Good bye Florence

 Time to say good bye

 The exchange

Florence with Joan her third owner and Vicki her fourth owner.

Florence’s Bonnet

 Florence is finished with the completion of her bonnet, I had tried one of the other doll bonnets on her so it was easy to see what adjustment needed to my usual pattern. I was able to restore the fabric that had formed the long skirt on her previous dress, the wedding dress. Special to use as it was scraps from Joan’s own wedding dress, trimmings were lace, cream ribbon roses a lovely white feather that Ann had sent down specially and ribbons. Her trip home to Joan and Vicki has been delayed but I have shared photos with them first.

This is being put together on my iPad so I have no idea if  the photos will be shown in the order I want

An old dress becomes a new dress

I have chosen to make Florences dress from a dress I had here Its history will add to Florences story.

I know the age of the dress as it was a baby dress made  for me confirming it as 87 years old, made by mother who was Florences second owner, the gown is all beautifully hand stitched, soft cream silk with inserted lace. It also means that it would have been worn two years later by Joan, the third owner of the doll. I'm not sure why one baby dress survived all these years, it certainly did not fit any of our dolls. But do know I added it at some stage to my fibre collection, and have shown its fine needlework to others over the years. I’m now truly aware of those tinystitches as I unpicked each one ready to make the dress.

I needed to know what Joan and Vicki wanted the doll to look like so after much researching and finally giving them three to chose from that I knew I could make from the dress this was the one we all liked

Stage one before the final lace frill added

The final part of Florence’s story will be added shortly.she needs her bonnet to complete the outfit

Dressing Florence

 First an update to her story Vicki and I were able to work out when she received Florence  and we came up with 1971 which was after Paul and I came home from Australia in January that year Vicki’s sixth birthday was May that year. 

Florence is 48cm tall and has a very long solid bold, so different from the dolls I am use to dressing

This photo is Florence as she was  when I first undressed her after she arrived, I know her pantaloons are old and I wonder if her socks  are from when she was redressed 50 years ago, surprisingly with a wash they came back into shape and I added elastic lace tops to them.

As I am dressing her as a young girl close to what she might have been originally I replaced her singlet with a chemise.

I have now completed her chemise and petticoat, they are made with white lawn fabric and matching lace, the petticoat has been kept short so it won’t show through the lace hem of her dress

We are planning to take Florence back to my sister Joan in Napier on the 9th of next month, I would like the finished look to be a surprise for her so I will continue Florences story after then, I have the dress and bonnet to make and best of all to give her a new wig, making her more like the original doll.

Florence’s pantaloons

 Don’t you love the title of this post, yes this post is all about Florence’s pantaloons, but first a little explanation about my plans for Florence’s new outfit. I want it to include something old, something new and as much past history in connection with to those who have been part of Florence’s 140 years that  I can possibly stitch into the garments.

Her pantaloons are possibly as old as she is, although I don’t think they were what she wore originally. I have bleached them and pleased with how they came up although some repairs are needed, on examining them I decided that there were definitely two different needle women's stitching to be seen, at this point I realised they had been made from part of another garment and it was easy to know where they came from as I had a similar garment here a baby gown from the 1880's. (note the feather stitching on the sleeve band, same on the pantaloons.)

This is the sleeve of a christening gown known to have been worn in 1887 by Charles Reginald Westfield ( and again in 1968 by his grandson Barryn Westfield)

The sleeves of a baby gown had been used to make here pantaloons.  Turning them inside out the original seam of the sleeve is a tidy French seam with hand stitches so tiny I needed a magnifying glass to see them and the rest of the stitching includes some rather large back stitches that have definitely been done by a different needlewoman. I needed to unpick the waist stitching in order to make repairs and now the shape of the original sleeves can be seen. 

 My plan is to leave as much as possible of those stitches as part of the history of the garment and just mend the waist and  put it on a proper waist band with a button fastener.

 Research found this example of a child’s pantaloons from the same era as Florence’s.

Mending the damaged fabric, I could see where holes had been made to thread elastic through and there the fabric was in pieces, I was tempted to to treat them as would have been done in the past, which was what was done when a child grew a piece of fabric was inserted between the top of the pantaloon’s fabric and the waist band. In my research into pantaloons I found examples of this.

In the end I decided just to re-enforce the fabric with patches and add a waist band with a button closing, this extra fabric of the waist band made them a better fit as previously they had not come up to the waist on the doll. Florence has quite a long body. 

Next garments will be to make her a chemise and petticoat.