I worked most of today on “projects” and have a few things to show you… First up is Patsy…I have her dress finished except I may put a french knot or two on her sleeves… I think she looks really pretty in this light turquoise/blue/aqua colored print…(the color keeps seeming to change on me…)
[If you click on any picture, it will enlarge.]
Her pantalette’s are pretty cute on her chubby little body too…
Does anyone think I should hem her dress just a bit so the pantalette’s show a little more?
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Okay, now to Ten Ping’s doll wardrobe. Remember it started out like this…
When I left you hanging yesterday, I had given it one coat of chalk paint…
After I was finished painting it, I used some Rub-n-Buff and tried to highlight the roses that were sort of embossed on the piece. You have to go very lightly or it makes it too dark. In person this looks very sweet, but in the pictures it looks a little too spotty to me, so I think tomorrow I’m going to use my “white” Rub-n-Buff and go over some of the roses lightly and see if I can’t tone them down…There are also just a few areas where the pink is peeking through, so I need to touch them up.
I scratched off some of the paint on the bright gold drawer pulls to tone done the brightness of them.
Ten Ping was thrilled with it and was afraid I wasn’t going to show it to you until it was fixed… so she jumped down off the dolly shelf and did a little Vannah White number with her arms waving… :o)
While I still had some paint left, I looked in my “props” stash and decided I had a few other things that needed a “touch up” so I painted them too…
A tricycle…that was blue is now white… (I do need to replace the felt seat and foot pedals…
A little table that I’ve used for Ten Ping one time is now white and highlighted with a little touch of gold…
…and a bakers rack in doll size, that I found at the Thrift shop for .25 cents is now white…
Here they all are in one picture…
So that was my day… I hope yours was productive too… Get ready to enjoy the weekend…
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Patsy’s dress is darling! I love your ribbon embroidery touches on the lace collar. Little girls wore their dresses short, so maybe putting in a small growth tuck would shorten it enough to see the matching pantalettes.
I am amazed at the transformation of the plastic wardrobe! It is absolutely wonderful! Who knew some chalk paint and your “rub and buff” could make it look like an antique! Well done, and the paint really modified the other props as well.
HI Karen,
I did shorten the dress just a little bit, but with some pintucking…
The wardrobe will get a second post tomorrow as I did a little change up on it… toned it down just a bit… It looks better now…not so spotty…
Thanks so much for your comments…
Blessings, Jeanne
Ten Ping MUST be ecstatic! I’ll bet she wishes she *could* smile and really show you how much she appreciates it… she always looks so ‘pensive’…. Patsy’s dress is *lovely* – as usual. 🙂 I really DO need to spend some time with my silk ribbons – you use them to a great advantage on your creations… well done! 🙂
Thank you Mary,
Ten Ping only lets “me” see her smiles… she is thrilled and wants me to make her another dress just so she can show off the cabinet again…
Patsy is smiling about her dress too… It will be on Ebay in about half an hour from now…
I can get lost in doing silk ribbon embroidery… it’s a very fun craft for me… hope you give it a try soon…
Blessings, Jeanne
I love Patsy’s dress, so pretty! I like to see the pantalettes a bit. The wardrobe is really nice, you did a great job painting and antiquing it. The other props look a lot nicer painted too.
HI Regina,
I shortened Patsy’s dress just a bit by adding 4 rows of pintucking to the bottom of her dress. I raised it up somewhat, but it’s hard to see it in my pictures. In person you can see them easily, but when I try to take pictures of it, it doesn’t seem to capture them so much…
Thanks for your compliments on the wardrobe for Ten Ping… it’s had a makeover today and I’ll show what I did to it tomorrow…
Thank you Regina,
Blessings, Jeanne
All so pretty, Jeanne. It’s glorious to see your work.
Thank you Becky,
How kind of you to say that… I appreciate it…
Blessings, Jeanne
Great job with the paint! Now, I can picture the trike painted red for Christmas/Valentine’s next year.
Maybe a pin tuck or two on the dress for Patsy. But, it is adorable as it is. Love the double ribbons and flowers on that delicate lace collar. I can see now how that prior basting works so well. Love this one.
HI Joy,
I hadn’t even thought about painting the tricycle red, but I like your idea and think I’ll give it a try… it would look much prettier in my pictures to be red than white… thanks!
I guess we were thinking alike… I did some pintucking around the hem of the dress… and it pulled it up just a bit… it’s hard to tell in my pictures but in person, the pantalettes are easily seen…
Thanks very much Joy,
Blessings, Jeanne
Patsy’s dress is so sweet. I think having the edge of the pantalettes show just a little would be great. I love the ribbon embroidery and the two waist ribbons. I love ribbon embroidery and it adds the perfect touch.
The little wardrobe looks wonderful as do other the other items. You could use the tricycle for Patsy, I think. It matched her dress in blue, but still would look nice in white.
You may not be a dolly accessory collector in the traditional sense ( those of us who collect PC/AG clothing, accessories and stuff from elsewhere to use), but you certainly have a collection of shoes and little props. LOL *smiles* :-). I found a pair of doll sized metal scissors that really open and a mini sandlewood fan the other day. Felicity was delighted.
HI Laura,
I shortened the dress just a smidge with pintucks… and think it helps… I’m also going to make a slip to go under it to hold it out somewhat.
I LOVE to go shopping for props… in fact, sometimes that’s all I end up looking for, is things for my dolls… oh well…it’s fun!
Thank you Laura…
Blessings, Jeanne
I agree that Patsy’s dress is lovely the way it is. It’s quite subtle and looks childishly simple until you start looking, and then it has Jeanne Marie detail. I like it with those boots too.
When I worked on campus at the library we had several Vietnamese student workers. Sometimes they brought pictures and in all of them, they looked sad, as contrasted to their smiles and optimistic outlook at work. I asked about that, and they said it was an Asian custom to look pensive, especially in pictures. Now that I’ve written this, perhaps we’ll get a response from people who know. Ten Ping may well be following her own customs.
I love Joy’s idea of a red tricycle for Christmas.
Thanks Marilyn,
The boots Patsy is wearing were from Bitty Bethany. I sold her whole outfit, minus the boots…as I wanted to keep them… I love the looks of them.
I think you are right about the Asians… they are a pretty shy bunch and the smiles may be few and far between but I’ve seen some really sweet ones from the Asian’s at my church… :o)
I’m liking the idea of a red tricycle too! I might have to look for some red spray paint…
Thanks Marilyn,
Blessings, Jeanne
Another sweet and lovely dress, Jeanne. I love the print and the way you finished with the detail. Just beautiful.
Also, your props are really neat and it’s great you could re-do them the way you want them to look. What fun it is to find and have items like that as props and/or for doll collectors to find for their dolls. The accessories are just as exciting to get as the dolls are.
Enjoy your Saturday!
Thank you Paula,
It’s nice when a dress doesn’t take me forever to get it finished… this one was relatively quick to make. I am going to make a half slip to go under it… when I added the pin tucks they sort of made the dress lay in folds, so a slip will help…
I had a great Saturday and you’ll see tomorrow what I worked on…
Hope you had a great day too!
Blessings, Jeanne
Great job with the paint on everything and how cool that the wardrobe has a mirror so backs and fronts can be seen in one picture. The dress is adorable with the lace and ribbon embroidery. I think the pantaloons are too good to cover up completely. Love all of the wonderful tips and techniques you share with us.
Yes, Japanese women are very modest and even covered their mouths when they smiled in conversation and even while chewing their food, let alone in a picture, 30 years ago when I was in a Japanese-American Friendship Group in Japan. Hopefully the younger generation feels more liberated, but the pictures will be seen “back home.”
Thank you Susette,
I’m really happy to have this sweet little wardrobe as a prop now… I think I might be able to use it with Patsy…if I put it up on something to raise it up just a teeny tiny bit…
I did shorten the dress with pintucks… and hope it helps…
Thanks for answering Marilyn’s comments about the smiles of Asians…
Blessings, Jeanne
The wardrobe looks just wonderful, Jeanne! It looks like a precious antique now, and I am certain that Ten Ping is so happy to have a little ‘something” for her to pose with! It will be fun to see what you come up with to put inside! Are there little hangers for the rod? It might be that she is thinking that she will be living with you for a good long time now!
I love Patsy’s dress! I too, would make a small growth tuck to see the sweet little pantalettes more. Most of the time, a doll is below eye level, so they don’t show up well, and if you took the time to make them, they SHOULD be showing!
HI Linda,
I was hoping the wardrobe would look like a little antique and I think it does. I “fixed” it a little bit more today and like it better. There weren’t any hangers but I can make some… but poor child…she has no clothes to hang up.. I might have to cut out some “paperdoll” like clothes to hang in there… :o)
I did shorten the dress but think a half slip will work well for it now…
Thanks so much,
Did you enjoy today as much as we did? It was glorious here!!!
Blessings, Jeanne
A very successful day of painting! at a garage sale I bought the bakers rack along with two matching pieces I no longer remember the other two pieces. One more doll related unnecessary when we moved east. Proportion is importNt so perhaps a tiny tuck to shorten the skirt
HI Jan,
I thought the bakers rack might work for a toy rack, or a fabric stash, or dishes, or plants… or stuffed animals… so it’s pretty versatile I think.
You’ll see what I did to Patsy’s dress tomorrow…
Blessings, Jeanne
The dress is very sweet, especially with the little ribbons. I don’t really have a preference about whether the pantaloons show–I think it’s nice either way. Good job on the armoire. It looks very nice.
Thank you Carolyn,
I did shorten the dress just a little bit but I’m going to make a slip to hold it out a little bit and that will help show off the pantalettes some…
Thanks for your compliments on the little wardrobe…
Blessings, Jeanne
I liked the dress length as it was; I’m not sure, historically, whether little girls’ pantalettes showed or not. Perhaps it depended on the era.
I have to say, I love to see all the detail work you put in your garments, particularly this little lace color with silk ribbon embroidery. I’d done a lace trim at the neckline on something once, and it didn’t want to stay very flat for me–this would have been the perfect solution, and wouldn’t have taken much time to do. Something to keep in mind for next time!!
True confession time, here: I’m a pink/lavender girl and really liked the pink color of the wardrobe!! (Except for the hearts–since they weren’t even on straight, I’m wondering if someone added those, or if it came with them?) So, I would probably have kept it as is, or, if repainting, it would have been a tint of color, not chalky white. I do like how the drawer pulls turned out when you scratched some of the white paint off, though.
Your little baker’s rack turned out especially nice, I thought.
Charlotte
HI Charlotte,
Sorry I missed your comment last night…
I’m not sure if the pantalettes were supposed to be seen or not either, but I did a dress for Patsy once before similar to this one and it was cute when her pantalettes showed. Thanks for your kind comments about Patsy’s dress and how I detailed things on it. Yes, tacking down the collar with the embroidery really does keep it in place…
By keeping the wardrobe pink and white, I thought it was pretty limiting for my dress designs. I thought white would work better. The stickers were just stuck on there and not even straight…It’s one of those pieces that actually looks better in person too, than it does in my pictures. That’s why I even toned it down more… it looked too splotchy…
Thanks for your thoughts Charolotte,… you always give me something to think about…
Blessings, Jeanne
Sorry….that should have been “little lace collar”!! LOL Fingers can’t keep up with my thoughts!