Marme, Linda and Patsy

 

Hubby asked me today how many more of these I'm expecting to come in. I very quietly told him that I ordered another today. What can I say??? I started the Little Women collection with the purchase of an unknown male doll which I have since determined by the set of his hair and his face that he is Laurie. This appears to be an 11" Lissy faced Madame Alexander Little Women Jo doll. She was auctioned on E-bay and her final cost was $13.49.

    Correction... since posting I have discovered that this is "Marme" from the Little Women collection. She requires a dust cap.



 

 

Jo arrived tied together with string. Other than that she is in perfect condition. Her hair net is still in tact. I'm thrilled with her. She arrived yesterday from an e-bay seller in a box wrapped in white paper with pink hearts pasted all over it. My husband commented that my boyfriend sent me a present, because he surely could not wrap that nicely. Beneath those wrappings she was wrapped in white tissue paper tied with a beautiful white ribbon and bow. Her clothes were packed in a baggie also wrapped in tissue and tied with a white ribbon. I am very impressed with this seller.

Here she is after I restrung her. She looks perfect and it only took a few minutes.

This is the outfit that she came with. The petticoat needs a new waistband. Other than that the clothes are in perfect condition. She needs shoes and a hat or dust cap. Not sure which I'm going to make for her. Time will tell. The fun thing about dolls, like sisters and best friends, if the size is right, they can share!
To finish my Little Women Story, I won the auction for an 11" Little Women "Meg" doll. She cost me a whole $15.96 which also includes shipping.

 



 Linda arrived today. Chelle looks a bit forlorn. I'm thinking she needs a frilly dress too. Christmas is just around the corner. Linda is everything I expected her to be and more. She's a beautiful doll in excellent condition. She is a 1994 19 inch vinyl  drink and wet baby doll by Cititoy. I was told that her drink and wet still work, but I won't be testing that out any too soon. Her final auction cost was $22.50 with shipping.

 Little girls need toys to play with. Next trip to the store will provide a bouncy ball. In the meantime I gave them a couple of my teddy bears to play with. Stars was born on July 4, 2002. I adopted him when my son was shipped to Iraq. My son sent me Hero while he was in Iraq. Hero was born on March 12, 2003. My son's birthday is March 21, 1982. Coincidence??

Isn't he the cutest little guy! 
This is a 13" Effanbee Patsy African American Boy Doll 1986. He has the same face as the Joan Jumping Rope doll that I posted earlier. His total cost was $23.74. My sources tell me that in his condition he is worth between $700 and $1250. He has a sister that I am now looking for. I do everything in pairs here, if you haven't noticed. Hubby is already aware that I'm looking for the sister. It was his idea that I get the pair of them. Isn't he sweet!

Thank you once again for stopping in. Time to stop playing here and get down to the important things in life... making dinner for hubby so I can continue to buy these little treasures for myself.
Take care and stay safe!  God Bless
                  
                         Huggs,
                                Joanie

Effanbee Patsy Joan Jumping Rope

Realizing that my budget would not allow me to adopt any of the 1955 Madame Alexander Joanie dolls listed on E-bay at $200 and up, I decided to search for another Joanie doll. Hoping I'd find one within my budget. I spotted this 16" doll on E-bay. She was one of 3 up for auction or "buy now". Fortunately for me, no one wanted this little girl. I placed my bid during the last half hour of the auction and held my breath. I topped my bid at $30 just in case someone bid against me. I won her with my original bid of $19.99. That was 3 days ago. She arrived in the mail today. She was in her original box.

 



This little girl is a 16" vinyl doll, with jointed head, arms and legs, and painted hair. She is stamped "Effanbee 1994". She is in excellent condition.  The Dawn Herlocher "200 Years of Dolls 3rd Edition", which I purchased from the Goodwill of Northern New England, Gorham, ME E-bay site for $3.99 states that the value of this doll in this condition is $750.  Needless to say, she's back in her box where she can stay safe. I can't believe I've made such an incredible find.





 

She caught my eye because she is wearing my favorite color. Mom always dressed me in red. She's also special because she's holding her favorite jump rope. I can remember many, many sunny days playing jump rope with my mom and sisters. What fun we had. My brother also joined in sometimes. He preferred being designated rope turner.

So many wonderful memories wrapped up in one little doll! She's a keeper for sure!

 

 Doesn't she have the most precious face.

That's all for today. I have one more doll on her way. I'm in the process of designing outfits for everyone and accumulating fabric and trims. I believe that's going to be more time consuming than actually making the outfits. One can hope any way!

Thanks again for stopping by. Stay well and God Bless!

Four Generations

Four generations of needlework washed and drying. This is a small part of the collection. My mother had hundreds of doilies that she and her mother had made over the years. When I married, she gave me a small collection as keepsakes. She kept the kitchen towels that I made for her. My oldest daughter and I have since added to the collection. I plan on displaying the doilies in my china cabinets. They should look pretty and be safe there. Don't you think?

I still use the embroidered dresser clothes that I made, but my pineapple ruffled doilies are a bit too fancy for a house with 6 dogs and 2 cats. Maybe I'll starch them up and show them off this Christmas.

Mom  & Dad on their wedding day, September 13, 1947
with my maternal grandparents.
The people who inspired and guided me into adulthood.

Barbara

My very talented daughter who inspires me today.

You are never too old to learn, and never too young to teach.

Madame Alexander Little Men Laurie circa 1970 ???

My latest doll arrived with no information other than the Alexander® stamp on his back.
He is 7-3/8 inches tall and straight legged. He's got a glued wig, sideburns and full bangs that are slightly curled upward.

Here's a picture of my guy standing next to the doll that I have named Midge. Don't they look cute together! Can't wait to get their outfits designed and made!

Here's the 1970's Madame Alexander Little Men Laurie doll that I found on E-bay. He's advertised in several ads as being "about 8" tall".

I'm a bit disappointed that all of Madame Alexander's male dolls appear to be a tad shorter than the girls. I have a feeling that she did this purposely. She was a strong woman, and I get the impression that she wanted her girls to stand out. Just my opinion of course.

That's all the news for now. Time to get back to my design board. Have a wonderful day and come back soon!

Huggs,
    Joanie

65 Years Young

On August 3rd I celebrated by 65th birthday by playing with my favorite doll. I believe my parents gave her to me as a Christmas present in 1958. I know she was a Christmas present, just not 100% sure of the year. She's a Madame Alexander Cissy 21" bent knee doll and she was the envy of every little girl in the neighborhood. I tell no tales. She was actually doll napped and my parents had to get involved with her return. It was a very traumatic time for me, as we were not a wealthy family and my mom did a lot of scrimping and saving so that I could have her. She also made her a wonderful wardrobe that was also taken. We got Cissy back 2 weeks after she went missing. It was quite the fluke that I found her. I was visiting my neighbor friend's home when her mother asked me to go to the basement and bring up a basket of clothes. There were 2 baskets of clothes in the basement. While I was looking through the first one for the item that the mother wanted, I found the clothes for my doll, but no doll. Like any 10 year old who found a missing toy in someone else's house, I told the mother what I found when I went upstairs and SHE lied and said they were her daughters that a friend had given her. That's when Mom and Dad got involved and confronted the neighbor. Cissy wasn't damaged thankfully, although the other little girl decided to comb her hair out. Mom spent many hours putting her little curls back in place. Unfortunately her beautiful wardrobe and original outfit did not fair as well. The neighbor child cut them to shreds. The dress she is currently wearing is one that my mother made for another doll of mine. Cissy has always been under my watchful eye since her return. I haven't done much else than protect her. Leaving her as she was after Mom "made her better".

Two summers ago... for my 63rd birthday... my oldest daughter and I took the bus into New York City and visited the Madame Alexander Doll Factory and Museum. It's something I've always wanted to do. Seeing all of the dolls that I have drooled over for a lifetime got me interested in trying to find out more about my doll, and searching for duplicates of her original clothes. I was disappointed that the museum had only 1 pair of the original shoes left which I quickly scoffed up. They told me the only place to find items now is from collectors or on E-bay. I did make her a pretty straw hat while I was there though and have been looking for the right red fabric to make her a new dress. I have a picture in my head, but I can't find the fabric that is going to make the perfect dress. I'm not giving up though.

The internet is a wonderful resource. I've lost track of the hours I've spent looking at vintage dolls, doll clothing, accessories and patterns. Over the past few weeks I've tagged at least 50 dolls that have been in the E-bay auctions.  I've been lucky enough to win a couple of the auctions without having to give up my first born. My grandsons would be very upset if I did that.

Now I consider myself a Madam Alexander Collector, and have several "nude" dolls to dress and a couple to find shoes and socks for. Every day or two for the past 2 weeks a small or sometimes large package arrived at the house. My dear hubby watched as I opened yet another Madam Alexander doll or a package of goodies to "make a doll better". This has actually been the best birthday ever because I've gotten every doll I ever dreamed of owning. Well... almost every doll. I'm still waiting on the delivery of a nude male doll. He's a Madame Alexander doll, but uncertain as to which doll he is. I'll have some fun trying to figure that one out.

Thanks for stopping in. I'll have another post soon about one of my dolls. I'm still waiting for zippers to finish Sam's jacket. I did get him a pair of dark glasses though. He looks so cool now with his biker shades.

Stay safe!
Huggs,
               Joanie

New topper for Sammy!

Aimee thinks Sammy looks real cool in his new hat. This will give you an idea as to what type of jacket I'm attempting to make for him. We're waiting for the zippers to arrive. I made use of the down time and designed the hat using pictures from the internet.Yes, I made patterns. I'm sure I'll come up with other styles in time.

The jacket is half done. Another creation in process. I have an idea as to what the finished product will look like, but with me, everything is subject to change. Zipper arrival is about a week away, so I'll be coming up with another project to fill in the gap. I've got an idea for an outfit for Midge. Now to find the right fabrics. I must have something in my huge stash.

Some how I'll have to manage to squeeze in cooking, housework and playing World of Warcraft with some really great on line friends.

Got to run! Time to make dinner and get ready for an evening of WoW. Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy the day!

Huggs,
             Joanie

PS: You know I'm opening up a can of worms here. Hubby is going to want me to make a hat for him now.

Chelle is Pretty in Pink

I can't remember dressing either of my daughters in pink after growing out of the "newborn" size, but this little doll is another story. Pink looks so nice on her that I decided to stay with it. I made her a multi-colored sweater coat to wear over her original pink dress and another pink knit dress with multi-colored bodice and pink satin ribbon. She's so proud of her new eyelet edged slip she just had to show that off too.

The sweater is a favorite one that I've made for quite a few babies. I just made it a bit smaller for the doll.

This dress is another item that just popped into my head and developed as I went along. I'm thinking that it needs some little pink flowers on the bodice though.

Surprise! Surprise! I turned her around to take a picture of the back of the dress and realized that she could probably wear it backwards for a different look. I think I like this better.

Chelle is done for now, other than making her a pair of booties or shoes. I'm waiting to be inspired. While going through my scrap box, I found some interesting material that will make an awesome jacket for Sammy. Now I can't wait to get started on that!

I hope you've enjoyed my little wardrobe update. Thanks for stopping in. I hope to have a new project posted in a couple of days. In the meantime, stay safe and enjoy the day.

Huggs,

    Joanie