I thought you might, so let’s get started right away… Again, these are dresses that Sally bought from me years ago… I am trying to look up the dates on them as I show them so you can see what I was doing way back then… :o)
PLEASE click on the pictures to enlarge them, so you don’t miss any of the details… especially the ends pictures… :o)
The first group of dresses today are the Regency ones… you’ll see 3 pretty ones all different and unique in their own special way…
Here are Sally’s girls dressed in them… and then I’ll show you a few of my pictures when I listed them on Ebay…
The next Regency dress was modeled by Rebecca… the flower on the bodice had gold glass beads sewn on for a bit of extra charm.
The next dress was modeled by Elizabeth again… she was and continues to be my wonderful Regency model, as she has that little bit of extra length to her neck…
I made 2 pretty white Regency dresses and Sally won this one… called Simply White and made in 2014.
Now let’s move onto the Colonial dresses that Sally won from me…
First up is a blue and green beautiful print dress modeled by Elizabeth… I LOVED this fabric!!! I made this one in May 2011.
Next is a dress in a pretty lavender and touch of green fabric. Some of my pictures say 2007 and some say 2017…so I’m not sure when it was made…
This next dress was modeled by Elizabeth again…and the outside pictures turned out wonderfully! It was made in July 2011… 10 years ago! :o)
Now it’s time for Felicity to show you a pretty one… it took a while to make this one and that hat took 20 yards of straw! I made it in 2017 and called it Fall Fancy.
One more for Felicity. This one was called Colonial Charm, but I couldn’t find a date for when I made it… It took quite a while too…
This next dress is one Sally bought from Marilee…this is what Sally told me…
“Just let my Kirsten show off. I don’t change her out of this. Every piece is historically correct and approved by the official Bunad Museum in Sweden. This outfit took Marilee over a year to do. The designs for the embroidery were hers based on authentic ones and she put in over 300 hours in the embroidery alone. All hardware, jewelry, buttons are authentic in tiny scale. I just treasure it. Hope you enjoyed these pictures, dear Jeanne.” ❤️
Well, I certainly did enjoy myself… and I hope everyone else did too… thanks for taking me and all my friends down memory lane for a little while…
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh, how beautiful these dresses are. I would love to sew such. However, I do not have such skills and mine are at best incompetent copies.
What beautiful dresses, Jeanne and Sally! I am especially interested in Felicity’s clothes, since there really aren’t many out there for her that are varied enough, but this selecton is wonderful! I think my favorite is the last green and white, Colonial Charm! Everything about it accents Felicity’s coloring, her red hair and green eyes, and is so dainty and feminine! The lace adds an air of lightness and the hat is spectacular! This one hits all the right things about what a colonial style dress should be!
I’m wondering, Sally, how do you store all these dresses without crushing them?
Wow, that outfit on Kirsten is amazing! I can see why you don’t remove it, and have her wear it all the time! I love the colors and I’m sure in real life, the outfit would be warm enough for those cold Swedish winters. That’s certainly a different take on her apron! it looks like it is made of wool, and I am used to a thinner type of apron. You certainly have a treasure there!
Sally, You have an amazing collection and Jeanne does amazing work. Thanks for sharing!
Enjoyed every minute.
Wow, what a lot of lovely gowns!! Of the regency ones, I’m hard-pressed to choose a favorite. I love the one with the apricot flowers, but I also love the all-white one. So pretty!!
Of the Colonial ones, my hands-down favorite is the lavender one (of course)! I’m guessing 2007 is the right year, because I’ve been on your list for quite a while now, and I don’t remember Ever seeing this one before!! It’s gorgeous!
I also like the light blue/white one; such lovely fabric, and the hat really adds a lot.
Of course, for me, the Swedish costume holds a special place in my heart, since I am 100% Swedish, even though 3rd generation American born!! However, it was my understanding that a Bunad is a Norwegian term, not Swedish? I would love to see that costume “up close and personal”–all that embroidery, etc., it must be just gorgeous!!
Thanks so much for sharing!
I saw the doctor today and my UTI is truly Gone! Yay!!!
Don’t try enlarging a photo and then trying to come back to your comment. Won’t work. Comment disappears. 🙁
Thanks so much Sally and Jeanne for sharing the fabulous photos today. Great fun and so many ideas for future outfits too. I do love the white dress which reminds me of how nice one maybe in a different style might look on a RRFF doll. 🙂
The work of art outfit for Kirsten belongs in the American Girl Museum, if there is one. What an amazing outfit. It looks like it is made from boiled wool? That embroidery is a feat I would never be able to accomplish. Love it.
There are some new RRFF girls/boys coming out now. You can see them at several of the dealers and also at RubyRedFashionFriends.com under special editions. I’ve been eyeing Annaelle in her beautiful wedding attire. She isn’t the bride. 🙂 The By the Sea outfits for Luca and Daisy are great. They also have some beautiful wigs. 🙂
Annaelle is sold out already!
Impossible to pick a favorite! I would love to see some of these reproduced for the RRFF, any chance ?
Sally the Bunad is wonderful, no wonder it never gets changed. It inspired a little research and I must say I had no idea of the history of these magnificent pieces. I always thought they were “just” folk outfits made by imaginative seamstresses. I hope you have someone to hand it down to who will appreciate it years from now. It truly does belong in a museum. Thank you so much for sharing.
What an adorable collection of dresses and colors and prints! The empire style is always a favorite and each and everyone is beautiful. The 2 layer skirt on the lavender one I love too. Thank you for showing these two groupings Sally and Jeanne.
The embroidered Swedish outfit is a wonder. I just keep looking at it ?…such beautiful work!
I haven’t been commenting much lately because it was hard to sit still long enough to do it. I finally broke down and went to a chiropractor for my back issue after my fall at church. I came down mostly on one knee and that twisted my body. I was not happy with my previous chiropractor here in town so I was looking for another option. Divine intervention (I saw in the paper that he was voted the best chiropractor in Austin County) brought me to someone in Bellville and I thought I’d give him a try. It’s kind of a one stop shop. They have adjustments, massages and acupuncture. I went to him yesterday afternoon and already feel much better. I think he released a pinched nerve for starters. I’m sore but moving more freely and my body is more relaxed. I was so pleased with my experience there that I bought a package of adjustments for the next few months
All the dresses Sally has been blessed with for her AG dolls are absolutely breathtaking. Most, of course, I had not seen before. I always love seeing all your previous creative loveliness, Jeanne. My favorite fashion era is definitely Regency. The clothes during that era were so feminine and less cumbersome than other eras. My next favorite era is definitely Colonial. Some of that may be because I always wanted to live during that historical era. Kirsten’s outfit is definitely a work of art. I really loved Molly’s sweet little checked dress. Thanks Sally for sharing these and Jeanne for posting.
I wished we had thought of the tomato deception. My son used to grow tomatoes and the birds were a serious problem. We ended up building a screened “tomato room” in the garden which helped but then we started having a problem with spider mites. Then there was too much rain, too little rain, etc. I think one year he had such a good crop he was giving tomatoes away, the rest of the years we barely had enough for us.
Good morning! To make this easier with the current system, I am replying to everyone’s comments in this one section. Thank you all for your generous comments.
JEANNE, thank you for sharing these photos and especially for adding your own photos to really show your incredible details. You have no idea how fortunate I feel to have such a varied collection or your work (including for Patsy, but I never got any of your Kish, alas!). I hope all is going well with you and George today. Going to be another hot one here in Salida today. Only 91 compared to the awful temps Charlotte had.
ALINA, hello! Oh, please don’t put down your sewing skills. The fact that you work to make outfits for your dolls is truly laudable. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and if sewing is something you enjoy (I do not!), keep at it. We are all proud of you!
LINDA, hi! Thank you for your kind comments. So glad all of you are enjoying seeing Jeanne’s work in clusters. Each set is SO special!
You asked about storage. I use ziploc bags from quart to 2.5 gallon bags for each outfit. I also do a small stuffing of tissue inside each dress, sometimes the sleeves, too. I label the bags by seamstress and all the components of each outfit. And, of course with cases like something from Jeanne, I include the personal notes from the seamstress. Hats, because of size, are out in special hat/bonnet bins, also in ziplocs and tissue, and labeled accordingly to seamstress and particular outfits. Then, the outfits are (for AG, anyway,) put into bins designated for the various eras and the bins are labeled for era. Dressing and undressing all of these dolls is a LONG project. I used to do it monthly and was always fastidious about era correct underwear, slips, hose, etc. Fortunately, I have been able to let that go so it’s less of a job.
You also asked about Kirsten’s set. Hat, jacket, skirt, apron are all wool, the apron the lightest weight. The scarf is a cashmere blend. This outfit was a real journey for Marilee and I was ecstatic she was willing to take it on. See more comments for Joy below.
CHARLOTTE, three VERY loud cheers for kicking that old UTI away. Talk about relief, right?!?
You are correct. “Bunad” IS a Norwegian term, but it also applies to the folk clothing of the other Scandi countries. More on this for Joy below.
JOY, howdy! Thanks for your comments and glad you enjoyed the pics. I bet you could make some outfits like these for RRFF as I have been impressed with your pics. Go for it!
And yes, I am eyeing Anaelle as our oldest granddaughter is named Elle for Eleanor. Coloring is about the same as hers, too. I have been so bad this month, that I am trying SO hard to resist, then I’ll kick myself later,for sure.
Funny you mentioned a museum. This IS a museum piece. Marilee worked with women who curate a special museum in Sweden totally devoted to Swedish traditional clothing. She would share the information with me regularly along with pics of the progress. When it was all completed, they asked her if she would please send it to them to put on exhibit as a lone because they were so impressed. She declined although I thoroughly encouraged her. She suggested doing this design, the Dala Floda, as she felt it was the most colorful costume of all the different regions of Sweden. I quite agree. After all the work and research, I told her that if she wanted to keep it as a family heirloom, that I would totally understand. She declined that, but she understands that if I ever need to let it go, it goes to her. Seems only fair.
So, everyone, have a grand day, I am glad you have enjoyed seeing Jeanne’s beautiful work in clusters. The doll’s always beam when they get put into something she made, that’s for doggone sure! ❤️❤️🌺🌺👏 My deepest thanks, dear Jeanne.
Sally
Another set of gorgeous dresses. Even though I didn’t know Jeanne or this blog at the time, I remember seeing “Simply White”. I came up in the search results back in 2014 when I was working to complete my PC Samantha collection and starting my Felicity collection while searching for the perfect PC 1991 West German Lissie. I had just joined the doll boards and found Jeanne’s blog from there.
That lavender Civil War dress modeled by Jeanne’s Rebecca and your sweet AGOT doll was definitely from 2017.. I know because Jeanne liked the name I suggested for it – “Springtime in the South”. I really like Felicity’s “Fall Fancy and “Colonial Charm” as well. All the dresses are wonderful!
Kirsten’s Bunad dress is just spectacular. I definitely understand why this Kirsten never wears anything else . Joy is absolutely correct. I tried enlarging a photo after already writing a few sentences and my comment was gone. That never used to happen. I also had the blog post come only to “Promotions” in my email instead of one to “promotions” and one to my “inbox”.
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful collection, Sally.
Jeanne, All of these dresses are stunning and each one shows your artistic eye and incredible talent. If I had to pick just one it would be Fall Fancy. That hat is amazing!
Sally, Thank you for sharing your collection. What a feast for the eyes! Every one is just beautiful. Kirsten’s authentic Nordic outfit is just so detailed and lovely. I just had to start exploring this costume museum collection. So much fun to discover and learn new things!
Debbie
What a beautiful collection. Thanks for sharing it with all of us.