May Day May Day—yoo hoo!

Friday, May 1 

is the opening day of the 

Dolly Diva Design Boutique!

    How fun is that!!! I have a whole plan planned it is as follows:

        Although I will be keeping a doll or two or six for myself, all the other dollies will be looking for new adventures and new horizons. They will be wanting to take their wardrobes with them, of course.

     Okay, here's what you do if you are looking for something in particular and want to get in touch with me other ways than writing to the blog. You can send me an email at 'ladymacregor at gmail dot com'. However, I only go there once or twice a day so please be patient. Of course you can leave a message in the comment section at the bottom of this post but that's pretty public. Just write to me at the email above and I'll get it. I'm also on several doll lists. However, if you write to the blog and ask that your comment be kept private, I'll do exactly that. 

      

(By the way, I need a replacement body for Madra. I will trade a reasonable trade for anyone who has one, we eat our own shipping costs.) 

Here follows a list of stuff I have my hands on right now:

    • Kentucky Derby Gene dressed in a green silk outfit w/ hat, gloves, purse, stockings and field glasses.

    •  2 horses w/saddles, saddle blankets, and so on, 1 trophy, 1 rose blanket, 1 bouquet (maybe two but not sure yet) of roses.

    •  Gene's racing silks, cap and boots.   

    •  Lots of paper things like cards with the horses in the races listed, etc. that are miniaturized copies of the real things!

    •  All my Trents except one­—the one in a tux—so he’ll have to go to other “studios” to find work! One of him has, wait for it, "flocking" hair!

    •  Ms. Gene, is tied down in her hatbox unscathed, though the hatbox was well and truly trashed by UPS on its way to me from the convention (which I couldn’t attend!)  {:(  I have made a sort of repair job with scotch tape. Anyone with patience and skill could repair it nicely and neatly should they so desire. It is only apart at the seams.  I don’t have the time to do the repairs myself. There will be no charge for the hatbox except if it is a couple bucks more for the shipping.

The Dallas Gene painted by Brian Bulkley 

• The Dallas Gene gift doll with a short, curly Gina Lolobrigida type "do" in a slinky white mermaid dress with red lined cloak (below), MIB only opened to look at and never seeing the light of day since Dallas 2006. 


 I am graduat-ing now from the 16ish" ladies to the American Model Goth, 2012 version. I've finally found The One. She is the perfect size for what I want to do—which I have explained a little while ago on this blog—which is to miniaturize my concert gowns.    
     Here’s where you come in! To do all of the stuff I really want to do dollwise and otherwise, I need the space I currently have filled with all manner of dolly stuff I no longer can't or don't want to use. You get to see if there's something you want, get it/her/him and play with same so that the ladies who live here now don't pine away in their boxes—or make such an infernal racket with their demands I can't think—which will free me to do all my other stuff not to mention the space to do it in, but I will be sewing for those few dolls I have left and making patterns and like that. One big slightly worn concert dress can make many mini-dresses. See where I’m going with this?
      Now that you know how I plan to spend the second half  of my life—means living to age 154—you see why I am forced to make more room available while enjoying myself in the process. 
     Okay. Done. Stay tuned. I’m off to the doll mines! See you Friday, May 1 anytime after 9:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time?I will be setting up a non-google site for myself—have the site but haven't developed it or anything. That's my next project. So for now, working through "Dolls For Sale", "Dress Making for Dolls", the old "HLAYG", or other sites. Just look me up on those sites and contact me there.

     See you soon!

Wondering....

about you all—you there in your dollroom, and you other yous, too, wherever you may be! I'm wondering where you are, what you do in the doll-o-sphere, how you found your way here. Basically, I'm just interested in who I'm talking to. Am I just talking to me or are you reader types stumbling onto the site, giving it the once-over and then coming back once in a while to see if I've uploaded something "dolly diva" like—a pattern or design, or at least an accessory like a hat or purse, etc. etc. etc.
     Well, things are looking up. I'm reaming out my STUFF. I have a lot of that. I've been collecting some of the it since I was a teenager, some time last century, she says with a mysterious smile. 
     I don't have any grandkids. I don't even have any kids. My husband's kids aren't in any way, shape or form, interested in the mini-ladies I find so intriguing. Now there you have it. There's no place for these little women to go but to interested parties out in the blogosphere.
     So, tell me in the comments who and where you are and what you find intriquing about dolls. I will tell you that my dolly interest is fashion oriented. I'm a frustrated dress/hat designer and I love the 1930s/1940s especially. My interest dwindles the closer we get to modern day. The twenties (1920s that is) are interesting and easy to sew with no real fitting required, but they aren't as beautiful as the thirties, forties and fifties. People dressed then, you know? Suits, hats, heels, cocktail dresses, evening gowns, and bathing suits with more material than necessary just to keep their wearers legally clothed!
     Don't we love Gene Marshall et alia for this very reason? She has dressy dresses and suity suits gowny gowns and acres of glamour.
     Also, I have another reason for starting this whole blog and for beginning to collect Gene and her buddies in the first place. Let me say that Barbie is just too tiny for my purposes. 'Nuff said.
     When 15.5" Gene, friends and copycats showed up on the scene, I did a little leap of joy—and bought a whole tribe over the years. However, my purpose did not come to fruition because I was involved in learning the ropes of being married for the first time at age 61! Sidebar: I made my wedding gown, of course.
     Then what do you suppose! Tonner made the 22" American Model Goth in 2012. She is superb, glam to the max, gorgeous and, most important to me, BIG!!!
     Now I get to it—my purpose: I may have mentioned this before, but I am a retired opera/concert singer. Over my years of performing, I wore a lot of concert gowns which I made myself! The opera companies supplied my opera costumes. However, I have plans to make mini-copies of my Valkyrie and Rhinemaiden costumes from the originals of the first Wagner Ring Cycle put on by Seattle Opera. When the company retired the first production, they gave me my costumes. I plan to make a flock (herd?) of eight Valkyries, complete with American Girl horses for five mounted ladies, of which I will only keep Siegrune/Waltraute (my roles) and a trio of Rhinemaidens of which I will keep Wellgunde (yep, me!). The rest go on the block.     
   Glitzy material that looked good in the light and my friends the Vogue pattern people kept me supplied with gowns (way-less-expensive-than-buying-readymade), which could look spectacular from the audience and actually fit me. I'm 5'10" and long-waisted with broad shoulders (for a girl anyway). In strapless readymade gowns, I look like I'm wearing an empire-waisted short formal, sort of like preparing to go to the prom.
     They are now packed away in trunks. I don't have room for trunks. Plus they are never seen in those trunks. They lie amouldering in those trunks. Solution: Make mini-copies for my beautiful AM Goth girl and put them on display! And speaking of my AM Goth girl, she's going to be my one and only with a plainer sister for fitting, etc. 
     I will keep a representative assortment, one of each, of the other girls I've collected but most of the girls and their clothes will be out there for you, my loyal follower(s?) to snap up without the interference and bother of eBay. Sound interesting?
     BUT...Oh what to do with the patterns made for those mini-copies? Oh what to do with all the leftover glitzy material from the big dresses? MAKE COPIES OF THE PATTERNS and MAKE MORE COPIES OF THE MINI-DRESSES FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE TO SEW!! Put those copies out where people who might want such types of clothes for their fashion dolls of all shapes and sizes can get them—a glamour shop for the ladies, and maybe even a tux or two for the guys they hang with. And because patterns are easy to replicate, they will be the most prevalent of things available on the site. 

     How does this sound to y'all? Are you beginning to figure out why this blog is called "Dolly Diva Designs" hmmmm? 

Cover Photo by Dave DeCaro   

   I'm going to give you a little teaser here!  The publication, left, measures 8.5" x 11.5" and contains 30 pages of articles, stories and pictures, most in color, put together by yours truly but with articles and photos donated by members of the "Here's Looking At You, Gene" yahoo mail group. It was prepared for Gene's 2010 convention in Philadelphia, which turned out to be the Integrity Toys Gene's farewell. The centerfold of the magazine was a pattern for the sweet little sundress with bolero, seen below. 

Sister Mary Joseph Doll Patterns

If you would like a magazine for yourself, I will answer questions and settle details via ladymacregor at gmail dot com. At the convention, the magazine sold for $25. The price for it from this blog, including postage in the US would be $12.50. Outside the US, the price would be $12.50 plus any postage in excess of the equivalent of $2.50 US.

That's all for now—but do keep your needles threaded

and your dolly models standing by...