Barbie's New Dream House at 61 Years Old

Its Wednesday and midway through the second week of April.  With all that is going on right now, it's essential we stay true to our hearts and do the things we love.  Eat properly, get out and enjoy the beautiful weather, hug your pets and give them lots of attention, and play dolls.  And I'm doing just that.

Some years ago, when I was on a vintage Barbie roll, I was collecting all of the most minty, rare and beautiful outfits from the early 60's.  During that time, I'd found out about Mattel's reproduction Barbie Dream House and found a new one on Ebay and purchased it. 

I had a great time punching out the furniture and putting the pieces together, then setting them up in what I will refer to as, her studio apartment.  It had no kitchen.  Just a sort of living room with a bed, a vanity with closet next to it and a bookcase.  I loved it.  I played with it every season and holiday, dressing up Barbie and Ken and sometimes decorating the interior for the holidays.  Later I bought the porch swing and a barbeque and a plastic table, probably from the 70's, and set up an outdoor patio.  What I really missed was having a kitchen.

So, I kept my eyes open for the Kitchen-Dinette and have since.  I've never been able to afford what sellers want for it, and one just sold for $1,500 on a Best Offer.  It's just not in the cards for me.

But back then, I became interested in Barbie's New Dream House because it did have a kitchen.  Small, but included.  I found one for under $400 and bought it.  When it arrived, I was

a bit shocked because it was so much bigger than the first Dream House.  I had nowhere to put it.  I kept thinking of adding some kind of long table to some room to display it, but there was really only one place for toys like this.  This round table that my husband won't throw out and is in my bedroom. 

Well, I boxed it back up and there it sat.  Eventually I found someone who might really enjoy it and sent it to him.  I really never thought about it again until recently.  It was when this seller had sold the Kitchen-Dinette and had listed a New Barbie's Dream House as well.  It looked to be in pretty good shape and was twice what I paid for the other.  Sick about not being able to buy the Kitchen-Dinette, I really started wanting to play Barbie again.  What sealed the deal was the instruction booklet.  In the lower left corner, it shows the structure situated for a small table.  That would work!  So, I gave him a best offer and buried myself in PayPal Credit.  That's okay.  I made a decision and wanted to give the house a try again.

When the box arrived, I was dubious.  I was so afraid to open it and find a pile of dusty, smelly old cardboard.  Didn't matter.  I was committed to giving this a whirl.  The outside was in decent condition, a 7, but the inside blew me away.  It was like it had never been played with.  Or very little at least.

It took me quite a while wiggling these pieces around to get the configuration shown on the manual, but I did it.  I do not give up.  Never.  The key to this was not having the tabs hooking the

two structures together.  They did it!  So could I.  

Included in this set was several sheets of unpunched furniture and lots of extra pieces in various stages of condition.  My goal was and is to make all those pieces so that I have what will present as a nearly new Barbie's Dream House.  I am not disappointed.

The goal of this blog journey is to share this house in its near pristine interior condition and present how things would look like were it brand new.  

Last night I punched out and put the yellow sofa together.  If there was ever a central piece of furniture to a play set, it's this yellow sofa.  I was excited to discover the unpunched page for one.  I do not slap these things together.  I'm very careful and I read the directions over and over and study the illustrations until I'm confident I know how to put it together.  It's amazing how many pieces like this had not been assembled properly over the years.

The play set is complete and even came with the paper rug, which is pretty hideous, but it's there.

Check out this kitchen.  One thing you'll notice is that the doors on the cabinet and oven do not have tab handles. The slots still had the paper piece to punch out.  I could not find tabs for handles, but I will make them from printed other pieces that I won't use.  They are the same color as the doors.  I researched this.  Not only that, but the shutters had never been bent.  They look great folded, but I would have to be careful folding them.  I already did it to one.  I may leave the other just because.  The photo above is the Ebay seller's photo.

Here's the bedroom.  As you can see, the floor or what is the outside carrier of the set is in pretty bad condition.  There's not much you can do about this but put nice furniture on it and play it down.  

Here's a photo of the closet doors closed.  What is usually in pretty poor condition is the interior of the closet.  Little girls would store their Barbie's things in there so it would get lots of use.

Besides the shelves there is a platform box that houses a pull-out drawer.  There is a tab on the platform that the closet doors close onto with slats.

Lucky me, there was an unpunched page of this assembly, so I made that up as well and put it in the closet.  Three photos down, I show what the new pieces look like in the closet.

Here is a close up I took of the unfolded shutter doors that go between the kitchen and living room.

I also ironed the paper rug.  I put tissue paper over it and on SYN, carefully ironed it smooth.

My one folded shutter door.  I'm just too skittish to do the second one right now, and like I said, I might just leave it.

Here's then new drawer and top with the tab that holds the closet doors closed.  The closet is in new shape.  If I had any question about this, there is a page to punch out and make new shelves.

Here's what I think.  I think the person that owned this bought several New Dream Houses and took the good stuff from each and put this together.  The funny thing is, they used old ratty furniture in the house when there was mint, unpunched furniture to be made.  

One thing, sadly, that is in poor condition, is the television.  But it has all the card shows.  My guess is that like the closet, it was played with a lot.  That's okay.  When it sits on a brand-new table, it will look lovely.  I'll keep my eye out for a better one, but I'm pleased just to have it.

It took me quite a while to figure out why the patio was so long and big.  You're supposed to fold up the hedge.  This had never been done either.  Now it has been.  The side brick rail is a nice touch.  There is an extra unpunched one if I ever need it.

Below, I'm sharing the unpunched sheets.  If you want to buy one of these Dream House structures, you'll find them assembled and in the furniture in varying stages of played with condition.  So, this is pretty cool stuff to see.  Even better to play with for the first time!

One of the things that perplexed me was that the seller included three of these blue conical tubes.  There was only one lamp shade, but I couldn't figure out how to assemble the base to the shade.  So, I looked in the instruction booklet and saw that there was a round piece with a hole in the center.  The tip of the stand goes through the hole, and you push it up into the shade until it fits nicely.  

Guess what?  There was an unpunched lamp round in the papers!  I put that together this morning.

I am in no rush to finish this.  The assembly of furniture and such is a treat and I'm going to enjoy it a little at a time.  I have all the time in the world, I hope!, to do this and enjoy it.  It's like discovering a new world.  

And I'll have to take my titian Barbie and blonde Ken out and dress them up so they can enjoy Barbie's new home when it's done.  Skipper can come over and play, too.

Here's my kitchen.  As you can see, I found a square to use for the cabinet and oven handles.  I'll hang onto this awhile and see if there's a better piece to use.  This might actually belong to something!

I'll make a new table to go into that wall slot.  Although, yes, I did this, I bought a Kitchen-Dinette table that I may use instead.  The kitchen was the center of many homes in the 1960's.  Children played games and did homework there as well as ate their meals.  This is a very sentimental journey for a long-ago time in history.  I never had beautiful toys like this, so this feels very special to me.

Here's a photo of the pristine built in barbeque grill.  There are two very nice lounge chairs already built, but there is also at least one unpunched one.

I was talking with my friend, Betsy, today about all this.  This first blog is for her.  She had these beautiful toys as a child and kept them.  It must be fun for her to see me go nuts for them.

I take my doll play very seriously.  This is not an inexpensive hobby.  Oh sure.  There are some very affordable dolls and toys, but when you're collecting vintage like this, it's a whole new ball game.

I hope you'll enjoy watching this house get put together.  And over the coming year, I'll be setting it up and decorating it for the seasons and holidays.  I had so much fun doing this with the Little Theatre if you recall.  

Let's be grateful and appreciative of what we do have today.  We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, so let's play dolls and find peaceful joy in doing so.

Pretty nice patio door here!

Love, Melissa
 

I Get a Stella, Stella Gets a Puppy

Happy April, Happy Spring!  It's hard to believe that I haven't written a post since February 9th.  Or maybe not.  The question is, What was I doing before February 27th when my doll life changed? Playing dolls with the VDC.  Ellowyne had traveled to Spain, and I had a blast setting up scenes to describe her journey.  I even bought her a miniature Spanish guitar.  A Gibson, no less.

And I was quietly working on embroidering the vest for Halva, the child in the story Sister Bear.  Painstaking, tiny detail work that all has to be sewn freehand, since you cannot mark on black wool.  I'd finally gotten a chance to start working on this project and thought to maybe have it done by Easter.  Then something happened.  Something wonderful happened.

On February 27th, I was going about my normal day.  I'd just sold a couple of doll outfits to a friend and was returning from the post office.  I stopped off at my mailbox and picked up something that looked like a doll box.  It was about the right shape anyway.

I thought to myself, What on earth did I buy?!  I couldn't remember buying another doll, but that doesn't mean anything.  LOL   So I looked at the sender's label and thought, What?  What on earth did Heather send to me?  A Bleuette?  Why would she do that?  There didn't seem to be a reason for a box from her.  No birthday.  Christmas was over.  Scratching my head I continued to carefully open the box.  Then upon opening it, I just about fainted.  Just about peed my pants in fact!  It was a Connie Low Little Stella doll!  

My heart sped up, I was literally shaking and thinking there must be a mistake.  But the note inside read, "Surprise!  Let's play dolls!"  And there began a new chapter in my doll life.  Everything got set aside to focus on this precious and amazing gift.  

I'd always wanted a Little Stella, but they were just too expensive and terribly hard to get.  A doll by Connie Lowe was

simply something others could have and not myself.  The doll was even hand-painted by Connie.  Wow.  I began to do some research.  I remembered that one of the UFDC quarterlies had featured Stella.  So, I looked up back issues on their website and found this paper doll page.  I was gone.  Paper doll clothing!  (There's a second page, but this one is for this posting.)  I called the UFDC HQ's and ordered a back copy since I couldn't find mine.  I was immediately taken by the outfit with Stella holding the little dog.  In fact, the dog looked a lot like Fripon, the dog associated with Bleuette.  After some research, I was pretty sure this dog was a Bedlington Terrier, but maybe not.  I haven't seen one with black ears. But one thing I knew was that I wanted to make this outfit and the dog and give it to Heather for her birthday.  And make one for myself, too, as I think I might make all the paper doll outfits.  It's my thing.  

The issue came and I read it through and was already working on the outfit.  Heather and I talked about what kind of clothing I should make our dolls, but it really did keep changing because you can 

dress these dolls any way you please.  Whimsical is fun.  Depression era 1930's is a good standard because that's Stella's story.  Long ago, I had started an album of Connie Lowe dolls dressed different ways and honestly didn't know what I really wanted down the road, but for now, I wanted to focus on the 30's.  I love my American Girl, Kit Kittredge, and her clothing would provide inspiration for outfits.  

As our conversations continued, I got more confused on what exactly she'd really enjoy me making for her.  I was buying fabrics in reproduction feed sack prints.  I'd found a purple that was close to the dress illustrated in the paper doll, but it wasn't true feed sack print.  Would this be acceptable?  I like and value authenticity, but there's only so much a person can do.  I kept working on the puppy outfit.  

Then I found out that Connie had produced a book, a huge tome of 300 pages, called Becoming Real: The Life and Love of Stella.

At $145 I didn't blink.  Had to have it.  Read it cover to cover and in the middle was the story of Stella getting her puppy. Three pages of this very sweet story, and I knew I was on the right track for my first Stella project.  At least for me.  But maybe Heather wouldn't like it.  It's impossible to describe how confusing something like this can be.  I really wanted to do this, then I'd see photos of her Connie Lowe collection, and her dolls were dressed nothing like this.  

Little Stella is not an easy doll to sew for.  Big hands, big feet, very skinny little body.  Connie tells the story in her book of why she made the doll like this and its heartwarming.  Stella was also conceived through the devotion and love for her mother, Stella, who grew up, like my mother did, during the Great Depression. The book is amazing and so beautifully written.  And fun.  And entertaining.  But, again, the center story of Stella Gets a Puppy was so endearing that I continued to create the costume with as much love as possible.

The dress was drawn with a scalloped edged hem.  But the scallops were flowers.  How was I going to do that?!  Well, I couldn't.  But I could make a ruffle edged with scallops and did so.  

The coat came next.  The illustration looked like camel wool and the only camel colored wool I could find was this cashmere.  Certainly not Depression era clothing, but then Stella could have gotten the coat second hand.  Kit did have a well to do friend named, Ruthie.  All these things went on in my mind.  Finding shank buttons for it was near impossible.  I wanted tiny vintage "football" buttons which are leather braided shank buttons.  The smallest these vintage buttons came in was 1/2".  I bought some to see how they'd work anyway, and they didn't, of course.  

Then as I was looking at the pages in Connie's book, the coat her 20" Stella wore looked more like linen.  Now what?  Two coats had been made (one for me), and what was I going to do?  Go with the paper doll look, or go for the coat in Connie's story? I'd

already invested hours upon hours on this outfit, so I went with what I had.  The other thing was that Connie's coat had three quarter sleeves.  Women did not wear that sleeve length in the 30's.  I looked it up.  So now what?  I shortened the sleeves a little bit but couldn't bring myself to make them 3/4 sleeves.  Stick to the original and drawing or stick to the era?  This was driving me nuts!

The boots took me a full week to make a pattern for.  Stella's legs and ankles are so skinny that it was difficult to make a pattern that looked right.  A normal boot pattern would have her legs swimming in the tops of them.  Distressed leather or not distressed?  1930's children would have worn distressed leather, as they wore the shoes until they fell off their feet or were passed down to a younger child. So, I bought some old leather driving gloves 

and tried that.  Then I find out that you can distress leather by using alcohol and a brush.  LOL   And so it went on.  I tried it both ways and settled on the glove leather, which may look delicate, compared to what is made for this doll, but this is my style.  This is what I do.  

The paper doll is shown wearing aqua blue and white striped stockings, but the boots have brown socks in them.  So, I made both.  I found the blue and white jersey in the infant's area of a department store in town.  I like using infant romper fabric because its thin and the prints are small.  Yes, it's expensive, but you get a lot of stockings from one romper.  And maybe t-shirts for other dolls down the line.

The boots took a long time to make, but I got two pairs made.  I had to make these pieces side by side because I knew I'd never get back to making a set for myself.  I'd be "done" with the project and ready to move on to the next thing.

And finally, the puppy, Prague.  This story makes me almost weep each time I read it!  Stella finds a cold and hungry puppy on the street and begs her mother to keep him. I photographed the story for this post so please click on the pictures to read it. I hope you'll enjoy it.

So, yes, it was time to make the puppy.  At first, before getting the book, I considered making him as stuffed toy out of wool felt.  I looked through many dog patterns for this breed.  I would have to use a pattern as a sloper and redraw much of it.  I tried.  I did. It didn't work.  If I'd had all the time in the world to do this, I would have figured it out.  So many pieces to sew together.  I tried three times with just the head and gave up.  That is HOURS of work.  So, I settled on doing what I know how to do, and needle felted Prague.

I actually used one of the heads I'd made for size and one of the body patterns for shape and size as well.  I also used one

of my Bleuette's Fripon dogs for inspiration, but getting Prague correctly done was more from looking at the photos in Connie's story than anything else.  I wanted a miniature version of her own dog, and that was my goal.  I looked up lots of terriers in sitting positions, but I did not want him to look too real. It's tricky.

The final touch to the dog was a ribbon around his neck.  Since the vintage toy dog that Connie acquired had a ratty ribbon or collar, I "distressed" the silk ribbon I used for one.  Silk ribbon distresses very easily with the point of tiny scissors!  Prague was done, and I made a second one.

Here's the story of Stella and her new dog, Prague.

Here is my Stella Maisie, as she came to me.  

After working with her for four weeks, I remembered this ironing board from one of Kit's accessory sets.  I think she looks sweet on it.  Perhaps her story is that she sews.  And cooks and cleans and irons because mother has to work to keep food on the table and rent paid.  

Stella Maisie is a big help at home and turns housekeeping into fun adventures with her active imagination.

Stella's a kick!  She has entertained me and kept me company and inspired for the last five weeks.  She's so fun to pose and play with.  Who she is, her story, keeps growing.  And she'll be this way for each person who owns one.

What she really thinks of ironing!

How she feels about housework.

Let's be silly!

Stella and her precious puppy, Prague, who follows her everywhere.

If you recall, the Stella and her new dog, Prague outfit was intended as a birthday gift.  I worked as hard and as long each day to get the entire thing done in time to mail it to arrive on the right date.  Then I found out that Heather would not be home until the 8th, so her Stella got a birthday dress, too.

I love this dress.  I need to make one for my doll.  This one was so hard to give up.

The fabric is reproduction feed sack of little dogs chasing balls.  Perfect for Stella Eloise since she's getting a puppy on her birthday.

Heather and I both love elephants and circuses, so I had to make a party hat with an elephant on it.

There are some great tutorials online for how to use crepe paper to trim party hats.  The puff is made as you would a pom pom.  The fringe is cut the same way but gluing it on is something you have to play with.

Now that I know how to do this, it would be fun to make more birthday party hats.  Sometime in the future. I enjoy adding new skills as I go along.

I also made a hair bow to go with the dress when the party hat is not being worn.

When Stella is wearing the party hat, the bow can be pinned to the back of the dress,

Tada!  

I also included a Brownie camera as a gift for Stella.  Okay, so this particular model is from the late 40's or early 50's but it's vintage in style.  

I cut off the existing strap and made my own from grosgrain ribbon.  Interesting how these adjustable straps work.  You take them for granted until you have to make one.  So I learned how to do that as well.

In time, I'll make camera bags out of leather for our dolls' cameras.  That's the thing about making stuff.  The more you do, the more you think of doing, so you just keep going until you have to stop and get something in the mail.  

I am so grateful to Heather for my darling Stella Maisie.  Now that I've done the hard work of getting basic patterns made and figuring things out, I can continue making our dolls fun clothing.  There's several wants in the hopper already.

Until the next post, enjoy Spring and April and have a wonderful Easter and eat lots of chocolate!  And don't forget to click on the photos of Connie's story.  Maybe you'll fall in love with Prague, too.

Happy Spring!  Melissa
 

Happy Valentine's Day, Anne!

Valentine's Day is just around the corner!  Just five more days.  I can hardly keep up between celebrating the fifteen days of Spring Festival, Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day.  But that's okay.  I'm having fun and staying busy, and this is how I like to be. 

I remember seeing this pretty pink babydoll style dress offered for Anne last month and thinking it would be a great dress for Valentine's Day.  And with that, Grace was offered a Burberry coat outfit during January's Grace Subscription Box video.  Equally, I thought that would make a nice wintery-February outfit for Grace.  I'll tell you, it's been great having new clothes, and so many choices available for these dolls.  It frees me up to work on projects like the last Alice Illustrated and spend my time with tiny accessories for these dolls. 

It's not that I don't enjoy sewing for these dolls, as I do when there's something I really want for them, but otherwise, I'm happy working on other things.

Valentine's Day isn't celebrated in this house.  I just don't have a romantically inclined husband, so I enjoy the holiday celebration with my dolls.

The freedom to enjoy holidays just as I want to, through my dolls, is another reason I enjoy them so much.  Dress them up, create some accessories, set them back where I display them, and the atmosphere of the holiday is always present.

While I admire the beauty and charm of lacey, flowery Victorian Valentines, I adore vintage die-cut Valentines.  These were what we brought to class in the early 60's to share with our classmates.  The best ones were always saved for that cute boy, who could have cared less.  LOL   But over the years, I've saved off quite a nice digital stash of them found on Pinterest.  Fortune tellers and aliens being my favorites.  Robots, too!  I even have a very nice collection of Alice Valentines.  Big surprise there!

So, in planning a display with Anne and Grace, the die-cut cards and something to put them in set me on the path.

Unless you've been with me on the blog for a very long time, you wouldn't remember, but I created Polly Pratt's Valentine Messenger by Sheila Young for my Polly, and she had a Valentine envelope sack.  I decided to do one for Grace to hold, that would be a gift for Anne to put her Valentines in.

It's made of wool felt, with embroidered edging, and a magnetic closure at the felt heart.  If it were a purse, it would have been half this size and made of leather.  Hmmm!  Just thought of that.  Next time.

The next thing I really wanted to do was create a heart chain for Anne.  Bad idea.  You can't fold enough paper that small and cut out the shape without bulk complications.  I tried several different kinds of thin paper.  Made it over maybe seven times with terrible results.  Made is shorter.  But I did not want to make it bigger!  It should be scaled for Anne.  sigh   So I settled on a red gift bag cut up, which was still too thin to hold up, but I got the length I wanted.

Just letting you know so that if you see this and think it's a good idea, you'll be prepared.  

I also wanted to make a honeycomb Beistle heart for her.  Not me!  I didn't do this!  Anne did!  LOL   Its okay.  It's cute, but I probably should have just made a heart man out of paper with accordion paper legs and arms.  I still might do that.  That would have caused me less frustration.  

Where I had the most fun was making the miniature die-cut card boxes and snipping out miniature die-cut Valentines.  

And there were these little houses to print out and put together.

I made a few printed lace doily Victorian Valentines that I thought Grace would enjoy, but she actually likes the die-cuts as much as Anne.

I must have spent five hours selecting images and printing them out in miniature just to make these cards.  As with most of what I do, the research and preparation is more time consuming than putting things together.  I do sit at my computer a lot.

Here's Anne displaying her pretty things.

Close up of the Valentine boxes, complete with cellophane windows.

Remember I made boxes like this, only larger, to store Peggy Sue's clothing?  Same kind of boxes only printed tiny.

The yellow box of cards.

And the pink box of cards!

And finally, the exchange.  Grace did love the special Victorian card Anne made for her.  But she sure gets a kick out of the die-cuts.

No, this is not a long blog.  Just a fun one wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day!

Three more days of the Chinese New Year festivities, which will end with the Lantern Festival on the first full moon of the Lunar New Year.  I've learned so much about the fifteen-day celebration this year and posted what the Chinese do each of the fifteen days, on Facebook.  While doing this, I put together my first Lego.  A miniature Lego Chinese Money Tree.  Cutest darned thing, but boy, what a pill to put together.  Lego created several like this celebrating the Chinese festivals.  And yes, I plan to make them all.  A meditation for sure.  Many do overs, but I got it put together it was a proud moment.

For now, I'm going with the flow.  I try not to lock myself into any one project unless I want to be there, but I do, seriously, want to finish Sister Bear.  Issue?  Its ALL embroidery.  All.  So, it's a lot of work, and effort. However, with this little Valentine's Day project behind me, I can pick it up again.  Even if just for a little while.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mini Lego Chinese Money Tree