What's This Then?

Oh no, not another doll!!!  After making the little old doll some clothes I decided that I would like an up to date doll of this size.  So, I sent for this Gotz Just Like Me doll.  She’s the same height as the old doll but not so chubby.  I really enjoyed making her this dress.  Now I have to make her some underwear.  Also, I’d like to find some shoes to fit her, the ones she came in are wrong for the look I want.  I have lots of fat quarters of fabric that are perfect for making dresses for these small dolls, this doll is 11.5 inches tall.

A Little Dress

Here's the old doll with her new dress...

I should have made it slightly longer as the petticoat shows, or I should have made the petticoat shorter, I folded it up under the dress for the picture.  I love the fabric this dress is made from, I got it in a swap last year and it's come in just right for this doll.  Another thing I like about this size of doll is that I get a dress out of a fat quarter.

Apron

I hadn't got round to showing the apron I made a couple of months ago.  It's for my Gotz Precious Day Girl who is the same size as an American Girl.

I was pleased with how this turned out.

I was thinking about how play doll styles have changed.  My old doll (post below) is the sort of doll I would have been given in the 1950s.  These dolls were like little girls and could be bought very cheaply from places like Woolworth's.  They came nicely dressed with hair that you could comb.  I did an internet search to see if this type of doll was still available.  I was surprised to find that you can only get baby dolls and dolls that look like skinny teenagers.  I know you can get more expensive dolls that still look like little girls but these aren't the 'throw away' type of doll I received as a child.  Those dolls had limbs that sort of pushed into the body, the heads were soft vinyl and the bodies were stiff plastic that was quite thin in some places.  After a while their arms or legs would come out of the socket and that was it, they never stayed in place again.

I was also thinking about why I've been playing with dolls lately.  It's not because I want to be a doll collector, it's because I love making clothes for them.  So, any old doll will do and it's nice to think that I can refurbish an old doll by making it new clothes.  I have three dolls that I've made clothes for; two baby dolls that are waiting for me to make clothes; a collectors type doll by Ashton Drake (see Ivy below); and, waiting in the side lines, is a 25 inch tall, Blossom Toys doll from the 1970s.

Underwear

The old doll has decent underwear at last.  I had to cut the original pants off her, I don't know how the manufacturer had managed to put them on her, they were so tight.  Now she's got bloomers....

The pattern I used was from the Rosemarie Ionker book 'A Closetful Of Doll Clothes'.  The bloomers fit beautifully.  The ones I'd made for my American Girl don't fit half as nicely.  The difference is that Rosemarie Ionker had made allowance in the pattern for the doll behind.

I didn't bother gathering the legs of the bloomers, I think they look ok as they are, her legs are quite chubby.

Next I made the petticoat....

The only alteration I had to make to the pattern was to add a bit more in the body width (it being a different doll to the one used in the book).  Also I used my sewing machine gathering foot.  I don't think I've ever used it before.  It didn't gather the skirt as full as the pattern called for but I don't mind this as petticoats on dolls can be a bit full in my opinion.

I usually do the gathering either by machine stitching with a long stitch, two rows parallel to each other, then pulling one end of each thread, remembering to tie off the other end so the thread doesn't come through.  Or I hand stitch a running stitch along the fabric and pull up that way.

An Old Doll

I don't know how old this doll is, it was given to me about ten years ago to be 'done up'.  The person who gave it to me liked to rescue play dolls but didn't know what to do with them, so she gave them to me.

The head is soft vinyl and the arms, legs and body some sort of rigid plastic.  I cleaned up her face but it still looks a bit discoloured.  She is about 12 inches tall.  Her hair is rooted and was very untidy, I washed it so it is clean now but it looks sort of frizzy at the ends.

I think she deserves some new clothes, she doesn't look as though she had much pampering in her old life.