Agatha Hood or Agatha Primrose as Red

Ahhhh!  A sunny, quiet afternoon in the second week of the new year.  Winter came and went.  Two weeks of snow and rain and I was in a blissful state of winter.  Then "whoosh"!  It all went away.  Sure, it worries me, but there's nothing to be done about the weather, so I'll hike the trails in the earliest of spring growth.  Oh, I don't know.  Winter may return, and I have a couple of doll projects that are winter related, but it brings me back to my childhood growing up here.  I couldn't understand why it snowed in New York and only rained in California.  No one bothered to explain it to me either, but I "played snow and winter".  Even it meant freezing a pan of water for my troll doll to skate on.  My imagination has gotten me through life.

Remember last September when I spent the entire month celebrating Little Red Riding Hood?  I got a surprise one day by my lovely friend, Diana Vining, when she shared with me, a Red paper doll that she had created.

This was towards the end of September and I was already deep into Peggy Sue's Mechanical Man costume and "playing Halloween".  I knew however, the moment I saw this set, that I HAD to make the Red costume with the furry wolf hat.  OMG!  Just how adorable is that anyway?!  Some of the costumes Diana created were child outfits, but this one had a bit of sass to it, in a grown-up way.  It didn't take a lot of guessing who I'd want to use for it, and Tonner's Agatha Primrose got the honors.

Agatha is probably one of the lesser known and appreciated dolls that Tonner made.  His 12" Marley and assorted characters seemed to find more popularity and approval.  Which made bookish little 13" Agatha with her glasses, all the more appealing to me.  Not a mini me, but her personality is more in line with my own.

If my poor memory serves me well, Robert introduced her at

the MDC (Modern Doll Convention), in Reno, the year I went.  I could drive there.  A good three hours, but it beat a trip to the airport.  He got the standard applause as he continued with his slide show, but I don't think she took off as well as his other lines.  I got everything I could lay my hands on for her as Ebay sellers would offer the outfit only auctions.  I was even lucky enough to get the Alice outfit from the Agatha he brought to ComicCon.

I display two Agathas on my Tonner "12 shelf".  A blonde I dress up, and the short haired blonde in the houndstooth pants, looking rather collegiate.  I bought the anime dark haired one for the pink sailor outfit, then put her away, and that was that, until now.  I'm so glad I kept her!  I knew with her dark tresses, she'd be a winner for Diana's costume.  And this would be a challenge as I'd never sewn for this size before.

So, let's talk about the dress first. I'm pretty punch proud of how this came out.  The funny thing about considering buying someone's patterns, is that 

they never have the style I'm looking for.  But this dress is very similar to Cissy dresses, so I reduced in size, one of the patterns I have for Cissy for the bodice.  It almost fit but needed to be taken in at the sides and shoulders, and the weird thing is that I had to move the back dart over towards the side.  I'm still not comfortable with darts, even though I understand what they do and their purpose, so moving it over a quarter inch took a leap of faith.  It worked out perfectly.  I can't tell you why.

The next task was making the pattern for the jacket and hood.  Now some of you might interpret what Diana drew as a head band with wolf ears on it.  Obviously, we can't see the back of it, and while I could have asked her what she intended, it was more fun to wing it.  Maybe I was being original here, which is not the point, to me, when bringing her fashions designs to life, but to me it called for being a hood.  I made a pattern like a baby's bonnet for the hood, and the jacket was a reduced Cissy-sized blouse altered at the front.  What did I use for the fur?  Here's the fun part.  Something I can share with you!

After receiving the December Club Grace box that included this soft, and darling little fur coat in it, I started doing a bit of research on what Ruby Red Galleria may have used for their fur.  A lot of this has to do with what you put into an Internet search.  "Mini fur for dolls" did the trick.  What came up as a result was "mini teddy bear fur".  Mini Teddy Bear Fur.  I had no idea there was such a thing, much less that it could be purchased.  

A seller on Etsy had six pieces of this fabric in the gray you're looking at.  All other sellers of "mini teddy bear fur" were either in the U.K. or China.  So, I purchased it all because it was both inexpensive and came in small sheets.  So small that I had to piece two together to place the pattern for the back of the jacket on it.  Why?  Because like velveteen that has a nap, the fur goes one way.

I figured I'd just test this gray fur out, work with it, and if it was nice, I'd buy more from this one U.K. seller who directed me to her "soft" mini fur.  As it turns out, I bought a piece from a China seller, and one from her.  I feel like I hit the jackpot for doll fur coat needs.  No more using chunky, bulky people size faux fur for dolls!  Is it easy to work with?  No.  Fur isn't.  If you've never sewn with fur or faux fur, watch a good Youtube on how to cut it and sew it.  While I've only worked with it as trim on doll coats and for collars, I feel confident now, that I could make a nice fur coat for Grace or Cissy, or any sized doll because the mini teddy bear fur is the correct size.  And it does come in different fur lengths and lots of colors.

Again, it is not easy to work with.  It's very soft and silky, but if you have patience and determination, you can smooth the fur down in the front to meet the edge of your lining as you pin it together to sew.

The hood was equally tricky and attaching the wolf ears was something else.  I've never done this before, and don't plan to do it 

again.  You might normally position the ear ends in slits and sew them on, but this slippery fur did not allow itself such a process.

The little wolf paw print on the hem of her red pinwhale corduroy dress is of black leather. Gray tights and little boots purchased from Marcia Friend of Facets By Marcia, rounded out the look.  

Agatha Primrose is a lovely, youthful doll to dress and play with.  In my mind, she's about 19-20 years old and full of fun, life and promise.  Now that I have a good dress pattern that will fit her, I might do something like this again in the future.

As I was compiling stock photos to celebrate Agatha Primrose, I became very sentimental and sad that Tonner Doll Company is gone forever.  Just typing the name makes me shake my head.  I'll have a Tonner doll arriving in the mail the day I breathe my last!

Below is a photo celebration of Agatha Primrose.  Also, another Diana Vining Red Riding Hood that she created for a Bleuette paper doll.  Just love the Becassine in the basket!  Her Bleuette paper doll was fairytale themed.  Maybe someday.  Think I'd skip the Goldilocks though with that smocking on the pinafore.  I did smocking with Mary Lennox, and that was plenty with a capitol p.

The last of December and the first two weeks of January have had me buying a few new dolls for special projects. The illustrators of beautiful children's books, and the art of paper doll artists like Diana Vining keep me inspired and contently creating away.  However!  If winter returns, I'll be back on the snow in no time flat.  

Love, Melissa

Give a little Woof!