French Fashion ladies

Veronique is loosely based on the French fashion dolls of the 19th century. I am devastatingly in love with them! Oh if only I had the money to bring one home to live with me! But alas, I can only dream and perhaps try to make one in cloth someday!
Here is a wonderful artist who does reproductions of a French Fashion dolls.These dolls by Alice Leveritt are just to die for! I am thinking about beginning to save for the ultimate fashion doll, perhaps after I get my Bluette.

Veronique!

Here is Veronique all put together and her wigging done. I have used boucle yarn for her hair. She still has her pins in where I have measured her for her sloper. She will be wearing a regency style costume with matching poke bonnet, long petticoat and panteloons.

Not Ready for Ebay!

I thought I was going to put this doll in the red dress on ebay today, until I decided she needed a little dolly to hold. Well I've had this paper mache doll sitting around my workroom for almost a year,but she was nekkid! It took me ALL DAY to make her some clothes! This is where I'm at, and I'm ready to go to bed. LOL! Tomorrow I hope I get the time to add some ribbon roses to her bonnet.

Reading books for kids again!

I love books written for kids! I think its an instant gratification thing-I can actually finish them quickly! haha! Here is a book that suprised me at how good it was! It is called "Dollmakers and their Stories", by Krystyna Poray Goddu. It is a series of biographies that are somewhat chronological in their effect on the doll world and its more modern development.The first one is Martha Jenks Chase,which is very interesting-especially the speculation on her face molding secret! It also covers Kathe Kruse, Sasha Morgenthaller,
Madame Alexander and Ruth Handler(of Barbie fame). What I really liked about it was that you really got a fairly good sense of what each of these women were really like, and what motivated them to do what they did. I really enjoyed this book and was able to find it in my local library-in the juvenile section of course! LOL!

Colored Pencil shading

Here I have gotten a good start on the colored pencil work. I love to see how a dolls face just comes alive when the shading detail is added. I have used a variety of pinks and oranges for the fleshtones, and the eyes are brown with pretty gold light-tones. I use Sanford Prismacolor pencil. These are just the regular artists colored pencils, not watercolor pencils.
I am especially happy with the way her lips have turned out. I will likely go back in and work some more on the fleshtones of her face.
Since she is going to be a doll whose clothing is all removable I will be expanding the fleshtones down into the chest area somwhat.

More embroidery added

Here I have added the lip outline in DMC #3328.This is sort of a rosy pink color. The center lip line, and upper and lower accents are DMC #221, a darker brick red. I also did tiny eye dots in #3328.
I stitched a tiny rim inside the pupil outline in #780, a dark gold color.Now she is ready for some colored pencil shading!

Embroidering a doll face

This doll is made from off white Kona cotton and is my original pattern. So far I have lightly penciled in her face. I do this freehand, but it would probably be better to transfer the face somehow from a flat drawing. I always vow to myself that I will find a foolproof method for doing this-next time! I am that lazy, this is one of my bad dollmaking habits-DON'T COPY MY BAD EXAMPLE! hehe!
Next I have stitched in the eye outline, eyelashes,pupil outline, eyebrows and nostril dots. For this I use 1 strand of DMC cotton, #838. I have also done the upper eyelid and nose in #3032. I use the tiniest stitches possible!She is lying on the fabric that I will be making her dress out of. I like to use the colors in the fabric for reference when I choose my floss and colored pencils.

My little Patsyette

This was my birthday present last month-isn't she cute! She is called, "Saucy Stripes". I am hoping to get some clothes made for her and perhaps offer some on ebay.

My latest little EFA girl

Here is what I have been finishing up this week. This little girl is about 13" tall and made from an Edith Flack Ackley doll pattern from the Dolls to Make for Fun or Profit book, from 1938. I love the sweetness of Edith's little dolls. But as much fun as they are to make, I can never get the shoes to fit right. I either stuff the feet to fat, or the knit I use for the socks is thicker than what was available in the 30's, but they never seem to fit. I even tried to alter them this time, and it is a little better, but still not right.
I chose some 1930's reproduction cotton in bubblegum pink for her dress and matching feedsack print for her apron, in keeping with the era. I also did some tiny hand crocheted lace on the edge of her collar that I learned from Gail Wilson's online Hitty class. It turned out really cute!

Lookie what I got!!

My lovely new friend BonnieJean noted my lament on the VCD yahoo board, that I was unable to get the Madame Alexander doll that I wanted when McDonalds was giving them away in Happymeals a couple of weeks ago! I started trying to collect them when I saw the little ballerina-she was so cute!
So BonnieJean sent me the ballerina, a darling little snowman(perfect for my collection that I will be pulling out soon for the holidays!), and a wonderful little handmade beeswax thread waxer for hand sewing! How awesome is that!




Thank you BonnieJean!
Here are all the Madam A dolls I have collected! They are so cute!

Vintage Cloth Doll Artists Ebay Group

With the help of my two friends Bettsi and Kathy, I have started a new group on ebay for dollmakers and others who sell cloth dolls and supplies for vintage cloth doll making. The idea is that we all put the initials vcda into our auction titles and then a potential buyer would type that into the ebay search engine and everything we have to offer will come up all at once! I see it as a one stop place to shop for great cloth dolls and supplies.
Kathy has made a wonderful banner to put into our auctions that identifies us as a group.
So I hope it takes off!

Tea party

Here are a bunch of dolls I have lately completed. From left to right is: Gail Wilsons Hitty, Gail Wilsons Early American doll and her little doll, EFA little girl doll, EFA baby doll. The wicker furniture my big sister bought for me when I was a little girl at a toy shop. There are actually 4 pieces(another chair not shown) and I remember it was $12. ! The tea set was my mothers when she was a little girl in the 1930's. It is quite chipped and cracked and the sugar bowl lid is missing and one tea cup doesn't match! But doesn't that make it all the more DEAR!

EFA dolls

The first EFA doll I have recently made was the Baby doll. Her pattern is found in the "Dolls to Make for Fun or Profit" book, by Edith Flack Ackley, published in 1938. I love this book! Ediths positive attitude and enthusiastic writing style, as well as her practical humor just make it so charming!

I am not totally happy with the costume. The collar is too bulky, and her shoes turned out awful! I would like to make her some new shoes out of leather.Her dress is completely handsewn, and I always have trouble with bulk when I sew by hand. I think the seams just aren't as crisp so it is hard to get a sharp edge, even after pressing. I actually made this doll body, face and hair some time ago, when I first discovered EFA and her charming dolls. I was into using vintage materials then, and I did her face in vintage darning thread-which as you can imagine is quite thick. I had to redo some of the face with floss-it was just too harsh.

If you were able to examine my little decorative herringbone stitch you would see that some of it is very fine and some is slightly wider! Not exactly what I was going for, but practice makes perfect! hehe!

Anniebeezdoll!

Welcome to my blog! I wanted to call it anniebeezdollz, but that url wasn't available!?!
Do I have time for a blog? Probably not! But what a great way to document my work, ~with pictures! And a huge part 0f what I do is sharing it with other dollmakers, so this has got to be a GOOD THING!

Here is my latest work, this guy is on ebay right now! (may as well get the shameless plug out of the way!) He did not sell last week with a reserve price so I have put him up again with no reserve. Hope he finds a home! If he doesn't sell then he will go into storage until next summer, when I will take him out again and begin working on a pattern for him.