A Lovely Gift from Down Under

Last week I got a wonderful gift from Rachael, a package of doll dresses and accessories that she made herself. She asked me what my favorite color/historical era was (blue/about 1900-1909) and made three dresses and accessories that fit Tonner dolls with the Marley body. Fortunately for me, I have three dolls with that body, so each girl got a new dress! They're beautifully made, lined, with an underskirt, and use press snaps. No Velcro in sight!

The first dress is a blue sateen, decorated with lace and a ribbon rose, with a grosgrain ribbon sash. It's gathered at the front in the perfect 1905 way.

Next is a plaid dress made of shirting material. It has a yoke and an inverted box pleat.

It also came with a matching necklace

 

And a detachable collar. 

Lastly, another dress made of shirting material, with a yoke and a box pleat.

 This dress came with a stylish belt

Another detachable collar

*And* a "locket" pin with a velvet ribbon.

Please excuse Dorothy's blue ribbons. They're so perfectly factory tied still that I don't want to take them off.

And here's a group picture.

 

Antique style calls for black and white photographs, so here are some black and white versions of my pictures.

Rachael also sent me this fun notebook that came with a pen

And the pattern pieces that she used to make the dresses. I forgot to ask, though, Rachael, are seam allowances included with the pattern?

I am so thankful for the new doll clothes. It was so nice of Rachael to make them and send them to me; it's cheered up my November.

So Barb, you ask, why has it taken you so long to put up a new post? Or maybe you're not asking, but I'm going to explain anyway. About mid-October all three of the Evil Geniuses here came down with a cold (Mr. BTEG did a test for the other stuff, that came back negative.) It wasn't horrible, but it was the kind that saps your energy. You feel okay lying or sitting down, then you get up to do one thing, and your body reminds you that you're sick. After that, it was hard getting energy and enthusiasm back, plus I was frustrated by a big project I've been working on that got put on hold while we all were sick.

I'm going to wait to reveal all of the big project, but here's some of it. I told MC about a month ago that I am out of storage space, and I pretty much am, until the Dancer moves out. For the time being, though, I'm perfectly happy for her to live here, as she's saving up a lot more money not having to pay rent. Mr. BTEG, though, decided to move his dresser out of his and my bedroom, because he doesn't really use it anymore. That opened up a lot of space for new storage! I need the Dancer and Mr. BTEG to put some more furniture together, and I'm busy moving stuff around. I do have a couple of "easy" things that I could post about, so hopefully those will be up soon.

In the meantime, I couldn't wait to get up pictures of my dolls' new clothes, and how nice Rachael was. Maybe if shipping is better next year, we should organize a Secret Santa gift exchange among any doll collectors we know who wanted to participate. Or we could make sure stuff was ready to mail out in October. :)

P.S. Mr. BTEG read the comments and colored one of my pictures sepia for me. Thank you, honey!

Something Simple

There has not been much going on here lately. I haven't had the energy to do much beyond the basics in the past month. I spent an afternoon putting together 8.5"x11" sized pattern pieces for a sewing pattern to make scrubs pants for my daughter. I cut out the pieces for a doll sofa from one of those kits where the pieces come pre-cut; you just have to finish cutting them free, and then glue them together. Hopefully I will have that set up soon. It shouldn't be too hard, now that all the pieces are loose. But just so you know that I'm still here, I'm putting up a very basic picture that I took to mark having 100 followers on my Instagram account. I decided to group together just about every different type of doll that I own into the photo, and I'm glad that I did. I discovered at least one new Instagrammer who collects Madeline dolls for example. I'll probably find more people outside of the Barbie/Monster High/Ever After High groove that I've been in. Some of these dolls you have seen. Some haven't been on my blog at all before today, but you'll see them eventually!

Bunny Update, and Tonner Marie/Clara

Some pictures of my Ann Estelle dolls are next on my to-do list, but that will take me at least a couple of days more. In the meantime, I know that some of you were interested in my daughter's two bunnies and if they were going to bond. Well, it's taken about eight months, but they seem to be pretty comfortable around each other now.

Tallahassee is much more comfortable dealing with Kip, but she has been around other bunnies. Kip had a weird past, and it still seems like he just doesn't know all of the ways a bunny "recognizes" another one as a friend. But they can be trusted to be around each other now, even if Tallahassee will always be the more outgoing bunny.

When I was talking about my Tonner 12" dolls, I mentioned my daughter's Nutcracker Marie doll. Said daughter has started making her bedroom more for an adult, instead of the child that she used to be. She's keeping her Wonder Woman and ballerina dolls, but she gave Marie to me.

I'm officially adding her to the My Collection list here.

Total dolls: 45

Angelina Ballerina chairs

Here are two more Angelina Ballerina pieces that I received in my eBay purchase: the kitchen chairs. Considering that these were made for stuffed animals to sit on, I find they work quite well with dolls the appropriate height(s). I also don't think missing the table is a big issue. Tables are a lot easier to create than chairs, and Angelina's table doesn't seem to be as stand-out as the chairs.

First of all, however, I want to show a couple more pictures of the dresser and chest. jSarie suggested that the mirror might be throwing off how the Barbie size doll looked standing next to the dresser, so I got Snow back out and took a picture of her next to the pieces again.

Now I almost like her better next to the chest but am not so sure about the dresser! Ah well. These pieces seem to have a juvenile touch to them, with the painted on flowers, so I don't know that an adult Barbie size doll would get them anyway.

Since I had Tonner's 12" Alice in Wonderland doll out to take pictures seated on the chairs, I put her next to the dresser and chest as well. She's close to a Barbie in height, but Barbie is an adult in her world, while Alice is a tween in a world of 16" adults.

Alice is wearing a night dress from Tonner's Nutcracker Ballet line. Poor Alice is barefoot because while slippers did come with this nightdress (as well as a pretty robe), I need a dolly size shoehorn to get those shoes on her feet. Adams-Harris Patterns has a free pattern for a Marley (Alice) sized shoe that I really should try.

And now we return to the chairs. They are even more fancifully painted than the bedroom furniture, and almost have a shabby chic look since some of the paint has the appearance of wearing off.

Again, they're made of wood, and are nice and durable. They're a little broader than some other doll chairs of a similar height, but they ended up working pretty well with dolls the proportional sizes.

We'll start off with Alice and a Kripplebush Kid. (I really ought to give those poor Kids names.) Both look fine here. The Kid might have to scramble a bit to get up, but what little kid hasn't had to do that at some point?

The Kid also doesn't look badly standing next to the chair. Which makes me think that these chairs would also work for a similar doll like Kish's Riley. Some people have inserted Riley into Tonner's world to be the little girl, instead of the Kripplebush Kids.

I thought these chairs would be too broad for the Barbie sized dolls. Maybe for a Barbie in a bathing suit, they would be, but Snow with her wide skirt makes it look acceptable.

Lastly, I took a couple of pictures with Snow by herself with the chairs. I know many of you that read here have more Playscale sized dolls than Tonner sized ones.

Once again, these are two pieces which I am glad to have in my collection. I often prefer to have my dolls sit on chairs rather than be in stands, if I have the space, so the more chairs, the better!