Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope that if you wanted to celebrate everything Irish today, that you had a good time! Mr. BTEG and I went out to lunch, and at least one person at every table was wearing green, and there was lots of Irish music played on the music system.

I somehow end up going back to Sydney for St. Pat's pictures often. She just looks like she should be wandering out on the moors while wearing a fisherman's sweater, with a Irish wolfhound striding beside her. Maybe I should try to set up a picture like that for next year! And Sophie loves wearing her shamrocks dress.

I shot these pictures through the ring light, which is nice to be able to do when photographing, I think. I had to try to shoot around the big umbrella light awkwardly, on occasion. I used the "mixed" light setting on the ring.

My Collection Part Eighteen: Reproduction Depose Jumeau

I've mentioned a couple of times that I like antique Jumeau dolls, which were produced in France. In my mind I identify them with the early 1900s, although information I've found online says Depose Jumeau dolls in particular were produced around 1886-1889. However, Bébé Jumeau dolls were produced into the 1900s, and I think they look similar to my reproduction doll, so that's probably why my mind has always seen them as turn-of-the-century dolls. I've wanted a Jumeau doll for a very long time, but original antique dolls usually cost in the upper four figures, which is way beyond my budget. When I saw this reproduction Jumeau at the recent doll show I attended, for a very good price, I knew that she was meant for me. :)

Her head was made by doll artist Sylvia Butler in 2008. She is on a 10.5" composition body. I thought that meant that the body was 10.5 inches tall, but no, the whole doll measures around 10.5" tall. She is wearing a mohair wig and has glass eyes. She came with a pair of shoes, and a pattern to make her a slip, drawers, and stiffened stays like girls would have worn around that time. There is also some white fabric, narrow pink ribbon and some lace to make the items.

The slip/chemise that my doll is currently wearing was made by me from a pattern that I bought online. Lucky for me, this doll can wear the same patterns as the Bleuette doll, who started out as an Edwardian doll. Bleuette was associated with a French magazine for little girls called La Semaine de Suzette, or Suzette's Week. Bleuette dolls were available for little girls, and every edition of the magazine contained a new pattern for the doll. From February 1905 until at least January of 1960, new patterns were available for Bleuette. Some copies of the original patterns are available online due to the kindness of people scanning them in. The scans aren't generally precisely sized, however, so some other people have started with the magazine patterns, tailored them to the correct fit, and sell them. I think there are also Bleuette patterns people have drafted themselves. Anyway, there is a wealth of patterns available for my doll.

Here is the back of her head. It is marked "Depose Jumeau 3" which is the particular mold. Then on the side is inscribed "S Butler 2008." It looks like there is also a month, but I am not entirely sure what number it is. It looks like a 1, though.

She has holes for earrings, which was common for dolls of the time. There are lots of antique or antique-style earrings available to buy now. You can also see that she has a taped-on Styrofoam pate in the open spot on her head. Pate means "top of the head," and many antique dolls have a head with the top open like this. Cork pates were used at the time these dolls were first made.

Her body is strung, and doesn't always stand and pose just right. Of course, dolls of the time were never meant to be a fashion doll that stood and posed, just a doll for a girl to carry around or re-dress, or put to bed, etc. I just bought a new ring light for photography, so I thought I'd try it out with this post. Here's a picture of my doll taken with the three light modes that it has: cool, mixed and warm. Or maybe it's cool, warm and mixed?

Here is the back of her slip. It is more tightly gathered and has an extra ruffle to add fashionable fullness to the back. Oh, and this pattern is based on a La Semaine de Suzette set from 1906. The pattern also includes drawers and quilted stays. This slip is only pinned in the back because this is a basic muslin test piece that I made from the pattern. The modern pattern directions suggest you finish the neck and armholes with lace, or a rolled hem. Ooh boy, it's been about twenty years since I tried sewing a rolled hem by hand, and I wasn't too great at it back then.

I've also learned that if I want to I want to have the edges of one of these garments pinked, like you can see on her slip up above, I might want to use my vintage hand crank Singer Pinker. I am not too good with cutting out a longish straight line with my pinking shears alone.

Here's a closeup of her face, and pictures of her shoes.

The edges of one of the ribbon shoe-ties are fraying already. I need to get that taken care of. Her shoes are a bit big, but she is mean to wear stockings underneath. For anybody who has done sewing for an antique or antique repro doll like this, where did you find the material for stockings, and what type of material do you use?

What do you think of this dresser and chest with my doll?

They were made by Pleasant Company for their Angelina Ballerina doll line. I bought these pieces second-hand back in April of 2014! Now I need to make her a bed. I'm thinking of trying a Cricut pattern that I bought.

I am absolutely in love with this doll, and so happy that I found her. Now she needs a name! I want a name popular from the Edwardian era for her, but I also want it to be special, so I've been doing some thinking for sure!

What types of dolls do you like? Do you have or want any antiques, somewhat newer dolls like original Barbie dolls or Miss Revlon, or is it only modern for you?

Total dolls: 77

Doll Show - Strongsville, Ohio - February 27th, 2022

I wouldn't have even known about this doll show, if Tam hadn't emailed me and asked me if I was going. It took place in the same location as the show from last year's post. (I did some posts after that one, showing everything* that I bought at that show.) I wasn't aware that there are doll shows held here twice a year, and not just once. Tam has already put up her post about the show. I was going to work on mine yesterday, but that morning Mr. BTEG got a text from his sister, saying that she and her husband were at the community college only about 15 minutes from our house, to watch their daughter playing volleyball with her travel team. So Mr. BTEG, the Dancer, and I spent the day with my in-laws, ending up down at the lake. There's only a little bit of ice left from the winter.

I didn't take as many pictures at the show as Tam did, but at least mine are all of different things than hers. :)

This is a knock-off Sunshine Family set of three dolls. I didn't know Sunshine Family knock-offs existed until I saw these three.

I felt sorry for the boxed doll on the left. Buy some canned air and get some of that dust off of her! That doll on the right is throwing her some serious side eye.

 

I liked the way the seller had these Japanese dolls arranged on the red steps. It reminded me of the way dolls are displayed for the Japanese doll festival Hinamatsuri, although none of these dolls looked right for the actual festival set-up.

A blast from the past with Pinkie Cooper dolls, plus a Disney Descendants, Monster High, Skipper with tan lines, and what looks like a Miss Revlon doll.

A beautiful Kitty Collier doll in the vinyl. This was probably my favorite Kitty ever produced.

Somebody didn't like Ken's man bun, but then didn't know what to do with him. There were lots and lots of 90s-to-modern Barbie dolls in boxes.

Some My Twinn dolls. I think that's a Tiffany Taylor from the 70s standing behind them.

I loved this felt Lenci doll's felt dress, even though it looks super heavy and thick. I'm not sure if Gene Simmons is showing his approval of the dress, or making a rude gesture. To the right, you can see the Blythe doll Tam showed in her post.

I was interested in the Rub-a-Dub dolly in box, because I had one of my own as a child. Actually, I still do have mine somewhere.

Mine is not in the box, and I don't know if she comes with all of her accessories. She has her hooded towel, and I think her diaper on underneath. My mom made her a flannel bathrobe. I never had the floating vanity and shower.

These dolls are genuine Mattel dolls that use the Sunshine Family Steffie face mold and body for a series of "patriotic" dolls from around 1976.

I loved this group of antique dollhouses, horse stable, and toy fort that I saw all at one table. The first house in this group is marked Gottschalk, which I guessed. I follow someone's blog who collects these older dollhouses, but she hasn't posted in a very long time, and I have forgotten the blog title. Anyway, my thought is that these are all Gottschalk, because they all look similar, except maybe the fort. A couple of the houses also look similar to Gottschalk houses I saw when I was trying to find the blog I'm thinking of.

Lastly are these two pretty Schoenhut girls.

Of course Tam and I had to get a selfie. I could barely see my phone screen because the sun was so blinding.

Tam was kind enough to gift me these three Ever After High dolls, of which I couldn't get a non-blurry picture. There is an Apple White in her original dress and bracelet, an Epic Winter Rosabella Beauty wearing what I think is a Disney Descendants dress, and a nude Cerise Hood. These three are going with the other EAH dolls that I want to customize or re-dress.

I got this Liv Sophie doll for only $2. I have two other Liv dolls, but I'm not sure that I'm going to keep my Liv dolls intact. That's a topic for another blog post, I think. In any case, $2 is a super price just for the clothes, shoes and jewelry.

 

I got this When I Read, I Dream Heidi doll for only $5. She has the same body as the original Barbie's little sister Stacie.

And saving the best for last, is this beautiful reproduction Jumeau doll, with a compo 10.5" body, made by Sylvia Butler. Her slip was made by me. She will be the feature of my next post.

*So I still have a few things from the last doll show that I haven't shown you yet. The main reason is because the vintage Skipper dress that I bought had a slight stain, that I was aware of when I bought the dress. I tried to get the stain out with a couple of things, and then I got busy and distracted by other stuff and moved on from the dress, and you know how it goes. I would like to show the last few things from last doll show soon, even if I can't get the stain out.

You've probably noticed that I've added ads to my blog. I think I have too many, and I'd appreciate some advice on how to place them, so there are fewer, because most blogs I see don't have ads in all the places I'm getting them. If they are taking away too much from your enjoyment of the blog, I'd like to know that, too.