Here's another one for you...

     You know the doll that I "redecorated" (see previous post)? I told you I had sewn a whole wardrobe for her? I had a pattern and sewed the various versions of the pieces: wedding dress with juliet cap with attached veil (which was net dotted with rhinestones!) and a square dance outfit with an undecorated straw bonnet I got from somewhere and made a ruffle and streamers for it to match the dress. I made her a formal from the wedding dress pattern. It was pink batiste with white taffeta lining and slip. Then with no pattern just slashing and hashing away, I made a nighty (had LOTS of pink batiste and don't remember why) with ivory lace trim and the fancy-schmancy peignoir to match it: knee-length in front—to show the lace-edged nighty which reached to the ankle—but tapering to a train in the back. Very fancy as I said. I still have those things. They were fun to make then and fun to look at now.

     I will be putting up pix as soon as I get a disc for my camera. I have to depend on the Man for transportation. I managed to break my foot (a whole nother story which perhaps I will tell you when I finally GET THIS STUPID CAST OFF...oh sorry. Didn't mean to yell!) so I can't drive for another two weeks. You might feel some sympathy when I tell you it will be a whole seven weeks subsisting on sponge baths only. The drivingless angle is nothing compared with the bathless state!

     Onward. I have this room in which I am currently sitting with computer on my lap chatting with y'all. In it I must make room for sewing, designing, fitting of me and the dolls, storage of materials and the gowns I hope to copy in various doll sizes out of their fabric so I can stop with trying to store the big dresses which I won't be wearing anymore and make copies of them sized for my American Model Goth Girl and any other of our various ladies from Ashton Drake Genes and all her changes through various companies—"studios" if you will—as well as Vita and Tyler and others of like size and shape in addition to the AMs. 

     Since I made the big ones in the first place and have those patterns, I can easily make patterns to fit the mini-ladies from the schematics on the evelopes. I don't think that would ruffle anyone's copyright feathers, would it? Due to size difference, they wouldn't be exact copies anyway!

     Well, enough of this...got to get back to clearing and storing and sorting and doing all the other junk work necessary to get my plans on the road to actuality!

    Ciao! bis später, y'all! 

Okay, I'll start: 
Here's MY Dolly Story—

Once upon a prehistoric time, when I was a little girl of ten or so (we were still little girls—and boys—at ten in those days; maybe we dolly people still are?) I had a baby doll that had a headful of lovely short auburn curly, curly hair (really lambskin, I'm sure, but I don't want to think about that). Her name was Victoria Elizabeth and she was almost real baby size. She was made of something washable because I could bathe her. She drank from a bottle, and that of course necessitated changing her diaper. She could sit up and she could be bathed. An older German lady, a longtime friend of the family, was a sort of substitute Granny to me since my real grandparents were all gone to a better place—except maybe one grandpa but that's another story. 

On the first Christmas after I got Victoria Elizabeth for my birthday in July, this wonderful older lady made a complete wardrobe for her, including a lovely white organdy and lace party dress with a pink crocheted jacket and cap. A little aside: there was absolutely nothing one can do with thread/yarn and some sort of needle/hook/bobbin that this lady didn't know all about and do to perfection. I was thrilled with the enormous box full of beautiful handmade baby things. I still have those tucked away. Too bad I have no little girl of my own to give them to!

Not too many weeks later, to go on with my story, we went to the beach (we lived in the tropics so Christmas was the beginning of dry season). Of course, I had to take Victoria Elizabeth with me. She had a bathing suit after all, carefully knit by my surogate Gran, in red, white and blue—very beach-worthy! But there lies the tragedy. When we came back from our morning swim, after hosing the salt water off of her, I left Victoria Elizabeth out in the sun so that her hair and swim suit would dry properly  ...and forgot her. 

When I looked for her the next day, I suddenly remembered where I had left her. There she sat, in the blazing tropical sun, on the little stool I had set her on the morning before. I burst into tears! She had MELTED in the intense heat. Victoria Elizabeth was a lumpy mess everywhere, all the drip and flow had resolidified in the cool night air and she looked now no longer a beautiful healthy baby but the pitiful victim of some dread disease with her skin dripping like candle wax down her arms and back, ruining her darling little swimsuit in the process! All that was left—shining with its previous glory—was the beautiful curly auburn wig. I scalped her before burial, I'm horrified to report!

I saved that wig. I had no idea why or what I might do with it. I just couldn't get rid of that last vestige of Victoria Elizabeth. 

When I was in 8th grade, I bought a teenaged doll with my carefully saved allowance. Her name was Maggie. She came with blond pigtails and braids, a green plaid dress with white piqué collar and cuffs on her puffed sleeves, a circle skirt with a "leather" belt—and SADDLE OXFORDS, complete with bobby sox! I made her a lot of clothes. There was a pink prom formal, a white taffeta and rhinestone-spangled net bride dress with a veil, a squaredance dress in a green material with flowers on it including a straw bonnet with matching ties, and a negligée and nighty out of pink batiste with white lace trim—I made up the pattern for that! 

Then came highschool and college. After two years of college, I stayed home for a semester to think about changing schools and majors. I think best when I am working with my hands—sewing, knitting, and so on. So, when clearing out a closet, I came upon Maggie AND Victoria Elizabeth's wig in a big box of all my dolly things, I started to imagine... 

Elizabeth Taylor had just played Cleopatra in that movie. And people were wearing trapeze dresses and such. Blonde pigtails? Off came the blond wig. I cut down to size the lovely red curly wig and pasted it on Maggie: instant red-headed Gina Lolobrigida! I was going back to school at a different university but not for about six months. 

I played dolls while I waited. Doll, I should say. Maggie/Gina looked way too plain for her beautiful hair. India ink eyeliner and eyebrows a la Cleopatra/Elizabeth and ballet slippers painted on to replace the saddle oxfords fixed that. Then out of scraps from my back-to-college wardrobe which was in production, I made her a red wool trapeze dress with a turban to match: Voilá! A proto-fashion doll. I still have her. Her face kind of looks like Horsmann's Rini. I'll "shoot" her soon and see if you agree!

I am so sad!    

Can you imagine?

All you doll collectors out there and not one person had a story they want to tell to the world. Nobody sent me even one dolly story. Not one story! Maybe you have a hundred stories and don't want to tell them because you're shy! Well, tell your story and make up your name! Use your imagination and come up with something wonderful, mysterious, exciting, impressive or all of those combined! Playing with dolls is what we do and that takes imagination, so I know you are very imaginative and creative and would love to share with us but you're shy...well, A. Nony Mous is a perfectly acceptable name. Use it! ;D