I thought I’d show you a few pictures of Kirsten in some better lighting…
Oh, and I’m not leaving her hair up in that “I Love Lucy” get-up… it was just to keep it out of my way… and as I look at my pictures, I see I forgot to tack down her collar in the back… I’ll do that next…
The dress has been hemmed by hand and 5 sets of snaps are down the back… hidden of course! :o)
I’m calling this a dirndl, but generally a dirndl has the blouse separate… I have combined all the elements of a dirndl, blouse, sometimes vest, and skirt all in one, for easier dressing… it’s a lot less “fussy” to dress your doll in this than to have to tuck in blouses and get them situated just so-so…
Here it is with the apron added…the set looks much better hemmed and finished off in the back…
We were busy today traveling to another town to get some vinyl siding for part of our roofing project… we are finishing off one of the eaves of our house. I only had time to take pictures of Kirsten to show you her in better lighting…
BUT… that’s not all… I’m going to show you “some” of my vintage hankies… I grouped most of them in 4’s and if you want you can click on the picture and zoom in on them… You can with Kirsten’s pictures too…
In no particular order, here we go…
Whenever I see a hankie with teeny tiny threadwork like this one, I always buy it… well this is what’s left of one I had…
This is an apron I made for Patsy Tonner using a similar one.
This is a gorgeous blue embroidered one that I just love…I’ve tried to use it before, but the fabrics I’ve always chosen to use with it ended up not working.
I ALWAYS thought it was favorite, UNTIL I went to an estate sale and found this one… hand made…
…and this one…hand made too…
…and THIS ONE! I’m not entirely sure I can cut into these… They are a silvery gray color and are called Brode Main and sometimes referred to as wedding hankies… they can be quite pricy and I just saw a few on Ebay that sold for $149.00.
Well, that’s it for me today… I can’t believe it, but it’s already 12:26 and my day didn’t go anything like how I wanted… AND I think tomorrow my hubby wants to do the siding project… I guess I’ll find out when I wake up, what my “assignment” for the day will be… I doubt it will be in my sewing room…
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Kirsten’s outfit is coming along nicely. Photos do point out what we Didn’t do sometimes, don’t they?!
Well, I am in serious hankie envy here, Jeanne–you have some beautiful ones! I think I have both your Christmas hankies–in fact, I have Two of the second one! Love it! Of your others, first picture–love the pink roses! Second picture–the lavender one! Fifth picture–the round violets one!!! Sixth–Valentine. Eighth–red with daisies (I have it in black!). Of the extra-special hankies, I liked the last one best. And no, I would Not cut into those!!
HI Charlotte,
I have used SO many hankies in the past…and have bought SO many to replace them… :o)
Like I said, I DO have a thing for vintage hankies… They are so much fun to work with… I really should make more Kirsten dresses…
Well, I guess maybe I won’t be using those really fancy ones for aprons… maybe some wall decor! :o)
Thanks Charlotte,
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh, yes, Jeanne–wall decor! Attach them to a background, white for those with contrast stitching, or a pastel-to-medium tone for all white (acid-free backing, of course), and frame them. They would be a lovely accent grouping on your sewing-room wall!
Jeanne, Kirsten doesn’t look too bad with her braids tacked up, except for the wild endings! I put Molly’s braids up in a braid crown every once in awhile, and she looks so cute that way. Actually, my mother also did that to my hair when I was about 6 or 7! I sound ancient!!
You asked yesterday when i got my first doll, and that would be Molly. I bought her new from AG in 2007, when I also bought each granddaughter their first “big girl” dolls, Samantha and Kit. Michael thought Molly would be fun for me, so she was also under the Christmas tree that year! Little did he know what was to follow!
Your hankies are wonderful! I have a very speical one from my aunt, that she carried in her wedding, a gauzy, lace embroidered one that I still treasure. I also have a couple of those birthday cards from way back in the 40’s that had a little hankie for each day of the week folded into them! Talk about antiques! Yours are so pretty annd I like the soft pink and blue ones in the third picture, and also those sweet Valentine ones in the sixth picture.
Oh no, don’t cut into that last hankie! Too pretty to be an apron!!
Hi Linda,
I need to figure out a way to “disguise” the ends of her hair so I can put them up like that without using a zillion bobby pins… I like it up too…
You got Molly the year after I got Felicity (2006)… my first one… I bought mine used and did most of my sewing for the Colonial era… I think Molly may have been my second doll… I’ll have to check…
Yay for your hubby giving you such a special doll and such a special start to your doll collecting…
Okay, that’s 2 for not cutting up that last hankie… :o)
Thanks Linda,
Blessings, Jeanne
Kirsten dress is adorable! That is quite a collection of hankies. I love the round one with all over violets. Glad American Girl are bringing back the good old girls. Glad I bought mine the first time around. It will bring on a lot more interest in the historical dolls.
Have a great day!
HI Sylvia,
I like the AG girls being brought back too, for the historical reasons too… and I looked at them again… I found a girl who had gone into the AG store and video taped the dolls… they looked nicer in person than just on the website… She was quite taken with Addy…and I even got my Addy out and compared her to mine… I think the new one has a pretty coloring…
I’ve been painting today… we got rain so the siding adventures were delayed…
Thanks Sylvia,
Blessings, Jeanne
I loved seeing your hankie collection this morning. I regret not buying more of them when my best friend and I were foraging in antique shops in the 90’s. We were on the hunt for the dolls of our childhood, So much fun to see the dolls my daughter loved returning for an anniversary celebration. Allyson said it made her feel old and why didn’t she get Samantha in addition to Kirsten? LOL, I told her she could have the one I found on eBay. Better late than never… Please do not cut the wedding hankies. Please be careful helping your hubby!
Debbie
HI Debra,
I seem to always spot the hankies in the shops and even my hubby does too… I just wonder how the sales of the dolls are doing in the AG stores…and I guess online too… I looked on American Girl Playthings Pro-boards and there was a poll taken to see who was buying the dolls and which doll they were buying…
The highest votes were for NONE of the dolls being bought…
Then Kirsten was in second place with 25% of the votes…
Felicity was in 3rd place
Samantha was in 4th place
Molly was in 5th place
Addy was in 6th place
and Josefina was in last place…
Ok… I won’t cut up the wedding hankies…
Thanks Debra,
blessings, Jeanne
Should we all combine our hankie collections, I think we could open a museum! It needs a name. The Hankie Express? or maybe Hankies Inc.? If the last Brodemain were mine, it would be framed on velvet and hung in a prominent location. What an amazing piece. How many handkerchiefs are in your collection? Maybe I’ll have to pull out my box and count. I’m sure not as many as you, Charlotte, and Debra own though. đ
Hope the siding adventure today is successful. Won’t tell you and George to stay off of the roof, but do be careful please. đ
HI Joy,
We could have one HUGE quilt if we sewed them all together… it sounds like just about everyone on her has, or had a few pretty hankies in the past…
I have no idea how many I have… I might be afraid to count…
No siding work today… it was raining and although that wouldn’t have bothered us… the roof is so worn, it makes it slick up there… so we passed for today… I painted instead… and I can now see the home stretch… I’m working hard to get it done…
Thanks Joy,
Blessings, Jeanne
I love your hanky collection. I wish I had kept all the hankies I had as a girl, but I do have one. It’s hard to imagine using those beautiful things for the purpose they were designed for. But they were. And of course you had to keep a wet one in your pocket or purse so you could wash it.
HI Debi,
I can remember seeing lots of brand new hankies still in boxes in my aunts dresser one time when I was over there sewing on her Pfaff sewing machine… I think hankies are a thing of the past… and it’s sad to think that they are going to be gone one of these days… but then again, I guess someone will always be selling theirs, so maybe not…
They are so pretty when you look at them up close… I love all mine… some more than others! :o)
Thanks Debi,
Blessings, Jeanne
Your hankies are awesome. I’ve never heard the term Brode Main…thank you! I have a couple and did sell one on Ebay for quite a bit.
The one edged in Yellow with the print center is so different. Those scalloped ones are always so pretty.
Yes Joy, we could have an Hankie Museum! I started collecting them to make a quilt top. My friends Mother made one and it is soooo cute! So far all I have are the hankies đ
I love Kirsten’s dress with and without the apron…it is that fabric that brings it all together.
Be careful on that roof….maybe your roofers would add the siding for you for a few $$’s ?
Thanks Kathie,
That yellow one is the biggest one I have, I think… I believe it’s 17″ x 17″ and so sheer. I think a girl from Japan gave it to me…
It does sound like we all have quite a few hankies between us, doesn’t it?
I’ve never made a hankie quilt but could probably make a couple… :o/
We passed on the siding today… it was raining and the roof is so worn there isn’t much “tread” to our shingles, so I painted inside… I’m getting there, Kathie… bit by bit…
Thanks so much,
Blessings, Jeanne
When I was growing up my sisters and I always gave my grandmother hankies for Christmas, her birthday and Mother’s Day as did some of our cousins. Each summer when we visited Nanna my sister and I would pull out her collection of hankies to see the new ones she had received since our last visit. I have no clue what became of her hankies once she passed away. I was living in Texas and wasn’t there when the family went through her belongings. I would have loved getting her hankie collection. They were all beautiful.
I love all your hankies. Every time I thought I had my favorite picked I saw another I liked. I gave up and decided to love them all. I agree that some of them really cannot be cut up. They are works of art. Looking forward to seeing what you do with some of them.
HI Barbara,
I can remember carrying hankies in my purse, and I probably got some as gifts too…
Seeing them all on this post makes me want to do something else with another one… I think that red one with the yellow and white daisies along the edges would look so cute over a red and white checked dress…
Thanks Barbara… now I’m really convinced that I can’t cut into the fancy ones…
Blessings, Jeanne
Ooooo! Maybe we should all share pictures of out hankie collections? My Aunt Barb uses her hankies the way they were intended. She doesn’t want the ones with hand made lace because it gets in the way when she irons her freshly laundered hankies. On the other hand, I love crocheted or tatted lace!
I understand why some might be reluctant to cut fancier hankies. I would have no trouble chopping them up. What else am I going to do with them? If the hand work was done by a grandma or aunt, I might preserve it in a wall hanging. A quilt would also be a good re-purpose. I very aware of collected things becoming a burden on the next generation, after the collector is gone. Anyone interested in blue glass?
HI Julia,
If you have a collection, we for sure want to see it… and anyone else too! Share them all!
I could probably use them if it were for something special like a bonnet for a baby or maybe a ring bearer’s pillow if one of my kids were getting married… but for now I’ll just hold onto them and see…
I’m a bit like you, who is going to want them after me? Certainly not my kids…
Thanks Julia,
Blessings, Jeanne
I love your hankies, especially the hand embroidered ones. ( I think Brode Main is French for Hand embroidery isn’t it?). I always got hankies in my stocking at Christmas, I remember some of those with the days of the week on them. I wish I had looked after them and kept them but alas they have long disappeared like everything else I had when I was young. I didn’t really look after anything at all. My Dad brought me a beautiful doll from Austria when he returned after the war. I was still only very young, maybe 18 months old so I don’t think I was allowed to play with it until I was older. I have a vague memory of it in it’s box but I must have been older because I think the memory includes the house we moved to when I was 5. I wish I did have it now it would be wonderful but it was either china or composition and it would have been broken very quickly, I wasn’t a very careful child.
I looked at the new dolls, a bit out of my price range when you include the postage. As much as I love making the vintage outfits there isn’t a market here for them. Admittedly I haven’t tried on TradeMe which is our local site, so maybe I should try.
The weather is a little warmer in the morning at the moment but cloudy so not so much sun. That means the afternoon temp won’t get as warm! Can’t have everything lol. Still no rain though.
HI Anne,
I think we all have things we wished we had taken better care of or held onto… or left in the box until we were old enough to be careful with it… but most of us have lost things from the past… I was just thinking, I can’t find and don’t have a clue what happened to my high school class ring. I’m sure I didn’t sell it but I have no idea where it might have gone. It had my birthstone in it and was very pretty… Oh well… something else lost to the past.
I’m not in the market for a new AG doll, but it was fun to look at them again and remember how much fun it was to receive a doll in the mail… even a used one or one from the thrift store… dolls are dolls and when you love them, they are all special…
Thanks Anne,
blessings, Jeanne
wow! I know that even just taking pix of all those ‘hankies’ was quite a project!
HI Joy,
It didn’t take too long to put the hankies out for pictures… in groups of 4, it went pretty quickly! I’m glad you enjoyed seeing them… It was fun for me to see them all again… :o)
Thanks Joy,
blessings, Jeanne
Hereâs why you donât want to cut the handkerchiefs up: They truly donât make them like that anymore. They were made in Ireland and lots of other countries, but they were very hard on the eyesight. When I was in China the first time in 1985, I bought a beautiful 23âx 33â silk âHundred Childrenâ wall hanging that I had framed even before getting back on the plane. When I visited in 2008, I looked for ones like it. The tour guide said that the government no longer allow women to work on such pieces due to the risk of early blindness. The quality of the work is in no way comparable if you can find a vaguely similar embroidered piece.
I wasnât going to go on about this, but the threat of those beautiful items being cut up gave me chills, so I had to chime in with my two cents. They are truly works of art. I especially like Joyâsidea of framing them. Thatâs a frightfully expensive apron Kirsten has on. Be sure to mention it when listing it. The whole outfit is wonderful.
HI Susette,
Well, what you said makes sense… maybe I better hang on to all the ones that are truly unique… I guess maybe I should be looking for some place to hang them up… in a frame of course…
I guess the estate sale people didn’t know what they had… thank goodness I fell in love with them!
The apron Kirsten has on was one I found in an antique shop… so it’s not terribly expensive!
Thanks Susette,
Blessings, Jeanne