PLEASE NOTE: My Civil War dress, “Golden Elegance” is ending this evening on Ebay. It’s been pretty exciting already if you ask me… It appears to be very popular and that thrills me… but when I told my hubby, the name he picked (It was Charlotte who thought of the name…) seemed to be a winner with the ladies… he got a little smile on his face and I told him I might have to give him a royalty or just make him brownies…he’d probably like them better.
Anyway, if you are interested in seeing the auction, you can click the picture at the right sidebar, or you can click HERE. Maybe I’ll see you at the finish line! :o)
Remember back when Anne, down in New Zealand, let us know she had miraculously gotten a Ruby Red Fashion Friend doll… named Sara? And remember a few days went by and she let us know she was still in her box…and it was okay because she loved looking at her even through the plastic? Well, I am HAPPY to report that Sara is out of her box and enjoying her new sisters!
Anne sent me this sweet email…and a picture…
“Hi Jeanne, Here are some of my girls greeting Sara. Elizabeth is wearing the smocked dress I just finished. I even hand smocked it. Anastasia has on the machine smocked dress I made earlier. Phoenix (or maybe Phoebe, they are twins and I can’t tell them apart) still has on her colorful jeans and winter jacket and as it is 27 C here today she is begging for a new dress like the others. Maybe she’ll be next.
I wish I had some accessories and furniture for them but haven’t seen any I like (and can afford) yet. Sam hopes to make some but hasn’t got round to it yet!”
Thanks Anne… and with Sam’s creative streak and you too, I think you’ll have some furniture props soon… the girls look very welcoming to Sara… thanks for sharing!
Okay, now to my day… the curtains are still waiting to be hemmed, however the holes where the old curtain rod brackets were, are now puttied, sanded and painted and you’d never know they were there..
I worked at the Food Pantry today and after 3 hours there, I came home and put my new memory foam topper on my guest bed… it looks like a beach with waves rolling in…
On top of the memory foam is a new quilted mattress pad…it’s super puffy and about an inch thick… It will be really nice!
Here is the quilt I first bought off Ebay… I didn’t care for it as much in my room as I do in here. Somehow it seems different. It IS a KING and the bed is a queen, so it needs a little bit of tweaking to keep those corners off the floor. It has a binding around the edge and wouldn’t be a hard fix at all. It will probably take longer to take the stitches out than it will to reshape the corners and sew the binding back on…
As I looked back over this post, I thought to myself, “good grief, you have reached a new low when you have to show your mattress pad to everyone! Sorry about that…it was that or nothing…this was my day!
Saturday there are about 10 or 12 ladies going on a Ladies Day Out! We are heading to a town about 20 miles away and plan to have a really fun day… I was telling Cindy and she reminded me to look for things for my new guest room… a mirror, artwork, pillows, etc! I plan to!
It should be a lot of fun for everyone!
Well, I’m sitting here with a wet head that I need to dry, decide what I’m going to wear tomorrow, curl my hair and get to bed!
I will either see you at the end of auction or Monday!
Have a great weekend.
Blessings, Jeanne
Look at the big grin on Sara’s face!! She is So Glad to be finally out of her box!! The other girls look mighty glad to see her, too. And, Anne, the dresses you made are lovely!! I do enjoy smocking–am working on a dress for Delaney, one of my Little Darlings. She’s always so quiet, but the last time I had them out for pictures and all (when our swap came), she shyly reminded me that I hadn’t made a smocked dress for Her yet. So, we had to immediately look thru my fabrics, and she picked out a pretty green and white print with red cherries on it.
Yes, I think that quilt/bedspread will work fine in your guest room, Jeanne; you will have to find the right accessories to pull things together, but I know you’ll manage that just fine!!
I just checked the auction. WOW!! You’re up to 19 bids now!! This is going to be interesting!!
Charlotte, you mentioned you used to shop at Home Sew but don’t get the catalogs anymore. They still put them out but it’s rare but I do get regular e-mails from them because I order often. I’m sure that if you contact them they could put you on an e-mail list. They also have a Facebook page.
Thanks, Barbara–I’ll check it out!
I did get a catalog from Wawak a couple of weeks ago, which I had requested. They also carry a lot of sewing stuff, threads, etc.
Anne, Sara is adorable and I think is secretly thinking to herself, that SHE wants a smocked dress too! I absolutely love smocked dresses, and have just one for Betsy! Your two dresses are just beautiful!
So you are going out tomorrow for Ladies Day Out, Jeanne? Here we have Deer Widows Day Out, since this is the first weekend of deer hunting season. I;m not sure if that is the case in Illinois, but maybe it is. We just had a small “herd” of three deer in our backyard the other day! It gets dangerous when you are driving at night and a deer runs right in front of you. It happens all to often and causes serious damage to your car.
Have fun getting some colorful things for your guest room!
I’d leave the spread as it is unless it’s really dragging on the floor on the other side. It looks great. Nice underpinnings on the mattress. You can see the finish line now! The auction is amazing!
Anne, I’ve never seen a smocked dress with that beautiful V shape before! Love the one in plaid. Now that’s inspiration to create one myself. Beautifully sewn. Sara is so cute. Those boxes are certainly challenging to get them out of. Thanks so much for sharing your talents with us.
Hi Susette, I saw the idea on a LD doll on Pinterest so thought I would try it for this dress. Since I took the photo I have added a couple of extra rows but I do like the design
Hi Susette, I saw the idea on Pinterest on an LD doll. I thought it looked really pretty. Since I took the photo I have added two extra rows of smocking but I haven’t tried it back on Elizabeth yet.
How fun seeing Anne’s, Sara. The smocked dresses are a delight. The Sara here loves dresses so I would think yours might too. Hope you can smock one for her as well.
The guest room looks great with it’s new mattress. So inviting and the LA coverlet works too. Hope you find some treasures on the girls day out although, there might be a rush to snatch up the goodies with so many in attendance. 🙂
Really heavy tule fog this morning. Hope it clears up before we head south. Have a nice weekend everyone. 🙂
Awww, Anne! Those sweet girls are so happy to have a new sister, and I’m sure the pleasure is shared by Miss Sara. Yes, Susette is right about the challenges of removing these dolls from their boxes, but they sure are sweet. Joy, too, is right. Sara will need a smocked dress, but probably Phoenix should get hers first since she has been waiting longest. Those dresses are treasures, Anne. What skill. Thank you so much for sharing your pictures, and hope you might get a Christmas surprise of a bit of furniture for the girls. 😊
Jeanne, tonight’s blowout at the auction should cover most, if not all, of your needs for the guest room and wherever else since you have such a good eye for quality and price. Have a blast.
As for the bed cover, and that goes very nicely in the room, and extra overhang is nice especially when it’s cold, I vote with Susette. Leave it alone. It is just fine. It really is. Spend the time to make a liner for those fabulous floral drapes instead. That would be money and time very well spent vs the bed quilt corners. I know. Sounding bossy. Mea culpa.
Got my outdoor holiday garlands and lights up yesterday, temps in low 60’s and almost no wind, and I was not a Grouchy Pants! All set to connect the cords for the annual Christmas parade and fireworks n the 26th!
Have a fine, fine weekend, ladies.
Anne, your girls look lovely in their smocked dresses. I really love the plaid material. Great job in the beautiful smocking! And I’m sure, by the grin on Sara’s face, she’s not only happy to be out of her box, but I’d so happy meeting her new friends.
It’s was nice to see your girls. Thank you!
Jeanne, the bed looks very nice and restful to the eyes. It will be a serene haven for your guests. I like nice mattresses with all the bedding you can put on top of them too. I’m a stickler for very neatly made beds. They look inviting and comforting that way.
Hopefully you can find some nice additional pieces for the guest room on your planned fun day!
This suction is getting very exciting! We’ll all be watching!
Jeanne I am amazed at how well your auction is doing. However the dress is really lovely and obviously others think so too. well done.
Thanks everyone for your kind remarks about my girls. I am not sure about making anything for Sara at the moment, all my patterns are for 18 inch dolls! I think I might have to work on Christmas first, and getting Sam and everyone settled. She plans to move in on 4th December
I reduce patterns all of the time, so if you have a scanner, I would try copying a simple pattern at about 78% for a Ruby Red. See how it looks and cut it out from scraps to try. I’ve had good luck enlarging and reducing patterns. 🙂
Great news about Sam too.
Congratulations to Anne for finally having the courage to remove Sara from her confines. Those boxes can be a bear. I love the smocked dresses. The flowered one is very pretty. What pattern is that? I think I have something similar. The plaid dress is precious. I love plaids. All the other dolly girls look delighted to have a new family member. You family is so creative and I can see a lot of props in your future.
Everyone talking about smocking is getting me motivated to return to doing some myself. I have several patterns for the prettiest doll dresses but just have not got going on it. For one thing when we bought my hubby his powerlift recliner back in January I got his previous recliner. It is really too big for me and not good for doing any kind of crafts because I cannot sit up straight enough. Right now I have the powerlift recliner because the other is more comfortable for him with his knee surgery. I can actually sit in the powerlift recliner and put my feet on the floor so I plan on getting back to doing things while I watch TV in the evening. I think I’ll start with some smocking. I have two pleaters – a small and a larger one. I bought the larger one when I was doing the dress for my granddaughter so I wouldn’t have to worry about pleating twice. The small one is great for doll clothes.
I mentioned Home Sew the other day but I have an interesting story that goes with that. They are in Bethlehem, PA, where I grew up. They opened the store when I was about 15. My mother discovered it when she was making clothes for my youngest sister who was about 4 at the time. She recommended the store to several neighbors who sewed. Once we moved from Bethlehem when I was 17 I never thought about the store again. One day several years ago a catalog showed up in my mail. I actually bought from the store several times before I realized it was in Bethlehem. When I saw the year it opened it dawned on me that was the trim store where my mother shopped. Back then it was mostly trims but today they have about anything you could need to sew, especially for dolls. I checked the location and sure enough they were still in the same place. It is indeed a small world.
I can’t wait to see how you accessorize your guest room. It looks great so far. My guest room bed is a queen size but has a king size spread because I added risers to it so I could use the underneath for storage. I just kick the corners back under the bed so I don’t trip on them. It looks fine.
Dear Barbara, you just taught me something about Pennsylvania. I never heard of the store you mentioned. I am going to do a Google search to learn more about it.
What’s even better, Dorothy, is that you live close enough to visit in person!
Dear Anne,
It’s so nice to see Sara out of the box. I think she is eyeing those gorgeous smocked dresses and hoping she will get one as well. The plaid dress is absolutely lovely as is the most unusual v bodice smocking on the rose dress. It gives it a “royal” look. Your dolls look so pretty in your creations. Thank you for sharing them.I love smocked dresses on little girls and would love to have a doll one at some point.
Your guest room is coming along, Jeanne, and the quilt/duvet looks very nice. I hope to find some additional fun things on your day out.
One thing I missed, Anne. I like your little quilled picture? Did you make it. I like to do quiling and made an herb sampler a number of years ago.
Beautiful crinkled dresses from Anna’s dolls. The Addy dress auction will probably be record-breaking
Dear Jeanne, I am so excited that you are having a ladies night out. I can’t wait to hear all about it.
I wish the Sofa Sisters could have a ladies night out, or better, Afternoon Tea.
Anna your smocked dresses are just darling and there is no way Sara will let you get by without making her one…maybe a New Years project? They look like a happy group for sure!
Love the bedspread …. I remember you saving it to use. The room is really coming together. Any guest will be happy there. Hopefully you will find something fun on your shopping day☺️
Have a good time!…. Oh! I just watched the end of the Auction! That was exciting☺️Congrats!
Dear Jeanne, congratulations! What an outcome! Have a wonderful day celebrating the auction and finding places for the treasures you must have found yesterday. ❤️