Sunday, August 29, 2010

Beautiful Sunday Morning

Happy Sunday everyone!

It is a beautiful morning here with clear skies, lots of sun and low temps and humidity. Maybe we are finally getting over our extremely hot summer. I know this is Arizona and the desert so we will still have some 100+ temps before we get into our fall but this morning at 68 degrees it feels good and gives us hope that the cooler weather is on the way.

The windows are all open in the house and we are enjoying it. The cat really loves to go from window to window and checking out what is going on outside. As an indoor cat he can still check on everything and not get into a fight with the cats that roam the neighborhood.

I am still working on doll clothes for the different Chatty Cathys that I have been getting. Right now I only have 5 of the dolls and still have two more that are in the mail. I have about a dozen dresses made and hope to get a few more made before my fall shows start so that I can sell them along with the dolls. The clothes will fit not only the Cathy dolls but also the American Girl dolls so that will be good for selling. I use to make lots of outfits for the American Girl dolls but stopped dong in about two years ago. I really enjoy designing and making dresses for all the dolls.

I have a little retired Berenguer boy doll that I am crocheting an outfit for at the moment and will show that as soon as I get it done. He is so cute and I just love him.

Well enough rambling for today. Enjoy your Sunday.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Tuesday and Another doll





Well here it is Tuesday and I have another doll. This one came to me dirty, with very messy hair and naked....poor baby. She is a 25 inch tall Charmin' Cathy from 1982 per her body markings. I don't know if she talks or not as it takes a record to make her speak. I hope to find some of the records soon so I will know one way or the other if her player still works.

I cleaned her up which took a couple of hours and she still has a couple of faded spots but these may still come off with more cleaner. I then worked on the hair and it came out beautifully and looks almost like it did 35 years ago. She desperately needs clothes so I made up a pattern and cut the fabric for a school girl look in red cotton and lace. She has the red dress and matching bloomers and then I also made some socks and put on a pair of cute little shoes that I had. I added the red bow to her hair and now she is ready to move on to some little girl or collector who will cherish her.

Tomorrow will be the next doll. A cute little Singing Cathy (sorry no voice) but I will tell you all about her tomorrow.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

My love of dolls continues





Has been a busy week here with making doll clothes. This is my latest find. She came to me dirty with a really nasty little outfit on and I had to rid her of the dirty and grime. She is an all one piece soft vinyl doll make in Mexico. What year, who knows? The thing is she talks. Says several phases by pulling the string in the back of her head. She cleaned up very well and I made her a cute little pink dress, bloomers and white socks all trimmed in pink lace. The only thing I kept of the original outfit were the white plastic shoes, which were in a like new condition. She is now listed on my website http://www.ejcrafts.com

My love of dolls has gone back to my childhood. I always had a doll and played dolls with my sister all the time. I made doll clothes from the time I was about 8 or 9 when I was allowed to use the sewing machine. Maybe I am in my second childhood because I am starting to get excited again about getting some more dolls, cleaning them up, redressing them and letting others have the joy of getting a "new to them" vintage doll. This is going to be a great adventure!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Dolls and more dolls




I really should stay off EBay because yesterday I won the bids on three different dolls. They were really low bids and I didn't expect to get any of them and I won three. Who knew!

It all started last week when I got the two Chatty Cathy dolls in the mail from a collector. I decided I would go on EBay and see the pricing plus I wanted to buy some shoes for the dolls. Bad idea because I started to bid on some of the dolls that had low pricing figuring that they would go way high....well a couple of them did but then came yesterday and I get the notices that I was high bidder. Now I have three more dolls headed my way and I am really going to have to decide what I want to do with all these dolls.

I did get some clothes made for the dolls this week and it is so much fun making doll clothes. I like pulling the fabric and cutting out a basic dress and then going through all the embellishment's that I have, adding them to the dress and seeing what I come out with.

Here are three of the dresses that I did this week and now with getting some "new" old dolls in the mail over the next week, I guess I will be making more clothes.

If anyone is interested in buying some of these dolls or even the clothing for these dolls, please contact me and I can send the information on the dolls. I will also be putting all the dolls and the clothing on my website over the next week.

Now it is time to go sew some more............

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Today my husband John is in love.



I got this fur the other day and John wanted a bear made from it right away. The last couple of days I worked on making a panda and this is the result. He is a 14 inch, 5 way jointed bear and I even put vinyl paw pads on him to make him a "man's" bear.

Even though navy is a hard fur to photograph, I think you can see the shine that this fur has. It is so soft and easy to work with. Anyway, John thinks it looks almost like Chicago Bear colors so he is in love. It is going to be very hard when this bear sells. The bear is now listed on my website.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Wednesday and I am in love.



Today I received two "new to me" Chatty Cathy dolls in the mail. I think I am in love with these dolls. They were popular in the late 60's and early 70's and I remember at the time that we could not afford to buy one for our daughter. Now I have three of them.

The first one I got a couple of months ago and that one is going nowhere but these two I bought for resale. I really wish I could keep them but it is best if I sell them. I will be making a complete wardrobe for each of the dolls. These two are in pretty good shape. One still has the pull string but the voice is garbled and the other one the string is missing. This is a common thing in these dolls. The one also have discolored legs which also is common. These dolls have been around and played with so you have to expect some minor problems. They have both been redressed with new clothes and then I will add some more clothing.

If you know of anyone who would like one of these dolls, please contact me for further information on the dolls.

Maybe tomorrow I will get around to more about my life. As for today, I am off to my sewing room to see what I can do with the new wonderful fur that I got yesterday.
I got some peach and navy and think I will be making a Chicago Bear panda for my hubby. He is a Chicago Bear fan. These will be special ordered if you want one and will not say Chicago Bear anywhere on them as only the colors will make it look like a Chicago Bear. Don't want to get into any copywrite problems.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Reflections

My birthday was last week and as I start another decade of my life, I sit and reflect on where I have been and where my life has led me.

Background: I grew up on a farm with my grandparents raising my sister and I. Our parents were divorced when I was 4 and my mother had us living with her. One day she brought the laundry and us girls and our baby brother to my grandparents and said she would be back in a couple of days and she never returned. My grandparents who had two kids of their own still at home, one girl 16 and a boy 12 couldn't keep all of us so my brother who was only 5 months old was adopted by my grandfather sister and husband. My grandparents then got guardianship of us girls. We had a good life from then on and enjoyed living and working on farms in the northern Illinois area.

I think because of this early trauma, I vowed if I got married, I would never put my children through that. Well, here I am married 52 years and raised three wonderful children so I guess I made it. Yes, being married is not always easy and yes we had our bad times but there were many more good times than bad.

My husband, John and I are best friends and have worked all our lives until we retired 6 years ago. The last few years of working we even worked in the same job so were together 24/7 so when we retired we didn't have that trauma of all of a sudden being together all the time.

We even spent 20 years of doing craft shows all over the western states. We really enjoyed doing them with John setting up everything and I doing all the sewing. It worked great. We would work all week at regular jobs and our weekend were craft shows. We still do a couple of shows a year but due to health problems, that is all that we can manage. Then John doesn't drive anymore so now the shows are all local.

I love doing my crafts and I love to sew so now with a website I am able to sell some of my work that way too. I try to keep my cost low and I don't charge what I know I should charge for my work but it is more of "keeping busy" so as long as I can make enough to cover my costs of materials and a little extra to cover the shows, I am happy.

I have rambled on now and never got to the part of reflection that I started this blog with so tomorrow is another day. I have lots of time, so if I get busy doing something else I will write and explore what my life has given me.