Here we are on the other side of mid-May.  Happy Friday!  I hope you have wonderful plans for the weekend.  It surely is time to start spending more time outdoors and in nature with sunny days in the forecast.

The funny thing about May this year, is that it's been unusually chilly and terribly windy.  I woke up with a sore throat, but I'm sure it's just seasonal allergies.  Still, the wind is not my friend.  Especially since it plays havoc with early fire seasons in California.  

This is just a short little journal for something fun that I just finished.  Rachel Hoffman has brought back our Club Grace subscription for the Grace Marie Fitzpatrick doll's lavish wardrobe.  This year she tells us that the designs are from three sources, and the actual items are from both Ruby Red Galleria and the new VDC Label. 

Not only is Club Grace something to look forward to each month, but it gives me a chance to sew for little Dolly Dingle.  Diana Vining was superb in creating a poster to announce the new subscription with a Register Now! drawing.  The minute I saw how Dolly was dressed, I knew I'd have to create this outfit for her to go with Grace's Flower Power floral pants suit.  I was a little dubious at first about this pants suit, but once it arrived, I came to really enjoy and appreciate how sunny and lovely it really is.  

If you read the story Diana wrote for Grace's letter to club members, and interpret it as I have, Diana wore this to one of her classes where she was a substitute teacher to elementary grade students.  This outfit ended up in the first Club Grace box to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, May 1 - 7.

I really hadn't thought to have to put too much effort into this costume, but I did.  With all the patterns I've made over time for her, you'd think I'd have a bit of everything to work from.  I don't.  The only pieces I used were those of a blouse front and back and the stockings pattern I'd made.  

The dress is a drop waist with a box pleated red polka-dot skirt attached.  The dress also sports a wide collar that folds over the navy blue coat.  It was this coat, and the hat, that gave me the most challenge.

Dolly has this funny little body with short, bent arms, and very small legs.  Given that her legs are so short, her skirt is little more than a one inch long, pleated piece of cloth.  I don't blame others for not wanting a doll like this since they'd have to make patterns for her, but once dressed, she's as cute as can be.  

I had to make the coat pattern over several tries, and tossed two mock

ups that were simply huge on her.  Well, at least now I have a little coat pattern that can be altered for other styles in the future.

It was the hat that I began with, because the hardest thing should always be done first, in my book.  If you can successfully complete the hardest piece, the other items should follow more easily.

Many of you may be familiar with resin or composition hat molds, and I've been using them from The PNB Doll Company for years. Even if they sold this style in a 6/7 Bleuette hat mold, which they don't, it would take a month to get to me.  So I did the next best thing and figured out how to make one from an existing mold with a round crown.

I'd like to share this technique in the case you wish or 

need to make a hat like this sometime.

Instead of starting the straw at the edge of the existing brim, start only a half inch from the crown then complete the hat.  Once dry, start adding the more rows of straw to the brim and as you do, start stretch-pulling them slightly so that they'll bend upwards.  Once you have about four rows done, if the shape is correct, continue with a couple more rows no longer stretching the straw.  The straw is flexible and will pull into shape beautifully.  

If you like doll hats, please look up The PNB Doll Company and try one of their molds.  She gives you complete instructions and a little glue bag for assembling the rows of straw.  I had to look up the company since its been ages since I ordered a new mold, but it is there and still exists.

More than anything, this month has been nice for me since in April, all my favorite doll artists and dealers offered all their new dolls at once.  OMG!  Talk about an expensive month, but since I'm being good this month, its nice just to see some of the dolls showing up in the lock box of our mail station.  And the Club Grace box was one of the delightful arrivals.  

May is a nice long month with four full weeks and a half one at the end.  Its my goal each day to enjoy the day as fully as possible, even if that may mean sometimes that I am just hiking the dog in the morning and reading in the afternoon.  With the warming days, I find it difficult to sit inside at my table or the sewing machine.  I want to feel the sun on my feet.  Listen to bird song all morning long.  Right now I have to have a serious talk with Mr. Wind!  At least he keeps the flying bugs at bay. 

Enjoy the rest of this lovely month!

Love, Melissa

 

 

Esme Rose

Ah!  The month of May.  Breathe in deeply the scents of the earth, as flowers begin to bloom and brighten all around us.  When I think about what May means to me, it's a frolic of feet in the grass, baby animals being born, little birds with fledgling wings leaving their nests.  And a time to garden.  A time to plant.  A time to plant the vegetable garden, and a time to plant flowers that will bloom sweetly in the warm summer months ahead.  Its roses.  Roses for Mother's Day.  Roses made of icing for wedding cakes.  Roses for their beauty and heady scent!

Early on, I knew when May rolled around, I'd want to make Esme a rose garment.  This tiny doll has become such a part enjoying each season through sewing.

Roses have a long and colorful history.  They have been symbols of love, beauty, war and politics.  According to fossil evidence, the rose is 35 million years old.  There 

are somewhere around 150 different species of the genus, Rosa, spread throughout the northern hemisphere from Alaska to Mexico, including northern Mexico.  Garden cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years ago, and most likely started in China.  During the Roman period, roses were grown extensively in the Middle East.  The petals were used as confetti at celebrations, for medicinal purposes, and a source of perfume.  Roman nobility established large public rose gardens in the south of Rome.  After the fall of the Roman Empire, the popularity of roses seemed to rise and fall depending on gardening trends of the time.

During the fifteenth century, the rose was used a as symbol for the factions fighting to control England.  The white rose symbolized York, and the red rose symbolized Lancaster.  As a result, the conflict became known as the War of the Roses.

Roses were in such high demand in the seventeenth century, 

that royalty considered roses or rose water as legal tender, and they were often used as barter and for payments.  Napolean's wife, Josephine, established an extensive collection of roses at Chateau Malmaison, an estate seven miles west of Paris in the 1800s.  This garden became the setting for Pierre Joseph Redoute's work as a botanical illustrator.  In 1824 he completed his watercolor collection, Les Rose, which is still considered one of the finest collections of botanical illustration around.

Roses aren't the easiest to plant to grow and tending them takes a time and dedication many don't have.  And they do have thorns.  Yet we love roses so much that they decorate confections like wedding cakes, tea sets, bedding, perfume bottles, curtains, clothing, and just about anything useful and decorative.  

One of my early introductions to roses was my grandmother's rock garden, where she grew flowers of every kind.  I'd go out there on hot summer days and make flower fairies from a rose, a twig, and 

a blade of grass tied around the twig for arms.  Luckily, my grandmother didn't mind me destroying her beautifully bloomed roses, and rosebuds for the fairy's head.  We also snacked on sugared rose petals that were sent to us from a confectionary in New Orleans, although the sugared violets were my favorites.  When tea rooms were launched around the country in the 90s, people once again discovered the novelty of sugared flower petals.

Esme's little rose costume took some time and study to create.  I had a vision in my mind, but executing it took some research and effort.  What was initially targeted as a simple rose costume, became a study in form and patience.  Do I ever do anything the easy way?  No.  My intent was to create something that looked as close to a real rose, but in wool felt and garment form.  Needle felting one would have been a lot easier.  Making roses from felt isn't too difficult if you use the rolled method, and I have done this plenty for hats for my dolls.  When I think about it, I've made plenty of tiny ones for Alice costumes.  Dressing a doll in petals took a departure from this.

I found several petal patterns online and chose the one that seemed best to fit my needs.  I was going to "cheat" and use the green boots from the holly costume, but they didn't look right.  

The most important thing to me was how to bend the wool to represent the petals' natural curling shape on its edges.  I sewed "veins" in the petals.  When you look at illustrations of roses, they seldom show the anatomy of the rose, but moreover the soft beauty of them.  When I made the sunflower petals, they naturally curled from the stitching.  This didn't occur in the wide shaped petals of the rose.  Ironing the curls didn't work either.  So, I ended up making a basting stitch to pull the edge of petal to make it curl.  How much effort was I going to put into this anyway?  I could have tried soaking them in starch and forming them on something to dry in shape.  Then they would have been stiff and most likely would have ruined the nature of the wool felt.  So, I kept studying images of roses and realized that some petals do have a bit more of a ruffly edge.  I can justify any outcome with enough effort!

In these two photographs, you can see how I planned the petals for the bonnet and the skirt.  I took them to use as visuals when I went to actually sew the pieces together.  I think it's fun to see the "how" of things and not just the results.

And since Maggie Iacono's dolls are made from wool felt, they made great pin cushions!  Well, you can pin things on the doll and not harm her.

I made leaves in the same manner of the rose petals and even considered making the leaves of the rose hip, but when that time came, it was too much.  She is a tiny doll.  Please see the anatomy of a rose illustration below for the names of the parts of the flower.  

The bonnet was fun to make.  In fact, it was a bonnet similar to this on a Madame Alexander Shamrock doll, that inspired this whole project.  Since Esme has such a tiny head, seating a petal hat/top on her head is problematic.  Creating a tiny bonnet to sew petals to did the trick.

The last "cheat" I attempted, was that of the panties.  I was going to use the panties from the sunflower costume, then decided that the bottoms should be more like the central "bud" of the rose.  So, I whipped up a pair of pink ones.  And, finally, made some cuffed booties from the green of the leaves.  

I hope Esme Rose inspires you to go out and buy some lovely roses for your home.  Even one in a bud vase can bring a spot of cheer in a small place.  We don't grow roses because my husband doesn't like anything with thorns.  I wonder why he married me?!  Hahahahaha!

I hope you'll enjoy the sampling of "eye candy" with roses that I acquired and selected for this journaling.  And thanks to Heather Cullman for reminding me of the term "eye candy".  And do try some sugared rose petals sometime.  Place one on your tongue and simply enjoy. 

Love, Melissa

 

Cissy and Toni's Day at the Fair

April came and went as all Aprils do, but never have I enjoyed the season of Easter so much as I did this year.  Or at least since I was a child.  One of the reasons I always have a project on the table, is that the project is usually, or has become over time, themed for the month or time period.  And in this way, I can play with my dolls and through them enjoy the season more.  Easter was more about needle felting and crafting, but I was still in my studio among many of my dolls, and a few were dressed for the holiday.

When it came time to begin something new, I definitely wanted to get back into sewing.  Which doll would it be?  I know I've mentioned that I wanted to make several new things for Cissy this year, and did so with her New Year's gala gown, and her Chinese pajamas for Chinese New Year.  Since Chinese New Year seemed an eternity ago, I decided to make her something for Spring.

I've always loved stripes, and Cissy certainly wore many striped dresses and cabana ensembles in her early years.  I also wanted to use fabrics I had on hand although I did purchase some vintage stripes for standard Cissy dresses.  

All the while I was planning and shopping, for some reason Tonner's 14" Toni from his Effanbee line popped up on my Ebay feed and I fell in love.  To me she looked like a little girl version of Cissy.  Off I went!  Cissy needed a little sister.  And sisters wore matching outfits.  (Actually, when I was little, my grandmother made matching outfits for my mother, my older sister, and I!)  So, I decided to follow my heart and inspiration.

My first thoughts of a springtime dress for Cissy was that of something floral and bright.  Something she could wear today, but would also hold up as seasonal through summer if necessary.  I chose a suit pattern from an original Cissy pattern set, and altered it freely.  When Toni showed up on my doorstep, and I brought the two dolls together, the idea of A Day at the Fair was born.  Perhaps it was the bright stripes that reminded me of a carnival midway.  Oh my!  How my mind started racing!

Do you remember your first fair and the carnival midway?  I do.  Fairs have a long history that go way back to biblical times when they were primarily used for commerce.  Displaying and selling wares from far away countries.  The exotic.  While World Fairs and Exhibitions are well documented, the much smaller county fair is the one we would remember from childhood.  

The first county fair was an agricultural one organized by an agricultural society in New England.  The first one to include 

animals as a Cattle Show, was in 1811, in Pittsfield, Masschusetts.  The fair was an exhibition and competition with prize money for the best oxen, cattle, sheep and swine.  The county fairs as they exist today are still exhibitions for prize livestock, a chance to sample or pig out on sugary, deep-fried confections we wouldn't normally eat, and at the center is the exciting and colorful midway.

The exotic midway of old would have freak shows, and challenges for strong fellows to hit a platform with a heavy mallet to get the disc to rise up to the bell.  The ring of the bell won his sweetheart a souvenir.  What were those things called?!  Popular in cartoons they were.  Even Popeye had a go at one with Brutus to impress Olive Oyl.

Small town carnivals were the height of the summer season when the trucks or trains would roll into town.  In the Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, with actor Tony Randall, the exotic freak show theme's purpose was to bring a moral compass to town.  In Something Wicked This Way Comes, a screen play by Ray Bradbury, citizens are tested by their   

greatest desires, and some end up being swept away with the wicked.  Moral compass once again.  Good movie.

But, yes, the county fair brings out people who want to play, relax, and be entertained.  For many who live in suburbs and cities, this is the first or only time they'll get to experience livestock.  And as educational as much of this can be, nothing compares to the midway with colorful rides, games of skill, concessions, and the fabulous Ferris Wheel.  These are things that went through my mind in creating A Day at the Fair for Cissy and Toni.

I bought two Toni dolls.  One was a brunette and she was my model as I awaited the arrival of the blonde (had to be blonde to be Cissy's little sister), from Canada.  When Toni #2 arrived, I gave her a hair cut and made her bangs.  Her hair style was side parted and curly.  Bangs are easy to create, but you must be careful and certain as a doll's hair won't grow back.  Toni wears a complimentary version of Cissy's outfit, designed for a child.  I made her a little plastic purse

to hold her coins and tickets, and fashioned a simple sun hat from the same fabrics.  The concession ice creams both Cissy and Toni have are from Our Generation.  If you haven't looked into the offerings from Our Generation, do!  They have adorable, well made accessories that American Girl does not carry.

Cissy's outfit, as I mentioned earlier, was altered from a suit pattern.  The sundress is actually considered a skirt with a bodice that is never meant to be seen by a blouse worn over it.  Since the blouse is cropped, perhaps it was too risque if a bit of tummy showed, so the built-in bodice was created.

This outfit is wonderful since it can be worn several ways.  It was fun to play with the stripes going one way in one piece, the other in another.

The blouse is a simple, lined garment that snaps in the back.  Its roomy enough to fit over the sundress's bodice.  Lovely on its own, it still needed something. In lieu of jewelry, I did some beading.  

I used the floral design of the dress to bead a blue rose, two lavender five petal flowers, and four leaves.  This is most intricate beadwork I've ever done.  After doing this, I've got it down.  I love it!  I want to do more bead work like this in the future and will.

Let's talk seed beads for a minute.  Seed beads have taken on a life of their own and come in various sizes.  The normal seed bead we all think of, is a size 10.  And believe it or not, its also considered 2mm which I seriously doubt each bead is.  The very best normal seed beads in the most brilliant transparent colors can be found on Amazon.  For cheap!  Unless you're a serious

beader/jeweler, skip the outrageous costs and confusing selections on Etsy.  Kergaen 2mm sliver lined glass seed beads on Amazon is the way to go.  24,000 beads for $12.  The color selection is divine!

Snapshot of outfit with blouse from the back.

Cissy's hat is by Richard's Originals.  He uses people sized hat straw and it feels very vintage.  I had this hat and it was decorated with flowers and tulle, so I stripped it down and sewed a bias band of the stripe around the edge.

Snapshot of the entire outfit.  I have about five pairs of Cissy original sunglasses and these aqua ones look lovely with the colors in the dress.

The lined jacket which was created on vertical stripes can be worn over the sundress or over the sundress with blouse.

I like to think that this outfit can take Cissy through the entire day at the fair, ending in something a bit more elegant for the evening with the addition of the beaded blouse.

Snapshot of Cissy with her ice cream bar on a stick and the jacket draped over her shoulders.

Last but not least is Cissy's handbag.  The frame of this handbag was repurposed from the American Girl Maryellen sweater purse in Meet Maryellen.  I used the original as a pattern for the striped bag, and its lined in the floral of the dress.

While waiting for the Amazon beads to arrive, which promised to be the colors and size I needed, I used beads from a different purchase to bead Cissy's name on the bag.  This was done free-hand, and took about two hours with lots of do-overs.  It was also an after-thought, so the bead work was done on the finished bag.  Finally, I added just a little more beading with a flower and leaves from the dress print, but in raspberry pink with the lime colored leaves.  This flower on the dress is orange, and I didn't want orange on orange.

Cissy's outfit is grown up and can be elegant, while sister Toni's is fun,

playful and sweet. Will I continue to make sister outfits?  I don't know.  Maybe.  Toni is a fun size to sew for and she and Cissy look great displayed together.  Toni's bangs came out perfect and she's so much prettier with her hair like this.

Below is a delightful collection of county fair, midway, and thrill ride images.  I have an Our Generation set of carnival items coming, with tickets, a poster, cotton candy, popcorn, etc.  But, I also have some fast batting wool in pink coming to make my own cotton candy for the girls.  I could have waited to write this journaling until all arrived, but its time to move on.  Needle felting wool can be used for so much more than its intended purpose.

I do wonder if county and state fairs will come back this year.  The last one I went to was with my sister-in-law when she came to visit, and we saw Herman's Hermits play a concert that night.  Seriously fun and awesome stuff!

Happy May and joyful times ahead as the weather warms up!

Love, Melissa