Day after Christmas....

Day 26...and so our Countdown to Christmas has ended....

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I & my husband spent a wonderful Christmas with family and friends this weekend that was relaxing and free of stress - from the businesses and other worries, for the first time in years. We had fun decorating, cooking recipes, and visiting neighbors and friends we had not had time to socialize with because of work. My husband gave me some wonderful French perfume and other gifts that really blew me away. No, no dolls as  with this countdown I found I had a ton of dolls- too many to count!! lol! I feel truly blessed. 

Today's doll is a favorite, my reproduction French Fashion doll, a Francois Gaultier porcelain head painted by Sylvia Butler on a Seeley body. She is 12 inches high, and she is my Annabelle . Miss Annabelle today is sitting in her music room practicing on the pianoforte with Mops and Princess the Poodle watching.

One of my grail dolls to add to my beginning reproduction french fashion doll collection is an Ultimate Petite Marie Terese 2010 UFDC doll. There are currently a couple on ebay right now but I am having to watch my pennies as I know that I have dolls from the W Club that will be coming in on pre-order in January. I have always wanted a Marie Terese as a little sister /companion for Annabelle. More historical sewing! As if I don't already have enough projects to do, lol. Another bucket list project is to have a dollhouse big enough for Annabelle and her acquired little sister to live in with their collection of Bespaq to be displayed. Where I would put this dream dollhouse is yet to be decided, lol as I already have one 1:6 dollhouse that takes up a huge amount of room in the dollroom. So right now she will have to settle for temporary rooms. sigh. But it is nice to play! 
All for now-
Lisa

Annabelle's new dress...

Since I haven't been blogging much, I have been working on some other sewing projects. I finished Annabelle's fall dress, using the pattern from the two Gildebrief magazines I purchased on Ebay in August. They were Autumn 2010 and Winter 2010 issues and had the two part articles of a picnic with Six cousins and a Governess. 

Here is what the article looked like- a picture of it from the magazine,

Below is what the covers of the magazines look like. They run 18.95 each but come with complete instructions. They are printed in Germany so be sure you get the English version when buying on Ebay. You can order direct from the website in Germany, Karin is great to deal with and she has a facebook page. I have downsized some of the patterns to fit my FR dolls. These two magazines had 12 inch patterns that are easy to convert/downsize. If you are interested in antique dolls or antique dress patterns- these can be converted to American girl or my twinn dolls as well, just more in depth. 

I decided to set up a little kitchen diorama for Annabelle too. I want to take her out for fall when I get a little hat for her, as this dress screams pumpkins and scarecrows and hayrides. Right now, she is busy in her kitchen baking bread.

I hope you enjoyed it. The stove is a 1:6 scale metal replica, Crescent stove.  The washer wringer is an Ertel model 1:5 so it is not exact 1:6 it may be more 1:8 scale and not exact Victorian era as Annabelle's dress is more 1860's or late 1860's and the wringer washer is more late 1890's early 1900's. But it looks cool with the cookstove. I have a cream seperator with buckets that is cool too. I would love to set up her dollhouse with a true Victorian kitchen with pump sink. I love Victorian kitchens, and have been collecting a bunch of things for this scene. 
Maybe I can get something together where she is making a pumpkin pie or an apple pie since it is around that time of year!

Annabelle answers her letters......

I pulled out some of my other props of Bespaq including my Queen Anne desk so Annabelle could answer some of her letters. A long time ago I made her a set of cards, sealed letters with wax, cards and envelope sets with tied silk ribbons, and envelopes with letters inside. I had read that some fashion dolls came with stationary sets that even included inkwells and writing pens, so I decided to make my own stationary set for Annabelle, which was easy. 

Here she is settling down to an afternoon of writing, with a cup of tea.

The desk is a little out of scale- it is actually 1:4 scale and sized to fit Tonner dolls, Sybarites, and 16-17  inch dolls. But that is the great thing about playing with scale- and French fashion dolls- you can fool the eye. The chair is a Bespaq chair given to me by my mentor, Pitt Ginsburg many years ago and a gift I treasure very much. It works pretty seamlessly in this scene. Because she is so chunky she works with this desk pretty well and it just looks like an over elaborate piece of furniture. 

Here are some better photos of the chair and Annabelle at the desk.
The lamp on the desk is a pencil sharpner off of Ebay; you can get these in lots, I believe they were put out under the name of Holly Hobbie? I purchased a bunch of them in a lot for dirt cheap and got such things as this lamp, a coffee grinder, a scale, and other Victorian items I was looking for. They are quite useful in period scenes and Western scenes. The keys are a dollhouse miniature item, I think. 
Enjoy the pics!~Lisa