Little Eva

The Berjuan doll has lovely eyes, but the face paint is quite ordinary and really needs to be redone to give her more character. Her hair is lovely and soft to touch (no Gel), but extremely long. So unless one intends to braid it, it could be problematic. I shall restyle it by giving her a haircut and perhaps add a wave or curl.

Eva has a long neck and her articulated body is a combination of vinyl with what appears to me to be plastic joints. The joints aren't perfect, but most hold a position reasonably well . . . except for the ankles, these were sloppy, which makes standing her quite difficult, though I did finally manage to do it.

She can easily move her hands up and they will hold their position very well.

She can sit in a variety of positions, but her legs won't sit straight out in front. I do like how her arms and hands will allow her to hold things and can imagine her clutching a pet or doll.

Ava is able to kneel and lean backwards, she can even smell her own feet! (They don't stink, they have the smell of vanilla.) Or maybe she about to chew her toes! 🤣

Unfortunately, I could not get her to stand on one foot, I just don't have the patience. Would I purchase another of these dolls? Most probably not, but I will keep her and see if I can do something with her ankles.

Long Time No Post

I am still here though! Sales on eBay have been keeping me busy, which I never expected . . . especially seeing as I had things in my stash that I didn't know I had. Does that sound a little intriguing?

Let me tell you about it . . . as you already know I am having a clean out of stuff which I really don't need (and probably never did). It was while sorting, that I came across a little suitcase I painted for my mum a long time ago (2002), which I inherited when she passed.

I'd never opened it before and had no idea what was inside, so it came as a real surprise when I found it was full of Kellogg's Cereal Toys!! Yep, those tiny plastic things that kids found in their breakfast cereal back in the 60's and 70's. My first thought was to ditch them, but my instincts told me to check eBay before doing so.

So glad I did, these have become quite collectable and I had a heap of them. This photo shows what's left after the first listing . . . one chap bought so many, I was able to pay for Manica and Cleo, the two articulated Paola Reina dolls which I had my eyes on from Spain!

The first three dolls which I ordered from Dolls and Dolls at the end of last month, arrived today and I just love the two boys. (In case anyone here in Oz is considering placing an order with them, shipments travel from Spain to the Netherlands by road, before shipping to Oz by air. Tracking is via PostNL and Australia Post. I thought exactly three weeks from order to delivery, amidst this pandemic, was a pretty good delivery time.)

The the third one, a Berjuan Luxury Doll is also articulated. Her name is Eva, she is 35cm tall and comes without clothes. Being slightly different, I'll probably need to adjust my patterns to dress her, but I think she will be fun to sew for. I will tell you more about her later.

All these photos were taken with my Canon 600D with the Ring Light attached. I haven't had a lot of experience with it yet and haven't used the flash, just the light, but I love the light as it shows very little shadow. So if I never use the flash, it's been worth it (certainly was a blessing for taking close ups of the cereal toys).

Well I guess it's time now to catch up with what's been happening with you!

Four Little Dresses

I told you I had been hand sewing and the following two photos were taken before the dresses had their press studs sewn on. However, I wanted to see how they would fit different dolls before completing them.

The pattern I used is this one from La Boutique de Vaniline, but I lengthened the skirt and changed the neckline slightly on a couple of them. Her 32-33cm patterns are designed to fit Corolle Les Chéries, Dianna Effner Little Darlings, Sylvia Natterer Minouches, Paola Reina Las Amigas.

Here are the dresses are worn (L to R) by my Phyn & Aero Patience, Corolle Les Chéries, Tonner Betsy McCall and Paola Reina Las Amigas dolls. The dress is slightly big on Patience as her torso is thinner, but she can get away with it.

As I have quite a few different doll this size I wanted to be able to swap their clothes around when it came to dressing them, but still keep all the clothes together in one box. I have some clothes meant for this size doll that cannot be worn by them all, and that annoys me, so they will have to go.

Knitwear can also be switched, however, shoes can not. Just look at the difference in the size of the dolls feet, especially in the first photo. It's laughable! It really is such a shame doll makers don't make all dolls this size have the same size feet!

Here are the same dresses (L to R) on my Vestida de Azul Paulina, Minouche, Little Darling and IpleHouse KID Irene. If Paulina was going to wear this dress, I would need to make one just for her with only one centre set of buttons, as the front of her chest is wider. The fit on my KID is similar to Patience, so once again, she could get away with it.

Here are the completed dresses worn by the girls they were intended for. Lucy (Manica) in the white and Barbara in the dusty pink. I'm not sure about the bright pink buttons on Lucy's dress, I think I may change them to white and I'd prefer a more appropriate pink ribbon in her hair, similar to the pink braid on her dress.

And here we have Carolina and Nora in the more subtle vintage colours. I'm going to change the ribbon in Carolina's hair to a deeper and more olive ribbon and perhaps add matching green braid above the lace (if I can find some) as I have on Nora's dress . . . what do you think?

Well time has flown by and still without an end in sight to this current lockdown. I do hope those of you in the northern hemisphere are making the most of your sunshine and freedom.

FOR BARB: Here's a comparison between my Little Darling's foot and Tonner Betsy McCall's. As you can see Betsy's foot is just a fraction bigger, but I tried my LD's shoes on Betsy and they went on, but were a tight fit, so they wouldn't go on over socks or stockings.