Sporting Fashion, Spectating 1920s - Project #5

Wow!  June!  Hello Summer!  In another day it will be mid-month, and I'll be writing my Mid-Month Review in my handwritten journal.  The weather has been superb, at least up until this heatwave of the last few days.  And that's okay, too.  I've been getting plenty of early morning kayaking in, but this won't last forever since soon, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will be letting out the water for energy and conservation.  The lake is already down two feet from last month.  This is what I do in summer.  Hike Brighton early in the morning, if it's nice on the lake, take my Swifty out.  The rest of the day is spent being a homemaker, lover-reader of books and working on some project in my studio.

After I completed the 1840s Gardening ensemble, I took a break.  I noticed that my last post was April 3rd and it was a shock.  This is the longest project I've ever worked on.  Nothing was easy.  Everything was new, and yet I was determined as ever to create the Spectating 1920s ensemble.

I really hate the fashion on the cover of this book.  Its just plain ugly.  But inside are some of the loveliest and interesting historical outfits I've come across.  I'm always saying that I love the fashions of the 1950s, but the 20s are right up there with them.

What inspired me to create this?  Maybe it was the way the mannequin was displaying a sexy little knee.  Or it could have been the Arctic Fox stole.  Or maybe is was the opportunity to embroider the little tennis player on the dress.  I think that was it.  The embroidered tennis player intrigued me.  I have never seen anything like this dress before and wondered if the wearer of this dress did that herself.  

Only towards the end of this project did I thoroughly read the description and found out that these dresses were sold this way for the sole purpose of celebrating the event the woman was attending.  I've included the description, so just give a click on 

it and you should be able to read it.

It was probably a week or two into April that I began looking for fabrics and notions to create this outfit.  Finding a silk this color was going to be difficult.  I would have to dye my own fabric.  Fabric stores don't want to pay the tariffs to stock good silks from India and China any longer.  I did have a nice stash of whites and ivories, but if I blew it, I wasted the silk.  As I'm sitting here writing, it all comes back to me.  There was a lot of hesitation and doubt along the way, and often I would just stop what I was doing for a day or two to really think it through.  

I'll share a sad and funny story.  I spent about two weeks ordering and testing Dharma dyes to find the exact color I needed for this dress.  I'd be dying the hat braid and possibly lace along with the silk to make them all the same color.  I was snipping off little pieces of the silk I wanted to use to get the dye bath correct.  Finally, I began mixing dyes.  The coral had too much blue in it  

so I began adding a daffodil yellow.  These dye baths and tests take hours, but obviously, if you get it right, you're on your way.

So silly me got excited about the color I'd developed and dunked a nice piece of prime off-white silk taffeta in the bath.  I swished and swirled the fabric for a nice even color, and whoops!  It didn't work.  Guess what?  I'd forgotten to wet soak the silk first.  NEVER put a dry piece of cloth in a dye bath.  I was disheartened.  So, I mixed some more and began again on the same piece to even the color.  The washed silk looked okay, but while I was doing all of this, I'd kept looking online for the right color.  And found it.  Ordered the rest of what the seller had and when that arrived, I dyed the hat braid and a lace to match.  

I've mentioned this before, but hat braid is getting harder to come by as well because of tariffs.  When I first stated sewing back in 2011, it was easy to buy doll supplies.  Monique Trading was still in business for wigs, silks were plenty in a wide range of colors,

and notions like hat flowers and braid were plenty, easy to buy both new and vintage.  You really have to be patient and dig and look and look and dig to find notions now.  This isn't a problem for contemporary costuming, but it is for vintage and historical costuming. 

All that said, 32 degrees North is a great place for hat flowers if you need them.  This is where I would find the ones I used for the Spectating hat.

I purchased a pair of olive-colored shoes from Facets Boutique and considered changing the color to a more yellow olive but didn't. It's something I've been thinking about all the way through this project and I still might do it so they look more like the pumps on the mannequin.  For now, they will remain their original color. 

So, what does this costume consist of?  A coral-colored silk dress with a mixed pleat skirt, a stole, a hat, a pair of gloves and of course, shoes.

This long bodice took me four tries, four mock ups.  I simply couldn't figure out what was going on in the photograph no matter how closely I looked.  Why?  Because I'd never done a dress like this before.  It was not an easy pattern to construct.  This photo on the right shows the V neck as it was made on the original.  There is a row of insertion lace between the "collar" and the bodice.  At first, I thought this "row" was just some kind of lace like mini eyelash lace.  I dug in my stash and found some.  Then realized that this was not what was going on with this dress and started the pattern all over again.  

I had to cut down existing insertion lace that I had just to get that tiny row.  I call it peep lace, as you can see her skin through the tiny ladders.  The doubled-over V collar has the insertion zigzag stitched to it on the machine, then that was hand-stitched to the faced bodice.  Working with that tiny strip of insertion took delicate, patient hand stitching.  

The sleeves are very full with long cuffs.  I must remember that shoulders on these patterns need to be very narrow.  With the addition of the separate collar, it was part of the shoulder.  That took some fiddling and rework as well.  Getting the V deep enough to resemble the original took some effort.

I spent a great deal of time on this dress.  Just judging the length of the bodice and the length of the skirt with complicated pleating took a week.  Once that V neck had been done, I couldn't make a mistake.  I had to account for the row of cluny lace that flows around the embroidered tennis player, the exact height of the tennis player, and the space between the bottom edge of the lace and the nine rows of green stitching.

What was interesting and super fun, was that after I'd done the embroidery, hand stitched the cluny lace on, cutting it around the tennis player and securing it so it didn't unravel!, and sewing the nine rows of green, I realized what I was looking at!  And I

laughed.  That lace was supposed to resemble the net on the tennis court!  Most likely the green rows were to resemble the color of the court itself.  

Finding a close matching cluny lace took some time, but I did.  It was vintage lace from the 1920s, so even if it wasn't a perfect match, I felt good about it.  Knowing now that it was to resemble a tennis net, I might have looked a bit more.  Bottom line, a lace that small doesn't exist.  I did learn that some people have actually learned lace making just do things like this.  No.  Not going there.

I took of photo of the dress before sewing up the back so you could see the pleating and how the decoration was done.  On the original, there were many more of the tinier pleats, but this is a doll's dress, and I just wasn't going to get that many.  The constant ironing and pressing to get the silk taffeta to pleat was done throughout the finishing of the dress.  I did run a gathering stitch to keep them in place, only to be taken out at the very end.  I could have taken the dress off the doll and pressed them one more time but didn't.  The gathering stitch holes will relax over time.

The tennis player was fun to embroider as I knew she would be.  I used the same process as I did embroidering the Grinch on the pinafore at Christmastime.  Again, you can click on these photos to see them close up.

The next three photos were taken right before I began writing this post.  Here is Lacie posing similarly to the mannequin.

Elegance.

Here's a view of the back of the dress.  Six tiny matching Barbie buttons with thread loops close the back.  One is on the top section of the V collar.  A hook would have been too clunky.

A side view showing the pretty bow tied sash.  

There is also a bow at the shoulder on the other side.  Both sash/bows were done in the same silk.  Because of the stiffening that occurs with stitching, these bows have been gently tacked down to "drape" correctly.  Using a silk satin bow of the same color would have been nice, I could have dyed it, but there were none to dyed this exact size.

And now that hat.  There is a name for these hats.  It's called a petal hat.  While I was trying to figure out how to make the look of the crown, I discovered the name.  

As mentioned earlier, this hat braid went in the good dye bath I'd made.  It came out beautifully.  

I made my own hat mold and the first whack at it had to be taken down to the brim and reworked.  It was too big.  I don't usually make that kind of mistake, but I think the task of decorating the hat had me at odds.  

The flowers I purchased would work along with the velvet leaves I'd chosen, but I dyed the pink and white flowers with a yellow-gold alcohol marker to get the right colors.  I removed the flowers from their stems and hand stitched each one on, and closely, interspersing leaves and tiny dark purple velvet flowers for depth.

The flat bow band is from a piece of silk taffeta that I've had for ages.  It was the perfect color.  Kind of a gray plum with orange threads.  Sounds weird but if you've ever worked with some of these silks, the colors can be like this.

After I'd sewn the flowers on, I crushed them to the crown.

Lastly, without a bit of wire, the hat brim would have been flat like a saucer sitting on her head.  So I cut a length of very fine cotton wrapped floral wire and dyed it a plum color with alcohol markers and stitched it to the edge of the brim.  This allowed me to shape it like a flounce.

In this photo, you can see the tiny button at the collar of the neckline.

Just for fun.  This was a photo I took on my cellphone to share with my friend Betsy while we were visiting.  She lives in Cincinnati and we visit as often by phone as we can.  She was bugging me to see the dress and didn't want to wait for this posting.  I was happy to oblige.  

You can see the paper towel covered in color where I dyed the wire.  That's the table I work on in my studio, and Maisie keeps me company at all times.  She's my muse.

Full view before the rest of the outfit was made.

And here it comes.  The emotionally difficult part of the project.  Yes, we love the look of fur stoles, but they were once little animals.  You know how I feel about this, but you also know what a stickler I am to accuracy when creating a costume.

What the mannequin is wearing is a fur pelt stole similar to this vintage one that was sold on Etsy.  These fur pelt stoles were symbols of wealth to the wearer.  Some were made with the front legs, some without.  For the purpose of this project and since the front legs couldn't be detected on the mannequin's stole, I left them off.

I'd originally wanted to make this from real fur.  This seller of doll coats in Canada would sell me scraps and I had a good sized white scrap to use.  However, even after I made the pattern and cut

it out of the pelt, the fur was too long.  I tried to trim it, but it wouldn't lay flat.  So, I went for Plan B and used white plush teddy bear fur.  MUCH easier to work with.

In this photo you see a similar stole that was made of real fur for a large French Fashion doll, and sold on Ruby Lane.  The odd thing is that I believe the doll must have been really big becasue this was the pelt of a whole animal. It had the head.

Look, this is tough enough for me to talk about, but this is it, the facts laid out and if you want to do things correctly, you study, learn and do the best you can to achieve your goal in doll costuming.

The stole out of teddy bear fur is soft and cute and was easy to trim around the head for a more 

accurate look.  It could have been a little longer, but I did not wish to make it one more time.  The head is separate and sewn to the body for the reason of shape.  I really had a hard time making this pattern.  Perhaps for no other reason than that I'd never made one before. This is very tiny work when it comes to heads and faces.  I could not add ears because the knit backing of the faux fur fell apart.  So I trimmed close to the head to give a look of "ear hole"

It came out the way I expected, except for the length, and is a nice representation of a vintage pelt stole for a fashion doll. I may trim down the leg fur a bit, still, but for the purpose of this post, its done.

Here is what it looks like draped over her arm.

I was tired.  Tired of working on this incredibly difficult and long project, and I did NOT want to make another pair of gloves.  I did not.  Nope.  No way.  So, I made them.

I went to bed that night and slept on it.  Got up and knew that the outfit would not be complete without them.  I also knew that they were cotton gloves, not leather, so would need to be made differently.

I went upstairs, found this white t-shirt top and cut it up.  This was interesting.  I sewed the edges with a blanket stitch as I do leather gloves but really didn't like the way it looked, so before I stitched past the thumb, I tried to turn it inside out.  It worked.  Smoothly too.  

The gloves have this lovely sheer cuff to them and the tops are decorated with points.  This was also something new I learned.  The term "points".  Points are the decorative stitching lines often

found on the backs of vintage gloves.  I read in one description that when gloves were handmade like these were, the point stitching was the glovemaker's signature, and those that wore these special gloves were often well-to-do.  Another sign of wealth.

I'd made line stitching on the backs of leather gloves for dolls before but never ventured into finding out their history or what they were called.  I have a lot to research and ponder on while making these costumes, and this is what fascinates me.

Lastly, I considered making white stockings to go with this ensemble then researched this as well.  Apparently, skin-tone stockings were most popular in the early 1920s, as well as pastels such as light pink.  The mannequin is white.  This often confuses me as I attempt to replicate a costume.  Is she wearing white stockings or is it just the composition of the mannequin?  Is that lace on the V or is it the mannequin's white body showing through?

I learned a lot on this creative journey.  There were many doubtful moments as well as many mockups and do-overs.  Its one-of-a-kind and won't be made again.  It is the fifth costume I've recreated from the Sporting Fashion book and there are still several I would like to do.  I won't say it's fun.  I'm still not sure I even like sewing.  But these projects challenge me to try new things and keep learning the history of costuming as well as new ways of doing things and terms I didn't know previously.  If I could buy it in a store, I would.  When I have a vision and want something, I can be quite determined to make it happen.  The fun for me is making it happen.  Knowing I did it, figured it out.  It also drives me to make another, and this is often why the projects become more complicated as time goes on.

I like the way it turned out and purchased an old version of the Lacie doll to wear it permanently.  This wigged Lacie is wearing the Sunny Days Anne Fitzpatrick wig. It makes a great 1920s bob.  Enjoy the summer and make the most of every day!  Keep playing dolls.

 

Sporting Fashion: Gardening 1830s

Two days until Easter and Spring is blossoming today like mini rainbows sprouting from the earth.  April the first brought the most and only rain we'd seen in well over a month.  The clouds swept away sometime in the early hours of the 2nd, and I was finally able to spot the April Pink Full Moon from my bedroom window.  Today the windows and doors are open pulling in the scent of orange blossoms and lovely fresh air.  The last place I wish to be is sitting here journaling my latest project, but no project is complete until it is archived thusly.

The book, Sporting Fashion, Outdoor Girls 1800-1960, is still my go-to for historical fashion projects.  There are so many wonderful costumes in this book.  If you love historical costuming, don't hesitate to purchase a copy.  Rachel Hoffman might not be using it any longer as inspiration for our subscription boxes (I hope this isn't true!), but this doesn't mean that I won't continue to enjoy this book and bring some of these treasures to life on a doll.

While I have many tagged pages, Gardening 1830s, was destined to be the next with spring on the way.  I think I started planning this one back in January after the holidays.  When I've shown this page to others, I've gotten a bit of silence.  They've been probably thinking,"What's that hat?  Those are really big sleeves!,  Aren't there prettier, more interesting things to make?"  Nope.  Not to me.  I've been studying this work of art in costuming for a long time now.  It wasn't just the delicate fabric of the gown, but yes, THE HAT, and the pattens.  I've never made pattens before.  Isn't it about time?

The more I studied this gown, which was worn and enjoyed by a woman at some point in the 1830s, the more I appreciated every detail and aspect of the thing.

"London's Royal Horticulture Society inaugurated its first public flower show in 1833.  Simultaneously, botanical books and journals, such as author Jane Loudon's The Gardener's

Magazine and Register of Rural and Domestic Improvements (what a title!), aided ladies when studying scientific specifications of plant life, floriculture design, and landscaping.  These resources enticed nascent gardeners outdoors to tend flowerbeds and vegetable patches." - Sporting Fashion...

I am not a gardener.  I could be, but my husband does a grand job of it on his own.  But that doesn't mean I'm not enthralled and appreciative of every blossoming bulb, flower and shrub that nature

and sun bring forth.  In fact, I study the petals and blossoms.  Smell their scent.  Feel the velvet softness of some of their leaves and petals.  Wonder at the magic of each so like and unlike others in the garden.

When a female horticulturist took to the garden, she layered herself in protection against the sun.  She wore work gloves to keep her hands soft, clean and protected from thorns.  A large straw hat would keep both the sun out of her eyes and protect her skin from the sun's damaging rays.  Such hats were described as "ridiculous to elegant", as farmworkers wore such a style of hat.  

A sturdy apron protected a delicate muslin gown from the ravages of garden trimmings.  Pattens were worn to raise the feet above manure laden soil.  

It probably took an hour just to dress for a few hours of work in the garden, and the woman would look just as lovely outdoors

as she did indoors.

One of things that drew me to this project was making a pair of pattens.  My Pleasant Company doll, Felicity, owned a pair.  I always assumed they were for walking through mud, snow and rain, and had never considered them for the purpose of gardening.  I was going to make a pair.  A very small pair.  If I was successful, I'd continue the project, for without them, what was the purpose?

If my memory serves, the metal rings were made from a dense cardboard tube cut down.  Dense,

because a doll had to stand on them.  The prongs are bent at the tops to fasten to the wooden soles of the shoes.  Leather straps with ties hold the patten to the shoe.  Layer upon layer of Mod Podge and Gesso and paint were applied to form strength and a color close to old metal.

I still dream of what it would have been like to be an artisan of Etrennes in late 19th c. France.  I'd learn metal work to fashion such pieces.  A subject for another time.  I'd learn everything!

The last piece I made was the lacey day cap.  I kept studying the photograph and wondering about the lace peeping out from under the straw hat.  I looked it up.  Indeed, these lace day caps were worn for domestic affairs but also beneath straw hats to protect he hair and its style.

Above is a sample recreated by a contemporary seamstress, but I wanted to make one that had the double row of lace ruffles show on the mannequin.  The rest of the cap was constructed specifically for my Lacie doll's hair style.  Sometimes I feel more like a sculptor than a designer. Or whacky person that sews really difficult things because she just has to see if she can do it.

The second to last thing I made was the fichu or collar.  This would also protect the woman's neck, shoulders and chest from the harsh rays of the sun.  I honestly wasn't sure what I was looking at half the time in that photograph, but I never gave up.  The mannequin is white.  And so was this collar that looked more Puritan, than purposeful.  When I realized that it was not a part of the dress, it was a relief.  This doesn't mean that it was easy to construct, but it was quite doable as an accessory.

The fabric I used for the dress took me days to find.  It's a vintage muslin, loosely woven and delicate.  It was the closest thing I could find to the original gown, sized for a doll.  I would not be surprised that the original was of a similar weave, but when you put it on a 16" fashion doll, it loses its drape and ability to have a proper fullness.  Only so much fabric can be gathered or pleated to fit into sleeve holes and waist bodices.

Lacie's removable hands worked well for these giant sleeves with the narrow, long wrists.  The width at the top of the sleeves was a little over 7".  Instead of gathers, the sleeves are pleated at the top to fit into the sleeve hole.  Just another detail I discovered while studying the photograph.  

One of the most difficult details of this gown was the scarf, or sash that runs through little bars of fabric up to the narrow shoulders of the dress.  There must be a name for these little ladder rungs.  And it took me a long time to figure out what was going on with this deco- 

ration.  I thought it was a design sewn into the sleeve hole, but no.  The self-fabric scarf runs through a "rung" or loop at the shoulders as well.  What you cannot see is the back of the dress.  I decided that the scarf would drape behind with a delicate knot.  Works for me.

Tiny silk ribbons tie at the shoulders as well.  And a ribbon pouf or rosette was made for the center of the bodice.  Fiddly work, at best.

Naturally, I hoped I could make the apron out of a dish towel.  Nope.  The checks are too large, and the dish towel fabric too thick.  The blue row at the bottom?  Tried a few things to make that happen and failed.  That's okay.  It's still a pretty thing with pleats, not gathers, and a very thin waistband with ties.  The one driving theme in all of this was "a delicate design".

The hat was the second thing I made.  Second in difficulty to the pattens.  So I thought at the time anyway.  I made my own hat pattern for this funky little sunshade.  As the book described, "ridiculous".  I LIKE it!  It's fun.  I love hats.  Always have.  For me, for dolls, what have you.  I like hats.  Remember the hat I made for Gwendolyn with the eye shades in it?  I like a fun project.

I found a suitable plaid for the ribbon, but it is printed cotton and sometimes the look matters more than the function.  It's bulky to tie but looks correct when trying to replicate the original.

The third thing I made that I cannot forget to mention, were the gardening gloves.  These were hand stitched of vintage ladies' leather gloves.  It's difficult to cut up such pretty things as those gloves, but the leather is so thin that its necessary.  Goat skin?  Stretched lamb?  Not sure.  One thing I do know is that I need to redraw the pattern I have for them.  I can do better.  The gold gloves I made for the Hunting costume came out much better and I don't know why (a better fit). but I gave myself a pass since these are gardening gloves, and not tea or opera gloves.
This morning I filled a basket I dug out of some drawer or cabinet that looked best as the trimmings basket.  I have little baskets everywhere.  I don't have time to make things neat and organized.  I'd rather be creating.  Why do you think artist's studios look like a bomb hit them?  Simple.  We know where the stuff is.  At least we think we do.  I still haven't found this little rabbit I bought in the 90's.  I put him someplace safe.  That's all I know.  

I gained a better appreciation of what went into making gowns like this in the 1800s.  In the movies, the actors wear a different dress in every scene.  I can assure you that wardrobes were not that vast, even for the moderately well-off woman.  

For the seasoned seamstress/designer, you may be wondering why this dress was not done with an empire waist.  Well, I was making this for a doll and considered how it would look and fit her with all the accessories.  And I'm still fussing with darts.  I could have shortened the bodice, but the gathering of the skirt, which is also pleats not gathers, would have looked very bulky below her breasts. 

When Lacie comes in from gardening, she removes her fichu, sun hat and pattens.  She'll arrange her flowers in vases, so still needs her apron on.  In researching aprons, and there is a lot written on them, I found some interesting and useful dialog.

"The apron tied at the waist was a utilitarian item for the working class, and a decorative item for the upper class.  When we move into the Regency era and higher-waisted dress styles, a common form for working women seems to be the waist apron often worn with a large fichu or neckerchief."

Even with descriptions such as this, studying originals, even if they are in beautiful photos of museum quality books, is a great start.  More research, if you're an A-type like myself, is pure fun and aids as you go along with your project.

A snapshot of the accessories.  Every detail.  And I surely hope I didn't miss one!

These long, detailed projects are wonderful to work on.  I can put it down.  Pick it up when I have time.  I don't need to finish a difficult project.  I want to.  I often choose the most unusual and difficult things because they make me think, stretch my skills, allow me to try new things.  And there are the key words.  New things.  I never make something twice, and each item I make is from scratch.

Oh!  You may have noticed the boots used for this outfit.  They were from the mountain climbing subscription box.  Heels would not have been worn with pattens, and these boots were made to give the foot a flat sole.  Good color match, too.  And they're hidden under the long gown.  Works for me!

Now that I've spent this incredibly beautiful day typing on the computer, I'm going to finish this off, put the pads back on the patio lounge chair, brew myself a mug of tea and take my book outdoors to read.  Easter is just around the corner.  I enjoy this holiday so much.  Lacie can spend time in the garden with her roses and hollyhocks.  I truly hope you enjoyed this posting.  Wishing you a lovely spring and Happy Easter!

 

March, and the Creative Flow

Hello Spring!  Sunshine, leaves budding out on limbs, flowers blooming in garden beds, little animals being born, the bright yellow trumpets of daffodils!  Is there anyone who doesn't love Spring?

It's been a phenomenally gorgeous month here in California.  Can't complain.  Of course, we did not get winter this year, but since there is nothing to be done for that, we'll just enjoy the days and all they bring to us.

I've been indoors a lot, but I did get out on both my kayak and our two-person.  Early?  Yes, but the lake called to me.  I don't think the lake will fill this year, so it was important to put in before the level begins going down again.  And right now, the distance to haul these boats over steep and rocky terrain is difficult.  This saddens me, yet it means that there will be more time sewing, creating, walking Brighton, cooking great meals, writing in my journal, and reading D.D. Black's series of Thomas Austin, crime 

mystery books on the patio.  Not a bad line up.  I am never bored.

I was working on my next historical costume for Lacie from the Sports Fashion book when I got a tip that someone's birthday was coming up.  Sometimes I become so involved in what I'm doing, that important events slip my mind.  !gasp!  We do not forget birthdays.  

The VDC had just launched its March subscription box for Anne and it was pirate themed.  I'm really loving her dress up trunk subscription that artist, Mark Tinkey, designed.  Here's a little peek at how I'm displaying his designs with a couple of other costumes from past years.  It's so much fun.  I loved playing dress up as a child, and while some of this is contemporary child play and has little to do with the rag box in the garage I had as a kid, its colorul, imaginative and FUN.  Currently, Anne is still her in Not So Scary Monster (or Where the Wild Things Are)

costume, so the pirate is going to have to wait.  My doll, my play.  It might be fun for June.  I made a little green parrot hand puppet for it and this would inspire what I did for Eloise for my friend's birthday, not to mention, making her a pirate's costume.  When she told me she liked Anne's box this month, there was no question as to what I should do.

So, Eloise got a pirate's costume (modeled by my Maisie, of course). 

The pirate costume consists of a ragged sleeved shirt, a pair of striped pants with little gold cuff buttons, a beautifully tailored vest with gold buttons of its own and a silk sash that's been across the seas and back.  A dagger and a pirate hat, and the swabby mop and bucket for when she doesn't behave.  Hit the deck, Eloise!

I'd found two parrot finger puppet patterns to reduce in size and make for the dolls, and this one was the difficult one.  Of course.  But he was a pirate parrot with a bandana.  And the colors are so bright and pretty.  I even followed the instructions step by step instead of doing my own thing.  You do have to improvise when the size is much smaller, but I think he came out cute.

I was asked by a friend if I was going to make a needle felt parrot for this, but I'd already made one for my friend for another doll, Lia, for the UFDC souvenir doll from the Passport to Adventure convention.  Eloise can borrow it, if the puppet doesn't suffice.  This is costume play, and imagination is what it's all about!

Here's the little guy.  What a hoot!  

I found these mini chests and tiny gold doubloons to tuck under her arm.  Not all pirate's chests took several strong men to move and bury.  

I love a pirate theme and have several children's books on pirates.  When you consider high seas adventures, buried treasure and the beauty of the Caribbean, you can't go wrong.

The pirate hat is wool felt.  The skull and crossbones were cut from the same and have been appliqued on.

The vest came out really nice.  Its heavy cotton lined in gold silk.  This was not an easy costume to design.  There are so very many images of children's pirate costumes, and this was the inspiration from all of them.  Maisie is going to get one, but with a skirt, and a bit of feminine appeal.

Eloise is a character and loves to play hard, while Maisie is just a dainty little girl trying to keep up.

The two close friends I sew for are as different as night and day in their doll costuming tastes. And when it comes to Betsy, it's all big bows and ruffles and full skirts and sweetness.  At the end of arr-maty, it was time to take a breath and switch gears.  

Let me begin by introducing this gorgeous Maggie Iacono doll she gave me for my birthday last September.  I just about fainted.  I love these dolls and think very carefully before dressing them, creating a special character for them.  I've not yet decided for this one, but you

can be assured it will be storybook themed.  She has so much potential.  Whatever it is, it will be grand.

This was the first time I got to play with her while making Betsy's doll an Easter gift.  Its funny.  I was just talking with her the other day (she lives in Ohio), and she was saying how much she loved Easter because of bunnies.  Yay!  Hit the jackpot with ideas on this one.

I wanted to dress a bunny for her.  The cover of Gump's spring issue featured two wonderfully dressed rabbits.  Gump's is a San Francisco based novelty store for very rich people.  I'm laughing, but it is.  

I was looking for a rabbit (or two), to dress my own way, when I found this incredibly soft and fluffy little 7" seated bunrab.  Had to get it.  It's such a sweet and soft little thing, that I bought one for myself the other day.

I knew Betsy would enjoy a new spring/Easter outfit for her play doll, so it was just one bunny for this set.  In looking for the perfect soft and feminine spring fabric, I had to purchase this from China.  I got it in light blue flowers and lilac ones.  I chose the lilac for Easter.  When I think back on this now, I could have gone with bright colors, but then that's an opportunity for another day.  Right?

As with a lot of things I do, the ideas come along as I create.  I wanted something like a pinafore to go over the dress, and the idea of a gardening apron with pockets for carrots (Bonnie the bunny's favorite snack), came to me.

I already had this dark blue gingham for the project I'd set aside, but a lighter gingham was best for this Easter dress.  Back to Etsy and begging the seller to include a Priority Mail shipping option and a "please ship quickly" plea.  I've been pretty lucky working with some of these sellers. Get to know them!  Talk to them.  Tell them what you're working on.  Let them know they and their Etsy store matter.  It's fun.  I've met some really nice people this way.

I had to make some carrots and considered making them from chenille pipe cleaners.  This kind of stuff has been done for an eternity, and I found a couple of great YouTube ideas for making little carrots. One was for the chenille to be wound on a tapered cylinder, like a paint brush, and the other was done with the bump chenille, which is very vintage in design.  

Both were cute, but the wound carrots had more stability, and the color went better with the doll and Bonnie Bunny's outfits. 

As I working on this, I knew I'd be asked to make a sash to tie around the waist with a big bow and a matching hair bow.  Why wait to be asked?  Just do it.  So, a big bow was made from the gingham, and a sash and bow made from the fabric of the dress, for those quiet times when the garden has been left to grow more carrots.

I made Bonnie the Bunny a little carrot crossbody that ties in the back, so she has some place to store her carrots as she goes down the carefully tended rows.  

I tried several things.  Like a backpack, or a hote out of the gingham.  Neither looked right, and the crossbody shows the colorful gingham better in display.

Bonnie can be cuddled.

Betsy's doll has shoes and stockings she can wear with this.

Frankly, I'm a barefoot person.  I may love the look of shoes, but I go barefoot in the house.  Sew with a barefoot (I can feel the peddle better), so its okay for a dolly to go barefoot, too, sometimes.

For March, I dressed Lacie in the Emerald historical outfit from last year and have been enjoying her dressed thusly, this month. (See below.)

Grace is playing Not So Scary Monsters with Anne in the photo below.  I didn't think I was going to like this costume, and I'm still not sure about the rainbow fur coat and boots she got, but I love how this looks and paired it with a mini bull and mini book from Where the Wild Things Are.  This was not a book from my childhood, so while I knew it existed, it was a new thing for me.  (I just added another photo to this blog, and I hope it didn't mess up the formatting.  It's such a fun photo of Anne and the bull.)

Sybil, Ellowyne's cat got a St. Patrick's Day cape and charmed bow by me.  I wasn't sure the VDC would make one for her.  They did after all.  Sybil can were the VDC one next year.  I bought her a wooden wardrobe for all her cape costumes.  I made an Easter one for Heather's Sybil.  The Easter charms I bought were too big, but a big yellow bow around her neck would work just as well.  And since Heather loves unicorns, I made this one for her Sybil.

Just little bits of this and that, and a whole lot of work in the month of March.  I enjoy keeping this blog, my journal of all my creations.  It's a much more fun way of archiving and far more personal.  

After I start my scrapbooking for the month of April, I'll return to Lacie's 1840 Gardening outfit.  I took this photo early on for my blog.  So far, the hat and pattens have been made. The dark gingham you saw earlier with the carrots on it, is for this outfit's apron.  I have one gardening glove made and the other is 75% done.  Little by little an outfit gets made.  I'm enjoying bringing some of these museum pieces to life for a doll, so I'll stick with it. 

Happy Easter and enjoy this gorgeous time of year!

Project, Gardening 1840s Resumes