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.

This is Florence

 I am making a new outfit for a very old doll, the doll we are calling Florence is about 140 years old. Her first owner was Gertrude Florence, my grandmother's youngest sister. Gertrude Florence Skinner known in the family as Flo, was born 9th February 1881 in Christchurch and was possibly about 4 or 5 when she got her doll.

This is the only photo we have of her as a child. Flo never married and passed her doll on to her niece (my mother) another Florence.

 Florence Mabel Haworth was born 12 December 1908 and when she was about 4 the doll was given to her, we know it was about this time that the first china head was replaced.  The stamp on the back of the head dates the head as between 1912-1915 and was made in Japan, This photo of Florence Mabel with her mother was taken in 1912.

The doll’s story now moves to 1945 when new clothes were being made ready for the doll to be given to the next generation and to my sister Joan. Joan’s memory of what the doll was wearing at this time helped date when she received the doll as she remembers  the doll came with a knitted singlet made by Mrs Dunic who was in the Bluff Maternity Home with Mum when our brother was born December 15th 1945. The doll was wearing a smocked dress a pale green jacket and a green bonnet.

This photo taken in 1946 is of  Joan age 6 with mother (Florence Mabel) and Joan was wearing one of the many smocked dresses mother made. Her doll's dress was probably like this one, a dress made for another doll one of several smocked doll dresses mother made that have survived. The insert photo of Joan suggests the two dresses Joan's and this dolls dress were made of the same fabric.

In the 1970's I was asked to dress Florence as a bride when she was being passed down to the next generation, Joan giving the doll to her daughter Vicki, this dress was made I think with fabric scraps from Joan's wedding dress and had an apron front embroidered with my signature Bullion stitch roses, a bustle back and lace trim. Now 50years late Florence is here with me have a new dress made, and I will continue to share her story over the next few weeks.

The Birthday Party

 The theme for my photo book this year is the Party Book.  I started with a birthday party for Poppy and put the story together using some old photos along with new ones

Poppy sent out invitations to her friends and decided she would wear her favourite dress

There were pretty party hats for everyone and games to play.

and of course Poppy had a birthday cake

Happy Birthday Poppy for January 22nd

The first of the Fabrics

 Do you remember the fabrics I posted recently, 

I went off shopping to look for some pink fabric and got carried away  with the lovely selection available and ended up buying five pieces.  I have made up the first one, here is Rosie showing off her new dress.

I had a great photo opportunity last Saturday, it was guild work day at Mary's home and I had seen on a previous visit the small kowhai tree in her yard had some lovely forked branches that were at eye level, so I took Rosie and Poppy with me. I'm thrilled with the results.

Eve’s Book

 It was Eve’s sixth birthday on the 5th, her gifts the book and doll had been secretly taken back with them after they visited at New Year ready for the occasion. The adventures of Poppy was a book that Eve helped me plan the idea for not realising it would be for her.

Some of the pages, the last story in the book was about Millie visiting with Poppy to get some new dresses before going to her new home.

After Eve read the story she received Millie to be her doll and of course Millie has to be introduced to Hallie the cat.

The new book

 I have two photo books I’m working on, the one started last year is almost finished but is held up waiting for some props to arrive  for the last set of photos. 

Lisa’s Summer holidays is a story I wrote for Eve and have illustrated it using the dolls.

Meanwhile I have planned another book project for this year, I hope to share photos soon of the first part. On the forward planning I need four pink party dress for the dolls so when Jan offered to take me shopping in New Plymouth on Monday it was the perfect opportunity to go to Spotlight and see if I could find some fabric. Spotlight was having a sale which allowed me to be tempted, the result being this collection of small print fabric. 

I have decided how I want to make the pink fabric up but need some lavender, yes I have a big bag of lace but as usual not what I want for the project, meanwhile while I wait for the lace I have ordered to arrive I am making a dress using the green fabric,  I bought a 20cm strip of each fabric , that piece will make two dresses, depending on the style, this time it will be a dress for Rosie and one for Millie at a later date.
 

What' s the time ?

 

Rosie is checking the time with a Dandelion clock.

  

It took lots of camera clicks to get the stages of the dandelion clock and to be able to sort out the best shots. Finn armed with the fire bellows tried to blow the seed heads away, while I clicked the camera hoping to get the one photo with the seeds floating away but we did not manage to get that shot, Still happy with the result.