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 Allegra

The eBay situation with Annabel left me feeling unhappy, but I cheered up when I found a 1968 blonde fringe girl for sale on Shelly's site. Since her descriptions are always accurate, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed again. Allegra is just as described, and oh so much nicer than Annabel. And she's a blue cord, like most of my other early English blondes.

The weather wasn't great for picture taking today and I didn't have time to mess with lighting, but I managed to find a spot of light coming through a south-facing window. It was so bright that I was having problems with shadows, but I like how this picture turned out.

Luckily I also wound up with a decent shot of Allegra's spectacular pale blue eyes. If you're curious, she's standing in front of Boo's doll armoire.

Meet Juliette

I can't believe it's almost time for the 2011 Sasha Festival. My how time flies! Even more unbelievable is that I still haven't formally introduced the doll that I bought at last year's festival. I gave a couple of sneak peeks here and here, but haven't made the time since then to take photos and write up a blog post.

Nancy Miller of Let's Play Dolls wrote this description of her: "Early rare no-philtrum girl, 1966, beautifully hand painted and extremely rare dark navy eyes with dark liner and white eye shadow, pretty pink lips, near flawless complexion, beautiful blonde hair has just a hint of dryness, but this is not obvious, no missing hair plugs, complete original blue cord dress outfit, panty elastic has stretched, clothes are otherwise excellent, navy leather Mary Jane shoes are absolutely mint except for a bit of paint missing from one snap, I don’t remember if I added the vintage hair ribbon or if it is original, doll has been re-strung to the correct tension, original striped elastic is tucked inside, doll is in excellent to near mint condition. She was reluctantly taken from my personal collection; she is gorgeous!"

She is indeed gorgeous. And her eyes are absolutely amazing! She is the Jewel of my collection - often referred to as Jules as a nickname for Juliette. Not the best light for photography today, but it will suffice.

Meet Gemma

When I stumbled upon my first "no philtrum" on eBay, I figured she would be the only one I owned. But then a blonde np was listed for sale on Shelly's website. And lingered. And had her price reduced. And ... I decided she should come live in NC. I almost named her Caitlyn (for some reason she reminds me of my sister's childhood friend), but decided she should be called Gemma instead.

I grabbed a few minutes here and there this afternoon to take pictures, so my photo session spread over several hours. The light angle changed quite a bit over this time period, taking her from icy to glowing.

As you can see from this close-up, her lips are quite rubbed but her eyes are fabulous.

I'll try to remember to take comparison photos of Gemma with some of my other 1960's Blue Cords. It might not be for a while though, as I have a new job and even less free time for blogging right now.

Sasha Festival 2010 - post 1

I wasn't planning to buy a doll at the festival, but this lovely girl came home with me. I am still so excited about her that words fail me. Other than perhaps yipee, or woo hoo!

The Festival was fantastic! I have about 300 pictures, and lots to talk about ... but it will have to wait until I get some sleep (and deal with some of the more mundane aspects of life).

UPDATE:  After lots of contemplation, she and I have settled on the name Juliette.

Meet Adeline (after)

I finally sent Adeline to Pat's Sasha spa in Florida, and she returned home in December (this is one of the posts I was planning before Christmas but didn't get around to creating). The lighting was bad for her "before" pictures, but even discounting that she looks so much better now. Pat cleaned her inside and out, restrung her, washed and dried her hair, and re-rooted some hair plugs.


She had 11 hair plugs fixed -- there were just nubs here at her hairline.


Her original stringing was thin white in the arms and striped in the legs, so I'm pretty sure she dates from 1968. Knowing that, she would have been dressed as Jeans (which I would call brown corduroy overalls), Brown Cord, or Blue Cord. As planned, I dressed her in a 1960's blue cord outfit with replacement socks. From a distance, she looks almost like new ...


... except that she was the victim of a young hairdresser at some point, so her hair is somewhat uneven. It's slightly shorter on her left side at the front, and has a shorter layer on her right side at the back. It's a bit dry at the ends, but has lovely shade variations.


Up close she has a graze on her nose and her lip color is pretty much gone, but just look at those beautiful blue eyes!


I was planning on keeping Adeline as part of my collection, but have decided to offer her for sale at my bonanzle booth instead (I have plenty of late-60's blondes already, and am saving for a special doll I've found). I should have her listed there sometime this week.

More Audrey

I introduced Audrey in December, on an overcast day that wasn't conducive to picture taking. Those indoor shots really don't do her justice, so I decided to try again. When I had my blue cord girls outside for pictures on Sunday, I took a bunch of Audrey alone in several different poses. Enjoy!

1968-69 Blue Cords

My husband took the kids to the park yesterday afternoon, which gave me some free time to take my blue cord dolls outside for comparison photos. I took pictures of my three 1969 Blue Cords back in April, before Delia's arrival. This time I added Audrey (from 1968) to the mix as well.

Here are the three with similar bangs: Dolores, Delia, and Audrey. Dolores and Delia look quite a bit alike, but Audrey's 1968 eyes are different from their 1969 eyes. (As usual, clicking on the photo takes you to a larger version.)


Here are the four 1969 girls lined up: Dagmar (a side part), Devereux, Dolores, and Delia. Delia doesn't have an ID bracelet yet, but I'll make her one eventually so she's not left out of the "club".


Here are all five of my blue cord girls lined up: the four 1969's as pictured above (Dagmar, Devereux, Dolores, Delia), with Audrey added at the far right. Her dress is quite faded, but it's the earlier wide version.


Here's a different grouping of the 1969's, with Devereux and Dagmar in back and Delia and Dolores in front. It's amazing how different they look considering they're all the "same" doll.


And the same grouping with Audrey added to the middle of the back row. She looks more delicate/dainty to me than the other four.


What a beautiful group of blonde haired blue eyed girls. I love them all!

Meet Delia

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed some trends within my collection. Most of my dolls fall into three general groups: 1980's English (my "playing" dolls), Later Gotz from 1995-2001 (almost all with their original outfits), and 1968-70 (both English and Gotz, many with their original outfits). Within the later group there are several themes: no navels, side parts, redhead dungarees, and blonde blue cords. Today's introduction falls into the last category; she's another 1969 Blonde Blue Cord.

Delia came from an estate sale, and I believe her clothing is all original. Under her dress she is wearing white ribbed underwear (both vest and pants) and blue cord pants. She is the only one of my blue cord girls who has ribbed pants under her blue cord pair. I'm not sure if she got lucky at the factory, or a previous owner added them from another outfit.


Her hair is two-toned blonde with some factory curl remaining, and her face paint is lovely.


Her lips are paler, but I think she looks a bit like Dolores. I'll try to post another set of blue cord comparison photos soon so you can decide for yourself.

1969 Blue Cords

I have three 1969 blondes in their original blue cord dresses. While they are the "same" doll, their hairstyles, dresses, and even shoes are slightly different. Seeing them together makes their subtle differences more obvious. Dagmar is on the left, Devereux is in the middle, and Dolores is on the right.


They can be easily identified by their hair: Dagmar has choppy bangs and a side part; Devereux has long, thick bangs; and Dolores has short, even bangs.

Meet Devereux

Spring flowers are starting to bloom, so I made use of a cool but sunny day to take some outdoor pictures. Devereux is my third 1969 blonde blue cord Sasha. She has very thick bangs which give the appearance of a wider face. Both she and her original clothing are in beautiful condition. She came to me from Kelly at "Our Sasha Dolls" (another Sasha friendship that I'm hoping will last a long time).




She does have one small flaw: three snipped plugs of hair right in the front, which aren't visible under her bangs. I'm hoping to get these re-rooted soon, along with Adeline's snipped plugs.


Look for 1969 blue cord comparison photos in my next post.

1969 Side Parts - II

The last time I posted about my 1969 side parts I had two of them. Now I have three, so I decided to take new pictures of them together. Fortunately I did this on the glorious day I took pictures of Dylan Danica, as we've had rain the past two days.


Here are Dagmar, Lilith, and Dylan Danica on the climbing frame in my backyard. Lilith and Dylan Danica both had a ribbon tied in their hair when I received them, but all three now sport small vintage barrettes.

1969 Side Parts

I thought it would be fun to take a few pictures of my 1969 side part girls together. They are a bit like yin and yang: one with dark hair/eyes and light summery clothes, the other with light hair/eyes and dark wintery clothes.


Yet they both have the same peach-colored lips and thick bangs.


Here's a top view of their parts, each with a slightly different rooting pattern.

Blonde Trio

I took the pictures for posts about Dolores, Audrey, and Enid at the same time, so I snapped a few with them together. Here they're lined up by year in ascending order: 1968, 1969, 1970. I wish I'd put my spare blue cord outfit on Enid (I'm saving it for Adeline post-repair), but didn't have the time to deal with clothes changes before picking up my kids at school. Once I've finished introducing all my dolls there will be plenty of time for more blue cord comparison photos.


And here's a shot of just the two blue cord girls together.

Meet Audrey

Audrey is another of my late-60's blue cord girls, this time from 1968. Her hair and face are similar to Dolores, though her lip color is pinker. Her dress is quite faded, but it is the early wide version. She came to me from the UK via Shelly at Sasha Doll UK.