Grace's Little Friend, Dolly Dingle

There's a little bit of interesting history when it comes to Dolly Dingle and I.  It was so long ago that you may not remember it.  And, even I forget sometimes since I no longer refer to myself as Missy Mouse, which was the "business" name I used when I used to make and sell my doll accessories and miniature work.  Not that I ever really considered what I did or do, a business, but it gave me a bit of anonymity.  

I was just starting out, and making miniature hand-painted doll trunks with tiny dolls and accessories in them.  Thinking that I might want to try being professional, I was searching for ideas for a logo.  I'd made a couple of tiny porcelain Dolly Dingle trunk sets and had lots of Grace Drayton paper doll images in my work files.  One of the pages was a Christmas page, and featured a little mouse.  As I was also heavily into Becassine at the time, I took the image of the little mouse and dressed her up as Becassine, and she became Missy Mouse.  Today, this is bit embarrassing, considering I never take myself too seriously, but it was a cute  

image.  

Grace Drayton was born Grace Gebbie, in 1878, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Her father, George Gebbie, was an art publisher.  

Grace attended Drexel Institute and the Philadelphia School of Design for Women.  While attending the latter school, she was a student of the American artist and teacher, Robert Henri from 1893 - 1894.  She began her life as a freelance artist in 1895.  From 1905 - 1909, she was a member of the The Plastic Club, an arts organization in Philadelphia, and this is where she created the Campbell Kids for advertisements.  Along with her sister, who was a writer, they produced The Adventures of Dolly Drake and Bobby Blake in Storyland, and The Turr'ble Tales of Kaptain Kiddo.  

After the end of her first marriage to Theodore Wiederseim, she married William Drayton in 1911, and was then known as Grace Drayton.  Grace designed the popular Dolly Dingle paper dolls, which appeared in the women's magazine Pictorial Review.  These darling paper doll pages are collectibles today, but copy images can easily be found filling the pages of Pinterest, and blogs such as this one.  Grace entertained her audience with these adorable paper dolls depicting holidays, every season, and doing fun activities.  She would get a family, and pets, and her cherubic body and face are instantly recognizable and treasured.  

I would daresay that the Campbell Kids and Dolly Dingle, are what Grace Drayton is best known for.

I would love to interview Diana Vining someday and learn how she came to love Dolly Dingle, but I'm too shy to ask, and I believe that she might be a very private person.  But, I'm so glad she does love her, because through her, Dolly Dingle became the mascot for the 

Virtual Doll Convention.  

When I first saw Dolly Dingle featured, I wondered why, or how she became associated with the VDC.  I don't think I'll ever know.  So I'll simply guess that Diana, as a paper doll artist, loved her, too, and so Dolly Dingle became our little darling of the VDC.

After seeing her and Grace together, dressed up in matching outfits, I longed to have a little Dolly Dingle, and make them matching costumes inspired by Diana's work.  It just took me awhile to figure out how to make that happen.  So when I'd tired of Peggy Sue (no, I'm not tired of her, but I don't think I'll be sewing for her any longer), and had done all I could for Grace, to this point, I decided to give Connie Zink a call.  Connie, one of finest doll makers in the U.S., was the artist for my Daisy, Lettie Lane and Polly Pratt.  We'd worked closely on the creation of Polly Pratt years ago, and I asked her if she'd like to do it again with a Dolly Dingle.  She did.  And, the results were tremendous!

She happened to find a mold for the A&M 243 that looked as closely to Diana's doll as could be found.  Lucky, for both of us, that she had the greenware done and sitting on a shelf.  The body is a mold as well, that Connie poured, cleaned, painted and strung, so my Dolly Dingle is a unique little doll.  I set her eyes, then fitted her with a Monique Julie wig, which I sewed up a bit for a shorter look, and then of course, dressed her.  She's nine inches tall, and the perfect sized little companion to the 16.5" Grace.  Interesting, don't you think, that Grace Marie Fitzpatrick and Grace Drayton have the same name, and Dolly Dingle is the VDC darling?  Just another question I would ask Diana about.  

Diana had drawn a darling image of Dolly Dingle called Dolly Dingle Money Jingle, in which she wore a cheery pink cherry colored dress, held a little pleated money purse and wore a bright blue bow in her hair.  I thought, as a first dress, this would be the perfect way to dress and introduce her since spring is right around the corner.   The little dress has a high empire bodice with a gathered drape of dress beneath 

it.  A row of little blue buttons march down a white runner, and her white Peter Pan collar has blue embroidered daisies on it.  

The most difficult thing to make, besides the pattern - three whacks at that! - were her shoes.  I think it had to do with this little body that has wide toes, and a narrow heel.  The shoes fit great until I put them on her feet with socks.  They threatened to slip off constantly.  I fixed that with a stitched heel band down the back and inside, but in the future, I'll redo the pattern and make a higher backed heel.  

I chose green silk to make the coin purse for "Money Jingle".  It does open, and snaps close.  I threaded a chain loop under the flap so she could one, carry it, and two, it would could be a coin purse on its own.  I love this little doll.  I can't wait to make matching out-

fits for her and Grace sometime.  

Speaking of Grace, earlier I'd made a little heart shaped crossbody bag inspired by a Kate Spade for her.  I guess Valentine's Day was on my mind and I just wanted to try making one.  Its made of bright red lambskin and edged in white scalloped leather for a sweet Valentine look. I included a key fob in a heart shape that can be unhooked, or hooked to the purse by a jewelry lobster claw clasp.

Below you'll find our little heroine in brown curls for a Valentine's Day paper doll.  I'm also re-sharing Polly Pratt's second Valentine's Day costume, which I made, what feels like a thousand years ago.  I'd made tiny Valentines to go inside that satchel, too.

And so, February is here.  Its time for us to think on spring and sunny days ahead.  Today is 61 degrees, sunny and blue in the Sierra Foothills.  The nights get cold, but the narcissus is already up and there are even a few daffodils poking their yellow heads up.  I'm not complaining.  It wouldn't do any good if I did.  We have had rain, and quite a bit of it in the past eleven days. I can hope for more, but there's nothing like a temperate, sunny day to lighten one's mood.

Happy Valentine's Day, and enjoy each day as they all pass by so quickly.

Love, Melissa

 

Grace Marie Fitzpatrick, Coffee House Days

January is one of those months allowing one to dream a bit, sit back and sort through what has passed and what might come to be.  I've been doing quite a bit of that by sorting through literally thousands of photographs and bits of ephemera saved in one single folder called "Lettie Lane".  The title alone gives away that I began filling it up a good nine years ago.  I never really got the hang, technically, of setting up albums within folders, on and on.  But, this month, we bought my sister a brand new computer, helped her set it up over the telephone, and suddenly I started feeling technically inquisitive.  So once again I had my husband show me how to make a folder, or album.  It did take a few steps, but once I did it fifty times, I began to really hit the Lettie Lane folder and start sorting and filing.

I am far from completion, and to date, I've set up 55 new folders to sort all the images into, and there will be more.  What has transpired by doing this, is an in depth survey 

of my life.  Dog and trip photos intermingled with UFDC events, doll clothing and accessory projects, photos of just about anything, ephemera, scans for projects, and everything including the kitchen sink.  I've come across so many things I've made that I'd forgotten about.  And, its true!  After I make something, especially if I've given it away, I forget about it as I've moved on to the next, and then the next project.  I've also come across all the dolls and trunk collections I've sold, and this saddens me.  I miss them.  But, at the time they were passed to a new collector, it seemed the right thing to do.  If I had every doll I'd ever purchased, I could open up five doll shops with inventory for the ages!  Still, I become sentimental, and remember that I did once own them and enjoy them.

I've been reading.  I always have a book with a book mark in it, and thoroughly enjoyed Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher.  Before that, I'd finished Follett's 

prequel to the Kingsbridge series.  And Maeve Binchy's, A Week in Winter, which was a light, quick read.  Now I'm reading Pilcher's, Coming Home.  I really love this author.  And, so yes, I've not done much sewing this month, and when I take a break like that, it is often difficult to get into the swing of it again.  This is when I came upon Tamara Casey's new patterns for Grace Marie.  One in particular was Cozy Coat, and the other, Fizz.  Fizz?  Not sure what that means, but I loved the outfit.

I can't tell you exactly why I'm so technically challenged, but it might be the same reason that I'm lousy at math.  So when I put the legal sized paper into the printer to print off the Cozy Coat, I forgot that step in the pdf print stage to "modify" and change the paper size.  The computer to printer thing-o is not intuitive.  So I started making this coat, just to ease myself back into sewing, and the darn thing was too small.  I had to throw it out and couldn't understand what the problem was.  It wasn't until I wrote to Tamara for help, and was reading upstairs with the cat on my lap, that the light bulb went off.  Off the lap went the cat, and down to the computer I flew to see if the bulb flash was indeed bright.  It was.  Still defeated by 

the coat, I snipped out the pattern for Fizz, and began afresh.  

During the Christmas Pageant, I'd purchased Tamara's Coffee House outfit in her sale album.  It was right up my alley as a casual outfit,  and I knew I'd be wanting to make my other Grace doll a complimentary outfit.  The whole idea of something to wear to a Starbucks was just too delicious an idea.  My sister and I used to have coffees together in Portland at Starbucks when I'd visit, and these times were comforting - as well as the trips across the street to Powell's book store.  There is nothing better than a good coffee drink and a good book to read.  On a rainy day.  With a piece of cake or sweet treat on a plate. 

And, so it was with all these thoughts that I made up my own version of Coffee House for Grace.  This chic little outfit is made up in a silk suiting, with silk lining.  The high neck top beneath is an avocado green jersey.  I finished it off with a dark brown "alligator" belt with a buckle to go through the belt loops of the skirt.  I had these beautiful, decorative black vintage buttons on a card, and used one of them to close the cape.  The outfit is very "Agatha Primrose", if you recall the

twelve inch Tonner doll.  Its also a bit Sherlock Holmes, although on a strictly feminine scale.  Its fun.  Its Coffee House.  Its walking down a cobbled street after a good rain, in fashionable boots, and hearing the tinkle of a bell as one opens a door to a warm cafe filled with the scents of coffee beans, and vanilla wafting from the freshly baked selections.

I did make up the skirt a bit differently than the instructions (yes, I read them), asked, but I do understand why they were written as such.  To finish the lining in the skirt the way I do it, would be difficult to describe.  But, I do it as Magalie Dawson would, which is how I learned to line anything in the first place.  Clean and tailored.  To me, if it looks beautiful on the inside, it most likely will hold the same appeal on the outside.  I should have taken photos of the process and included them, but maybe I'll do that as a stand alone blog sometime.

I know.  I'm not stretching myself these days, but the break was necessary.  I simply listen to my body, pay attention to how much sleep I'm getting, understand if I'm inspired or not, and really just do what pleases me most.  We all need time to gather our energies again from time to time, and sometimes just making folders and filing photos, and reading for the pleasure of it is enough.  And, it worked.  I'm ready to tackle the unknown again and challenge myself in some way.  The filing will get done.  That's not something you can push either.  And, I like to leave myself open to things that may suddenly come my way. 

Below you'll find my very full and now shelved scrapbook binder from the Virtual Doll Convention collectings that began last July.  A new album has already been started.  And, I also purchased one more Grace doll for all the new doings this year.  She's Aspen Grace with gorgeous blue eyes.  Tonner will not be making anymore Grace dolls, so she was a must have.  And, finally, my two other Grace dolls in their Coffee House outfits complete with books to read and foamy topped Starbucks cups.

I hope this posting finds you relaxing into the new year and ready to enjoy the days ahead.  We still have so many challenges to face, but when we have treasured pastimes, the scales balance perfectly!

Love, Melissa

Such wonderful memories.

Aspen Grace arrives with little gifts.

 

Grace Rings in a New Year!

December the thirtieth.  The day before New Year's Eve.  How did we reach it so quickly?  Christmas was a quiet, but lovely day.  I managed to make a perfect beef tenderloin with cognac peppercorn cream sauce.  I think this is the fourth year I've made it, and I've got it down.  Finally.  Even I enjoyed the tender roasted meat with the decadently rich sauce.  Its the only thing my husband asks for Christmas each year, and Christmas is a time to indulge.  In everything!

I bought way to many Christmas dolls this year.  It was unintentional, as it usually is, but Ruby Red Galleria did more than temp me this season.  They came out with two Fashion Friends for the holidays, the limited edition of one called Perihelia, and if that wasn't enough, the dolls I pre-ordered last summer from the Girls of the Orient, both arrived two days ago.

I learned that one of the Fashion Friend dolls just happens to be a Dianna Effner scuplt, too!  No wonder I love them.

As the quiet days after Christmas rolled by, I got to thinking that I really had not done a "masterpiece" collection like I used to do in the past for Louise, Lawrence and Laura.  Or even a special one of kind doll that would take three weeks to work on.  Perhaps I was feeling like I just hadn't pushed myself to the limits this year.  And, who needs the pressure anyway, right?

But, then I thought about flapper Kitty, and the work I've done on Grace, and began to feel satisfied.  Peggy Sue was a JOY.  Just pure 1950's joy to work on.  And, through all the, let's call it what is was, crap, that occurred this year, these dolls carried me aloft and I haven't one single complaint to make.  Life is going to bring about the death of pets, the sickness of friends, struggles in other parts of our life, but if we continue to return to the things we love, and those that bring us joy and serenity, its not so bad after all.  It was with this thought that I decided to do one more outfit for Grace in celebration of the New Year.

This past December, the catalog company called Olive and Cocoa, would send a new issue every week, promoting their products, and each cover was a different and brilliant illustration.  I saved them.  I may just remove the covers, but there are illustrations inside, too, that reminded me of outfits a doll like Grace could easily wear.  This one in particular, showing "Olive and Cocoa" radiant in holiday gowns, inspired me to create one of them for Grace's New Year's Eve gala.

I used only existing silks and was pleased that I had just the right ones.  The while skirting is that sumptuous 100% Duchess silk satin that I purchased at Farmhouse Fabrics.  I loved it so much, that I bought the remaining remnant for future projects.  Once gone, that's it.  The other two silks are Shantung and lovely to work with as well.

I spent a couple of days designing the bodice for the gown.  I also did a couple mock ups, and probably could have done a third.  The thing is, I now make mock ups from the fabric I'm going to use due to the varying thicknesses and drape.  Muslin is great for the first shot, but to get it just right, its best, for me, to use the chosen fabric

I love the huge bows on this gown.  As a person who mainly enjoys sewing for child dolls, I've discovered, in myself, a bit of latitude when it comes to Grace.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm certain it came from Diana Vining's joyful paper dolls of Grace.  

I've been in touch with one of my favorite porcelain doll artists, and after the first of the year - ok, end of next week - we're going to talk about her making me a Dolly Dingle from a Googlie mold she had.  I'd really enjoy dressing a doll like that from Diana's illustrations.  My hope is that she has a mold that would make a doll to compliment Grace in size.  Like a little friend.  Which for the Virtual Doll Convention, she is.

After finishing the gown, I made Grace a pair of star earrings.  I'd made maybe sixty or more pairs of earrings, including stars, for Rachel to put in the goody bags she sends with purchases.  I haven't seen any dolls wearing them, nor did I ever see people share them with the loot they'd post.  pft!  Won't do that again.  But, I did them to pass the time in between projects.

Lastly, I wanted to make something for her head.  A little Happy New Year hairband would have been fun.  Its was last night's afterthought, and I really didn't know where to start.  I wanted it to look like the party headbands women like to wear on New Year's Eve or other holiday occasions.

I went to Michael's this morning, and all the Christmas stuff was gone, and there wasn't a lick of New Year's anything.  So I purchased a gold glitter piece of scrapbooking paper and cut out a semi-circle for the headband with spikes.  I drew and cut out stars in two sizes and little party horns to affix to it.  I did try to cut out the letters for "Happy New Year", but each tiny letter needed to be linked to the next letter and the paper started to fall apart.  I considered "2021" with stars, but then I'd be stuck with a headband I couldn't use again.  I will think on this and may try the letters again.  I wanted to purchase gold foil alphabet letters and adhere then to a clear piece of plastic, but there were none to be found - except on Amazon, and I hadn't the time to order them.  I will try though later this month.

Prior to getting that last bit of umph to sew again before the end of this year, I set to the task of making costume boxes for Peggy Sue's winter holiday fashions.  Her poor little trunk was over stuffed with garments and these little boxes that you could buy on Etsy - digital downloads - were exactly the right size for one outfit.  The downloads were copied from vintage cookie and ornament boxes, but I do think they were perfected in a photoshop type program because they're gorgeous.

I also remade one for the Halloween costume since my husband bought me a new printer that turns out beautiful color saturation in printing.  And, one more for Peggy Sue's birthday dress, that was originally a birthday candle box.  While the other boxes were made for cellophane windows, I had to cut away much of the illustration in the candle box to create a space for the window.  It turned out darling!

Late in November, I had approached the artist that knits the mini dolls, the amigurumi, for me.  I asked her to make a Grinch and Cindy Lou Who, and also Father Time and the New Year's Baby.  Unbeknownst to me, she was eight months pregnant and had back up orders as well.  But, even through all her maternity preparations and giving birth to a baby girl, she managed to come through for me.  I was thrilled!  

The mini knit dolls arrived shortly before Christmas so the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who got displayed with my Little Darlings.  I almost couldn't wait for Christmas to be over so I could change the girls and have them hold Father Time and the New Year's Baby.  I'm sharing a couple of photos of them below.

2020 had its challenges, but, through all of it, I kept sewing for my dolls and living by motto to make each day count.

Tomorrow the tree will come down and that will take all day.  It will be New Year's Eve, and I never bring the old into the new, so Christmas will be well put away.  In spite of everything, I really enjoyed this holiday season, and have no intention of allowing that good feeling to pass.  

So, Happy New Year!  May the new year be kind to you, and your winter a beautiful one. 

Love, Melissa

Halloween and Birthday fashion boxes

Little Darlings with Father Time and New Year's Baby

She even made a scythe for Father Time!

Two of my favorite ornaments

Toy Soldier Sara and Holiday Stella, Fashion Friends

A new favorite illustrator, Alida Akers

Grace rings in the New Year!

 

Grace's Red Christmas Dress

When I was a little girl, my grandmother loved to dress me in red.  She lived with us for a period of several years, and in that time, sewed our dresses for school and special holidays.  She used to call out, as I left to go to school, "There goes my little red bird!"  Well, you can imagine how embarrassing this was, but all the same, if you think about it, it was endearing.  

My mother used to say, "I love red no matter what color it is!"  She loved the red cardinals although living in California, you'd never see one.  She was a dreamer like myself and Christmas was a favorite time of year in our home as children.  Spots of red would show up everywhere.  Little red felt elves in the tree, holly berries, red stockings she somehow hung from that brick fireplace.  Red cheeked Santas in red coats - cardboard die cuts that were taped in our front room window.

I love red, too, and there is no better time of year for the color to shine, than at Christmas.

Back in late November, as Rachel Hoffman was gearing us up for the Virtual Doll Convention Christmas Pageant, she put some of Diana Vining's original artwork in her gift shop, for sale.  When I saw the painting of Grace in this red gown, I popped it into my cart and purchased it.  This image just sang to me!  And, somewhere along the line, either by my dreamful imagination, or osmosis, I thought Robert Tonner was going to offer a Grace doll wearing this dress.  I was excited.  She was definitely going in my cart!  But, it wasn't meant to be.

The funny thing is that prior to this pipe dream, I'd purchased fabrics and roses to make the dress.  Then of course I didn't, because I thought Robert was coming to the rescue.  Nope.  Didn't happen.  Of course, we weren't even sure what he was going to offer us through the VDC until the Christmas Pageant began, and I made Grace the Partridge in a Pear tree gown.  At least she had an "official" Christmas gown and a memento from the Christmas Pageant.

Pageant over, doll not offered, Peggy Sue needed her red coat and bonnet, so I worked on getting her dressed for Christmas.  There sat the fabric, in a plastic bag for posterity.  I suppose I'd always intended to make it anyway, but did I really want to?  Well, that's the very reason I started sewing in the first place.  Right?  To be able to have something no one made and couldn't be purchased.

I'd bought two different kinds of red glitter tulle.  One from the U.S. and one from the U.K.  Both were the fine netting tulle.  Pretty as can be.  I bought miniature artificial roses.  You couldn't purchase just one, so I have lots left over.  And, a yard of red jersey knit, hoping it would all match nicely.  It did.  The jersey knit was nice, too, which surprised me.

So a few days ago, I caved, and started "Grace's Christmas Dress", as Diana called it.  I used the pattern I made for her Halloween Venus gown and altered it with Tamara Casey's t-shirt pattern.  Drawing them up together to get the bodice wasn't too difficult.  The sleeves needed to be taken in quite a bit for a snug fit, and the under bust to hips portion was already designed in the Venus pattern.  As with everything I do, this was a go-for-it moment, and I surely did not expect it to come out well - even come out at all.

The jersey bodice ends below her fanny where the ruffles begin.  Looking back on this, I probably could have shortened the length of the bodice some, but I was focused on designing the ruffled skirting at the time.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do this.  I haven't done layered ruffles in ages, and really had to give this some thought.  And, also, was it going to work for this gown?

One thing I noticed and was glad I caught, was the the middle ruffle is longer than the others.  These ruffles are not sewn on top of the fabric, but sewn into pieces.  The way I created the fullness was to lengthen each layer, then gather that once the tulle ruffle was attached to the top edge.  

Again with paper doll clothing, for me its all a matter of how to create something to look like the image.  In the painting, I envisioned tulle.  Sparkly tulle.  But, it could have been opaque fabric with sparkles.  That would have done the trick, but where does one find something like that?  I had the fabrics I'd purchased, and used them.

The layers that attach to the jersey bodice are red Shantung silk.  Its what I had on hand.  I fussed and fussed over the skirting, and even gave up a snow day skiing yesterday to have a whole day to concentrate and get this done.  Which is alright.  There will be more snow, and both my husband and I needed some alone time.  He looked so disappointed when I said I wanted to go.  He wanted to do a hard cross-country climb, and some exploring.  So I stayed home and tore my hair out trying to create this gown.

Grace is wearing the red shoes with bows from Marcia Friend's website.  Perfect match.  I fashioned her a wreath of mini roses since I could not locate my miniature holly garland.  I attached pearls and glass bead leaves to the wired wreath.  Her wig is the new one I purchased from the Christmas Pageant, and I pinned it up for the occasion.  She's wearing the red earrings from Robert's Holiday Wishes sequined outfit.

Grace, or my other Grace, is now ready for the fireside holiday festivities with her friend, Dolly Dingle.  I am done sewing for the remainder of the days to Christmas.  I have at least twenty must-see Christmas movies to watch, and will catch The Nutcracker on a Youtube.  The 1993 NYC Ballet Nutcracker is a treat.  There's one from the Royal Ballet coming, but you have to buy a ticket and stream it.  I'm not sure we can do that on my computer.  I'll ask.  Now that we have TMobile, maybe it can be watched on our television!  

Its been a lovely Christmas season, and Rachel and Diana played a huge part in making it special.  Six days to go!  And, they go so quickly.  I love red no matter what color it is, too, so I'll share some Christmas Red with you below.  

Wishing you a lovely Christmastime!  The joy is in the little things that sparkle!

Love, Melissa

Maybe I'll make this for next year!