Dollieh Sanctuary

Kind of anti-fashionista, but here you go!

Just pretend there's a door behind her.


Dog's eye view. (also so you can see that she is wearing a slip)


Bib-style apron




The dress is actually 1" too short for what I was going for (and her right leg's turned around funny - that explains the problems standing) (which means the apron is also 1" short)


The collar and cuffs are detachable.


The scarf is 1/4 of a full sized thrift store scarf. Her hair is actually huge, and the scarf shows that.

All my own patterns.
The dress is based on an existing blouse pattern: I changed the neck and sleeves and extended the body of the blouse to be a skirt. Snaps closed. Made of a thin and cheap cotton/poly blend. The dress is shaped with vertical tucks front and back of the bodice.
I'll make a longer version in a nicer fabric and probably a belt also.

The fabric I used for the collar and cuffs is a linen/cotton blend and is really too stiff for this so I'll be fidgeting around with the pattern and trying it again in a lighter fabric. They are basted on so I can easily take them off and use them somewhere else or replace them.

The apron is cotton voile, trimmed in more voile (bias strips) for which I have no matching thread. Bleah. The horizontal band of trim on the front is the top of a pocket. I forgot to stick one of her hands in to show the pocket. Buttons w/ one button in the back.

I will make the front straps (and therefore the center front of the apron) narrower next time so the trim is not lost on the sides.

As always, you impress me!! That' looks great, and of course you made the collar cuffs removable. I love how you make things that look perfect in period. The dress and apron don't look too short, and I actually like how the trim is on the sides.

Thanks! I am my own worst critic.
AND a frustrated historical costumer.
I was going for a dress from 1938, so it should probably be closer to calf then knee length. Heck, let's say she hemmed it up.
I am still tripped up by how loooooong Amelia's legs are.

My "set" needs some wall art. I don't have a color printer anymore so I batch my color print jobs and wait until I can stand to go to the copy place. However, I do get the senior discount now!

So sweetly old fashioned and nostalgic! Looks almost exactly like some of my grandmother's old clothes.

(Partial) Sears' catalog reprints from Dover "Everyday Fashions of the Forties (thirties) as Pictured in Sears Catalogs" are one of the resources I use.
I also have the 1940 "Blueprints of Fashion" which is image after image of sewing pattern envelopes.
Then there are various Flicker streams I've discovered by Googling images.
It also helps that my parents (born 1919 and 1927) never threw anything away so I grew up in a house full of old weird things.

And then there's wishbookweb.com - just found this one.

Trivia: that basket Amelia is lugging about is what I use for carrying doll sewing projects in.

Looks amazing! For 1938 you could say it was financial reasons for having a shorter skirt.

Wonderful historical clothes as always. I like the placement of the trim on the apron. As for the length of the dress, while I know it's shorter than it would be for the time, you could always explain it away as her having used what fabric she had.

Actually, I have photos of my grandmother in a dress and apron like that in the exact same length! Her dress was made the way it was because she was sewing other dresses/skirts together and didn't much mess with making it any longer.

She looks great!

That's good to know, Absynthe. Thanks!

Beautifully done and could pass for the 1950's. My mom was still wearing aprons like that when I was little.