Cissy's St. Patrick's Day

Welcome back to my journal on the creative process!  It occurred to me the other day that I'd completely missed Valentine's Day this year with my dolls.  I was so focused on Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras that Valentine's Day slipped by just about unnoticed.  Well, not entirely.  I did pull out my Ruby Red Fashion Friends Valentine doll and set her out for display.  Still, that was about it.  

One of the things I started doing new this year, was to keep my little metal tabletop "Christmas" tree out and decorate it for the seasons and holidays.  Maybe putting my Christmas ornaments away this year was too much to bear.  But I created a New Year tree with assorted Old World Christmas ornaments.  I loved it.  I wanted badly to make one for Valentine's Day and that didn't happen.  Those ornaments are expensive!  And to fill all the branches, isn't cheap.  Next year.  But that doesn't mean that I won't be collecting for it over the next ten months.  I also think a Chinese New Year one would be delightful.  Depending on when

Chinese New Year falls next year, the ornaments could be up for a very short time.  Given all that ridiculous planning and thinking, I decided not to let St. Patrick's Day get away from me and filled the branches with adorable OWC ornaments.  Two are still on the way.  One of St. Patrick, himself, and the other is a leprechaun.  I've been a diehard fan of OWC ornaments for as long as I can recall, but it never dawned on me to have a tabletop tree year-round.  I'm enjoying it so very much.  I have a great selection of OWC Easter ornaments now, too, so on March the 18th, they'll go up and might stay through the month of April.  April is normally when Easter comes, but this year they squeezed it onto the end of March.  My doll rooms are a mix of St. Patrick's Day and Easter right now.  Tiny Betsy's Easter trunk is out and displayed.  My Ruby Red Fashion Friend dolls, Tulip and Willow from last year (the Easter dolls) are out as well.  If I can only enjoy them for a month, then let it be the entire month.

Blaire has been St. Patrick's Day-ing for a couple of weeks now.  The story is that there is an American Girl hotel in every country, and she travels to many lands, always staying at the AG Hotel.  I love the hotel they made for her.  And since it's like a little bedroom, its perfect for all seasons and themes.  In Ireland, she hikes and visits the castles, and will participate in a couple of Irish Step Dance productions this year.  

OMG!  You're learning that I play with dolls.  You bet!  

And then there's Dawn.  My tiny Dawn is ready for St. Patrick's Day as well in her green gown.  I like purchasing these costumes NRFB.  It makes playing with them all the more fun.  

My dolls and their costuming inspire me and help me enjoy each holiday even more.  Of course, these things are not in the main rooms of the house, but I can sneak ornament trees into the dining room and living room.  Discreetly and tastefully.  I'm sure my husband tries his best to ignore all my passions, and that's all I'll say on that matter.

Earlier in the year, I found myself needing to part with some of my Ruby Red Fashion Friends, and the ones I purchased last year that would have been perfect to display for St. Patrick's Day, got sold.  Instead of agonizing over parting with them, I decided to make Cissy a beautiful emerald green outfit to celebrate the day.

Her outfit was designed on the fly by mixing patterns and making things up as I went along.

The outfit consists of a circle skirt, blouse, coat, hat and purse.  The blouse is made from a pale peach silk and the rest of the costume was made from this gorgeous green cotton velveteen that I purchased from the U.K.  This one store had the thinnest, loveliest cotton velveteen imaginable.  Thank goodness I had plenty on hand to do this given Cissy's size and the nature of the cloth which has a nap to it. 

The linings were done with a green and rust woven silk.  I spend a great deal of time with my fabrics before beginning to lay out patterns and pick up my scissors.  

I happened to have a pair of green Cissy shoes, that matched the costume pretty well.  They're a bit different from the normal cross-band heels as they have two bands over the toes giving them a more closed toe shoe appearance. 

Here's a detail of the back of the costume.  I did a great deal of measuring and pattern making with the circle skirt as it takes a great chunk out of the yardage.  The skirt is fully lined for a smooth appearance at the hem.  I guess the first circle skirt I made was for Dolly, and it helped in drafting the larger pattern for Cissy.

The coat is everything.  I'm in love with this coat.  It boasts long darts in the front to form a pretty silhouette.  Three little buttons ending in a self-fabric bow are sewn down the front of the coat.  It closes with two snaps.  I love the swing style of these 1950's coats.  

I made the skirt first so that I could make sure I made the coat long enough to reach the hem of the skirt.  Its little things like this that seem to take forever with careful planning.  While I have adapted patterns to create unique styles, the patterns I use for Cissy are original Cissy patterns reproduced.  Most of these patterns fit beautifully, but this one pattern set seemed to be made for a smaller Cissy so many adjustments needed to be made.  I guess this is good practice for me, but when I'm dealing with expensive fabric that I have a limited amount of, no mistakes can be made.

I knew that I wanted to add some kind of shamrock embellishment to this outfit, so in the vein of poodle skirt style, I was going to add a sequined shamrock to the skirt.  

The seller of these appliques had "an assistant" packing and shipping and sent me only one of the shamrocks when there should have been three.  I was shocked when I opened the package to find only one and wrote to the seller right away.  I read the description several times to make sure it wasn't a mistake on my part, so whether or not it was, she sent me two more.  

After the coat had been finished, I realized that the shamrock on the skirt would never be seen under the coat, so I added the other two to the coat!  I don't usually do this kind of thing.  When I sew for a doll, I try to make something for a tiny person.  In this instance, Cissy gets to be a doll with embellishments of the kind you'd find on 8" Madame Alexander dolls.  No 1950's deb would dare do such a bold thing to her clothing!  But there is no mistaking that this outfit is for St. Patrick's Day now.  And you know what?  I can always remove the shamrocks from the coat if I want to be boring or turn it into something else.  I won't though!

I had a hard time choosing just the right photo of this coat, so here are a few with slightly different poses.

This one shows a peek of shamrock on the skirt where the coat is open in front.

This one shows the placement of the shamrocks on the coat nicely.

And the back. 

This shows off the lovely full collar on the coat. 

Of course, Cissy needed an accessory, and a little velveteen purse was just the thing.  Small and sweet with a kiss-lock.  

I love making these purses and need to purchase a few more frames.

Here's a close up of the upper portion of the coat with its three buttons and bow.  

Another pair of earrings just arrived in the mail as I'm writing this journal entry.  They're gemstone shamrocks and were targeted for the costume.  Well, I made Cissy these fun earrings while waiting for those to arrive, and since they're in these photos, they might just stay.  Like the appliques, they help the viewer make no mistake that this is a St. Patrick's Day outfit.

This little hat came from another pattern set.  It's simple but can be dressed up with ribbons or other pretty embellishments.  Silk ribbon is not easy to attach to a curved surface, but I did my best and Cissy enjoys wearing this bonnet.

I've enjoyed celebrating St. Patrick's Day with my dolls this year.  I have the last two ornaments coming in the mail to hang on my table tree, and Cissy is wearing the green.  I feel a little better now about selling those two dolls - sort of - now that I have one doll outfitted for the holiday.  It's still chilly this time of year, so Cissy will stay cozy in her luxurious velveteen coat and bonnet.

March 17th is coming up next Sunday.  It's time for corned beef, cabbage and potatoes.  Next stop, Easter!  And I've been enthusiastically planning for this as well.

In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy a few of my favorite antique postcards and illustrations I selected this year.  

Erin Go Bragh!  Melissa