Four Little Dresses

I told you I had been hand sewing and the following two photos were taken before the dresses had their press studs sewn on. However, I wanted to see how they would fit different dolls before completing them.

The pattern I used is this one from La Boutique de Vaniline, but I lengthened the skirt and changed the neckline slightly on a couple of them. Her 32-33cm patterns are designed to fit Corolle Les Chéries, Dianna Effner Little Darlings, Sylvia Natterer Minouches, Paola Reina Las Amigas.

Here are the dresses are worn (L to R) by my Phyn & Aero Patience, Corolle Les Chéries, Tonner Betsy McCall and Paola Reina Las Amigas dolls. The dress is slightly big on Patience as her torso is thinner, but she can get away with it.

As I have quite a few different doll this size I wanted to be able to swap their clothes around when it came to dressing them, but still keep all the clothes together in one box. I have some clothes meant for this size doll that cannot be worn by them all, and that annoys me, so they will have to go.

Knitwear can also be switched, however, shoes can not. Just look at the difference in the size of the dolls feet, especially in the first photo. It's laughable! It really is such a shame doll makers don't make all dolls this size have the same size feet!

Here are the same dresses (L to R) on my Vestida de Azul Paulina, Minouche, Little Darling and IpleHouse KID Irene. If Paulina was going to wear this dress, I would need to make one just for her with only one centre set of buttons, as the front of her chest is wider. The fit on my KID is similar to Patience, so once again, she could get away with it.

Here are the completed dresses worn by the girls they were intended for. Lucy (Manica) in the white and Barbara in the dusty pink. I'm not sure about the bright pink buttons on Lucy's dress, I think I may change them to white and I'd prefer a more appropriate pink ribbon in her hair, similar to the pink braid on her dress.

And here we have Carolina and Nora in the more subtle vintage colours. I'm going to change the ribbon in Carolina's hair to a deeper and more olive ribbon and perhaps add matching green braid above the lace (if I can find some) as I have on Nora's dress . . . what do you think?

Well time has flown by and still without an end in sight to this current lockdown. I do hope those of you in the northern hemisphere are making the most of your sunshine and freedom.

FOR BARB: Here's a comparison between my Little Darling's foot and Tonner Betsy McCall's. As you can see Betsy's foot is just a fraction bigger, but I tried my LD's shoes on Betsy and they went on, but were a tight fit, so they wouldn't go on over socks or stockings.

New Outfits for Little Darlings

It is a beautiful day here in Melbourne, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and we have had no local transmission of Covid for 15 days and I hope it continues this way. The only ones with the virus are those who have recently arrived from overseas and who are currently in hotel quarantine, which I hope is where they all stay until it's safe for them to be released (including the tennis players!).

I hope things are beginning to improve for those in the Northern Hemisphere now that the vaccinations are being done . . . until you get yours, take care & stay safe.

-oOo-

I took advantage of the good weather today to take a few photos of my Little Darlings in their new clothes. My #1 red haired little girl is Cassandra, and my #2 raven haired little girl has been renamed Anastasia.

It doesn't seem to make much difference how much I brush the hair out of their faces before a photo shoot, I always manage to find a stray in the wrong place when I crop my photos . . . it's so darn annoying!

And here are Sara and Maya with their new wigs. I love Sara in this short one especially. But I think both wigs make the dolls look younger, what do you think?

Well that's it for a now, I shall be taking a short break and I'll be back when I have some more dolly news to share, but in the meantime, I'll be keeping an eye on your blogs to see what you have to share. :)

Another Little Darling

Browsing eBay this afternoon, I found this Little Darling listing just about ready to expire without a bid, so I placed one and won. I have no idea what these UFDC Convention dolls sold for back in 2014, so I'm curious to find out if I have spent too much, or have been lucky enough to have found myself a nice little bargain.

Seller's photo

I doubt very much if this Ana (Little Darling #2) lookalike was hand painted by any reputable artist and assume most Convention dolls would be mass produced, but she's very pretty and will make a great friend for my Cassandra (Little Darling #1).

Seller's photo

Nevertheless she comes complete with all accessories and should be arriving very soon, as she only has to travel from Queensland. There's a bonus there, low shipping costs! I shall post more photos when she arrives.

P.S. I was correct in my thinking, the Convention dolls are factory painted and touched up by The Doll Dreamers' Guild Artists.

These Boots . . .

. . . were made for walking.

Did you know that dolls have shoe fetishes just like humans? Well it turns out Cassandra is one of those dolls. I recently ordered her one or two pairs of boots to go with the outfits I was knitting her and a few more in different colours for other dolls I have with similar sized feet . . . 10 pairs in total.

And, guess what? When they arrived today, she claimed the blooming lot!!

Now I have been given notice to make her outfits to match each pair. Who would have thought this pretty little girl would turn out to be such a bossy boots?

She is wearing the second outfit, but the blue cardi turned out a little larger than expected, even though it was knitted with the same brand of 4ply wool and to the same pattern as the pink cardi. Go figure! Anyway I am going to attempt to shrink it by felting the wool.

Oh and before you go . . . I caved already and have just purchased a Kaye Wiggs Mini Layla.

Cassandra Arrived!

Yes, she's here and she's all mine! 😁 This doll was really worth waiting for. You may notice her left brow is slightly lower than the her right, but I quite like that she's a little asymmetrical, after all, humans are that way IRL.

Who said a redhead can't wear pink? I knitted the outfit for her while I waited and am pleased it fitted her so well.

She also has another outfit almost done, just have to sew up the cardi and add buttons. :)

Hope you are all having a lovely dolly week!

Hugs,

X

Seduced

In November of 2016, I discovered Dianna Effner's 13" Little Darling dolls. Normally, I wouldn't have paid a great deal of time looking at vinyl dolls after being an avid BJD collector and accumulating eighty of them over the past few years. Yet, when I saw them on the internet I felt such a strong attraction to these dolls and continued to Google them.

I soon learned that although Dianna had sculpted the original dolls and hand painted the vinyl dolls faces, there were other artists trained by Dianna, who also painted them. As I continued to search I soon found which dolls I thought I wanted to own, but it was going to take a long time to bring any of them home.

Dianna was not taking orders at the time and from all indications the wait for one of her dolls would drive me to distraction, and should one come up on her website, the price would be way beyond what I would be prepared to pay for a vinyl doll, no matter how good it was or who painted it.

I almost went ahead with this doll (a #1sculpt), but the wait was just far too long, so long in fact I figured I'd probably not be around to enjoy her.

This is another that I would have loved to bring home . . . a #2,

and this #3 one too, but alas such is life. I'll just admire them from afar and enjoy the dolls I have. :) 

And for something a little different . . .

. . . here's a couple of recent arrivals in new cardigans that I knitted. :)