A Girl for All Time Lydia...

I never really had any interest in purchasing one of the 'A Girl For All Time' dolls but a lovely lady in France asked me to do some work for her and wondered if I would like to trade for her A Girl For All Time Lydia.  I had heard that the dolls were well made and being a UK company, I thought it would be nice to see for myself.  For those of you who don't know of this company and their dolls, more information can be found here on their website:

A Girl For All Time


So the doll arrived yesterday and my first thought was "maybe she's not for me" because she came in her original outfit which, although very well made and containing many pieces, it just didn't seem to suit her.  It is lemon for a start and I felt if made her look a bit washed out with her dark hair and dark blue eyes.  But also because Lydia is the company's Georgian girl and I'm really only into more modern dolls to be honest.  Here is a photo of Lydia in her default outfit, not my photo because I forgot to take a 'before' one!

However, I'm always willing to give things a go, so I undressed her and had a look at her face which I felt was a little bit pale for a girl who's going to be living quite an 'outdoors' life here in Spain.  So I added a bit of colour to her cheeks, some blush to her nose and chin and I filled her eyebrows in a little with black watercolour pencil.  Then it was time to find some clothes for her to wear.

Well it seems that Lydia is no shrinking violet and was not prepared to put on a dress, oh no, this young lady tells me that she is a thoroughly modern miss and wanted to wear jeans, but not any old jeans, oh no, she wanted to wear these torn jeans!  So on they went and then it was a tee shirt and finally matching beanie hat and arm warmers!  Oh not forgetting the denim sneakers of course!  All she wants now, apparently, is a skateboard!!

Now there's a turn up for the books!

 

Lydia is about 16 inches tall and has jointed elbows and knees in addition to the usual joints at the shoulders, neck and top of the legs, however the knees don't hold a pose because they are elastic strung so they just immediately go back to where they want to be!  But she's cute all the same!

My doll shelves are starting to bow with the weight of all these newcomers!!! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

A little Sasha fashion show.....

.....Phew try saying that when you've had a few drops of Christmas 'spirit'!!!

I've been busy over the last week or so, sewing a big commission for a lady in the US.  The outfits are for her Sasha girls and as she has now seen and approved the outfits, I thought I would share some photos on here.  I just have two more items to sew for her and this bundle will be on it's way home very soon!

Beige patterned blouse with tiny brown buttons:

Cream broiderie anglaise blouse with tiny matching buttons: 

Back view showing the pretty edging:

 Plain white long sleeved tee shirt:

First red and white set:

Second red set:

 First dark blue set:
 

Second dark blue set:

Purple set:

This headband is actually reversable but I might add something else to it as I feel it needs something more.....

Tiny flower print knit summer set:

Turquoise and cerise pink knit summer set:

Thank you for looking!  I just hope that the little American Sasha girls will be happy with their new outfits!!!

Nuria takes a bow.....

Nuria is such a good model that sometimes the other girls don't get much of a look in when it comes to showing off my commission outfits here on my blog.  Today is no exception, here she is modelling a ra-ra skirt set which is the first of a list of outfits commissioned by a lovely lady in the US.  I love this girl, most people would say not to put a redhead in pink but I think she wears every colour perfectly!!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing Nuria modelling today.....watch this space as I work on the rest of the outfits in this order :)

Sewing again, and a discovery....

The last few days have seen me sewing for the Kaye Wiggs girls again, this time a three piece outfit for a lady in the US.  She asked for her outfit to be made in pinks and also wanted overalls/dungarees in dark denim.  Here is her outfit:

The overalls/dungarees are made from medium weight denim with a small amount of lycra.  They've been washed several times to remove the dye.  They are all topstitched with rust coloured thread, have 6 working pockets, two on the back, two at the waist/hips and two on the bib.   As you will see below, the bib is lined in this case with blue and white polka dot cotton which is actually from a flamenco dress!!!  (I used blue and white as opposed to pink because I'm sure these will be worn with other outfits or even on their own!)   And they do up with proper metal mini overall clips!

The blouse is made from pink spotted quilters cotton with pointed collar and wide cuffs.  It does up with metal snaps and has tiny pink buttons sewn down the front placket:

One of the back pockets has a red 'tag' like real jeans do.

The sleeveless hooded jacket is made from soft fine flowered needlecord with a burgundy background and is fully lined in pink and white candy stripe shirting fabric.  It does up at the front with a pale pink separating zip.  It has two front pockets.

Here you can see the hooded jacket and the blouse.

However, I also made a good discovery when making this outfit too......the overalls/dungarees actually fit the Sasha dolls!  OK they're a bit on the long side but it won't take much for me to alter my pattern ever so slightly and have a pattern for a nicely fitting pair of overalls which fit Sasha and Gregor too.  And here is Nuria modelling them for me:

I love how the early evening sunshine is showing up the gorgeous colour of her hair here.....it's like spun gold :) 

Here you can see the lined bodice.....ideally Nuria would be wearing a vest or teeshirt underneath but I tried them on her on the spur of the moment....I'm not sure she's overly impressed about modelling topless!!! 

There is only one thing that I forgot to do and that is try out the sleeveless hooded jacket on Nuria too!!!!  I had every intention of doing so but packaged it up and sent it off today without remembering to do so!  Oh well, there's always next time :)        

Thanks for looking and have a lovely week!!!!

More sewing in the sunshine....

Today I made this little knit fabric dress for the Little Darlings.  It's going to America with all the Sasha outfits I finished last week, so my friend will be getting a nice big package soon...I hope she'll like all the outfits.

I used a pair of child's new leggings for the main part of the dress and the back of the pockets are a contrasting fabric from a new child's dress.  The socks are dark pink and white stripes.

Today's model is Gem, my newest Little Darling #2 sculpt, handpainted in 2010 by Dianna Effner.  She worked very  hard in the sunshine and as a result caught the sun across her nose and cheeks!