My Last Two Dolls

These dolls arrived a little while ago, but I haven't really felt like photographing any dolls until today. I did however, make them both new sets of clothes.

Both dolls are lovely and are the same fine quality as all my other PR dolls. The new articulation certainly adds a little more "life" to them in photos, but the articulation is not as versatile as I was expecting. PR have given added movement to their elbows and knees, but the shoulders, wrists and ankles are still the same as always, with no flexible jointing.

I do love this face sculpt though, Cleo is quite the little cutie with pale pink lips and tiny scattered freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her new outfit comprises bib front overalls and top that does up at the back.

Manica is just as pretty and with those curly locks she is a delightful addition to the fold. Her outfit comprises a dress, pinafore and scarf. I used a little foxy print for both dolls, but used a different contrasting fabric; a pink and white daisy print for Cleo and an aqua blue and white check for Manica

Unfortunately, I found the shoes she came with suited one of my boys better than they did her, so the ones she is currently wearing are borrowed from another doll. I will need to either purchase new ones for her or make them myself . . . this is still undecided.

Well that's it for today, I will be catching up with you all over the weekend, so until then . . . 

Long Time No Post

I am still here though! Sales on eBay have been keeping me busy, which I never expected . . . especially seeing as I had things in my stash that I didn't know I had. Does that sound a little intriguing?

Let me tell you about it . . . as you already know I am having a clean out of stuff which I really don't need (and probably never did). It was while sorting, that I came across a little suitcase I painted for my mum a long time ago (2002), which I inherited when she passed.

I'd never opened it before and had no idea what was inside, so it came as a real surprise when I found it was full of Kellogg's Cereal Toys!! Yep, those tiny plastic things that kids found in their breakfast cereal back in the 60's and 70's. My first thought was to ditch them, but my instincts told me to check eBay before doing so.

So glad I did, these have become quite collectable and I had a heap of them. This photo shows what's left after the first listing . . . one chap bought so many, I was able to pay for Manica and Cleo, the two articulated Paola Reina dolls which I had my eyes on from Spain!

The first three dolls which I ordered from Dolls and Dolls at the end of last month, arrived today and I just love the two boys. (In case anyone here in Oz is considering placing an order with them, shipments travel from Spain to the Netherlands by road, before shipping to Oz by air. Tracking is via PostNL and Australia Post. I thought exactly three weeks from order to delivery, amidst this pandemic, was a pretty good delivery time.)

The the third one, a Berjuan Luxury Doll is also articulated. Her name is Eva, she is 35cm tall and comes without clothes. Being slightly different, I'll probably need to adjust my patterns to dress her, but I think she will be fun to sew for. I will tell you more about her later.

All these photos were taken with my Canon 600D with the Ring Light attached. I haven't had a lot of experience with it yet and haven't used the flash, just the light, but I love the light as it shows very little shadow. So if I never use the flash, it's been worth it (certainly was a blessing for taking close ups of the cereal toys).

Well I guess it's time now to catch up with what's been happening with you!

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.

Did You Know?

After many years of success, Paola Reina presented a collection of Las Amigas Articulated dolls. Unfortunately I never saw them until recently.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF PAOLA REINA

Of course all the above dolls are sold out on the PR website, but there are still one or two available on the secondary market at double the original price.

These innovative dolls maintain the style and originality of the classic Las Amigas, but with an improved and more flexible body. They are made of vinyl and have 10 high quality joints in shoulders, elbows, legs, knees, waist and neck that allows each joint to move independently. Thanks to their flexibility, they can adopt multiple positions and you can place them in a wide number of poses to take photos.

Neck: Like the classic Las Amigas dolls, the head can turn to both sides.

Shoulders & Legs: They have the same joints as always, being able to move the arms up and down. The union of each leg with the hip, has a traditional joint with which you can move it back and forth.

Elbows & Knees: They have a ball joint, which offers greater flexibility of movement, allowing you to pose them in a greater number of positions.

Waist: These dolls have a new joint in the waist that allows you to turn half of their body laterally to the left and right.

And after spending hours and hours browsing, I came across this darling doll on Etsy who I simply HAD TO HAVE.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF CATHY RING TOY

But when I went to order her, Cathy (the artist) told me she had dyed her hair and given her a fringe.  CLICK HER TO SEE HER NOW What a difference a day makes . . . so what do you think? To me she had lost her appeal, even though she still had everything else the same, I could not feel the love I initially had. Hopefully Cathy will eventually make another doll down the track that will steal my heart. SIGH!

Now I'm going to sulk and sew to take my mind off my lost love.

More Knits Completed

I wanted to try to make a knitted dress that actually looked like two separate pieces . . . a pinafore with a sweater underneath, creating a similar look to this, without the pockets.

I thought I had enough scraps of pale pink wool to make the sweater part and enough hot pink for the pinafore, but when I finished knitting with the hot pink I realised it was going to be too short. So I had to finish the bottom of the skirt with the pale pink, I guess it doesn't look too bad, but it's not what I wanted.

I also finished a hat, but I thought a coat was now required to complete her outfit.

I didn't have a complete pattern for any of these, but I did have patterns for parts of each of them, which I mixed together to knit them. They actually fit my Fashion Friends a little better, but I already have outfits for them.

If and when I repeat this outfit for my Paola Reina dolls, I will make the straps on the dress a fraction wider and the sleeves on the coat a little shorter.

Project: Knitting Continued

After checking the pattern I wrote and posted a few days ago, and prior to my computer chucking the claw in, I realised had made a mistake when typing it ~ where it read Row 14-28, it should read Row 17-28, so you can either change your copy or download the new one which I have edited.

Thankfully, I noticed it when I began knitting it again, this time as a jumper (sweater) which buttons at the back. If you would like to do this, make additional button holes at the end of R15, 27 and 39.

We also have new models to show how they fit my  Corolle Les Cheries and Wellie Wishers dolls.

I'm sorry about the quality of the photos, but my photo editing program went west along with a few other bits and pieces which I had forgotten to save to my hard drive. Unfortunately neither I, nor my tech guys were able to retrieve them.

Willa is wearing the second pink cardi where I added the three extra button holes so she could wear it as a jumper (sweater). As you can see, I also made her a matching skirt using a combination of the Naturally Loyal Baby Print at the bottom and a matching plain pink 4ply from the hip up to the waist.

I use slightly larger needles when I made the skirt, but I think next time I will increase the stitches slightly and revert back to the 2.25mm needles, as the finished garments look much nicer and the stitches more even. Once I have done that, I'll share the pattern.

Well that's it for today my lovelies, I hope you are all having a lovely weekend, I'll be back again later in the week.

Project: Doll Knitting

After receiving my recent play doll (Paola Reina Las Amigas Nora) who I have renamed Naomi, I set about removing the Velcro closure (my pet hate) on her dress and replacing it with press studs (snaps), then changing the over-sized yellow rose at the front to a more petite cream rose.

Next on my agenda was to make her a cardigan to wear for the cooler autumn days. I knitted Naomi's in a 4 ply synthetic yarn (a remnant, which I cannot remember the name of), but the other two were knitted in Naturally Loyal Baby Prints which gives a lovely fairisle look to the cardigan, without the complication of working with several yarns at the same time.

I really enjoyed making these garments and recorded exactly what I was doing as I progressed, so I could share the pattern with the knitters among you. If you click on the pattern below and open the link in a new window, you should be able to save it to your own computer, then print out later on an A4 page.

If there's anything you don't understand, please ask, and should you make this cardigan for your dolls, please share pictures on your own blogs, I would love to see them :)

On a Jet Plane

Two new sweeties flew in from abroad today.

An other Paola Reina / Las Amigas gal called Claire, and an African Carlota from Vestida de Azul, who I have renamed Zuri Mae.

I was really pleased with both of them and I am also happy that Zuri Mae can wear the clothes I make for Little Fees. I initially chose her to be a sibling to Ella Jane, but I think size and style wise she maybe better suited to Nora (as shown below).

I think Ella Jane maybe a little too chubby and young in the face to be an older sibling. :)

Cristi's New Dress

I thought you may just like to see how Cristi looks once she's been all spruced up and dressed.

I think she looks absolutely darling in this lovely dress by Carol Pringle. :)

Comparing Bodies

My new gals arrived yesterday and I was quite surprised to see the actual difference in the sizes of these two darling little dolls. The D'Nenes Marieta is much chubbier than I expected her to be, but that face is so cute and I am looking forward to styling this little girl.

The quality of the doll is as I expected, but I didn't think much of the clothes she was dressed in . . . certainly not as well finished as the Paola Reina Dolls clothes. Considering I won't be using them anyway it's no great loss if I toss them!

The measurements shown above were the best I could take using a piece of string to wrap the body and then placing the string along my metal ruler . . . they will certainly do to make her clothes. :)

Christmas at Our House

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break ~ whether you celebrate or not, whether it’s holy or just a holiday, I hope there was lots of love and laughter.

We rose early as Coco was keen to unwrap the presents "Santa" had left for him under the tree.

 



Christmas day was HOT in Melbourne and I didn't go outside until about 3 pm. Then there was a quick about turn to go back into our cool air-conditioned home . . . 38c was simply too hot for me to stay outside..

However, it was stress free, calm and quite with lots of food of course! Consuming prawns, crab, ham and various other delectables with four different salads, followed by mince pies and fruit cake, exploding is inevitable!! How on earth is one supposed to fit in Maggie Beer's duck and orange pate, bagelettes, nuts and other nibbles during the afternoon, when we have eaten so much for lunch? Let alone continue in the evening, eating steak, ginger and lime chicken and sausages cooked on the BBQ, followed by my daughter's four berry pavlova for dinner!

Needless to say we all gave it our best shot, but hubby and I will be eating leftovers at least until the new year rolls on in. :)

Here's some dolly pics to tide you over . . . my little Dasha . . . all the clothes came with her except for the cardigan in the last shot, which I made. I shall do a review of the Paola Reina dolls later, when I'm back in the groove.

This has been a good year full of dolly fun and friendship . . . thank you to all my readers and blogging buddies.

That's all from me in Melbourne Australia . . . I'll be back in 2017!