Trunk Doll Challenge finished

Here is the picture of my finished Trunk Doll Challenge at the Vintageclothdollmaking online yahoo group. It will never be actually finished as I plan on making her a never ending wardrobe but this is the picture I am submitting for the challenge. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. She has two dresses. A toy top to play with. Her Hunting outfit complete with jacket, vest, jodhpurs, hat, gaiters, hobby horse, elephant, bird in a cage and a bug house for catching odd specimens. A nightgown, robe and sleeping cap. An Alice in Wonderland costume. A swimming outfit-swimsuit, hat, towel and swim shoes. A lovely Witches costume complete with dress, collar, hat, pumpkin and a pet raven and a lovely curved top trunk to keep it all in. I tried to keep the entire ensemble between 1907 and 1911 but a couple of the things are later historically. oh well, I'm happy with it.

Philomene's new costume.

I found a darling 1911 Halloween pic posted online and it is supposed to be the cover for a deck of cards. I just loved the little girl in her witch costume and decided that my Bleuette needed a Halloween costume of her own. The pic was the perfect inspiration and so she now has a new outfit. I already had the perfect size old fashioned looking pumpkin for her to hold. The hat only took 2 tries to get the right size. The collar is separate from the dress and the bow is stitched directly to the collar. the belt is held in place by hand-knotted loops on each side of her dress. I may make her a set of cuffs yet to finish the look of the antique pic. that's the only thing I didn't make yet. The outfit is my own design inspired by the pic. oh, and I don't have a pair of dark boots for her. She looked cute in her red maryjanes so they will have to do.

I was finally able to decide on a name for her. I chose the name of one of my great-grandmothers. Philomene. Lovely isn't it?! and I think it suits her well. At least, so far she seems pleased with the name.

A day at Lake Erie

1909 Swim Ensemble

Bleu grabs her towel and is ready to take on the cool waters of Lake Erie in this charming 1909 Swimming Ensemble. She wears matching proper swim-dress, swim-cap(to protect those darling curls) long stockings and swim shoes. Mother is so proud that she exposes only the minimal skin so as not to excite those leacherous boys!

This is Bleu's newest outfit for her trunk. She had to have some way to keep cool during these long hot late summer days. It sure is amazing how bathing suits have changed. This was a proper bathing suit but I sure don't see how it could have allowed anyone to cool off. You had to have almost all your skin covered. Most ladies wore a long ankle-length dressing gown over their swim suit which they would shed before entering the water. ohheavenforbid should a man (GASP) see some skin.....drop one of those women into todays fashions and she would have a heart attack at just the thought of wearing two bandaids and some string and calling that a swim suit. teeheeeheeheeeheeeeeeeeee.

I love to make doll clothes.

The best part of doll making for me is the costuming. I've been having a ball making clothing for Bleuette. This is her new nightgown, robe and sleeping cap. It takes me longer than I'd like, but that's because I'm just too meticulous. I try to take shortcuts but the old seamstress in me (and the old Polish Gramma Guilt talking in my brain) won't let me . hahahahahahaha. My grandmother taught me to sew buttons on gingham when I was 3. by the time I was 5, I was propped up on phonebooks sewing clothes on her old singer. It had a knee pedal so I could make it run(really fast sometime too if I wasn't careful!). I have her machine and it still works. I have made dolls and clothes for as long as I can remember. there was never a time when I didn't sew. She made me rip out many seams and redo them if they weren't nice and straight so I guess that's where my attention to neatness came from. yes, even on doll clothes I take the time to have even seams, finish all the seams and line things like the little hunting jacket I just made for Bleuette-it is lined, even the cuffs. I know, seems kinda silly for doll clothes, but I still have a few pieces of doll clothes that I made for my dolls when I was little and they're in good shape considering their age. I have pictures of some of her clothing that is done in a new album-Trunk Doll Challenge-at my Picturetrail page. there's a link on the right side of this blog. I'm almost done with her swimming outfit. the suit is done and her shoes are done, all I need to make is her swimming hat to tuck her hair in. She wouldn't want to get those darling curls wet.

There was a pretty girl, with a pretty curl....

Today I picked up my niece's Homecoming dress from the drycleaners. I was so pleased, they got out the makeup spot. you see, someone gave her a used formal dress for Homecoming because they just don't have money for a new dress. She knows that I'm a pretty good seamstress (welll, I have made a wedding gown or two...LOL) so she drew up her own design for the dress, called me and asked if I'd help her remake this dress. It was an empire waist dress of bronze colored crepe satin covered in black flowered tulle. quite pretty. The black tulle was removed from the dress except for the bust. I remade the bust smaller because the original one was sized for 'Wendy Whoppers'. heheheheheheheh. I shortened the spaghetti straps and got the top fitting nicely. I then cut off the bottom of the formal and from that I cut a strip from the hemline. I gathered that for a flounce and then cut a yard of tulle into 5-inch strips. I gathered that onto the new flounce and attached that to the dress. I had to futz a bit because she wanted it to ?dip? up on the one thigh. Not sure how to explain that part, but that was about 3 inches deeper than the rest of the flounce. Next I fixed a flower on the bodice which was just gold beads glued on with glitter glue. the final touch was a black satin bow at the bodice. Isn't she going to be the belle of the ball?

Slacker

Man, am I slacking on my blog. I've got to find more hours in the day. I'm trying to get my 'trunk doll' done for an online challenge and stuff just gets in the way. This is my wonderful bestest friend Kate (on the left). I had my darling hubby snap a shot before we went to the airport. Isn't this a great pic?

I had a busy week which ended with a fun night Saturday. Hubby's brother came to town to celebrate his(brother's)birthday so we took him to the Ballgame Saturday evening. It was a great baseball game. Our Indian's won 6 to zip. wow. we had great seats and really enjoyed the evening.

Now, I've got to get finishing my doll clothes. I'm doing a wardrobe for my cloth bleuette. So far she's got 3 dresses, a combinations, a hunting outfit (including jodhpurs, vest, jacket, hat and gaiters)a nightgown, sleeping cap and i'm just finishing a robe, oh, and her elephant. Next she's getting a girl scout uniform and a wedding dress to play dress up. I'm keeping her clothes within a 4 year time period. 1907-1911. I'll post a few pics of her tomorrow.

Whew, what a weekend.

Wow, what a whirlwind weekend. I brought a fabulous dollmaker named Kate Erbach to Cleveland to teach her new doll Moody Boobs. We had a class of 11 lovely ladies making this doll. They had so much fun you would have thought they were doing something illegal! HAHAHAHA! It was special for me because Kate is a very dear friend and we have so much in common. It was hard to see her off at the airport last night. I miss her dearly as she lives a few states away. I do love when she's in though, she's one of the few who can make my husband giggle. The only way to know he's laughing is when his shoulders start moving up and down. He's quite an imposing, stoic Slovak man and doesn't laugh often enough. However, he likes Kate and her infectious sense of humor sure is wonderful. It sure is wonderful to have a good friend. I have many lovely aquaintances and know many, many good people, but I really treasure the few really good friends I have.

Today after a funeral for my hubby's aunt I was able to finish my dolls' beaded face. I really love the bead painting technique that Kate taught. I actually caught on and I get it! Woohooooooo! isn't she a beauty? Now to finish putting her together.

Where does the time go???............

Here I am blogging and I feel guilty! why you ask? Because I should be (fill in the blank). I just need a break. I know you feel like this too. I guess we all have these days. I've got a doll outfit to finish. It's almost done. I've got supplies to gather for a class, started gathering but don't have it all together yet. I've got a room to dust. I've got groceries to buy for class this weekend. I've got out-of-town relatives coming for a visit and going out to dinner with them. A grandson to pick up this afternoon from the school bus. Dessert to make for this evening's gathering (after the resaurant)......and here I sit. Oh dear, I hear the sewing machine calling my name~~~~~

I've been Name Tagged!

Well, well, well, I've been "Name Tagged" by Connie at ClothMatters. Ok, I'll try to play nice this time! LOL. I'm not too good at playing Tag. I was the one who liked to hide behind the tree and just watch!

ok, I am to write something about myself for corresponding with each letter of my name. So away we go.....

E- Enthusiastic
L-Laughing all the time
L-Life's too short-the motto I live by
E-Entertaining-yup, that's me (or so I've been told)
N- *someone needs to fill this one in for me* I'm stumped.

Now to share the love:
I'm going to tag the following lovely ladies:

Kerry at Attic Rose Creations
Natalie at Creative Characters
Judi W at Art Dolls
Kat at Designs by Kat Lees
Karen at Karen's Dolls and Stuff

Ladies, TAG, YOU'RE IT!

Bleuette gets an elephant

I finished this darling little fellow at 1:30 this a.m. Isn't he just the cutest. Here's his story:

Bleuette was always quite privilaged and came from an adventurous family. Her Great-Uncle Goodfried was away on safari in the great savannah when he came upon this poor fellow. Some beastly being had done away with the great mother and left the baby elephant alone and hungry. Well, Goodfried just couldn't leave the baby all to his lonesome to wander and become a meal for some hungry lion now could he? He new that Bleu had always loved elephants and knew she would make a most attentive mother so he had the squalling beast crated and shipped.

Bleu's Mother and Father were a bit surprised (well not that surprised-one never knows what Goodfried would send to Bleu) but with great sighs they were resigned to let Bleu care for the baby. Uncle Goodfried told Bleu the baby's name was Anana which meant soft and gentle. This described the little elephants disposition beautifully. Bleu and the baby lived quite happily for many, many years. Look closely and you can see how happy the baby elephant is!