An Alice Folk Doll

Its June!  The month of sunshine and strawberries.  The month of leisure and outdoor play.  June is the time to shake off the cobwebs of winter, open the doors and windows at night and listen to the sounds of summer.  I love summer.  Oh sure.  When its triple-digits from sunrise to sunset, I'm the first to stay indoors in the cool of an air-conditioned home.  I certainly have plenty to keep me busy, but when the sunshine is calling, and the day is mild, it's terribly difficult to sit still in my studio working on projects. 

Yet, I have several projects lined up for the summer months, but that won't stop me from launching my kayak on the lake every opportunity I get.  Being on the water, just me and my little craft, is one of the most pleasant things I do.  And where I kayak, on Lake Folsom, I see otter, and eagles, heron and egrets, geese and ducks who've been leading their little ones through the beginnings of lake life.  I love it.  It's my Zen. 

Being out in nature is one of best ways to let my creative thoughts flow.  Even so, some projects take a concentrated effort that leave me feeling like I'm starting fresh in the world of creating for dolls.  The little folk doll Alice was one of them.  It doesn't help that I never do something twice.  Each project is for the first time.  It's only in the things I've learned from other projects that propel me forward with any sense of practical application.  And this was the first time I sewed for a folk doll.

Some of you might recognize this little doll, but others will only know the name Gail Wilson from her Americana and Hitty dolls.

Back in 1974, Gail launched herself into making Early American dolls in an 8" size.  They were made from porcelain clay pressed into molds.  These little dolls and their kits were a hit everywhere Gail set up a table and always sold out.  These dolls are very difficult to find, but my friend Betsy, has been collecting Gail's dolls since the start.  

About a week after the Connie Lowe Little Stella came to live with me, three of the little 8" Early American dolls showed up in the mail.  Betsy told me that two were for me, and the third she'd like me to dress for her.  While not the typical doll I would collect, when presented with a challenge, and especially one as intriguing as this, I spend some time considering what I'm going to do.  

I looked on the Gail Wilson Designs website in her Garage Sale section where a few of these old dollies and their accessories were being sold, and still couldn't come up with an idea.  I understood the concept, but as to what I would actually do, that she hadn't done, was a mystery.  As I played with the little doll with golden rag doll hair cut in bangs, I thought, "Alice".  Why not?  I asked Betsy if this interested her, and it did.

So what does an Alice folk doll look like.  I am no stranger to dressing dolls as Alice, but this would take some real imagination.  I do not just sit down and get to work.  Most of my work is done in my noodle, and once I see it in there, then I make it.  

I actually started out from the bottom up with this one.  I loved the gold and white striped stockings I'd made for Eloise and just made a pair for this little girl as a test sample in sizing.  Well, I loved them.  And they would later turn out to balance the colors on the doll as the gold happens to be the same as her hair.

Next I made her a pair of knickers.  Every little folk doll needs knickers.  Betsy and I both hate elastic.  Elastic does not pass the test of time, so these knickers have a full waistband and hook in back.  I edged them in a Swiss cotton lace.

Blue dress.  Short sleeves or long?  Long was not going to cut it.  Maybe on some other Alice doll where classic Alice details would be considered, but not on the little folk doll.  I've never minded a doll's anatomy.  I was sewing short, puffed sleeves on the wood body Lawton dolls before tackling a little cloth stuffed body. 

What shade or hue of blue?  What kind of fabric?  Bright blue 100% cotton.  It was not my first choice as I have trouble with bold colors, but the bright blue looked right.  It made her pop!  I had to seriously think outside the box on this one.

What kind of pinafore would little folk Alice wear?  I went through two other renditions until I decided to try a rounded pinner.

This was it.  Anything else would have overwhelmed her stuffed body and petite size.

But it was plain.  It sat there tied around little Alice like a canvas awaiting paint.

Here's a photo of her pretty rag doll hair.  Which I added the classic black headband to.

I knew the pinner needed a pocket.  I was going to put a Drink Me bottle in the pocket, but couldn't find a flattish, rectangular bottle for the job.  A flask.  Still, what would the pocket be like for a folk Alice?  A heart shape!  With red embroidery stitching attaching it to the skirt.  Yes.  What else?  It still looked plain.

Then it dawned on me that a Queen of Hearts card might look fun poking out of the pocket.  I had to hand make the card since the size needed to be just right.

Check, check.  It still looked too plain.  

All this time I'd been considering classic Alice trim on the dress.  To me, this just wouldn't look right.  It had to be different!  Then it popped into my mind a couple of days ago that red rickrack might do the trick.  So, I hand-sewed the rickrack on both the top and bottom of the pinafore and inserted the ends into the waistband.  That seemed to do the trick.

Oh yes, I also made a pair of lambskin leather shoes for her.  Those were nuts to make, but she needed shoes and not the soft boots Gail dressed her Early American dolls in.  This was Alice.

While I was in the last stages of finishing her costume, I started thinking about the accessory.  A White Rabbit.  Again.  No, no, no!  This was a folk doll Alice.  What would Gail do?  Well?  Gail often had her dolls accessorized with little red wagons, teddy bears, little wood toys and especially ones on wheels. 

A rabbit on wheels!  That's what she needed.  I will not reveal my source, but I did not make this rabbit.  And he's just perfect.  To me, this is what Gail Wilson would have done with an Alice doll.  Maybe.  Well, I did, in the spirit of Gail Wilson designs.  

I added a little pocket watch on a chain around his neck and gave him a longer pull string with a loop on the end in the case Betsy wanted to display Alice pulling the White Rabbit.  

I love doing Alice.  She's my favorite theme.  And hey! The outfit is an original design.  I have two more little dolls to dress.  The ones shown in the photo above.  I know exactly what I'm going to do with them now.

Below is another example of Gail's work with the 8" Early American dolls.  Don't you just love those apple cheeks?!   Will Gail ever see the Alice?  Doubt it.  But I would hope she'd enjoy it.

And as summer moves along at its long and leisurely pace, make sure to spend some time in the sun.  Even if it's under an umbrella on a lounge chair reading a great book.  That's where I'm headed now.

Enjoy!

Melissa

 

Gwendolyn's 1960's Sun Hat

I was born in 1957, so by the time the fun fashions of the 1960's came about, I was in elementary school.  Even as a little girl, I astutely aware of everything around me.  I questioned everything.  Asked questions, and generally got stupid answers.  My favorite was asking my mother what was for dinner, to which she'd reply, "What Patty shot at and missed."  I may have been a pain in the rump for asking so many questions, but logic was primarily what I was after.

One sunny Saturday, I asked my mother if we could go on a picnic. "Why?", she asked.  Well, I told her, it was logical.  It was a sunny day, and people went on picnics on sunny days.  Right?  We did not go on a picnic, but I continued to watch Spock on Star Trek say the same thing to Captain Kirk in every episode.

Was there anything logical about fashion in the 1960's?  Sure!  It was a fun time to break free of tradition, and that included the fashion of hats.  The peak of hat fashion was in 1964, the same year Audrey Hepburn premiered in My Fair Lady, where she wore 

some incredible hats to the races.

At the same time, kitsch and whimsy seems to abound with Sunshade Hats.  Why?  Because it was fun.  And that's logical.  And because they sold!  Women bought them to simply have fun and attract attention.  And some were a riot!

After my last project, I spent a bit of time going to ground.  It happens.  I never intend to let it last so long, but at this time of year, it becomes very difficult for me to sit inside and work on tedious things when the sun is warm and shining.  

There's a kayak to paddle, a patio lounge that begs me to recline and do nothing but read in the shade of the umbrella.  Life isn't like that though, and I find myself in times like this, doing all those things I was putting off while being creative.  Like anything I do, once I get started, its hard to stop.

But there I was, browsing on Facebook, when a lady named Debra Cooper, a member of the VDC, posted this ridiculous looking sun hat and said she thought Gwen would look good in it.  Of course, Gwen would!  Gwendolyn, if you recall, was one of Robert Tonner's new additions to the Ellowyne Wilde family.  He probably jokingly called her Ellowyne's grandmother, and it stuck.  But the idea was that Gwendolyn was a 1960's fashion doll, and I loved that.  She's no granny in my book!  She is just who she is and I did make something for her early on and may have to make another fashion for her sometime down the line.  

But this HAT called out to me and I was smitten.  I wondered if Rachel would enjoy it to the point of asking her factory in China to make it, so I waited.  That was a couple of weeks ago.

No one ever accused me of being a patient person.  A patient artist, yes, but not when it comes to having things for my dolls that I want.  Gimme!  Now!

I was working on another project that wasn't going well, wrong fabric, wrong thread, wrong this and that, so I pushed that aside and made the hat.  Not another thing would get done until I made that silly hat!

Of course, I had to order the supplies to make the mold for the thing, and the plastic for the sunglass lenses and raffia for the flowers as well.  And when they all arrived, I got to work.

I had a blast making this one.  I really had a lot of fun creating it for Gwendolyn, and it was done on the first try.  I had to push forward even if I thought it might be too big or too small, because you won't know until you make it.  

Fortunately it worked the first time!  I was jazzed.  I laughed at times making it, especially when I was cutting out and assembling the silly oversized cat's eye lenses.

Let's put it this way, my mother didn't wear this kind of stuff and neither did anyone in my neighborhood, so this was new to me.

Sometimes something feels like a bit of magic, so I'm going to do something I seldom do, and that's keep the "how to" and what I used out of this journal posting.  

Will I make another?  Maybe.  There's a fun one in a photo below that would be a kick to make.

And as it turns out, Rachel did love it, so I suggested she send my photos to the factory.  Let's see what they have to say.  I'd really enjoy seeing what they can do with this.

I couldn't stop there though.  Gwendolyn needed a straw tote to go with it, so I made that one up today.  

The decision to add flowers to match was easy.  No.  Why, because the focus is on the hat.  Maybe with the next one, I'll make the tote to match the hat flower for flower.

Yes, this is a short little posting, but the hat needed to be archived as well as shared.  Its all a part of the creative process.

It's the Memorial Day Weekend, and the unofficial start of Summer!  Gwendolyn's ready.  Are you?!  Time to enjoy the beautiful early days of sun.  Go out there and have a picnic!  Its logical.

 

Stella Playing Alice

If April is the month of rain, May is certainly a time for gardens.  Gardens bursting forth with rosebuds, all manner of greenery, and wildflowers.  For May is Wildflower Month.  And who do we find among the gardens of Spring?  Alice.  Alice searching relentlessly for a way to make sense of the world she's fallen into.  Alice scrambling through tall grasses, knocking on doors of strange houses and coming in contact with the most absurd and memorable characters ever!

After completing Stella's first adventures in getting a puppy and having a birthday, a request came in from Eloise (we'll refer to Heather's 12" Stella as Eloise, because that is her name), for an Alice playset.  In yellow.  There is never a character I more like to create for than Alice.  The challenge was to make a dress (remember, Stella is from the 1930's) for a dress that Mother would have made from one of her own.  With a petulant personality such as Eloise possesses, the playset had to include the story of the Duchess and her pig

baby.  Pots and pans and plates flying about by Cook who's had enough of the Duchess and the wailing baby who is sneezing constantly from a pot of soup having been too peppered.  Just another chapter in Alice's adventure in Wonderland.  

Classic, Tenniel Alice, is always in blue.  But he also did the Nursery Alice, and she was dressed in yellow.  This little ray of sunshine is perhaps my favorite, and I've only seen Alice's costume portrayed in yellow by two artists.  I've looked.  Tenneil and Maria Louise Kirk.  Several years ago, I made Alice Illustrated the dress conceived by Maria L. Kirk, and it remains a favorite.  Kirk's Alice falling down the rabbit hole, had Alice cradling a jar of marmalade as she tumbled downwards.  The jar along with a tailless pig by Steiff (prior to my needle felting days), completed the play set. Today, Eloise will cradle and nurse the Duchess's baby, while the Duchess races off to a game of croquet with the queen.   

Maria L. Kirk's version of Alice portrayed her in a yellow dress with a waist apron indicative of the decade she illustrated the book in (1904), while Tenniel's apron is full and boasts flutter sleeves and ties in the back.  Illustrators have tended to dress their Alice in their own contemporary time, selecting styles that reflect what a child would be wearing.  As you can see in Maria's work, the apron buttons on a band in the back at the waist.  

I mention these aprons because when I was designing for Eloise, I wanted to be somewhat true to the 30's while creating something unmistakably Alice.  As to the fabric I used, a dress worn by Mother that was worn out and washed too many times was the look I was after.  Hence, the very thin and light, or faded yellow cotton.  I washed it several times to remove the sizing and to give it a worn look. A properly ironed dress would still be desired, even if for play, therefore, if the dress appears new, its Mother's attempt at decorum.  

I used the same collar as was on the birthday dress but pointed the tips for a more traditional Alice look.  

Baby blue 2mm double faced silk ribbon edges the dress and the apron.  Why not?  Women sewed back then, and while silk ribbon may have been too expensive for a child's costume, it doesn't mean that Grandmother didn't have a stash of it on hand for special occasions.

For me, what sets this apron apart and makes it unique for Eloise (or the Stella dolls), are the pockets.  Big hands require big pockets!  And so, they take up a lot of space on the apron.  They are the perfect size should a Drink Me bottle ever find its way into one of them.

I considered purchasing one of those miniature glass Coke bottles, but wanted a 2 1/4" green one as it would have shown up well in the pocket.  However, they only made that size in clear, and the green were made at 2 1/2".  I fussed and pondered over this for days, finally deciding on no Drink Me bottle.  One can always be added later.  Why the Coke bottle?  What would a child scrounge up in the 1930's for a bottle to represent "the bottle".  A bootleg whiskey bottle was considered, but Mother would have pitched a fit discovering it.  Eloise gets in enough trouble as it is.

Detail of the back closure.  

You'll notice that I made the apron as a pinner apron.  These were worn by women who literally pinned this top portion to their blouse or dress.  For this costume, it was sewn on for ease of dressing.

I chose gold and white striped stockings for the playset because they do not match.  Remember, we make do with what we have on hand in the 1930s!  I especially wanted them a little saggy since her legs are so skinny.  

Lastly, the Alice shoes.  Heather had shown me some center buckle shoes that she had made for her 20" Connie Lowe dolls, and I wanted badly to try to make a pair for our dolls.  I didn't have my normal lambskin on hand for the job, so tried a leather that was a bit thicker.  The only hesitation after using the thicker leather, now that I have the feel for it, is getting the strap through the buckle.  A friend of mine uses a tiny magnet that attracts the metal in the buckle for closure, but this is her design, not mine.

Here we have Maisie modeling the Alice playset complete with the Duchess's pig baby.

Time to let the little snorter down and do what little pigs do!

One of the photos I used as a model for the features.

Upon completion of the dress, I asked Heather whether or not she had shoes to use with this outfit.  She did not.

Designing, mulling over what do to, how to do it, finding the right fabrics and trims to carry the design through, takes much effort and I was so hoping that the dress would suffice on its own.  What was I thinking?  Then again, I never do something halfway.  I was just tired and had so many other things going on.  But I'm glad the request for shoes and a piggy came in.

I'd never needle felted a pig before, and she was willing to wait, so I took out the needles and wool and began.

I used the Steiff piggy I had as a model for the body size and shape since Alice Illustrated and the Stella dolls are of similar size.

As mentioned earlier, when it came to features, it was back to the online drawing board, looking for photos to use in examples for pig ears, snouts and the mouth.  There doesn't appear to be a noticeable upper lip to a pig, but more of a lower extension of the snout.  

With the Steiff, the features of the ears, mouth and end of nose were cut out from felt and sewn on.  These give the illusion of "pig" and are adorable.  They also used blue eyes with black pupils on their pig, but pigs have brown or black eyes.  So more accuracy was the direction I took the Duchess's pig baby.

The baby bonnet was essential.

I've made several White Rabbits and a myriad of other Alice characters, and I think the pig, in the end, was the easiest of them to make.  The tail was fun to create.  

It takes me almost as long to needle felt a critter as it does to design and sew a dress.  And of course that depends on what critter I'm making, but the effort is the same.  I wish I were faster at this, yet I hope my work shows the love and commitment I put into it.

And that pretty much concludes the creative journey for Eloise's Alice playset.  If its Alice, I'm on board!  In fact, the next project is dressing another doll as Alice for my friend, Betsy.  She gave me an 8" porcelain and cloth Gail Wilson doll to dress for her.  This one will be in Tenniel classic blue.

I do have to take a few days to get some things done around the house, and the days are warming up beautifully for taking my kayak out on the lake.  Many if not most of my creative ideas are conceived while I'm out in nature.  It gives me time to think, away from all the distractions of daily life.  And my dog, Brighton, does love his hikes.

May is 31 days.  The moon will be full on the 12th, and before you know it, Summer Solstice will be here. Enjoy the beautiful days of May and find time to chase down a few dreams in a garden.

Alice Illustrated in Maria L. Kirk

A pig baby?  Is that so!

 

Barbie's New Real Estate

Midway through April already?  Time flies.  Next Sunday will be Easter, and I may just have to include some Easter decor in Barbie's New Dream House.  

Since last week, when I first started setting this up, punching out furniture and getting used to this new structure in the room (hard thing to do, I know), I finally put together the last piece of furniture which was the patio lounge chair.

Ken at your service over here, playing the junior real estate agent.

Anyway, I'm pretty tickled to have this all put together now.  One piece of furniture a day, maybe two.  I was very, very careful punching out these 61 year old pieces.  There was no running down to the Woolworth's to pick up another Dream House if I blew it.  

I have a funny feeling that cardboard shrinks over time, or can.  I might look that up.  Of the old pieces that I replaced, in comparison,

the fit was better in the old pieces.  Not all of them.  I don't believe that when Mattel produced the originals, they expected collectors to be playing with these things sixty-one years later.  Or getting excited about finding unpunched sheets of furniture.  Or that their primary audience for the toy (it is a toy), would be adults.

But this was fun, and this is just the start.  As I was putting things together, I did some digging in my vintage Barbie stash and started accessorizing the interior just to see how things would look.

For the photos, there are no accessories.  That will come later.  Let's talk about the pieces.

As you can see I have two chairs in the living room.  One is new, the other old.  I like the look of two chairs.  There's some balance to the room, but that could change if a Christmas tree gets decorated next December!

To the left you see a brand new coffee table.  These pieces usually passed the test of time, and aside from a few bumps and bruises, the general feel was 

that the cardboard yellowed.  So why didn't it yellow on the unpunched papers?  Perhaps because they weren't exposed to the elements.

To the right you see a brand new end table and the lamp shade is new as well.

This is the new living room chair.  Trust me that putting these together was a surgical experience.  Often times the paper wasn't completely ready to punch through.  I had an X-Acto knife to aid in this case.  Sometimes when creasing the bends, the colored paper on top would stress a bit.  

And pushing the tabs into the slots took some effort.  Just the right amount of pressure would get them in, but it was a little nerve wracking at times.

The TV!  And it has all the television program cards.  I think that this must have been one of the most played with toys in this set because they are always in sad shape and missing program cards.

This one is in decent shape for its age.  There wasn't an unpunched one to put together, but I'm okay with it.  I think sometimes people put the TV on the end table, but then where would that lamp go?  Seller said it was complete, so I have to trust this.  There were extra Barbie bedroom night stands so one of the good, old ones, sat in for the TV 

stand. 

Onto the bedroom.  Looks pretty nice.  The bed was in decent shape, and there was no paper to punch an entire new one out of, but I did change out the headboard and gave the bed a couple of pillows from my reproduction Dream House.

Upon opening the reproduction house, I fell in love with it all over again.  However, Barbie is moving up in the ranks, so now she owns the New Dream House.  I did find several outfits in the closet 

though and carefully bagged each one for Barbie to wear in the future.  I expected that when I was done playing with the Little Theater, it would go back up, but the table was taken over by some big dolls for a while.  They've been moved or put away now. Boy, I'll tell you, if I wasn't married, there'd be dolls in every room in this house!

To the right you see a brand new nightstand, lamp, vanity chair, and mirror.  The nightstand was made out of one piece.  Its ingenious how these fold up furniture pieces were designed.  

Artists have been making paper toys for a very long time, but never to this degree of cleverness.  You used to find the paper cut outs in ladies' magazines, and you'd have to paste the page to cardboard and then cut it out and fold it up or assemble it.  Most common were doll rockers and pull toys.

There's just something about cutting out paper pieces and putting 

them together or scrapbooking them, that I find so peaceful and relaxing.  

So, here's the new kitchen hood over the stove.  Another piece that is often beaten up pretty bad when you get a used New Dream House.  I think it took its beating from the house being stored and the furniture bumping around in it.  I was very excited to find this piece.

Guess what else I found?  The tabs, or handles to the cabinet and oven!  The tan ones might go into the cabinets above the stove.  Believe me, I studied each piece of unpunched paper to make sure I didn't miss anything.  When I found these, it was a red letter day.

I won't use them.  I don't want to stress the doors and they look nice just as they are.  I'll put them in a little bag and tuck them into a cabinet that's easy to open a crack.  It would make more sense to simply insert them into the slots, but this is minty old cardboard and I wish to preserve it as much as possible.

Two new chairs and a new table.  Wow.  Another piece that is often in sad shape, especially the legs, is the table.  I don't know if this set came with two kitchen chairs, but there were two to punch out, so I assembled them.  Which is nice, because I have a round table from the Kitchen-Dinette coming for the kitchen.  The rectangle table can be used as a worktable or counter.  Good place to put the toaster and the telephone.

Nice rectangle table.  Can't help myself.  I love NEW.  I wish they'd make a reproduction of this structure, but then again...having the vintage one makes me feel like I have something special.

And finally, the patio.  There were two lounge chairs already built, and one unpunched.  I put together the unpunched one today and borrowed an arm from one of the others.  As I mentioned, the unpunched pages weren't complete, but all furniture accounted for. 

I thought two would be good for the patio since Ken will spend a lot of time at Barbie's house.

Here's the brand new one with repurposed arm.

One of the reasons I pushed a bit to get this done is that I'll be spending the rest of April making Alice costumes for two dolls.  I needed to have this done and my work surface cleared so could concentrate on the projects ahead.

I only wish this house was on a large Lazy Susan.  It would be fun to turn it every so often to enjoy fully, each side. I'm just happy I found out how to situate it on a "small table".

After signing the real estate papers, Ken takes Barbie out to dinner.

Well, the next thing to do will be to get both dolls dressed in comfortable about-the-house clothing and decorate with accessories all the surfaces.  I have a silver tea service that will look nice on the coffee table for instance.  All for another journal posting.

Until then, enjoy the April weather as Barbie does.  She never lets a rainy day get her down!