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!

 

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