whose idea was this?

The first doll dress I wanted to do was for this little 4 inch doll, since she didn't exactly have her own dress. I got her from ebay I think, with a few other dolls, and they were dressed in odd clothes that didn't really match anything. So I got a few dresses from someone on etsy; but I wanted to make my own. I decided I would try one for Betsy first. That went pretty well and I got it done pretty quickly. So then I decided to go smaller. Good idea, I said. Sure. I think I could have made myself a whole dress in the time it takes to sew a teensy one LOL

But she's cute.

Here she is with her big sister.

 

This kind of reminded me of The Sound of Music when the siblings all had matching dressed made from drapes. I still have scraps of this stuff. I could make another dress for someone, maybe I should make scarfs to match and teach everyone to sing. HA. 

Betsy McCall got a new dress

She's been begging for a new dress, since the one she has is around 50 years old, made by my mom when I was in around 4th grade. I had one to match, and there's a picture somewhere of me in the dress. I should try to find it. 

Anyway, I've been  meaning to do this for quite some time, but the last time I got Betsy out, her stringing was unstrung and her poor head was rolling around. I studied up thanks to Atelier Mandaline and got her restrung. But then she sat for awhile longer. I found some fabric to make her a dress, but put it "somewhere". The other day I was looking at the fabric I made a mask from and thought, maybe there's enough for a little doll dress... and Betsy was the first one I thought of. Both Betsys could use a new dress, but this one was my original, so I thought I better make hers first so she wouldn't get mad at me. 

oh yeah. imagination. 

She looks pretty good for 63. Shhhh don't tell her I told.

The Littles

Today I decided to bite the bullet and restring my poor Betsy whose head fell off. What I found out (by holding a flashlight to her head!) is that they must have put the rubber band for her head on before they even put her together! That means that little rubber band held up since 1959 when I got her-- 57 years! Pretty amazing! Of course I never really played hard with her, and many of those years were sitting in a box, sad to say. I restrung her after watching some tutorials, mainly

http://mandalineartfulliving.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-mccall-twins-visit-hospital.html

with some thoughts from who knows where else. Her McCall twins look just like mine, falling apart! Ten years ago, a friend who used to run a doll hospital fixed her for me, her hip had broken and her crotch cracked. He fixed her up good as new, but didn't restring her head. She went back to the box.

Recently, I got out my old dolls and found out she'd lost her head. I researched getting her restrung, but found out it would cost me $30 or so. So then I started learning about restringing.

I used kind of a combination. I got some rubber bands for littles from dollspart. I did Ginny's arms (her walking mechanism still works!!) and Betsy 2's arms since her head is still on, although a bit wobbly. Poor Betsy 1 had no head. I used some elastic cord for her head, tied in in well, and then a rubber band for her arms. She is happy to be altogether.

And here's a picture of the three repaired ones (still needing hair attention but that's minor) and The Lotties on the right. I have no idea why I bought them other than their cuteness. At least they are small. :)

And I've been playing around with posing the Lotties. I saw the calendar on the wall and thought it might be a good background.

and of course Rain Puddles Lottie got jealous.

here's a picture of the three Old Little Girls. Wouldn't it be fun to be seven again?

Betsy's new dress

30 hours of riding in the car to go see my daughter... more like 32 total. She moved far far away. She had a sweet new baby I had to go meet. I took some crochet thread Just In Case I felt like making something. Here's what I did.

No pattern. I started out making a vest for Yasmin. Didn't like it, so decided to turn it into a Betsy dress. Just kept holding it up to the doll and adding stitches. Added the collar/sleeves as an afterthought. Like I did for the Barbie dresses.  Still needs a petticoat, but the basic dress finished.  Of course then I saw her hair was a mess. Oh well. She'll get a formal portrait later.