A Few Little Crafty Tasks....

Hello and welcome back to my lockdown world!!  Things remain the same here except that the lockdown is now being extended until the end of the month....I suspect it will be extended again after that, but I'm fine with it, as long as it keeps us all safe.

I have spent so much time on the internet and chatting on social media, but I have managed to read a few books on my Kobo and now I've actually done a few dolly things too.

Firstly I finished an outfit for one of my Kaye Wiggs girls that I'd actually cut out back in January.  I put it away when my son was coming to visit and had every intention of actually sewing it when he left on the 7th February.  Well that never happened but finally I started and finished about a week or so ago.  Here it is being modeled by Layla....

The outfit consists of a knit fabric hoodie with separating zip, a cap sleeved striped tee shirt and a skater skirt with attached leggings.

Another job that I've been meaning to do for ages is some partial re-rooting to one of my Sashas.  This girl is called Destin and she has been with me for almost 6 years, she is a Gotz Sasha Slate Eyes made in Germany in the mid 1960s.  She has nice thick hair at the back, although the ends are a little dry, but at the front on top it was a little thin.  I just happen to have here the perfect match in hair for her.  It comes from a modern Gotz doll that I used to have.  I cut off her hair and kept the hair before wigging her.  So the hair has been waiting to be used for this particular Sasha for maybe two years!!!  So I did that a few days ago and the hair really is the perfect match for her existing hair.  I didn't do too much, as I said above, her hair was thick at the back and I didn't want to overdo it, but I filled in some thin hair plugs and added just a few more.  Here she is before:

And here, showing you her new look:

Beautiful spring outfit is by Sarah Williams AKA Vintage Sasha
Orangutan is from IKEA
Socks by me and
Beautiful leather shoes by the late great Jean Jensen.

Finally,  I took some photos of Bailey, my 1971 wider faced brunette (rewigged) as she'd not been in front of the camera for ages.  I used my friend's camera to try it out....I didn't take many photos but thought these show her as she actually is....

Well that's all for now, so I will sign off and hope that you all remain safe and well.  

Big hugs

Sharon in Spain xx

Bailey Survives 'The Cull'....

It has been a very busy month and my blog, as well as my dolls and my sewing machine, have been seriously neglected.  However, having finally made a good start on my selling, I feel a lot less 'overwhelmed' and there does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel...even if it's only a tiny glimmer, it's definitely there!!!

In the last week I've listed quite a few dolls on Ebay and as a result, I've sold a small Schildkrot Wichtel boy, my one and only Sasha baby, and my little Toddler Erik.  I wasn't too concerned about the Wichtel boy or the Sasha baby as neither of them have had much attention here, but I was a little sad about Teddy, my Toddler, because he was a real cutie, but he will be going to live with a nice Sasha collector in the US so I'm sure he'll be well cared for and have a lot of fun in his new loving home.

Bye bye boys!!!  Enjoy your new homes!

I will be continuing to add dolls and other items to Ebay, so if you're interested in seeing what I'm selling or who needs a new home, please click on the link below:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/dambuster01/m.html?item=233147670425&ssPageName=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

I hope to be adding more items at the weekend, if not before!!!  

I also had a lot of dolls here that I'd bought on impulse over the last few years.  There were several Barbies, a Fashionista Ken, a Santori Gorjuss doll, some Spanish dolls by Asi and Paola Reina, a couple of Disney Animator dolls, as well as, four Journey Girls that I bought from Toys R Us.  Most of the dolls were either brand new in their boxes or had been removed and undressed and then put away.  I didn't want to put them on Ebay as I felt the postage for them would be more than the individual value of each doll.  So what to do?  I made some enquiries and found out that a local group of ladies collect donated dolls for a great cause that really did appeal to me!!!  So I gathered the dolls, there were around 25 or so in total and met with a very nice lady who told me all about their work.  Some of the women sew, others knit or crochet clothes for the dolls and then they're donated to a charity, Ángeles Malagueños de la Noche, a non-profit organisation, based in Malaga.  The dolls and their wardrobes will eventually go to children who's circumstances mean that they don't get much, if anything, from The Three Kings on the night of the 5th January.  I was invited to attend the next meeting of dolly outfit makers so I may go and see if I can help by sewing some clothing.  Wish me luck!

So now that I'm getting a little more organised on The Dolly Cull, as I've started to call it, and can actually get into my doll room properly, I decided to take one of my girls, Bailey, out with me today when we went to visit Lake Viñuela.  Bailey is my rewigged Brunette Sasha from 1971, and is one of my favourites of my Sashas.  So I thought I'd share some photos.  She is wearing her lovely Ruthdolls dress with brown leather boots also by Ruth and brown socks by me.  Sorry if the photos are a bit repetitive, I just think she looks cute from every angle!!!

 

Well I hope you enjoyed my little update and photos of sweet little Bailey.  I will try to keep my blog updated more regularly now that I'm feeling a bit more positive about my dolls.

Thanks so much for visiting, I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week ahead!!

Big hugs Sharon xx

My Sashas get a dusting off.....

It's been ages since I photographed my Sasha dolls so I thought I'd rectify that yesterday and take some photos of a few of my girls....my plan is to photograph all of them over the next few weeks so that they all get a bit of attention. 

Many of you probably thought I'd sold my Sashas as I haven't 'played' with them for a while, but no, they are all still here and still loved!  I had a count up and to my surprise I have 21 Sasha/Gregors, one Toddler and one baby (Oooops! I could have sworn I had less than this!!!).  I sent my brunette baby to the US as a surprise for a friend of mine, she's always so good to me and I'd rather she enjoy the baby than me sell her....so I just have my blond Alberto, who to be honest, is living here on borrowed time!  LOL!  Baby dolls just aren't for me.

So here are a few of my girls.  The first photo is also a photo of 'firsts'.....Millie (named in memory of Milly Dowler who I was reading a book about at the time of the dolls arrival) was my first Sasha and came here in November 2012 from Shelly in the UK.  She is from 1971 and has lovely thick blond hair and a very full fringe.   Her blue eyes were a little bit faded so some time after she arrived, I sent Millie's head back to Shelly for her to repaint her eyes.  I wanted them painted brown and love the way they look now. 

Here is another 'first', she is Bailey, my first wide faced brunette Sasha, as well as my first 'mistake' in that I washed her falling hair.....yes it all fell out, and she became my first wigged doll too, if I remember rightly!!  Bailey is also from 1971 and arrived here, again from Shelly, in June 2013.

I really love Bailey, she has been one of my favourites for some time, but don't tell the others!!! 

Here are Millie and Bailey together, wearing their Ruthsdoll dresses:

And a close up of their faces side by side:

In the next photo are my two blond Gotz Slate Eyes Sashas from the 1960s.  Left is Destin who I bought on Ebay in June 2014 and on the right is Lyric, who I adopted as a 'waif' from Shelly in the UK in August 2013.  Lyric's hair was breaking off at the roots and sadly she lost it quite quickly after she arrived here.  So she was my first Gotz Slate Eyed girl and my first Gotz reroot as I finally got around to rerooting her in April last year.

The two girls in close up.  Destin has a slightly concave face which I love, but I've always struggled to take photos that show how cute she is in 'real life'.  I like how they are quite different too :)

After having struggled with finding the perfect wig for her, I was really pleased with Lyric's reroot as I was able to use original Gotz doll hair from a later doll and I feel it was the perfect shade of blond for her.

Destin, below, often stands like this, as if she has a cute little sticky out tummy under her knitted sweater!!

Next we have three of my brunettes, from left to right, Eden, Willow and Stella:

Eden is the youngest, she's from 1970 and came here, along with her sister, Stella (1969), from a lovely friend in the US.  I had asked my friend if she knew of anyone selling a Brunette and she told me she had two herself that might be looking for new homes.  Of course once she showed me their photos, I just couldn't choose between them....so they traveled to their new home here together, I was going to say "last year" but on checking my records, I was surprised to see that they've been here nearly two years, having arrived in April 2016.

The middle girl, Willow, came from Shelly's the very same month, so all three girls have 'grown up' together here in Spain! ;)   Like Stella, Willow is a 1969 girl, although as you can see, they are only superficially alike. 

Sadly all three girls have some degree of falling hair, but having learned my lesson with Bailey, my first older Brunette, I have never washed their hair and just style it using my hands.....fortunately they all have quite a lot of hair too :)

Eden (1970)

Willow (1969)

Stella (1969)

I hope you've enjoyed seeing a small selection of my Sashas.  Hopefully I will have more photos for you again soon of some of the others :)

Have a lovely weekend!

Big hugs Sharon xx

Bailey gets out and about....

On Sunday when we went to La Cueva de Tesoro, which you can read here, I took Bailey along with me as she'd not been out in ages!  I had every intention of photographing her in the cave but my bravado didn't last when I saw that we'd be touring the cave with a small group of Spanish locals.....

So she stayed in the car.  However, once we came back out into the sunshine again, she was released from her resting place (the boot of the car, poor thing!) and given the opportunity to stretch her little vinyl legs and get some fresh air.

Alongside the cave is an area called the Rincon de la Victoria Archaeological Park and it is a smallish area full of old olive trees and the ground is strewn with fragments of local rock.  I took some photos of Bailey around the park.  It was a beautiful warm day with the tiniest breeze from the sea.

Bailey sheltered a while in an olive tree....

And rested on the rocks strewn about the park....

After a while she realised it was waaaay too warm for a cardigan....

In the park there is a 'replica' of a wall of a cave, Bailey thought that would be a good place to have her photos taken, bearing in mind she'd not been able to visit the 'real thing'!

 An attractive wrought iron bench was another spot to rest and take a photo or two....

Thank you for visiting, I hope you all have a lovely week :)

A very busy sewing time......

I'm been very busy sewing a big bundle of clothes for a dolly friend....I'm almost done, I just have one more outfit to do and this lot will be on their way to the US.  I still have almost 30 names on my commissions list but 'poco a poco' as the Spanish say, or little by little!

So I thought I'd share what I've made here, I hope you like them.

First we have Bailey who, having a new wig, is modelling again for me....she is wearing a lemon long sleeved ra-ra dress with one layer skirt in black with white and lemon daisies.  The top is decorated with three white daisies with tiny yellow buttons sewn to the centre of each flower.  Outfit also comes with black and white striped socks.  The head band would usually be worn in the normal way but it pushes her wig up so she decided it was better like this:

Again we have Bailey, this time modelling a turquoise blue and pink set.  The top is decorated with a 'motif' from the skirt fabric and the headband is a scrunchy type made using the skirt fabric.  The skirt is two layers, one with cute pictures and the other, the same as the yoke of the skirt which is pink and white gingham.  The socks are decorated with coloured polkadots.

Next we have Núria beautifully modelling a long sleeved sweatshirt with an applique on the front to co-ordinate with the skirt.  The skirt is one tier and edged with pretty cotton Swiss lace.  The outfit comes with the head band and short blue and white striped socks.

Núria again models for us, this time an orange and white set.  The fabric in this skirt is so cute, it's so colourful and pretty, covered in multicoloured little people with umbrellas.  I've used a part of the skirt fabric for the applique and added some little buttons that match the colours of the umbrellas.  This outfit has short orange and white striped socks. 

And finally for the Sashas, we again have Núria modelling a baby pink 'body' with short puffed sleeves, worn under a pink two layered ra-ra skirt.  The headband is elasticated and double sided so can be worn showing either of the skirt fabrics.  The outfit is completed with pink striped socks.

Lastly today we have my lovely little Ellie, modelling a pretty sky blue and white summer dress which has a deep 'v' at the back, where it closes with a snap and is decorated with two tiny blue buttons.  The bottom of the dress has been finished with a decorative machine stitch and then cut to match.  The outfit is completed with blue and white striped socks that do reach up to the knees if required but are pushed down in these photos.

I hope you have enjoyed my little 'fashion show' tonight, thank you so much for visiting!