Reproduction English Wooden Queen Anne dolls hand carved 1700 by Kathy Patterson babes from the woods.
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Our range of blouses and shirts includes versatile tops for everyday wear, eye-catching retro prints and vintage-inspired details. Shop Joanie Blouses & Shirts now!
Made by me with Echino Flower fabric from Phatfabric dot com (my fabric shop). I used the Everyday Bag pattern by Favorite Things. www.prettydittyblog.com (my blog)
Single-size and Multiple-size patterns dating to the 1940's.
From my personnal collection of magazines and patterns from the past
We provide an attractive collection of 1930s Vintage Jacket Patterns. View our coat & suit patterns on our site where you’ll find specifications and prices.
Cow suede with small spotted pattern
Labor Day Weekend. Could it possibly be the end of summer already? Back to school? Not in Peggy Sue's world. Summer is here for as long as the days are warm and bright. Or at least until the twenty-first of September. There are barbeque parties to attend, picnics by the lake, make-up and curler dates with girlfriends, and of course, hanging out at the diner with friends. Life was...well, different in the 1950's. There were less cars on the road, children played outdoors. Neighborhoods were safe. Jump ropes and hula hoops kept the young set fit and energized. Rock n Roll blared from hotrods cruising the boulevards, and girls sought to be pretty in an idealized way. Peggy Sue is just a tween. Too old for dolls, too young for boys (says her mother). She spends her time listening to 45's on the record player and reading teen magazines. She dreams of the day she'll wear a bridal gown and begin a family of her own like her older sister. These years are special ones where she discovers who good friends really are, and how to behave as a young lady should. She'll learn to cook and sew, and clean. Chores won't be difficult, but she wants to learn since Mother does such a wonderful job. Peggy Sue loves to draw and paint, and read mystery books. But, mostly, she enjoys being a girl. Just like the song. When the UFDC Online Event began, I wasn't so sure I wanted another Little Darling. I have two and display them in lovely Russian made knitted outfits. I complained to a friend of mine that I didn't want a doll in a poodle skirt. Why do I behave like such a stick in the mud sometimes? They are cute. I do love the 50's. The fashions were elegant and fun and feminine. Two of my favorite Tonner dolls are Kitty Collier and DeeAnna Denton. I like Cissy. But, truth be admitted, I found it difficult to sew for her, even though I loved the fashions she wore in the 1950's. I like sewing for young girls and tweens. So as I mentioned in my last blog, after I spotted Alice Leverette's pattern set made for her, I decided to purchase Peggy Sue, Diana Effner's souvenir doll for the UFDC convention that became the Online Event. I will also add, that having spent a good deal of time looking at Little Darlings, and owning two painted by Geri Uribe, I think Peggy Sue is the better of the three. Of course I love the doll best who I'm currently sewing for, usually, but the artists that painted these dolls did a phenomenal job. And, she is the one Little Darling I have that can stand on her own. I don't know what it is about the other two, but they are constantly falling over. I'm so happy I got her, and couldn't wait to begin sewing for her. A couple of weeks ago, I cut out every single pattern in Alice's set. I had quite a bit of Cissy related fabrics on hand, but went ahead and purchased a few more fabric selections. What I wanted to create was a bright and cheerful wardrobe to take me though the end of summer's sewing. My favorite historical American Girl right now is MaryEllen, and her wardrobe would, in part, be my inspiration. The first dress I made was using the square necked bodice with a full skirt. I believe this bodice was intended for sleeves, but I created it fully lined, then added the skirt. The print is a muted pale pink-mauve gingham with red flower pots hosting a daisy each. I had this red rick rack on hand, and added plenty to trim and decorate the dress. Somehow it still seemed too plain, so I added two small daisy appliques. One at the neckline and one on the skirt. In her hair she's tied a red grosgrain ribbon. The next outfit would be a sun dress for patio parties, carnivals, and beach days. I'd bought this salt water taffy stripe originally for Cissy, but its perfect for Peggy Sue. The sweetheart neckline bodice was intended for both a petticoat and a sun dress. Instead of simply attaching another full skirt like the dress above, I played with the stripes for more depth and visual appeal. I sewed a horizontal length above the vertical, and trimmed the hem with a bias stripe. The shoulder straps are the same stripe patterning. I love working with stripes and checks since you can cut them so accurately to match. The bottom of the bodice ends in the large pink stripe, and the horizontal top of the skirt begins with the same pink stripe. The sun dress is a circus of colors. A playful parade of candy stripes. I will note that I had to make the bodice twice. It was not wide enough to fit around Peggy Sue's torso. I have a ton of this fabric, so it was no problem. The next thing I wanted to include was a pair of pedal pushers. Alice did not include a cut line on her pattern for these, so I copied the pattern on my printer and added length to the cuffed shorts line. I chose red since its such a stand out color. The pants pattern sewed up like a dream with no adjustments needing to be made. I was feeling more creative as I went along and the ease of these patterns allowed me to play freely. But, it was this cherry print cotton that I really wanted to sew with. Peggy Sue needed a cheery cherry shirt to ride her bike in and do the occasional chores about the house. Its a good thing that I had plenty of this "Cissy intended" fabric as well. This shirt pattern was all one piece with only sleeves and collar added. The problem is that it was not wide enough across the shoulder blade area, and the sleeve holes were too small. After some careful looking, I noticed the front of the sleeve hole was smaller than the back. Maybe this works for people???, but it didn't work for this doll. So I went to bed that night with the intention of making the shirt all over again from scratch. The first thing I did was decide not to use the 1/4" recommended seam allowance, and take it down to 1/8", which is what I normally sew for my own designs. I also copied the blouse pattern on the printer and cut a wider hole in the arm front to match the back. Now I had a nice fit. The collar is adorable and was easy to apply to the shirt. I did not clip the recommended 3/16" along the neck edge to attach the rectangular collar, but attached it the way I normally do, stretching and fitting. I made sure on the second try to leave a good 1/4" from the edge of the collar where the self facing folds in, to give it a proper shirt collar look. I added a pocket smaller than the one the patterns provided and tucked a purple gingham handkerchief into it. Four little buttons go down the front, and one on the pocket flap. All these outfits are fastened easily with snaps. Now that I had plenty of pink and red in this wardrobe, I wanted some bright yellow or green. I had a very small piece of Aunt Grace Scrap Bag yellow with tiny purple roses. Its such a pretty fabric. Peggy Sue needed a little garden sun suit that could be worn on vacations and during games of hop scotch, or even backyard badminton games. Further enjoying myself at this point, I pushed the design concept and trimmed her yellow sun suit with the purple gingham, picking up the purple in the tiny roses. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this one. Having sewn with both the pants pattern and the sweetheart bodice, I decided to attach them for a onsie and add a skirt she could wear over it. Credit given where credit is due, MaryEllen has a similar sun suit. I just made this one a little different. Very different, but the look is the same. To get the trim on the bodice, which is actually a fold over look, not sewn at the base, I cut a smaller shape from the bodice following the line by measuring down an inch. Its a handy little pattern piece that can be used again for an elegant dress. Both edges are sewn then turned inside out and pressed. The gingham in attached by machine to the top edge of the bodice only by top stitching. The shorts which attach to the bodice were shortened by a good inch. I added the bias cut gingham as a turned up cuff. Thank goodness I know how to sew some of this stuff. It helps tremendously when you want to design and play. The onsie is finished with straps that tie halter style. I then added the top skirt to the set. The skirts in this pattern set have a recommended 24" length, and so far its worked beautifully, although the first dress I made is about 28" in width. The play skirt has a waistband in the bias cut gingham and closes in front with one snap at the center. As an after thought, I added two little purple buttons to the front of the onsie and five down the center of the skirt. As an after after thought, I make a bow for her hair. The shoes are all provided by Debs Adorables on Ebay. They are cute and just fine for this classic little wardrobe. Right now its all about fun and cheery colors and ease of play for me. Each outfit took two days to make overall. The next thing I'll do is work on her display trunk, but I've shown how the outfits will look in it. I want the colors to blend and compliment each other set up in this display. I also want to begin a school dress or two, a party dress fitting for the holidays, and as there was no pattern for a coat with hat, I'll have to modify some of the patterns to make one. How many outfits will Peggy Sue have? Enough to round out the display at least. She should have something for each season, and already summer covered. I understand from Rachel Hoffman that the Tonner Grace Marie dolls are in an LA customs house right now, so when she arrives, I can begin her Summer Fling wardrobe. Fall is going to be here in no time at all, so I'm sewing daily. My inspiration has returned and it feels wonderful. Love, Melissa
peggy gou
Peggy Seeger
Morning everyone, I have scheduled this post as I will be driving to work as this goes out. I have two more days (including today) left...
Peggy fucking gou
I like to think I am sowing seeds around the world as I make my blog - seeds of faith, or hope or maybe, creativity.
