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

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!

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!

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?

My Collection Part Fifteen: Doll Show Purchases

I was going to say that I "only" bought three new dolls at the recent doll show, but three new dolls at once is really not that bad, is it?

The first one is Mattel Ever After High Darling Charming. She came nude, and is now wearing Mattel's Darling Charming shoes, and a Shibajuku Girls sailor suit. Her hair has been washed and conditioned. I still have to get all of the glitter off of her face, wherever that came from.

Darling came with a Monster High Operetta doll that I didn't really want, but I think the seller wanted to get Operetta off of her hands. I was ready to just pay for Darling when the seller told me Operetta was included as part of the price. I'll find something to do with her.

Next is a mint mini American Girl Josefina in her meet outfit. She didn't come with her box, or the mini book, but she was a good price. Now I can keep mini Josefina in her Christmas outfit intact, with her veil still sewed to her hair.

Lastly, here is a doll that I bought at what I called the "Tonner table." This woman had mostly Tonner items for sale. There were some Patsy dolls and at least one Amelia Thimble. I came home with a doll  that I have been interested in for a very long time, Jane. Jane was a Tonner Club doll, so you couldn't just buy her on the open market. She's 14" tall, and has the Betsy McCall body. There are a couple of other child Jane dolls made, with bending knees, but none of them were easy to get. I wasn't sure I was going to keep her, because she doesn't really fit in with any of the dolls I own. I was thinking she might work with my 10" Ann Estelle dolls, and Rachael reminded me that Betsy McCall had a 10" younger sister, who I now think probably had the Ann Estelle body first. Here's Jane with her younger "sister," Sophie. What do you think?

Look how alike their hand sculpts are.

Rachael doesn't think Jane's jumper/pinafore makes her look her best, and I tend to agree. Fortunately, I have a couple of Betsy McCall patterns that I bought during a 99 cent sale or something. Jane also came with a Tonner Club pin, and I love the bracelet that Jane came with. It looks like jewelry a girl would cherish.

Tonner also made an adult Jane, but she uses the Tyler 16" body, so she's not in scale with child Jane at all. He also did the same thing at the last Tonner Convention, where he introduced a 10" Ann Estelle, and a 16" grown-up Ann.

Total dolls: 69