Today we're getting our second rain system (storm?) of the season. Snow is once again falling in the Sierras and hopes and dreams of taking Brighton, our 2 1/2 year old yellow Lab out for a cross-country ski, is foremost in our desires. I've been living the Christmas joy and spirit through my doll projects and this is turning out to be a wonderful Christmastide!
During the extensive poking around on Pinterest to supplement my Christmas ABC's on Facebook, I must have been looking for vintage Christmas paper dolls. Okay, so what are the Christmas ABC's? Greg Paprocki illustrated these amazing children's books depicting the ABC's "of" in a variety of ways (Halloween, Castles, Go-Go as in the early 1960s, Christmas, etc.), in the very vintage style of the early 60's. Think, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol illustrations. Just adorable, and I've been having so much
fun doing this, and sharing fabulous illustrations dug up from deep archives. ANYWAY! So when I was looking at vintage paper dolls, and it was actually on Etsy, I spied Little Miss Christmas and went nuts. A seller was offering pdf files of the doll. Can't do anything with those - can't make them small, crop them, save them off as individual jpgs, etc., but like an enthusiast, I bought them anyway. Then I started poking around some more and found that Paper Studio Press rereleased them in 2009! So onto Amazon I went and bought a copy. I simply had to make Little Miss Christmas.
Little Miss Christmas was first published by Merrill Co. Publishers in 1965. This was still early after what is considered The Golden Age of Paper Dolls. The 30s through 50s saw paper dolls, inexpensive alternatives to expensive toys, in the form of movie celebrities, members of the armed forces, nurses and doctors, a bevy of brides,
and children of all ages. While these paper dolls were often more realistic in appearance, the 60s had a party with kitsch and cute. These joyful, impressionistic images fueled the imaginations of little girls and they were exciting to behold. The bright eyed girls of Little Miss Christmas melted my heart, and I was soon looking for an appropriate doll to bring to life from this paper doll set.
I asked my friends on Facebook if they had any suggestions, and all came through with great ideas. I would have loved to find a Tonner/Effanbee Half Pint for this project, but it was while I was looking for one that the light bulb went off in my head and I thought of the 14" Madame Alexanders from the 60s. Madame Alexander had that vintage look down, which was contemporary at the time with Cissy, and the assortment of 14" child dolls, and the 8" Wendy-kins. Shortly after my search for the right face, I found this one doll called Rosy, who was MIB. I do not believe she was made in the 60's, but MA never changes the face sculpts. So I bought one. And, saved her underpants and full, starchy half slip.
Holly Belle's dress was the one I wished to make, but with my only choices being blonde dolls, I'll take some "artistic license" here and call her Little Miss Christmas in Holly Belle's dress. I've always had a thing for green stripes, and with the embellishments and head piece, plus the great little accessories the paper doll dress had for cutting out, it was a done deal. You can see the paper doll dress in the images below. It came with the doll holding a gift box wrapped in colorful star paper and pico ribbon. She also held a "to die for" aqua reindeer stuffed toy.
One Christmas when I was little, my mother bought me a Siamese cat in the same "hard" stuffed toy style. There was something wrong with the cat, but I'd never mention it to my mother because she wouldn't have liked that (being nice here). One eye had been glued on upside down! I still have the toy cat, somewhere, and have left it just as I received it. These hard stuffed toys were not ones you could cuddle, but cute nonetheless.
As with many of projects I take on, its usually one particular thing that strikes me more than any other. And, in this case, it was that silly aqua, red-nosed reindeer. And, the challenge of making needle felted antlers. But, I'll get to that later.
I purchased two different lime green striped fabrics, and chose the wider, half inch stripe, for the project. This time of year, that was the best shot I had at creating the look. The bodice is green velveteen and trimmed in faux fur. One indicator of era, is the picot trimmed ribbon, and that was present on any of the paper doll dresses in this set. I managed to find vintage aqua picot trimmed ribbon on Etsy. All this stuff was being ordered and coming in while I was finishing up Treva. I had some little gold bells in my stash, and bought more just in the case I ran out, and I have a nice stash of wool felt for embellishments like the holly leaves decorating the hem of her skirt. I also have a bead stash worthy of opening my own store. I wanted to use 3mm red pom poms for the holly berries, but the order I placed for them did not show up on
the Amazon seller's side. I called five days later to find out why they hadn't shipped and it was a mess. So I used red beads for the berries even though I knew it would weigh the lofty skirt down. This is where that MA half slip came in handy. Those things would hold up the Empire State Building!
I started with the shoes, little lime green silk slippers decorated with the holly, berries and beads, and bells. The embellishments on this outfit would have me hand cutting holly leaves and beading like a mad woman. In the illustration there are white spots that could be anything, and I used seed beads and one larger crystal bead for that effect. This was one of those costumes that the more you work on it, the more work you find to do! The illustrator, Elizabeth Anne Voss, must've had a joyful time with this project. I scanned some of the pages for you to see, which you can find below. I just might make a new one for Little Miss Christmas each year.
Back to the shoes though. These are much smaller than the shoes she
came with. They fit her feet exactly. It's almost sad that the skirt is so long since they deserve to be seen and enjoyed, too.
I hand cut each holly leaf without a pattern. As with the illustration, each is unique. To get the effect of light and dark, I used two different shades of green. Its one of those interpretations you make from paper drawing to cloth.
The head piece was a bit of a challenge in that I sewed three sections of holly leaves, then embellished each with the beads and bells, and finally hot glued them onto the ribbon that is attached to a wired hair band. I wasn't sure it would all hold up and hold together, but it did, and stays nicely on her head.
Close up of shoes.
Close up of head piece.
Earlier I had trimmed her bangs short to provide a closer look to the paper doll. But, they were soft on her forehead, so I picked up some - believe it or not - men's hair gel called Superglue, by American. This stuff is so sticky that I can't imagine a man washing it out of his hair.
I styled the bangs with it so she had the look of the paper doll. Was this the right thing to do? I think it looks fine. And, I truly believe it will stand the test of time. That stuff is "super glue". It might even be similar gel to what they use for dolls' hair anyway.
And, then it came time to have some fun. First of all, the cover illustration of the paper doll dress was different from the one in the book you'd cut out. Where the picot ribbon belt is plain on the cover, it is blue with green picot in the cut out dress (see below). And, the gift was wrapped this way, too. What to do? Well, I bought two different ribbons and glued the blue on top of the green picot satin ribbon. Basically, I made the outfit on the cover, and the toys from the cut out dress.
I design all this stuff as I go along, figuring out the best way to get the look I want. And, so it was with the gift box. I could have made a small box, wrapped it in white paper and have drawn and colored in stars on it. But! Why not needle felt it? I was going to needle felt the reindeer, so why not get my poking up to speed? That chunk of white wool took an awfully long time to make. Surprisingly long. I tried to needle felt the stars on and was quickly derailed. If they'd
not been so tiny, it could have been done. So I went to the next best thing and cut them out of wool felt and glued them on. I wish I could have found larger ribbon to wrap the box with, but supplies like this are hard to come by these days.
That done, good enough, I started the deer with wire armature. Here was another perfect example of the more you work on something, the more you see to do. I actually had to start another project while I waited on the right color wool to come in. Living Felt is the best needle felting shop in the U.S. After placing the order the night before, I phoned them in the morning, and they shipped it out the same day. Thank you, Living Felt! I'd gotten started on his antlers and was done with them the same day. It was pretty much the same technique as needle felting fingers.
I was concerned when the half ounce of wool arrived that I wouldn't have enough, so I covered the wire armature with
white fast batting, then applied the aqua on top of it. He's a solid little fellow. As with the gift box, I cut out the eyes and blue stripes from wool felt to apply to him with glue. What in the Dickens are those blue stripes? Well, the way they are drawn on the deer, I suspect they were to represent where he was sewn together. Still, the color pop is lovely and I wanted to make the toy as close to the illustration as possible.
The ears posed a problem. The insides had tiny white polka dots. How funky is this little guy?! 60s kitsch. I tried to needle felt the dots and that was a lumpy mess. I tried seed bead and he looked diseased. So, I did the next best thing and with a tiny hole punch, I punched out teeny white paper dots and glued them in. It worked! The creative process, which this blog is all about, is often one of trying a few things before you hit the mark. His red nose was the last to get needle felted on, but there was a saddle hidden
under her arm on the deer. Saddle, reins, on and on. I was so ready to be done with him. But, I patiently, steadily worked on him until he was perfect.
Little Miss Christmas was born. I'll never look at another early Madame Alexander quite the same way again. These dolls, for vintage costuming, are perfect little models. And, cheap! I don't think I paid more than $14 for her. With CA tax and shipping an inexpensive doll is the way to go. And, I love her. I honestly do believe I'll make her a new costume each year. I had fun doing this. If Christmas were another month away, I'd do a second today. However, I have one other project to finish and another to start that are Christmas themed. I'm so happy I have time to play "Christmas dolls" this year.
Below are some nice photos, and scans from the paper doll book. I have to mention that later I would discover that the original cover had Little Miss Christmas dressed in blue, not red. Its possible that to rerelease this book, it was part of the deal. Who knows, but it makes me ask the question if the cut out clothing was modified in color, too. Interesting. And, Merrill had done a coloring book, too, so she was popular in 1965. I was eight years old in 1965 and Christmastime was the greatest joy of the year. It still is. Be a child at heart and enjoy the season to its fullest!
Love, Melissa
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| Just the dress. |
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Rosy |
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| Original cover. |
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| First page. |
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| Costume, upper right. |
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| Illustrations like this throughout the book. |
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| Coloring book. |
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| Little Miss Christmas |
