For many of those of you, you may not know that my profile pic of myself was taken many years ago in front of the Tasha Tudor dollhouse in Williamsburg when it was on display in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller museum. This dollhouse, sadly is no longer on display and was specially built to house Tasha's remarkable miniature collection for Thaddeus and Emma , a life size set of dolls she made herself measure 15-16 inches in height.
Today would have been 102 birthday. As a child I enjoyed her lovely illustrations for such books by Rumor Godden, such as The Dolls House and
A is for Annabelle which was the inspiration for my reproduction french fashion doll Annabelle.
So here are a few photos of Annabelle preparing for tea from the archives. I would have liked to do some new photos, but my schedule didn't allow for that.
If you would like to know more about Tasha Tudor, visit the family's
Tasha Tudor Website
Tasha Tudor Facebook page
Tasha Tudor Instagram
#
TashaTudorDay2017
~Lisa
Since I haven't been blogging much, I have been working on some other sewing projects. I finished Annabelle's fall dress, using the pattern from the two Gildebrief magazines I purchased on Ebay in August. They were Autumn 2010 and Winter 2010 issues and had the two part articles of a picnic with Six cousins and a Governess.
Here is what the article looked like- a picture of it from the magazine,
Below is what the covers of the magazines look like. They run 18.95 each but come with complete instructions. They are printed in Germany so be sure you get the English version when buying on Ebay. You can order direct from the website in Germany, Karin is great to deal with and she has a facebook page. I have downsized some of the patterns to fit my FR dolls. These two magazines had 12 inch patterns that are easy to convert/downsize. If you are interested in antique dolls or antique dress patterns- these can be converted to American girl or my twinn dolls as well, just more in depth.
I decided to set up a little kitchen diorama for Annabelle too. I want to take her out for fall when I get a little hat for her, as this dress screams pumpkins and scarecrows and hayrides. Right now, she is busy in her kitchen baking bread.
I hope you enjoyed it. The stove is a 1:6 scale metal replica, Crescent stove. The washer wringer is an Ertel model 1:5 so it is not exact 1:6 it may be more 1:8 scale and not exact Victorian era as Annabelle's dress is more 1860's or late 1860's and the wringer washer is more late 1890's early 1900's. But it looks cool with the cookstove. I have a cream seperator with buckets that is cool too. I would love to set up her dollhouse with a true Victorian kitchen with pump sink. I love Victorian kitchens, and have been collecting a bunch of things for this scene.
Maybe I can get something together where she is making a pumpkin pie or an apple pie since it is around that time of year!
With all the hubaloo of the Barbie club meeting, and all of the goodies I've received, I didn't have time to post about the video /DVD I had ordered from
the Carmel Doll Shop .
It is entitled 'The Romance- The Life of Lillian Dal Monte' A charming tale of music, Achievement and love, told through 19th century dolls . Narrated by Delia Green.
It was originally a presentation created in 1997 for the United Federation of Doll clubs Annual convention and enjoyed by them. Since then, it has been revamped and upgraded with more stills and scenes added. It is a wonderful video using reproduction and antique dolls- Jumeau, Bru, Gaultier and a wide variety of miniatures and props and dioramas.
The video runs about 40 minutes and can be ordered from the above link for 29.95 with shipping included from the Carmel doll shop. They also have other UFDC presentation videos for the same price.
Here are some stills from the video-
The video is astounding and well worth the money, so if you have a bunch of friends who are into doll videos, and the like, this would be great eye candy. It is narrated from the dolls' point of view, as if she is telling it from her point of view, set in the Napoleonic empire period or at the Civil war era. The sets are museum quality. I have enjoyed mine about 3 times and never tire of watching it. Highly recommend!
New dolls and other goodies arrived this weekend....
Royal Treatment Veronique2015 online event doll and Techrat from Jem and the Holograms, a 2014 last W club exclusive doll, both arrived on Friday. I just got around to deboxing Techrat halfway this weekend. I took Veronique to my Barbie club for show and tell, still in her box- I still haven't deboxed her. I think I may save deboxing her for a special occasion for when I'm feeling down in the dumps. I sometimes do that. Save a special doll like this for deboxing. I have so many that aren't deboxed it helps.
This weekend I purchased two Cinderalla dolls at Walmart that were on sale for $13 each- the Fairy Godmother and Cinderella bride. The one in the blue dress, the one I really want was scanning at $30 so I put her back. I will try another walmart and see if she scans out at the sale price.
Annabelle also got in her new wig and it is adorable. It is a little more carrot blonde than I imagined from the photo on eBay but it makes me think of Buffy from Family affair, which is kind of endearing in a way. I had wanted a lighter blonde in keeping with Annabelle in the book who is 'fairer' in Tasha Tudor's drawings but this suits my Annabelle to a tee. She looks more rosey and cheerful with this color wig, kind of like a young Aunt Pittypat from Gone with the wind. lol.
I also got in the mail the Byer's choice croquet mallets I stumbled across on auction that are the perfect fit for Annabelle's scale! I have been wanting more than anything to make her a croquet outfit, but put it off because could not find the croquet set in her proper scale. Now that I have just to find the fabric which I saw a perfect blue and white striped seersucker at Hobby Lobby. One mallet is red and one is blue with the matching ball. I am going to make the matching hoops with wire and decorative tape.
The Gildebrief pattern books I ordered also came in the same time as her wig. I find it irritating on some sellers who print out a label and wait THREE freaking days to go to the post office. I ordered her wig and paid immediately yet it took this person until almost the middle of the week , Wednesday or Thursday to get it to the post office. I ordered my Gildebrief magazines on a Thursday and they were here within two days the same day as the wig, on a Saturday, from California to Virginia. Unbelievable. As soon as I paid they were shipped.
In these two issues they used the same pattern in a 2 part article of "1 governess and six cousins at a picnic, " with different variations of sleeves, belts, and pleats in the skirt, and one has a coat. The dress done in plaid is adorable and I was thinking of making one in a fall plaid for her like that one as I have a fall plaid in my stash, it is like a challis. Her croquet outfit would be a little more elaborate that will be another pattern, this is more simple, like a working dress.
Here are some pics of her with the croquet items-
Enjoy. I will have more photos as I wade through all of this. Techrat is incredibly hard to get his sneakers on! I am also going to try and blog on this blog every day in September, which will be hard, so here's hoping I can find something to blog about every day!! Lisa
