Breakfast at Tiffany's

This past Sunday, I attended a Ladies' Luncheon with a friend who I have known since college. It was given by an Irish-American club on the east side of Cleveland, and my friend has attended several events there. The theme was Breakfast at Tiffany's. There were several gift "baskets" given away in a raffle, and I won one! The theme of my basket was Paint and Sip. Does your country have anything like this? Where I live in Ohio, there are one-night art classes hosted by local organizations, as well as small local businesses that offer you the chance to paint a ceramic item, or paint on canvas, or similar creative things. For adult only evenings, you can craft and also partake of alcohol, and these evenings are called Paint and Sips. I just found out there's a local business where you can get refreshments from a charcuterie board to jello shots at your Paint and Sip evening. This gift basket was a bunch of items for you to have your own Paint and Sip time.

Here's a picture of the table centerpiece, and me dressed in my best Breakfast at Tiffany's outfit.

And here are the items that I won. The paint brushes are awful quality, but I can still use them for something, I'm sure. Everything else is pretty nice, even if all the art items are from the $1.25 store.

The Paint, part one

The Paint, part two

The Sip

You might notice in the last picture that there is a gift card to a store called Meijer. It's like a Walmart, a giant store that offers groceries, housewares, clothes, and lot of items in between. Our local Meijer is actually bigger than our Walmart, but the Meijer closest to me is lacking in one distinct feature: the toy department. Still, I wanted to buy something doll related with my gift card, and I picked out a Calico Critters house.

I already have a couple of Critters animals, and my Cu-Poche dolls and mini Pullip will also like this house. The card didn't entirely cover the price of the house, but it paid for most of it.

To really make this doll-related, I'm going to share a couple of pictures of a Breakfast at Tiffany's outfit that I made for a 16" Gene doll, around 15 years ago. 

I sewed the dress, gloves and wrap, and Mr. BTEG helped with the bakery items. I made this for someone online who was looking for someone to sew the costume for her. She saw these photos first, before she officially bought the outfit. I saw many years later that she had it up for sale. I hope she got a lot of enjoyment out of it while she owned it.

I was going to post about my luncheon experience on Instagram, when I realized that Instagram won't let you post vertical photos, and they get cropped to the point where a lot of the stuff you wanted to show is cropped out. Ugh. I'd rather be able to share these pictures with you guys, anyway.

Has anyone else won a raffle? Was it something you wanted? This raffle was the kind where you could put as many tickets as you wanted towards winning a specific basket, so you would only win something that you were interested in. Have you ever attended at themed event?

Hinamatsuri

This post is coming a day late, but yesterday was Hinamatsuri, or Girl's Day, in Japan. An important part of the festival is a display of dolls and doll-sized accessories. The emperor and empress sit at the top of any Hinamatsuri doll set. I bought the set above from Re-ment. I had a hard time putting everything together, and tried to use poster stickies to help keep stuff in place. It wasn't until I looked at the pictures that I realized that the emperor and his wife were tipping slightly as a result. Oh well. I still think it turned out cute. I saw that Re-ment also makes a Hello Kitty themed Hinamatsuri set. I've seen Peanuts themed ones as well.

I sewed the dress that our little Japanese girl is wearing. The hardest part was sewing the sleeves. I think I would sew them first next time, before I sewed the sides of the dress.

New Clothes

Okay, I've had these clothes for a while, but this is the first time sharing them online. The first is an outfit by Mattel that I saw in a store and liked enough to buy. It came with everything that you'll see on the doll except for her hoop earrings. I tried to do a jaunty fashion pose, and it bombed, but here you are. I also posed Dani taking a bow for her virtuoso violin performance. :)

I'm not sure why the outfit came with two copies of Amazing Grace. Of course, I do have another Barbie violin, so I could set up a violin duet.

The second clothing item is a beautifully knit sweater (jumper) by DollClothesbyOksana on Etsy. She also sells 1/6th scale knitting patterns.

The sweater is gorgeous, but fairly tight to get on. The item description said that it was for a curvy Barbie, but I might put this sweater on other Barbie bodies from now on. Either that, or keep this sweater on this Barbie forever. Although she'll get mad at me in the summer.

In the process of fitting Barbie into this sweater, I learned that Curvy hands aren't meant to come off. Admittedly, I was prepared that they might not be able to be removed, but I didn't mean to tear the joint.

Oopsie!

Fortunately, I managed to fit the hand back on to Barbie's wrist. Trying to fit those sleeves over Barbie's hands without snagging the sweater was difficult, though.

I have been playing around more with my Cricut. I managed to successfully cut out all the pattern pieces on this PDF, which I turned into a .png, which can be uploaded into the Cricut Design Space. The pieces cut out nicely, even the little arrows at the top. However, I haven't managed to replicate this with just a few pattern pieces clipped from the entire PDF. I need to play around more, but I'm pleased that cutting out pattern pieces that I upload, using the Cricut, looks like a real possibility.

I also discovered that Inkscape and Cricut both use SVG files, or Scalable Vector Graphics. I am going to have to edit my previous post, because it looks like Inkscape may be usable with the Cricut. I just have to study how.

I also have to make more room in my craft/photography area, in order to be able to take better pictures. I definitely have lots to keep my busy, but that should include posting, too!

Doll Show Buys - Vintage Items

If you looked at the pictures that I took at the doll show I attended, you'll notice that there were lots of antique dolls, from the 1860s into the early 1900s. If you want to sew them new clothes, there's nothing better to use as a reference than antique items like the Delineator magazine.

The Delineator was a publication created by the Butterick Publishing Co., to highlight its sewing patterns. Unlike the magazines or catalogs that you see in stores that carry sewing patterns today, however, The Delineator gave detailed descriptions of fabrics and trims that you could use to make up the patterns, which are a boon to the sewer of today who wants to learn about authentic historic sewing. There was also a serial story, articles on subjects of interest to the women of the time, and some patterns for needle arts items.

Dresses for ladies:

For misses and girls:

Among the crafting patterns were these for a crocheted wheel and "mould-crochet" edging.

The magazine that I found at the doll show was the October 1894 edition. I was afraid I already owned it, but I didn't want to take a chance of missing out if I didn't, so I bought it. Turns out that I do own the Thanksgiving 1894 edition, but I'm fine with that. I did get the seller to take $5 off the price, and I'm glad that I did. I don't know if he didn't know better or what, but he implied that there were doll patterns in the book. There aren't, which I already knew, fortunately for me. There are drawings of people wearing items you could make up with their sewing patterns, but no actual pattern pieces are pictured. I couldn't even find anything about dolls in the magazine, in the quick glance that I gave through the index. Maybe the seller was confused by the images of patterns for girls. I'm interested in fashion in this era for its own sake, so I do own some antique fashion magazines and photos. I'm going to have to make up a list of which issues I do own, so I don't take a chance on double buying again.

While this Delineator is in great shape (considering it's over 125 years old!) I am wondering if I should carefully take the magazine apart so it can be scanned. The binding is already worn out around the bottom of the magazine, and any looks I take throughout will just loosen the binding more. On the other hand, is it okay to take apart a genuine antique piece of ephemera (something made of paper that was meant to be discarded but is now a collectible)?

Butterick is still a sewing pattern company today, although it and the other "big 4" sewing pattern companies, Simplicity, Vogue and McCall's, have been owned as a group for a while, and were sold together last year to a company in the UK, according to my research. 

There were also a lot of antique photos. Many of them were of little girls with their dolls, which was not surprising, but again, there were ones as well simply of people wearing the fashions of the times. Most of the antique photographs (or tintypes, daguerreotypes, or whatever) were too expensive for me, but I did get the collage photo below for $5, framed.

Although this could be two sisters, I get the sense it was two friends at the photography studio together. When I took it out of the frame to scan it, I was irked to see that the cardboard backing had been cut up so the photo could be put into a smaller frame. I'm putting this print at about 1902-1903, and I'm guessing the girl standing on the right is a year or so older, judging by the length of their skirts.

Is there another era in time that you think your dolls should represent? Did you or have you thought about collecting books, paintings, photos or other vintage and antique items to learn more about your chosen time period?

Vacation and a Sewing Haul

Mr. BTEG very badly needed a vacation, and I liked the idea myself of getting away. So the two of us drove down to what we call in Ohio, "Amish country," and spent three days there. I don't know that all of my non-US readers have heard of the Amish. They are a Germanic-Swiss group of people who started coming to the US in 1730 for religious freedom. Generally, they eschew a great deal of modern technology, and dress plainly. The largest concentration of Amish in the world, is in Holmes County, Ohio, and there are lots of Amish in the surrounding areas. Mr. BTEG and I enjoy going to Amish country for the delicious meals; the good food to purchase, such as cheese, dried meats and apple butter; and shopping for fabric, and tools. There's also a very fine handmade leather shop Mr. BTEG likes to visit every time we go, loads of antiques, and beautiful Amish-made furniture.

Here's an idea of what Amish country looks like, taken from the back of one of the restaurants where we ate. The area is very hilly, and covered with farms, Amish and non-Amish, and clusters of trees.

The back of our hotel had a lovely walking path with a pond. We didn't get to use it, for various reasons, but it added to the scenery.

Since the Amish make all of their own clothes, and also do a lot of quilting, there are sewing machine stores and lots and lots of fabric stores. A great many Amish don't use electric sewing machines, but there are some Amish and Mennonites, a branch-off of Amish, that can. Anyway, there is a Bernina sewing machine shop that I love visiting every time we go. I've always owned Berninas, and they use needles and feet specific to Bernina (and Brother, I think.) It's nice to pick up needles and other notions in person, and shop "local." They also offer sewing machine tune-ups, cleaning and repair. They had an open Bernina on display, and I thought you would enjoy seeing what a sewing machine looks like on the inside.

Happily, even though most of the fabric you can find is for Amish sewing, and quilt fabric, there are also some apparel fabrics at certain stores. I bought some lovely knit fabric, some gauze fabric, some quilt fabric for doll sewing, some nice quality hand towels, and some patterns.

I also grabbed a couple of useful notions. One is called a Bobbini, and it's a way to keep your bobbin with your spool of thread. The diamond shape squishes together and goes inside the spool, and the bobbin goes on the little knob at the top. I also bought some very small fabric clips, to hold pieces of fabric together while you're working on them. I'm showing what they look like on a Barbie sized dress that I have to finish very soon. I have so many projects that I want to work on!

I also bought myself my very own sunbonnet (which is not standard Amish or Mennonite wear,) and a Cat's Meow piece that looks like the store where I bought all of that knit fabric and the patterns and notions.

I don't know if even most of you in the US have heard of The Cat's Meow. It's a company that's been around for decades, based out of Ohio, that sells decorative pieces that look like well-known buildings, basic buildings, and scenes. I have Cat's Meow pieces that look like the hospital where I was born, and landmarks of downtown Cleveland, the town where I spent the first 24 years of my life, and the town where the BTEG family lives now (that's three cities, just to be clear.) I also have a few pieces for Christmas, one of Santa driving his sleigh, and one of two pine trees. The black cat is always somewhere on the piece; I even have a pin that looks like the black cat.

Mr. BTEG and I came back very refreshed and ready to tackle everyday life again. I hope you all are doing well, wherever you are at in everyday life.