Dolls Finished up.

Okay, so I have been trying to get some of the dolls finished up before next week when I expect more dolls in the mail. These are all 15 inch dolls that have been sitting around a while. I have to leave them sit for a while and see what they want to wear. Some times it only takes a day and I know exactly what they should wear and sometimes it takes weeks and digging through my large stash of fabrics to decide.

This first baby doll is an Eegee, probably a 1963 Baby Tanya. This is the closest that I can find. She has a battery compartment in her back and a place for a key. Of course, I don't have a key so I don't know if she works. I figure she does if we can just find a key that would fit in the little hole.

She has been sitting probably for a month on my work bench without any clothes. She has a baby doll body but her face and hair is more of the toddler look. This week when I was a Goodwill I found this burgundy and black plaid, wood blend fabric and I knew right away this is what this doll needed. So here she is and I added a tam too and put some vintage buttons on the dress and tam. I have her listed on ebay this week.



This sweet little girl has been sitting in my sewing room window for a couple of weeks. She does have a problem in that her face and arms are paler than the rest of her. Now she can't be sold at the price that she should sell for.

She is an Effanbee, 1967 with really nice long blonde hair. I have dressed her in some vintange blue and white stripped cotton fabric for her dress and white panties, white knee socks and a pair of brown leather vintage high top shoes that I have had for a few years. I added the straw hat because she doesn't want to get a sunburn while she is out. In the days when this type of clothing was worn, women did not want anything but pale skin and always wore big hats and completely covered their bodies.



Now this last one is also an Effanbee doll. I love the faces on the Effanbee dolls. They are always so expressive. This is a 1962 doll called Gum Drop. She came with long hair in brown, red or blonde and it was always looked like the doll in the picture above. This poor little one has had a hair cut. Some little girl must have decided she didn't want the doll to have long hair. When I got her the hair was several different lengths and the bangs were all crooked. I have trimmed the bangs and evened out the rest of the hair and she looks cute with her little girl hair cut.

She is wearing the same dress that I received her in. I think it is a original dress for this doll. I made her white panties and gave her white shoes and a straw hat.

I think I was in a straw hat mood yesterday because the two dolls I did yesterday both have straw hats. And then there was a tam on the doll today. Hat time!

These last two dolls are listed on my website at a very good price for this old of a doll. Not considered vintage because of their problems but still have lots and lots of play time left in them




You have an old doll you don't want any more or have one that needs it's hair fixed or new clothes made for it. I do buy old dolls and I also can fix the hair and make clothes so that it will look new again. I do not repair old dolls.

I can be contacted through my website where I have my dolls and other things listed.
http://www.ejcrafts.com/

Good Morning Everyone.

Here it is Wednesday and another day to see what I can get done. Wednesday is our day for grocery shopping. I am not a fan of grocery shopping but it is something that has to be done. Today is also pay day for us and a lot of the other seniors who live in this part of the world so today the WalMart is really, really going to be crowded with people and their carts. Why does everyone have to stand in the middle of the aisles to decide what they want on the shelf? I never could understand that one. And then the motorized carts.....I am not even going to start in on that one.

So, a bright spot in the day will be going to the thrift stores to see if I can find any more dolls. Last week, nothing but you never know what will be there. It isn't like I need any more dolls to fix up but the hunt is so much fun. I have several dolls that need clothes right now and I will get to them. Some just have to sit awhile while I decide what they will look best in.

I do have to thank a very special Canadian friend of mine. We have only met through cyber space but I feel she is a true friend that I could sit and talk hours to. Dale is a doll fan like I am and I was pleased to be able to get her the Chatty Cathy dolls that she had been looking for. She wrote such a beautiful comment about me in her blog and I just want to thank her for it.

Well it is time to get this day started. It is finally light out and I need to get off the computer, shower, dress and make the beds so that we can get going. It looks like no wind today so far so it sure will be easier to get around as the last few days, that wind has made it hard to even get from the house to the car, to the store and back.

Everyone enjoy their day.....happy Wednesday.

New Year!

Here it is a new year and I have been so bad about getting to this blog. I just have not had the time to really get to any thing extra. December was a very busy month with posting and packing dolls for shipment and then the stand at the post office to get everything mailed. I had a good month but a busy one. January has started off good too and with fingers crossed, I hope it continues.




The first doll is one of the many dolls that I have bought and cleaned up and redressed. I really love doing this and I guess so does everyone by the number of sales I have had on these dolls. I love old dolls. There is just so much you can do to make them look new again and bring joy to a new owner. This one is a 15 inch Horsman vintage doll from the 1970's. She came to me in an dirty outfit and her hair was full of dirt and in ponytails. She washed her up and curled her hair and gave her a cute little dress and new shoes and socks. She doesn't even look like the same doll.

I have also added a picture of the "Emma" dolls that I made this past week. This has been a very popular design for me. I designed them last spring and they seem to sell as fast as I can get them made. One of these is already sold and I just got them done today and I don't expect the others will last long either. I don't have them on the website yet because I want to show all of these to the lady who bought one and I hope to get that done tomorrow. I take special orders on these with chose of color of outfit and hair. I think they have done well because each doll as all four faces and with the turn of the head they change their expression.

The day after Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We were quiet here as our family lives all over the country and they all spent time with their kids. John and I went out to the casino early in the AM and both of us won. It was quiet out there too with just some of the seniors who are local with no family near or snowbirds here for the winter. Then came home and had a normal day. Laundry, made a nice ham dinner, played on the computer and worked a little on dolls.

We had so much rain last week and cloudy weather for 10 days and then the sun was finally out for a couple of days and now again this morning, here we are with clouds again and a possibility of rain today and again on Thursday. This is not normally the time of the year when we get rain in the desert. Weird weather this year all over the world.

Now it is really time for me to go work on some dolls. I have several naked babies waiting for new clothes. Sometimes it is hard to decide how I want them to look and seeing I haven't been posting on this blog for a while, no one has seen many of the newer dolls that I have done. I will try to get some on soon.

The last month has kind of been a blur as I have started to sell on Ebay and have done pretty good there but it really becomes almost a full time job to keep up with it. I post new/old dolls on there almost every day with them going to auction for just 3 days. It takes a lot of work to keep up with it but it has been profitable so will continue into January to see if the people are still buying. Of course, with being on there, I also find dolls that I want so I am buying too. Should probably do that but there is always another doll that I don't have or one that needs to be replaced.

Have a good week with the New Year coming up.

Bears looking for homes

I went and picked up the items I had at the Art Fair this morning and now I have bears to sell. These poor little guys need new homes and would make great Christmas gifts for the young and old alike. They all have soft faux fur, are 14 inches tall, 5 way jointed and have child safe locking plastic black eyes and noses. I have put them all at a great low price.

This will be the last of the bears that I design and make. I will not be making any others than for special order. I am having too much fun now, learning about old dolls, finding them, cleaning them up and redressing them.

Now it is time to get some Christmas decorations up. The tree is started and a few things out. Will not go overboard this year like I have done in the past. Just can't get into it this year.

Craft show season over.

The craft show season is over for me. I know there are others who have a couple more shows but after 8 shows and dismal sales this year, do I want to do it again next year. Right now I would say no but I know when it comes around again, I will be out there, selling what ever new doll I come up with and of course, I have my newest adventure with all the vintage and refurbished dolls.

My biggest seller this year has been my Emma doll. This is different because it has four different faces and everyone seems to want one. I sold the last one today and have orders for more, so I guess I will be making some of these in the next few weeks. The bears, for me, are not going to be any longer. I will only do these if someone orders a special one. I still have a few of these left on the website and so far this fall, they haven't sold either.

Now it is time to start working on my vintage dolls, which I find more exciting. I have learned so much about old dolls and it is wonderful to take a tired old naked doll and turn it into a like new doll. Right now it is just cleaning them up and making new clothes but I can see that I may get into rerooting hair and doll repair. That is all in the future and not sure at this point if that is what I want to do.

I will try the antique and collectible show this coming year and see how that goes. Don't know yet if this is where I want to show my dolls. All the doll shows are quite a distances away and we really are not into traveling much. Just may have to try one to see what they are all about. May have to start making extra doll clothes too as I have had some requests for these. These I know will go over well at doll shows because so many people have dolls that need clothes and they don't sew. I have made clothes in the past and they have always sold well.

Only time will tell what direction my business will go this coming year.

I think I had better start to put up some Christmas decorations. We don't even have the tree up yet. I did get the Christmas cards written out but not mailed yet. Tomorrow may be the day to get out to the shed and find some of the stuff and then move the living room around enough to get the tree set up.

That is tomorrow....then maybe it could be the next day.

Sale time on my website.

It is sale time on my website. I always at the end of the year have some one of a kind odds and ends so I decided I might as well put them up before Christmas to let everyone have the bargains before Christmas.

My craft shows are pretty much done for the year. I am doing the Art Fair at the local college but it is boutique style so I only work 2 of the 6 days. I got it set up with bears, soft dolls and mice. It starts tonight so I hope to sell most of the bears because that will just about be the end of that part of my crafting.

My stock shelves are now filling up with vintage and refurbished/recycled dolls and they don't seem to take up as much room as the bears did. Those will stay until my antique and collectible show in February. Of course, they are available on my website right now. I thought I had all of them on the website until yesterday when I looked and nope, not all there. Today I added some of them and will try to get the rest put on tomorrow. I have to take some pictures first.

So all of you out there looking for some great gifts for family or friends, don't forget to check out my site for some great bargains.
http://ejcrafts.com