2000-2004- My friend garde-robe : the day dresses

While living in Canada, I met  my best friend Anne, through the 15"dolls gathering/meeting.
she was (and still is)quite passionate about fashion dolls, she is mainly responsible, I should admit, for introducing me to the "Big girls".
I was, from our first meeting, fascinated by Gene Marshal (M. Odom) then later by Tyler Wentworth (R.Tonner) and Anne encouraged me to have at least one of them. Today some 10 years later I have more than 30 of those and keep counting (this is "My Gang")
I bought some of them in second hand (from Anne mostly) she offered me my first Brenda Starr (Effanbee) for my birthday (she became my Gang first character under the name Petunia Greenwood who is freelance journalist)

As Anne's collection of Gene dolls amplified, she asked me to make some outfits for her ladies.
She told me what she had in mind, and we roughly sketched her ideas. I remember  how we went through the big patterns catalog, I got from the fabric store (you know, those "after season" huge books we go through to choose our patterns)
She wanted me to use fabrics from dresses she had,  that just reminded her of found memories, or because she still loved, after all the years, the nice patterns that scaled well with a doll this size, and she bought brand new fabric from the store as well.

The outfits are presented here by Gene Marshal (Mel Odom) both the brunet and the blond are Simply Gene

After all those years in my photos album, I thought it would be nice to share this with you.

Here are the day dresses

Time period: Calgary Ab. 1999-2007.

2000-2004 - the commissions - Wedding dresses

Through my shows some customers or friends asked me to reproduce wedding dresses. This was a challenge I could not refuse.
The dresses were from various periods,  from 1945 till today. Sometimes I had to choose the fabric myself to be close to the scale. But in other circumstances some customers would give me the actual wedding dress for me to re-use the fabric. This way they would have the reproduction as well as the memorabilia.
I was working with pictures or explanations and memories. Sometimes I worked with Barbie as model or with one of a kind dolls specially designed for the wedding reproduction, and I had to create the pattern from scratch.
here are some of them, I hid the faces to keep the privacy of my customers.

 The wedding took place in 1946. 

The lady gave me this picture and the doll, (maybe Mattel? size 11.5")  It is always difficult to take the scissor to a vintage wedding dress, but I used the original fabric to reproduce its mini-copy.

This wedding took place in 1960. I work with several pictures.

Dolls were sculpted by an artist to  look like  the bride and groom.

I uses a a whit organza embellished with lace medallion applique

This young lady got married in 1997 and I did the dress a couple of years later.
She gave me the doll (maybe Mattel? size 11.5")
the picture I received didn't show very well but the dress was made in raw satin and I used the same king I hand saw the beads and created the see through "Richelieu" type embroidery using fabric paint to circle the motif before cutting through.

For this outfit , it was a bit different. the lady still had her wedding dress, but for personal reasons she didn't want a reproduction of it. she bought recently an 18" Pocahontas doll and wanted to dress her.
I draw a rough sketch  of the outfit she wanted me to do, using her wedding dress fabric.
I used this white satin coverts with small flowers (white /white) to do a kind of  tuxedo with a tiny top embroidered with pearls.

This wedding happened in 2003. the Bride 's Sister asked me to reproduce the dress from pictures.
I use a Mattel 11.5 "doll.
To make the dress, I embroidered with lightly colored treads a silk veil over a white satin. I used a colored parm silk veil for the stole.

Time period: Calgary Ab. 1999-2007.

2001, Julia Roberts award

In 2001, Julia Roberts  was chosen as best actress at the 73rd Academy Awards. For this event she chose a 1982 Valentino frock. I was absolutely seduced by the dress and the elegance this outfit brought to Julia Roberts. Of course a couple of day later I had reproduced it.

I still have this doll in my personal collection and I still love it, Valentino being one of my favorite designer.

Time period: Calgary Ab. 1999-2007.

2000, Dec 04, Christmas at the Gene Doll Club

It was our first Christmas at the Gene doll Club and it was organized at our friends place. Dolls, collection show, gifts and fun were plenty. It was great to be together, all with the same idea in mind -"Gene is gorgeous, lets have more"

Merry Christmas 2000, Doll Lovers

 

2000, Oct 23, Gene Haloween party

We had at this time, regular meeting with Gene Marshall, Tyler Wentworth and other 16" fashion doll and we had lot of fun.  I had during this lovely time the opportunity to meet my best friend ever, Anne with whom the game begins!

On this day of October we joined all together at one of the member's house. Our friend bake a very appropriate cake to celebrate Halloween together.

We had plenty of gifts

A costume contest was organized

I do not remember today who won but I recall a lot of laughter

Our dolls were nicely displayed.

At this time they were not very numerous as we were just starting to know and own them.

As I was sewing, several of my friends asked me to make some costumes for their ladies,

those 2 "cat women" were some of them

Here they are, ready for the competition

 

I made  this fire-bird #7, as well as this leather kitty #8

My two entries, Gene Marshall in sorceress #3 and Elle in bird of paradise #4

The evening was full of surprises and joy we rediscovered the pleasure to play on a "sombre Halloween night"

Time period: Calgary Ab. 1999-2007

2000, Oct 14, Red Deer doll show

This was one of the last show I did. As the big girls invaded my life more & more, I started sewing for them. My friends from the Gene club asked me to do some outfit for their ladies, I was in this period working at the university and didn't have to much time in my hands to create as much OoaK as I used to.  I did 2 other ultimate doll shows in Calgary, after this one in Red Deer. (but I do not have any pictures)
I still had quite a lot of dressed Barbie to fulfill my engagement and basically sold them all, while attending those 3 last shows.

Through those twenty something pages you have the opportunity to see all the OoaK  I designed, created and sold during the first year of my passion for Barbie doll. As bigger doll entered the market and reached my heart, I started sewing for them instead but I still love dearly Barbie. she was very inspiring and a faithful companion who introduce me to this new wold of Doll Collectors.

Time period: Calgary Ab. 1999-2007