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.

What a Shamozzle!!

This how she looked
when I opened the box

Remember this post, about my last purchase for 2020 which I finished by saying " She is a doll who will surely test my patience as she throws my dolly world into disarray!"?

Well she certainly did, or should I say The Doll Peddlar did!! I didn't get the Wilde Imagination Springtime Patience which I ordered, but received the Phyn & Aero Just Have Patience instead (the one I had decided against).

She wasn't tied in properly either, her shoes were just loose in the box and her dress was crushed.

I contacted them and they were keen to let me know although the doll was not what I ordered, it was worth another US$15 more than I paid, which I suppose was to make me feel grateful.

To be absolutely honest, I really don't mind the doll itself, but I don't like the outfit at all and her hair was so tacky. Now I'm not sure if it was added gunk or glue seepage and was surprised to find her hair was not rooted, nor a wig, but a glued on weft.

Anyway, after cutting off the flowers which were stitched to her head and removing her hair ribbon, I shampooed and conditioned her hair to see how it looked after drying naturally.

I also removed her dress and thought the slip and nickers were nice enough even though the silk of the slip was quite different in colour from the attached cotton lace. I didn't particularly like the stockings either, seeing as they had stretched so much that they extended a good inch and a half pass the tip of her toes.

Normally I love Tonner clothes, but the outfit she came in just looked cheap and nasty. Where before Tonner clothes had proper press-stud (snap) closures this had that horrible Velcro.

Had I known all this beforehand I would have made sure she had something special to wear when she arrived, but as it stands (see above left), I have made do with a dress I had on hand and funnily enough it's inspired me to give her a layered look, I just need to knit or sew her a long coatigan to go over the top and I think she'll pass. :)