Cabana Cissy

Mid July and we've been baking under the summer sun.  Today is a toasty 100 degrees at 5pm.  Absolutely perfect weather for staying indoors and writing a post in my online journal.  

I got up this morning to hike my doggy down at the lake and unfortunately got there a bit too late, at 7am.  I was dripping from sweat after the first half hour, and I wasn't even working hard.  We headed home to the air conditioning with a bit of patio first just so Brighton could dry off from his dips in the lake.  That's what my summer's been all about.  Taking my "kayak for one" out on mornings that my husband takes the dog for a hike, or taking Brighton down to the lake for a few cool dunks and good hike.  I have no desire to travel afar.  Well, I do.  Sort of.  But when I think about what it will entail, I'd prefer to stay home, read, sew for my dolls and enjoy the lake.  Cissy on the other hand is headed to the resort.

Ever since watching the second season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, I've wanted to make Cissy a summer holiday resort trousseau.  Going to the Catskills was so much fun with Midge's family, but oh! those outfits!  Watching what she wore for a drive in a convertible, watching what she wore for a little daily group exercise, the swimsuits, the dinner dresses, a fun outfit to wear while watching fireworks on the 4th of July.  Even what to wear to the hairdressers'.  All gorgeous.  A fantasy 50s wardrobe.

I suppose after adding Toni to the fray as Cissy's little sister, I could have continued this story and made matching sister outfits again.  I agonized over this for about fifteen minutes, then put Toni away for another day.  I like sewing for Cissy.  It makes me happy.  I guess I just really love the fashions of the 1950s.  Big skirts, feminine lines, lovely colors and it doesn't hurt that she's a big doll which makes sewing much easier.

In between all the other things I do, I am often saving off photos with

ideas for future doll dresses.  When I saw the two striped dresses that were a Madame Alexander staple of Cissy's wardrobe, I decided I would make one or both of them some day.  What prompted pulling Cissy off the shelf to sew this dress was the acquisition of American Girl Courtney and some of her accessories, like her big bunk bed.  I'd have to redo the shelf that would hold Courtney, so many dolls got put away, and Cissy got a new summer resort wardrobe.  I like her enough to keep her displayed at all times.  

The intention was simply to make this dress, a straw hat to go with it, and in this, give her something light and delightful to wear for all her summer doings.  Something pretty on the shelf.

The dress itself, is a fairly simple pattern with front and back darts in the bodice, a slightly longer waist, then a full skirt.  The bow could be made two ways with squared or pointed edges.  The bow is held in place with a strap that connects to the bodice with a single rhinestone decorative button.

Three snaps up the back and hook and thread loop at the waist.  It is quite possible that I could have made a tighter fit with the bodice, but I am always cautious to leave room for the waist of the doll stand.

Vintage Madame Alexander Cissy dresses.

I was having fun.  I kept going.  Cissy really needed a swimsuit.  Or cabana play suit.  In Cissy!,  the book by Kiley Ruwe Shaw, which is a must have for any Cissy fan or collector, there was a photo of a swimsuit pattern on page 63, which was also showing two aqua colored polka dot Sun Suits by Madame Alexander.  The poufy bottoms of these Sun Suits caught my whimsical eye, and Cissy needed one of her own.  I decided to make her suit up in yellow with white polka dots.

The sun, or swim-suit I made was not intended as replica of Madame Alexander's, but more, one inspired by the pattern.  (Just attached a photo of this pattern from the book.  See below.)

The pattern for this sun suit is a combination of two.  The basics of the bodice as used on a dress I did for Cissy that was salmon colored with white and black daisies on it. The bottoms are a pattern for a pair of under pants that I enlarged in areas for the pouf, finished with elastic at the leg openings.

Sometimes I get lucky.  The back is a perfect fit and looks so nice.

Cissy needed a cover up.  MOST of the sun suits sold by Madame Alexander came with a skirt cover up.  The skirt was open in front and simply tied in a bow at the waist.  I really wanted something different.  

I did a bit of Pinterest research on 50s beach wear and cover-ups and came up with this simple design for Cissy.

It's basically a long blouse pattern without the extras that make it a blouse.  I got lucky on this one, too.  I was on a roll and simply cut out the fabric pieces and stitched it up with the tie ends left over from the sun suit's straps.  

Nice silhouette on the back.

Fully lined, of course.  Something modest and comfortable to wear at the beachcomber bar.

And, of course, I had to make the skirt.  I'm madly in love with this yellow polka dot fabric.  It's just so summery and sunshiny.  And pretty, made up in this cabana wear.

You'll notice Cissy wears both white and yellow sandals in these photos.  I find this set of three pieces very flexible and simply fun.

Nice fit, and attactive from behind.

Peek-a-boo!  The skirt's hemmed edges are a simple double-quarter-inch-turn, and stitch.

The hat.  Well, all of Cissy's cabana outfits came with a hat with the fruit on it.  A Carmen Miranda inspiration for certain.  I played this up with a purchased vintage straw hat of undetermined origin, that I stripped of decoration, and added an aqua grosgrain ribbon and the millinery fruit.

I asked Richard, of Richard's Originals, to make me a simple straw hat I could decorate, but he insisted he decorate it himself.  I'm fine with that.  I love his hats.  I like the straw he uses as its very authentic to what Madame Alexander used.  I don't know what it is, or I'd buy it myself.  And he sews the hats, so double bonus for him on that account.  If can come up with one for me, I'll share in it the next set of resort outfits for Cissy.  I would never ask him what straw he uses because this is his business.  I can respect that.

Strawberry Sunshine.  That's what this little shorts and tops set reminds me of.

This pink stripe was the stripe I would use if I made up the other Madame Alexander striped dress.  I love sailor collars and nautical stripes and took a chance on making this play set up in strawberry pink.

This is what Cissy wears on that convertible ride.  Cissy's pretty, long legs are played up by the wide leg shorts that fit Cissy's waist with a series of darts.

The top, usually made up in white, gets a big "hello!" in strawberry pink cotton sateen.  I made this top twice.  I tried something different by not lining the top and using the seam, pressed and stitched down as a self-facing, but it was horrid.  Messy.  There's a reason I line everything. 

So, I recut and quickly sewed up another version, this time lined.  See below for the inside of the top, and the waist facing for the shorts.  

I like this look better for the shorts that a waist band.

No convertible ride is complete without a scarf to wear around the head.  I had this floral georgette that I think was originally intended for that vintage reproduction Queen Elizabeth's Princess doll (the gift from France).  It would make a perfect scarf.  

Since I've never been successful with the rolled hem foot on my sewing machine, I zig-zagged the edge, and it pretty much did the same thing.  I discovered this "edging" by accident the other day.

Cissy' red cork wedges are Madame Alexander redos.  MA used a ribbon of some sort, and I took the wedged apart and replaced the strap with a bright red leather band.

The back.

Ingenue!

The head scarf.

My lining techniques.

This set has been so much fun to make, that I'm going to keep going.  I want to make a green dinner dress, and we need something red in this trousseau.  I don't know, but I have something in mind for a day of tourist shopping and lunch, too.

I may not be going anywhere this summer, but Cissy's going places.  I have this fictitious New England resort in mind, that Cissy holidays at for a few weeks each summer.  She meets up with friends and even breaks a few hearts before heading home relaxed and suntanned.  

I'm reading Elin Hildebrand's Summer of '69.  It's the perfect summer read for the mornings when the patio is still cool and the air is filled with bits of bird song and the frittering, chirping of squirrels in the trees.  Summer should be a time of no hurries, no worries, and lots of ice cream.  Today, July 17th, is National Ice Cream Day.  I'm sure Cissy will be ordering a strawberry sundae while wearing her shorts set.  

Until next time!, Melissa

The sun suit pattern.

Waiting for friends.

By the water in the sun.

Out for a little exercise.

Remember to do nothing sometimes!

 

Ten Ping Siblie in Summer Work Clothing

Have you ever had one of those months where you had so much hope for it, so many positive plans in mind, and a great positive attitude to go with it?  Then almost immediately, things go left, right, up, down and sometimes spiral?  June has been that way for me.  I like predictability.  I love routine.  But something happened back in February that upset my cookie cart and I've been dealing with this imminent change since then.   What was it?  Something as simple as the company that made the journal-diary I kept, decided not to continue with the large format planner, and to top that off, made the decision to take their product off the U.S. market.  

I'm a writer.  I've been keeping a journal or diary of sorts since I was a child and had one of those little diaries with a lock and key.  What was lovely about Boxclever's planner, was that it had a whole page next to the week blocks where you write, to scrapbook on!  So instead of just keeping the day-to-day journal of activities, I could keep a pictorial one to 

correspond with those days as well.  This journal satisfied the creative mouse in me as well as the writer.  Then BOOM...they decided to pull the rug out from under me.  Oh, I wrote to them alright.  BEGGED and pleaded for them to at least keep the large format, and I'd buy their planner with no U.S. holidays in it direct from them.  Nope.  "Let's fix what's not broken."  That's what these companies do.  So as the days have slowly or rapidly marched their way toward the end of June, so has the end of this journal because it was a July to June issue.  

So, what's my personal little grump got to do with this journal posting anyway?  Well, I wanted to scrapbook my last journal page in this precious pictorial of my last six months with something special.

I'd been wanting to make a special outfit for the Ten Ping Siblie since I received her.  Ruby Ho, of Ruby Red Galleria, made this special doll to honor her mother for Mother's Day this year, with a doll dressed in the birthday dress her mother made for her when she was five years old.

The original Ten Ping dolls were 8" tall, but with the popularity of Ruby Red Friends, the play doll line Ruby designed, she decided to make this doll on the body of the "Friends' Sibling" (little sister), dolls they call Siblies.  

She must have had lots of left over fabrics and scraps to use for this project, because each of the LE dolls would be dressed in a different fabric.  I bought two.  One to play with, and one to keep mint.   

I'll have to admit that this little 12" child doll looks most like the real Ruby Ho than her 8" version.  Ten Ping, Ruby's Chinese name, is one of my favorite lines of dolls.  So when this moppet came out, I was thrilled.  She's so much easier to sew for than the tiny 8" doll.

The first thing I did was go through my Ten Ping wardrobe and select one of my favorite outfits to copy.  I don't mess with perfection.  Ruby designed these for her mini-me self, so it was best for me to simply take one of them and make it larger to fit the Siblie body.

And for those who've stuck with me over these years, you may recall that this apron shape was one I'd made a pattern for during the Year of the Dog, for a UFDC Doll News article, as Ruby Ho was the featured artist that year.  

I started with the loose-legged pants.  Many of the outfits that Ruby designed for Ten Ping were of mixed fabrics.  They were also working clothes.  Ten Ping grew up in dire conditions in China during the 1950s.  When her mother left her and her sisters and brothers in the care of her grandmother, to work in the city to earn money for the family, Ten Ping, the eldest child, worked as hard as her mother had to help rear her sisters and brothers.  So many of her outfits were for housekeeping purposes.  And given the dire circumstances, I'm guessing you would put an outfit together with whatever fabric you could find, hence, the mixed fabrics.  Like a quilt of colors.

I've had this gorgeous trim sitting in a bag for an eternity, and it was just the perfect trim for the hemline of these pants of striped linen.

Then I made the double ruffled skirt.  I'm simply not seeing this as a fashion concept of the 50s, much less 60s, but Ruby obviously loves this look on her dolls, so I made the skirt to go with.  

Both the pants and skirt have elastic threaded through a self-casing at the waistline.  

Then it was time to make the top.  This is where the fun came in.  I really enjoy putting together this kind of medley of fabrics to create a somewhat "boho" look.  The burnt-orange with black pinstripes used for the collar, is something I picked up for a Victorian doll dress, so you just may see it again.  

So far, so good, this was all coming together nicely.

Next, I had to make some slippers.  This doll seems to have very long feet.  Like the Maggie Iacono dolls.  I don't know why some dolls' feet just seem long, but they do.  This coral peony lawn was purchased for a flapper doll dress, so again, you just may see it in the future.  It went so well, picking up the colors in the skirt's flowers and the collar, that I had to use it.

The slipper pattern will take a bit of tweaking, but at least I got a pair made.

Finally, it was time to make the pear-shaped apron. I had some Michael Miller Chinese Children fabric, and the little man in the boat seemed like a perfect center for a summer apron.  

I made salmon-pink silk piping for the edges, and also used the silk for the ties around the neck and waist.  The "pear shape" got a little lost in the apron while sewing in the piping, and I guess that just happens sometimes.  We'll do better next time.

Bottom line is that I finished a special outfit for this Ten Ping doll, just in the nick of time to scrapbook the image on the last page of my journal.  I will truly miss this journaling format, and have had some bad days over losing it.  There is literally NOTHING to compare out there.  I'm going to use a Bloom planner because it had enough space to write each day, and the large format, but I lose the scrapbooking angle I so enjoyed.   

What motivates a person to create something?  In this instance, it was a seamstress on Facebook, who'd posted in the Ruby Red Friends Fan Club.  Her name is Lydia and when I complimented her on the outfit she'd made her doll and told her that I was reminded that I wished to make something for my own, she said she'd like to see it.  Sound like a challenge?  It was.  The completion of the outfit by yesterday, was motivated by wishing to have one last beautiful thing to scrapbook into my journal before I say good-bye.  

My journals are like a friend to me I visit each night before bed. There is comfort in writing down my thoughts and doings of the day that has just passed.  This blog also serves that purpose, but for the things I create. 

June offered me some challenges and I met them head on.  Change was one of them, and it came in several forms.  

Summer is in full swing!  Enjoy every single moment no matter what.  Period.  

Love, Melissa

 

The Mother's Day doll.

The back.

So long good friend.

Lovely likeness of the artist.

 

The 1470: Lillian's 1920 Summer Voile

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked why I hadn't "jumped on the 1470 bandwagon".  Of course, this question was asked online, so when I shook my head in confusion, it wasn't noticed.  Last summer when I spotted Doug James hanging out at Ed's booth (of Happily Ever After), and saw what he had on his table, I was already way ahead of the bandwagon.  First of all, seeing and meeting Doug James was the highlight of convention last year.  I must have been one of his biggest fans of the Willow and Daisy series.  And now he'd managed to make a reproduction of "Kitty Hudson", the 1469 antique flapper doll I'd dressed for my friend, in the exact proportions and at a non-antique affordable cost.  I put my order in right then and there.  And waited.  And waited.  Very patiently mind you, for the doll to come out.

My memory is poor, which is why I keep journals, but I think she came out around Christmas last year.  As usual, I have multiple projects on the table, and by the time she arrived, I

was happy to tuck her away for a rainy day.  I had her!  What more did I want?  Okay, more.  How about a proper doll stand that supports and poses her nicely?  We'll get to that later.  But I was in no hurry to sew flapper fashions or 1920's couture as I honestly had "just finished" a series of such costumes.  However, my friend's inquiry, bandwagon reference aside, got me thinking.  It became more of a challenge, a niggling.  Why hadn't I "joined the bandwagon"?  Because I don't jump on bandwagons.  After watching doll costumers begin making 20's couture for their new 1470's, it reminded me of the French Fashion craze, that for all intents and purposes, still seems to be going on.  I'm a stubborn little thing, and I like to do different things.  I like to surprise myself by coming up with the unexpected.

All that said, a week later I asked Kitty's maman about this fashion book she'd loaned me, as I wanted to purchase a copy of it.  You might recall my praising Tina Skinner and Lindy McCord's Flapper Era Fashions from the Roaring 20's.  This is 

still my go-to for inspiration, but in the process of acquiring a copy, I found Everyday Fashions of the Twenties.  This gem, by Dover Publications, is similar with lavish illustrations from catalog companies for the new ready-to-wear or pret-a-porter of the times.  Both are must haves for inspiration. With Tina and Lindy's, you'll get color pages and interpreted descriptions.  In Stella Blum's book, you'll get the catalog's description of what the garment details, and the color selections.  

When I spotted this voile summer dress from the year 1920, I knew I had to make it.  Was it "flapper"?  No.  And maybe that gave me the nudge I needed.  I could sew for the doll and not have to pile onto that happy, noisy bandwagon jostling down the road.  Yet, anyway.  History is a marvel if you pay attention to it.  Why, in the early 20's, did the fashions still look like those of 1910?  1911's Lettie Lane and Daisy?  In an effort to return to normalcy as the trauma of WWI came to a close, people wanted to go back to the way things were before.  Fashions literally reverted back to those of 1913-1914 as though the years that followed needed the wiping of a clean slate.  The new view of how women should dress began in 1909 with the course towards liberation.  But in 1920, even as fashions took a step 

back, changes were imminent with an acceleration towards the ideal of younger and more youthful looks.  Freedom of movement, increased affluence, working women who not only had the vote, but paid vacations and more leisure time. Clothing became simpler in style as women became more active in leisure and sports.  No matter how exciting this all must have seemed, change takes place over time.

Lillian's summer voile dress (that's what I've named her, Lillian), is an example of the last of the dresses of this kind, and would have been worn with a corset, which we all know took a deep dive in a couple of years.  I hate to say this, but when I look at a lot of daywear in the flapper era, the first thing that comes to mind is "frumpy clothing".  Its frumpy!  All the dresses look like bags they threw over their heads and did housework in.  Which they were.  However, we can make them pretty, and if everyone is wearing a bag, then you're in fashion.  As a person who hates tight clothing, I would have loved to live during this era of fashion.  But, because I loved this illustration, I was going to make this voile dress. 

I bought myself a yard of very expensive 54" wide white voile.  Its a delicate cotton that lends itself beautifully towards fabric dying, and nightgowns.  The choices in the ad said the dress came in Orchid (purple), Cophenhagen (blue), and Reseda (green).  As this would be a summer dress, I chose to dye the fabric a muted celery color.  I had some old tubs of dye and set to work with small sample strips of cloth.  Nothing was working!  I couldn't get the fabric to dye!  A week later and a few phone calls to Dharma Trading, I discovered that dye doesn't last forever, and I needed to buy new dyes.  I purchased Wasabi, Citrus Yellow, and Sage.  I just

had this feeling I might have to mix colors.  Two weeks into experimentation, I discovered and concluded that Wasabi would dye the voile the shade I wanted, but the entredeux, cotton though it may be, would not dye the same color.  So, I kept experimenting until I got it right.  A mix of Citrus Yellow and Sage gave me a color for the entredeux close to the Wasabi of the voile.  What I'm trying to convey is to not take dye for granted.  You can't just pop all the stuff in the same tub of dye and expect it to come out the same color.  Dying is a science.  Its chemistry.  Treat it with respect and 

patience, and you'll get some beautiful results.  For cottons, buy the Fiber Reactive Dye.  It works in a cold bath with a ton of salt and a pinch of soda ash at the end to set it.  Please test your fabric first.  A quarter teaspoon of dye may be all you need.  I ruined a blouse of my own trying to get a peach sherbet color and it came out orange.  I've also been experimenting with dyes because I had to dye fabric yellow for the Petit Filles doll project.  I've been at this awhile. 

So, onto the dress now.  Pattern time.  I spent more time trying to figure out what was going on in this illustration than on any other project I've ever done.  I still look at that illustration and shake my head.  First of all, the woman is not in proportion.  She'd be 7 ft. tall to pull off that dress the way its drawn.  But it gave me a great reference to go by.  Bottom line, I made this fabric.  The only thing I didn't do was weave the voile on a loom.

Every pattern piece is pintucked and edged with ruffle edged entredeux.  Entredeux lace being the stuff with the holes in it.  How do you attach ruffles to entredeux?  There was only one video on the Internet describing this process and the very excitable girl was attaching a big piece of "lace" to a towel with huge ruffles on the bottom edge.  Not only that, some of the dress's design had ruffles both on the top and bottom sides of the pintucks, then applied the dress.  I don't normally do this, but if you can decipher what I did from this end-snippet, I hope it helps if you ever wish to try it.  I'm going to spend a few minutes trying to describe this to you, because this process is how the entire dress was made.

Sew the pintucked fabric to the entredeux. Stitch as close to the "ladder" as possible.  Let's call this holey stuff a ladder. Iron back the cotton edging.  If you want, 

you can trim off that cotton edging close to your stitching, then zigzag the fabric edge and ladder together.  You will do this with the ruffle.  Only with the ruffle (that's a 1/2" ruffle you're looking at), you lay the ruffle's gathered edge under the ladder so you can see the gather stitch inside the ladder rungs and pin it.  Stitch the ruffle to the edge of the ladder as close as possible, then trim off the edges from top and bottom.  Again, zigzag the ruffle edge to the ladder edge.  This is strong and stable.  Got nothing else better to do on a hot summer's afternoon?  Play with this some.  What you're doing to creating a ruffle-edged entredeux lace that is normally sold factory made such as Swiss Lace.  I do not think I've seen real entredeux with a ruffle edge.  Just Swiss Lace.  I could be wrong.  I have my moments.  

Before I started worrying about how the bottom of the dress was made, and we have two close rows of ruffle edged entredeux to work with here, I took a photo of the bodice with girdle, as they called it.  Girdle that "forms a sash in the back".  More half inch ruffles.  It took me a very long time to make this dress because the detail work, which

was ALL of it and was such a strain to the eyes and shoulders and my patience.  A little every day.  Just a little every day to the finish line.  I really did not think I'd get past the bodice.  That's why I took a picture of it.  I was not hopeful.  

First of all, I had to interpret fifty-some-odd pintucks into what would look right on the 14" doll, plus how long pieces of the dress "skirt" should be, so that I could comfortably include two ruffles times two.  I'm particularly proud of that collar.  I didn't think I'd even get that figured out since its a collar made of pintucks.  I guess one of the nicest things about this dress are the buttons.  Kitty's maman told me that MOP buttons should dye nicely.  Mine didn't.  Even with the new tubs of dye.  So I recalled these wonderful tinted buttons people use for French Fashion sewing and the green color was perfect for my muted celery.

May I be honest?  I always am when I blog anyway.  I told a friend of mine I hated this dress.  Then I felt bad.  I don't hate this dress.  I hate the trauma it put me through.  Or to be more correct, why do I do this kind of stuff myself?  Torture myself trying to create the impossible? 

Well, beautiful Lillian is going to get her flapper dress after all, and maybe a few other things.  This doll is wonderful to sew for.  She is not wonderful to try to put on a stand though.  In these photos, she is on a Poppy Parker telescope stand.  That narrow saddle fits her.  However, this doll's legs are about as stable as Bleuette's with loose elastic.  They go everywhere.  So now I'm on a mission to make a stand that works for her.  I've been trying unsuccessfully.  I think I need a wood one with just a dowel post and ribbon pegged to it.  However, for the stability of the legs, you can't beat a good saddle stand. It just needs to be a THIN saddle and fit snug up her front and backside  I'll keep you posted. 

Below are some lovely images I saved off during the last few weeks of eye strain and frustration.  I truly look forward to making a few garments from the mid to later part of the 20s.  Flapper dresses can be as elaborately detailed as you like, but since I prefer daywear and active wear, I hope my non-existent good senses steer me towards easier projects.

Enjoy the rest of this awesome start to summer!  The summer solstice is just a few days away.  Tuesday the 21rst!  Time to run around naked in the night with flowers in my hair.  If only in my mind!

Love, Melissa

Ruffles again.  Need to find a parasol.

This is more like it.

I want to make this coat!

Summer time!  Need to make this, too.

The coffee can dolls.

The kind of house Lillian would have lived in.