Grace and Dolly in Wonderland

April 24, and almost exactly month since I last posted a journaling and it's been a busy time for me.  April has not been as rainy as one would expect an April to be, but what resulted in the off and on again sunshine, was a chance to take my kayak out on the lake.  I'd promised myself that I would begin early this year, and I did.  I need this upper body exercise, but more importantly, being out in nature is healing and rejuvenating.  Not to mention that a good, hard paddle on the lake can be therapeutic mentally, too!

April has typically been the month of Easter and what a surprise to find no holidays or special events this month after so many from January to March!  However, no sooner had I completed Alice Illustrated's Easter with the White Rabbit taking a turn as the Easter Bunny, then Rachel of the Virtual Doll Convention, releases the Club Grace subscription box to top then all!  The Alice box!  I just about fainted.  The very box I would have hoped for these past years. 

But, Oh no!  I'd had to cancel my subscription last January due to some marital problems and I was crest fallen.  For those of you who know me from Facebook and have been purchasing some of my Club Grace boxes or were questioning why I was rehoming a few of them, I'd like to gently share what happened.  

My husband got angry about my doll spending and froze my accounts.  Changed my passwords.  In the 27 years we've been together, this was the most awful thing he's ever done, and I was numb.  I owed money and had no way to pay my debts.  So, 

I began selling what I could, that I thought would sell, to pay off this debt and build a nest egg.  A month into this, we worked things out, sort of, and while not all is right in the world, this is a marriage and people go through complications.  I'm okay.  I still love Grace and hope to renew my subscription next round.  

The Grace in Wonderland box was simply divine and the fashion concept for Grace was beyond perfect for our times.  Illustrators have been drawing Alice to keep up with the current decade since they wished to put their own signature on the story.  She's been drawn in Edwardian costuming, Bleuette style dresses from the 20's, imaginative inspirations throughout the decades and costuming that was inspired by the country they lived in, making Alice a personal part of everyone's lives.  She's been cartooned, animeed (if that's a word), and even - ahem (clear my throat) - shown in "Lolita" styles.  

Rachel's classy, streamlined fantasy for Grace is phenomenal.

To top it off, Diana Vining pulled out the stops and illustrated a beautiful costume for Dolly.  And of course, I had to make her costume.  This was doubling intriguing for me as I'm currently working on the very long-term project of Halva from the story Sister Bear, where her costume is literally, fully embroidered.  Dolly's pinafore would give me more practice with the needle and thread.  I'd just taught myself bullion roses and hoped to incorporate this tricky little stitch into the apron.  The design is so reminiscent of Boneka's work, which also thrilled me.

So many beautiful and enchanting photos of Grace in her two, yes, TWO costumes, were inspiring as well.  Rachel had ordered as many of the black and white card dresses, as she did the light blue version so she could decide which one would be part of the box.  These were offered as add-ons, with a pair of black gloves, and I quickly purchased a set so I could play Grace in Wonderland.

An example of the incredible photography of the Virtual Doll Convention.

Someday I'd like to learn how to put a doll in back drops like this.  So far, no one has offered to share the type of software they use and how to use it with me, so some day when I have time on my hands, I'll begin researching this.  

I mean, WOW!  Isn't this great?!

So, I embarked on designing Dolly's Alice costume.  She is one of the most difficult dolls I've ever dressed.  You'd think that after all I've made for her, it would come easier, but when each costume is distinctly different, it's not.  And this pinafore was no exception.

You always have the base of a costume.  The background of the canvas.  Then typically the bodice is where all the design, focus and charm is.  In this case, it was the pinafore. But selecting just the right lace to gather and trim the neckline with was a challenge.  Again, when interpreting a paper doll illustration, sometimes you have to go with what feels right.  In this case, trimming down Swiss lace was the answer.  I can't begin to tell you how much work this was, just to get the scallops showing and in the right directions both in the bodice piece and at the waist.  Yet, this is what I enjoy (?) doing.  Can it be done?  Can I actually do this?  

The dress is a fine silk taffeta and a color that I've used on other Alice dolls.  I have very little left of this now, so I'm very careful in placing my patterns and saving as much fabric as possible.  I don't know what's going on in the silk trade, but I'm finding it more and more difficult to get the beautiful silks I once did.  Why?  Because the shops like Farmhouse Fabrics where I've usually purchased my silk, can't get them either.  I asked.

One of the most fun things about the Club Grace boxes are the paper toys and print outs that Diana Vining draws.  For this box, she created a teacup paper toy featuring Grace in both outfits, assorted pretty flowers and a charming little tea bag.  I can't wait to meet this incredible artist this summer at the UFDC convention.

I printed two of the pages at a reduced percentage to make teacups for both Grace and Dolly.  I added the "tea" with a round of paper colored with alcohol markers.  I love paper toys!

The embroidery on this pinafore took me a couple of days to do.  But first I had to transfer Diana's design to the cloth, and I do this with a light box and a very sharp pencil.  

I chose to follow her style as carefully as I could and stitched six strand embroidery floss as lines for the leaves and stems rather than making actual leaves.  The rest is a series of bullion stitches and French knots all individually knotted off.  AND, I found three hearts drawn in there.  So, I satin stitched those.  One is upside down.  Whether these were done on purpose, or the shape just made an interesting flower, I wouldn't know, but I went along with what I observed and stitched three hearts.

Her little leather shoes are very typical Alice with a squared edge.  

Okay. you got me.  No lace on the socks.  I tried!  I really did!  But I couldn't get the effect I wanted using the scallop edged Swiss lace or another.  The lace doesn't stretch.  It was just too much for me.  And I had to get busy with something for Remmie.  We can't forget Rachel's dog Remmie Lou.

I considered making her into the Hatter.  I thought of all the reliable and easily recognized Alice characters and chose the White Rabbit just because.  Yes, I want to get back to Halva's costume, but I was also working with a friend of mine by making a mockup of a pattern she's been working on for a doll she doesn't have.  It can be done.  Not by me, but I'm eager to help where and when I can.  So White Rabbit it was!

Remmie's wild costume was inspired by the work of Tamara Casey.  Tamara owns and operates Fletcher Pattern Company with her Designs by Jude line.  Tamara's work is extraordinary and her contract with Rachel to design a pattern each month to correspond with the Club Grace line is outstanding.  For those who aren't subscribed or have multiple dolls and like to sew, the VDC gives everyone an opportunity to dress their dolls with Tamara's patterns.

Tamara's first pattern was for the Tonner doll, Marley Wentworth back in 2005.  In 2008, she acquired Fletcher Pattern Company from Gary Fletcher and has since produced fabulous patterns for every kind of doll imaginable under Designs by Jude.  I am in awe of her talents and success with her company.  My 10/6 hat's off to you, Tamara!

Here's Remmie in her White Rabbit costume.  Certainly not as grand as Tamara's Hatter costume, but you get the idea.  I wanted to make her something that would complement and make her stand out among Grace's beautiful dress and the Alice dress I made for Dolly Dingle.

The ears are needle felted on a pipe cleaner that forms a little headband.  I have to tell you that Dolly and Remmie have been fiddled with and dressed so many times that they are seeing better days.  As careful as I am, playing with dolls can wear them down a bit.  While we're admitting things in this journal, I must tell you that Dolly had an accident when I was dressing her in the equestrian costume.  So, I'm extra careful with her now.  Remmie could use a little poking with the felting needle, too. 

She carries the pocket watch in her teeth as her paws are solidly on the ground.

This striped vest was made from the one of patterned felts I purchased when I created my Twelve Days of Christmas doll.

I poked together a little rabbit tale to top off (or bottom off) the costume.

Grace's shoes are from two boxes back and I ballet ribboned them to match her dress and give them a twist.  Love her shapely legs!  She's the perfect model.

Here's a close up of one of the mini teacups.  The original size would hold a very small doll.  I'm just nuts enough to cut out and assemble two in miniature. They're so sweet.

In one of the photos below, you'll see Grace sitting on this beautiful Alice trunk that my friend Jean made me for my birthday one year.  Not only was it beautifully decorated, but it was filled with adorable Alice paper toys and cut outs.  Thank you, Jean.  I still love and treasure it!  And you!

What a fabulous adventure this has been.  Rachel continues to dazzle us with some of the greatest doll fun we've ever experienced.  And if you're attending the UFDC convention this year, she and Christopher will be hosting a Gathering.  

The irises in our yard, along the fence line, are just beginning to bloom.  It's a cool and cloudy day and April is still deciding if its ready for a steady stream of warm temperatures yet.  I'll take a cool day like this.  More rain, please!  I just ordered a raincoat and red galoshes for Grace!  This offering from the continuing Land and Sea collection is fabulous!  I already know what I'm going to do with it to display Grace.  From my earliest doll collecting, all my dolls had to own a raincoat.  Now Grace has one.  Thank you, Rachel!

Enjoy these days of spring when everywhere you look, buds are blooming and gone are the bare branches of winter.  Baby animals are being born.  Its spring's renewal.  Until next time, keep an eye out for rabbit holes!

Melissa

Jean's beautiful Alice box.

Under the tray, more treasures.

Tamara's stunning Hatter costume.

 

Alice Illustrated in Can't Be Late for Easter

There's no better time to sit and write a blog than on a rainy spring day such as this.  The weather's been typical spring from what I've read.  A little rain, a little snow, a lot of sun, repeat.  My hopeful attempts at taking my kayak out last Monday got thwarted when I injured my right hand doing something stupid, like putting my arm through the sleeve of a sweater while exiting the walk-in closet.  I whacked my hand on the edge of the door, as it punched its way through the arm of the sweater.  What resulted was an early Easter for me with a purple egg-sized hematoma on the surface of my hand.  Since then, the Easter bunny would be envious with all the colors my hand has come up with while healing.  However!  After lots of icing it with a bag of frozen peas, and a night's rest, I was able to use it again.  It may not have found a pot of gold, but that hand sure absorbed the end of the rainbow.

While finishing up Cissy's St. Patrick's Day outfit, I realized 

I would have plenty of time to start a project for Easter.  I can't recall if I've ever done an Easter doll, or dressed one specifically for Easter, but surely, I must have in the past.  Spring and Easter delight me no end.  The days turn soft, and everything greens up so prettily.  Small flowers emerge from the soil leaving tiny spots of bright color where once only mud congealed.

I begin in earnest to poke around on Pinterest for newly posted vintage images of spring and Easter and am never disappointed.  I found a delightful book from the 1980's that I'd never seen before.  It was the story of the Easter bunny (no photo, sorry), and it helped inspire me to think up something to do for the holiday.

There was also Ruby Red Toy's offering of a Little Red Riding Hood for Easter.  Her basket would not contain bread and wine, but Easter eggs.  The odd ball thing was that her dress was this hideous red, white and blue Americana quilt looking nightmare.  I do question these designers at times.  If you've followed me long, you know how  

much I love Red Riding Hood.  I wanted the doll regardless.  I would make her a dress if need be, but shortly after her pre-order release, Fred gave us a link to DollsHeart, a BJD costume company, which I believe is a subsidiary of Leanie Company, with a link to outfits that fit our Ruby Red Fashion Friend dolls.  They had a Little Red Riding Hood outfit, so I bought it and the dress will replace the silly Americana one. The point is, when I want something, I don't rest until I get it right.  This is not the first time Red has been associated with Easter.  A Victorian artist illustrated her with the Easter bunny in the European fashion of Little Red Cap.  

I was also going great guns with buying up as a many beautiful Old World Christmas Easter ornaments from the past.  I'm enjoying my little table tree so much!  These ornaments are as much fun to collect as dolls are.  For me, at least.  While I was doing this, I happened upon a seller that was offering the bunny family from 20 years ago.  These are absolutely gorgeous!

However, my favorite just might be the chick in the egg. I bought a bunch of carrots ornament, and a cabbage ornament to go with the Peter Rabbit one.  Just when the tree was full, an OWC Easter basket ornament came up, so I snapped that one up, too.  It hasn't arrived but will in time for Easter.  And because Easter falls on March 31rst, I intend on keeping the tree decorated as such until the end of April when I'll switch it out for a late spring to summer theme.  I'm a collector.  What can I say?

With the tree taken care of, I pulled out my Tonner Tiny Betsy Easter Trunk.  I've been adding to it for  two or three years now.  One of the holy grails I'd been looking for, Tiny Betsy Carrot Top, came up at a reasonable price last fall, and I snapped her up as well.  So, she got to debut this year with Tiny Betsy in her Easter egg dress.  

As all this Easter decorating was transpiring, I was thinking, thinking about what I wanted to do for my next project.  I seriously considered making something for Peggy Sue, but she looks so darned cute in her Mardi Gras costume, that she'll probably stay dressed in that until next Halloween.  She does have three great Halloween costumes that I made for her.

That took me to looking up to the next shelf of 

dolls, when I spotted Alice Illustrated, my 12" Wendy Lawton that I transformed several years back.  She was still in her Year of the Rabbit costume and all of a sudden, the creative light blinked on, and I knew exactly what I was going to do.  For those of you new to my blog, there was a book called The Illustrated Alice, and as the story unfolded, it was illustrated using vintage artwork from many varied artists who'd illustrated the story from the long ago past.  This inspired me to make the Wendy Lawton doll, Prim and Proper, into Alice Illustrated.  From there I costumed her in the many different  ways she was drawn.  I think there's a total of fifteen costumes in her box now.

Okay, since Year of the Rabbit was over, I decided to send her down a different rabbit hole and give the White Rabbit a turn as the Easter bunny.  Why not?!  I haven't seen this done before, so I was definitely going to have fun doing this.  I do enjoy being original from time to time.

My friend, Betsy, seemed a little uncertain when I told her what I was doing, but that's the beauty of coming up with something original.  Can I do it and do it right?  Can I make something incredibly unique and beautiful at the same time?  With each project I try to achieve a higher quality of work, and it doesn't always translate.  I guess it really depends on what I'm doing and where I'm at emotionally and artistically at the time.

Alice Illustrated is one of my favorite dolls to dress.  A 12" child doll, she petite and sweet.  There will never be a shortage of things to do with her as the number of Alice illustrators grows every year.  There's been a blue and white striped dress project that's been on hold for ages now.  There is always some other immediate inspiration or project to entertain myself with.

Alice's little dress was a work in progress, yet I knew I wanted it to be of yellow silk.  There was the question of apron or pinafore.  There was the question of style.  Her style, aside from the 

original drawings by Tenniel, have often reflected the time period they were drawn.  Frankly, anything goes as long as the story remains the same.  I've done quite a few other Alice dolls, and some of my most memorable and enjoyable, were those that were the most unusual.  

I have lace.  A ton of lace in varying sizes and widths and playing with them on the yellow silk was an adventure in itself.  How will this look?  How does that look?  Can I combine different laces?  Let's just roll with this!  

I had this lovely, embroidered tulle that I used for a wedding veil or something, and there wasn't a lot of it.  It would also need to be trimmed down to create an overlay for the skirt of the dress, and it took me quite a while to figure this all out since once cut, that was it.  

Another inspiration for this costume was the dress I made for my 16" Alice Liddel from the book The Real Alice.  It was in the rows of lace, and buttons on the bodice that I borrowed for Alice Illustrated.

Her shoes would match the ribbons I would use for a sash, and the hat band.

Here's another notion that's becoming difficult to acquire.  Double-faced silk ribbon.  Lots of Etsy sellers call their ribbons this, but what they have is polyester satin.  The silk is soft and drapes beautifully.  It's a bit more expensive, but it's the difference between milk and cream.  In the extreme.

Farmhouse Fabrics, my go-to for silks had this lovely deep lavender ribbon and I bought up some of what was left of this color as it was a special color they'd gotten in for the season, and the supplier didn't have any more.  It finally arrived yesterday, and I was able to finish the project.  The color was perfect!  A rich, Easter purple to offset the lemon-yellow silk.

Alice's shoes are of a bluer silk, but the ribbons that cross and tie around her ankles are the same lavender.  Three widths of the silk ribbon were used on this costume.

As an afterthought, I added tiny white silk bows to the points of the overlay tulle.  It's always a question for me of too much, or not enough trim and frou-frou.

Then there was the hat.  I'd made it a few days ago while waiting for the ribbon to arrive.  Alice Liddel's hat is so pretty, and I thought, why not give Alice Illustrated a similar one?

As I was looking at poor Alice Liddell, I came back to the idea that I really do need to rearrange dolls once in a while.  She's been hidden behind three other rows of dolls for years now.  She keeps good company with my American Girl, Caroline.  Tallest girls go in the back.  

And this is what I came up with for Alice Illustrated's hat.  The other Alice hat has a flatter brim, and I didn't have a hat mold like it in this size, so the ribbons beneath don't show as well.  But they are made the same, just from a less wide ribbon.  Every girl wants her own style anyway.  Right?

And then there was the issue of the White Rabbit taking a turn as the Easter Bunny.  

I knew I would needle felt him and I had many vintage Easter bunny images to select from.  What I wanted most, was to provide him with a hote to carry his eggs in.

I haven't heard this term used in years, but a hote is a gathering basket that is worn with straps on your back.  These were popular during the Victorian era, and I first came across one when Pleasant Company made one for Samantha in her summer story.  

Since I hadn't heard the term "hote" used in a very long time, I contacted Sheryl Williams, who's more than knowledgeable about these things, and asked her.  She concurred that this was the correct term.  So there.  LOL

The White Rabbit taking a departure from his normal routine, was going to need a special look.  It wasn't just that this illustration was of a white rabbit, but he had the look, the clothing, the stature and form I was after.  It's hilarious, but a lot of these Victorian drawings of the Easter bunny give him an almost human form beneath his clothing. This once as a bit of a mix.  Ditch the pipe.  Add the pocket watch.

Samantha's hote from her Summer Story.  I used this one as my model.

This little fellow is about 5.5" tall, from his pointed toes to his curled over ears.

He carries his trusty pocket watch so that he won't be late for Easter.

I needle felted him three eggs to carry in his hote, and Alice's basket has a total of five eggs adding a yellow and pink one.

Throughout working on him, he was very difficult to stand up on his own, given the pointed feet in the illustration.  

So, I felted him a patch of grass to pose him on.  A stand if you will.  I think it came out cute.  His feet are pinned to the wee hill of grass with long silk pins.

I had a blast creating this set for Alice Illustrated.  It's as Easter-y as it gets!  She'll be in this dress with the White Rabbit until I get inspired to make her something different.  Once again, a bright spot on my shelf.

I've needle felted several small rabbits in the past, but I think my favorite was the Koren one for the Korean Alice I did long ago. I thought I'd share him and two others with you.  The March Hare was done for the Gwynedd Hudson Alice outfit (white with black trim).  The tiny one with the clocks was a gift to a friend.

Blaier's hotel room got decorated for Easter this month and she's wearing blue this year, as where last year, she was in pink.  I'd gotten her the tabletop Easter tree with the egg and carrot ornaments that American Girl did for The Girl of Today eons ago, and it's as sweet as can be.  Her bear got the egg costume from the Bitty Baby set.  Just having fun over here.

I thought I'd also share a photo of the Ruby Red Fashion Friends doll, Aurora, that I just got.  She and her costume are incredibly beautiful.  To me, it has a Victorian flair to it.  That hat!  She even has a little suitcase for ocean liner travel.  I have no idea if their Red Riding Hood will arrive for Easter, but that's okay.  They're usually late in getting us holiday dolls in time for the actual holiday.  The White Rabbit is never late with his trusty pocket watch.

I hope you'll enjoy the selection of images I'm sharing below.  With a week to go, I still have time to make something else for Easter.  Something for Esme perhaps.  When I'm on a roll, its best to keep going.

Wishing you a delightful and Happy Easter!, Melissa

Korean Rabbit

Gwynedd Hudson's March Hare

Classic Tenniel

Alice Liddell, the real Alice

Aurora

Me, in another time and place.