Doll Show - Strongsville, Ohio - August 15th 2021

I've once again gone through one of those phases where I'm either too busy or don't have the energy to create a new post. However, yesterday I finally got to attend a real, live, in-person doll show after a very long dry spell! I took all of you with me too, at least in spirit. I found reminders of many doll bloggers yesterday; I'll be sharing them with the pictures. Pictures will be in order by time taken. I was attracted to this Snow White doll, and the Lenci doll reminded me of Tam.

So did this Lenci. I think the doll in the blue dress behind her is darling, but my budget did not run to antique dolls that day.

I've seen this Kestner Gibson Girl doll before, but I don't think I've ever seen one in person. She's in a book I have about sewing Victorian doll clothes, which I am proud to own. 

 

I thought of Linda and Serenata when I saw this Sasha doll. There ended up being a lot more Sashas that I didn't get a photo of, as well as some Gregors. The Nancy Ann doll made me think of Tam. A lot of dolls made me think of her, perhaps because she has such a broad collection and doll interests. The little Betsy McCall is also cute.

I needn't have worried about getting that Nancy Ann doll into the picture. There were lots of them as I went on.

I took this picture because I liked the outfits that the two little dolls were wearing, but the Madame Alexander doll in a case is nice also. Madame Alexander dolls will now always bring to mind Dorothy in PA.

Many doll bloggers I know are into the vintage Barbies. You can see some Tammy dolls too. I thought of Teresa because of the many vintage Barbie clothes she has. There was quite an assortment of vintage Barbie, friends and family clothes, shoes, jewelry and accessories at the show. I bought one vintage piece, but that won't get shown until a later post.

While we're on the subject of Barbie dolls, there were some more modern Barbies, but nothing that thrilled me. I saw an unboxed Swan Queen doll that made me think of coffeeanddollspl. 

I have no interest in owning one, but I find the vintage Buffy and Mrs. Beasley doll set cute. I remember one of my sisters or I owned a cloth Mrs. Beasley doll. You can see some loose Mrs. Beasley dolls in the vintage Barbies picture, but here is one in box. I vaguely remember watching the show that this doll was based on.

This Shirley Temple doll complete with pin reminded me of Rachael's collection. There were many Shirley Temple dolls in different sizes and outfits.

I wonder if this little Japanese doll would have gone home with RagingMoon1987 if she had been there with me. The doll would surely receive lots of love from her!

Here's another Shirley Temple with clothes and a case.

 

Here's yet another Shirley Temple, a dark-skinned Patsy that brought to mind Dorothy in PA yet again, and an All-American version of the Schoenhut doll like Serenata's world-famous Peggy Sue (and friends.)

And last but not least, this Cissy bride who stood regally near the front entrance, welcoming us to this dolly wonderland. There were a few modern Cissy dolls too, but the vintage ones have their own quiet majesty. I'm sure Sandi would agree.

Although there weren't a lot of modern dolls, don't worry, MC, you are not being left out. I bought a stack of doll magazines and in one there was an article on Spanish cloth dolls produced in the 1920s-1930s, bringing Spain doll companies into competition with other European countries at the time. 

I think next time will be a review of my doll show haul, because boy, did I bring home a haul. Having all those dolls right in front of me and just being able to pick one up and hand over cash to make it your own was absolutely intoxicating. Well, my purchases were mostly clothes and accessories, because there were lots of those too. I hope you got some enjoyment out of virtually attending a doll show with me.

Plans for 2017

I looked over my New Year's dollie resolutions from 2016, to see how I did, and what I wanted to change or continue this year. Last year, I managed to post four times a month for the first half of the year. The second half of the year got really crazy, and there is still some chaos and stress at Casa BTEG, so I don't feel too awfully about meeting my posting goal for the whole year. I'm going to shoot for four posts a month again anyway. I like to keep this blog active.

I was planning to photograph my 10" Georgia doll, but she needed a wig, which I never bought. I also have a Patsy that I need to re-wig. I've never bought a doll wig before, and I keep second guessing which wigs would look best. There are also a *lot* of choices out there! I ought to make the wig thing a higher priority this year, so these dolls can be complete.

Of course, I wasn't sure last January that I would be buying much, and then I went crazy about Ever After High, as you'll see when I blog about one of my Christmas presents. It didn't hurt that most of the EAH dolls I bought were marked down, being older releases. I was thinking seriously about getting another Makie, but that didn't happen, after the company suddenly disappeared.

At least Meg has a lot of doll friends to play with.

Other than Ever After High dolls, I bought one curvy Barbie, one petite Barbie, two Star Darling dolls, and a discontinued LIV set that I bought mostly for the display window. Unless I fall in love with another doll line this year, my doll purchases will probably be down. However, I've also purchased some furniture, and a LOT of accessories like Re-Ment. That will probably continue in 2017.

I've found making time to sew doll clothes difficult. This is probably partially because of my depression issues, and partially because of a schedule which changes every day. I keep trying for big blocks of time to get sewing (or knitting) done; what I need is to do a little at time when I have the opportunity. For some reason, I don't feel motivated to go to my sewing table unless I can get a huge amount done at once. That's just holding me back.

I have a couple of construction projects that I want to begin, but we don't have space for me to take on a big project right now. Likewise, I've been trying to paint doll accessories in my sewing area, which involves a lot of moving things around. I'd like to set up a dedicated space for painting (which I will probably share with my husband and daughter, who paint gaming miniatures.) That crafting space won't be free until later in the year.

Lastly, I've been thinking about starting a running storyline here featuring my dolls! I have an idea that I'm trying to develop into a working plot; hopefully I'll get it started within the next month.

Doubt and Depression

As I like to do, I'm looking over my past year of doll collecting, and making plans and goals for the year ahead, which I'll post about. But while I have my own personal plans for sewing and painting, etc. for my dolls, my thoughts from a collector point of view are pretty gloomy. There are still Ever After High dolls out there that I would like to buy, but nothing good seems to be in the works for the line. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see it completely die out in 2017.

The announcement that Tonner is done with most of his lines was a huge surprise for most of the doll collecting community who follows his work. I was pretty certain there were going to be more Ann Estelle dolls coming out, and now there won't even be more Patsy dolls, or outfits that fit the 10" dolls. This will not help prices on the secondary market, which in my opinion are rather high already, considering how many dolls were produced, and how long ago the dolls were produced. All the 10" dolls, Ann Estelle, Petite Filles, and Patsy, seem to all be very popular among collectors still. There are currently 10" articulated bodies only for sale from Tonner, and I may try to pick up one or two on the chance that I might want to rebody one of my dolls, but I'm afraid they'll sell out rather quickly as people scramble to buy before everything is gone for good.

Makie is not in business anymore, either. In my plans for this year, was the possibility of getting another Makie doll, since I liked my first one. Unfortunately, this company too disappeared in 2016.

So in my doll collecting life, I really don't have any new releases to be excited about or look forward to. The only new dolls I might be interested in, for now, are Barbies, and Mattel is so hit or miss that I don't have a lot of confidence in what will be made this year. I will admit that at this time I am trying to power through clinical depression. Everything right now seems undo-able. But life continues.

ETA: I guess I can't absolutely say that there will never be any more Makie dolls. What I do know is that the company suddenly declared it was moving from the UK to the US. After that, there was no more news, and Makies are no longer for sale. It would be great if there was a chance that the dolls will be produced again, but it's been, I think, close to a year now with no news. Actually, I think orders for Christmas 2015 were cancelled at the last minute, but that's just a vague memory, and I can't find anything about it. I do know many people were upset because they had saved doll designs on the Makie website, which are now gone. 

Tonner Strawberry Cupcake Mimi and Fall Flowers Lilah Dolls

Since the last time I posted about my Tonner 10", or "tenner," line, I've acquired two new dolls. The first is named Strawberry Cupcake Mimi, not to be confused with the more recent release, Strawberry Cupcake Patsy. The second doll is Ann Estelle's baby sister, Lilah. She's 9" according to Tonner's website. I wanted to get a Mimi and a Babette from the Petite Filles line for my tenner collection; there were only a few styles of each doll produced, and the faces are unique, except for a couple of dolls made in Dr. Seuss styles for a Tonner convention. And of course the convention ones are even rarer.

Mimi's hair is wonky, in that her curls on each side don't really match.

Mimi's body is a mix between the old and new 10" dolls. Her arms are the same as Ann Estelle.

Her knees bend like those in the new Patsy doll line.

Her pantaloons have some faint brownish stains on the legs. I'll try soaking them in Biz detergent.

She has a flaw in the inside corner of her right eye.

Here Mimi is with two of her 10" friends, from the Mary Englebreit and Patsy lines. They each have very unique faces. Sophie's face is also different from Ann Estelle's, but I didn't want to mess around with that many dolls in the picture just then. I'll take a picture of the whole gang sometime.

Lilah dolls are relatively hard to find as well. From what I found, there were only three different Lilah dolls produced, and one of those was also a convention doll, and came riding a large seahorse at that, so her value is much higher. I got my Lilah at just above original retail price, however, so it seems she is not hot in the doll market right now. I still like her. :)

Lilah is described by Tonner as being in a seated leg position. I guess that means she's not old enough to stand up on her own yet. I did stand her up for a couple of pictures, but she doesn't really stand well.

Ann likes being a big sister.

I think the onesie would have been cuter with sleeves.

However, the dress underneath the sweater does not have sleeves. The dress is cute, but there is one flaw. In the bottom right of the picture below, you can see a black thread in between the two layers of bodice fabric. At some point I may try to take the dress apart at the waist to get in and get that thread out. It's not like I have to worry too much about ruining the dress; it's unwearable by itself in this state.

There's also something rattling somewhere in Lilah's body. I may try to get her head off at some point and investigate that.

There are more faces I would like to get for my 10" collection, but I'm not on eBay nearly as much as I used to be, so that might be an issue. I'll talk about the eBay thing sometime soon. In the meantime, I'm glad I expanded my collection of little girls.

10 Inch Tonner Patsy with New Dress

I've been wanting to acquire a new Tonner Patsy, largely because I wanted to see the new body with bending knees, elbows and wrists. Unfortunately for me, the new Patsy dolls don't really appeal to me, even after seeing one in person. Their combination of large eyes, lots of long, applied eyelashes, and sober appearance was too waif-like for me. Picture Oliver Twist saying "Please, can I have some more?"

However, when I saw Sydney of Dolly Panic was giving Patsy dolls new eyes, and new wigs, I found a Patsy I could bring home.

I've been debating a name for her. I think I might go with Posy. I love her new gray eyes, and I think her painted-on eyelashes are perfectly fine. Her wig is very nice and soft.

I've been wanting to blog about her sooner, but I wanted to give her something to wear first! With the warm weather arriving here in NE Ohio, a sundress was perfect to sew, and not too difficult. I still hate gathers, though. Her dress is made out of blue cotton chambray, with fake tucks on the bodice, and insertion trim on the skirt. The bodice is lined with cotton voile, which I again starched. The voile is so thin and delicate that it unravels very easily. I may stick with a cotton batiste as a lining for the bigger dolls.

Ann and Sophie are happy to welcome Posy to their group.

Since Posy has a new body, I took a couple of pictures comparing this latest body with the oldest one. In between these two types, 10 inch dolls got bending knees, and now have added bending elbows and wrists. Other doll lines that have used this body are Petite Filles, Dr. Seuss, Half Pint, and It's a Small World. Half Pint and Patsy dolls are technically dolls by Effanbee, which is owned by Robert Tonner. The official Effanbee site has not been updated since 2010, however. Half Pint and Mary Engelbreit dolls are also from Effanbee.

I have to admit as far as weight and feel, I prefer the older body. It's nice to have both kinds now, though.

Tonner has certainly gotten a lot of use out of the 10 inch body sculpt. I will be looking for a few more of this body type to add to my collection.