length photographs of each pinafore, so I took pictures both with and without a coordinating blouse (which I made using a Peggy Trauger pattern). I took pictures of all three together as well; I'd always envisioned these as a trio, and think the pinafores look even nicer when they're grouped together. I'm really pleased with how both the pinafores and the pictures turned out.

And now, a bit of behind-the-scenes information:

I was inspired by jumpers at The Trendy Tot (which are far cuter than mine). I knew nothing about how to make appliques, so I contacted my friend Megan at Bellflower Textiles. She walked me through the process, which was easier than I'd though it would be -- gotta love double-sided fusible interfacing. That was the only thing I purchased for this project, along with buttons; I limited myself to choosing from the fabric that I had on hand. The pinafores themselves were cut from a sleeveless chambray shirt that I no longer wore and was planning to donate to Goodwill.

I decide to blanket stitch around the appliques, since I wasn't sure I could maneuver my machine accurately to stitch them down. It's only decorative anyway, as they're stuck down well.

The pinafores are fully lined in white muslin, except for the straps which match the appliques. They pull on, with closed sides and buttons at the straps. These are my first-ever attempts at buttonholes on a sewing machine!

I certainly challenged myself, and had a lot of fun in the process.

Two Marinas

There are two distinctly different Sasha dolls known as Marina. The Early English Sasha dolls are often referred to by their original clothing, in this case a sailor or "Marina" outfit. These dolls were produced from 1981 to 1986. The later Gotz dolls were given unique names, and their similarly-dressed girls are named Marina. They were produced in 1999 and 2000.

I call my 1980's brunette Cindy. She was purchased nude, and I have no idea of her history. She may or may not have been a "Marina" as she could also have been a "Red Pinafore" or "Dancing Dress" (the other brunettes from the same time period). I found her an original "Marina" outfit and have dressed her as such for these photos with my Gotz Marina.

The dolls themselves are quite different. Gotz Marina is a green-eyed redhead with freckles, while English "Marina" is a brown-eyed brunette who is considerably taller (as is the case with most of the dolls from the 80's). They both wear navy blue and white sailor outfits, but with the top and skirt colors swapped. Gotz Marina has a tie with long tails attached to her collar and low ankle socks, while English "Marina" has a tie with short tails around her neck and tall knee socks. Their shoes are completely different styles; Gotz Marina wears blue ankle-strap shoes, while English "Marina" wears black laced shoes.

I think they look marvelous together:

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.

Sasha Festival 2009 - post 5

This is my last post about the festival, highlighting some of the clothing I acquired there. The festival souvenir outfits were shown in a previous post, but I came home with quite a few additional outfits.

First is last year's festival souvenir outfit, modeled by Rose. (Dorothy isn't usually pictured as a blonde, but Boo really wanted one of her dolls to wear it.) I won this at the Children's Fund Auction as part of a group of 2008 Sasha Festival Souvenirs. Sweet!


Second is another outfit I won at the Auction, modeled by Cathy. Peggy Trauger made this top and jumper with an embroidered child flying a kite. She was at the Auction, and graciously posed for a picture with Muriel and me afterward.


Third is the dress I wound up with at the Sasha Gift Exchange, modeled by Chloe. It was made by Wilma Robards, who I spent quite a bit of time talking with over the course of the weekend. (The gift I brought was a Liberty floral dress made by Patty at The Sasha Wardrobe, which Tina wound up with.)


Fourth is a crochet dress I purchased at the Sales Room, modeled by Cameo. This dress was made by Barbara Jo Keats, who sold a wide variety of items crocheted using cotton thread. I was planning to buy a dress with a fabric bottom, but fell in love with this all-crochet one.


Fifth is another outfit I purchased at the Sales Room, modeled by Cindy. This beaded dress with leggings was made by Kathryn Goodwin. She also had some cute homemade leather moccasins, but I was out of money. Perhaps I'll buy a pair next year, but for now I have these black suede moccasins that I won in the Helper Raffle.


Sixth is a pale green smocked dress I won in the Helper Raffle, modeled by Cybil. I was too rushed today to iron it, so I'm only showing the top ... perhaps I should pretend I've just chosen to focus on the smocking. :-)


Believe it or not, there is still more! I won two baby outfits (one at the Auction and one in the Helper Raffle), but don't have a Sasha baby to model them - yet. I was hoping I'd win one of the auction or raffle babies. I also won three other auctions: a striped knit hat, a set of 10 Studio Doll Museum postcards, and some Sasha collectibles including a set of 20 Trendon postcards and a Sasha logo pin. Plus I won several other items in the Helper Raffle, including two tea sets. How did I manage to get everything home?!