Vintage Jade Sheath and Stole for Tonner

 

SOLD  Anne Harper is wearing a jade green sheath dress that is a reproduction of a 50's design.  This was a tough pattern to get to fit as there are six darts in the front bodice alone.  The original has the front of the dress as all one piece but I had to make the skirt a separate piece to avoid a funny-looking bump in between the gathers.  The fabric is rayon batiste lined with a silk/cotton.  I chose to dress this up a bit with a "mink" stole lined in China silk, and Anne borrowed a diamond bracelet from Grace. 

Vintage Replica Lavender Coat and Floral Dress

SOLD   I've continued to sew as my right wrist heals, and the good news is the cast comes off tomorrow!  I will still have to wear a brace but at least I can take that off to take a shower, do the dishes, or scratch an itch.  And type, hopefully.  

This Anne Harper is wearing a replica of a 1957 ruched dress made from cotton lawn with a lightweight rayon coat.  I'm really liking rayon for dolls because of the drapability.  And it was commonly used for fashions of that era.  This dress with ruching in two directions was tricky to replicate but, after doing a couple of muslins, I finally figured it out.  The hat has a matching feather, and the bag is genuine lambskin.

Hoping to get some of these up for sale on Ebay as soon as I can type faster but inquiries are welcome in the meantime. 

 

Vintage Replica Rose Floral Dress and Bolero for Tonner dolls

Still have the cast on my right wrist so typing is still a bit slow.  Anne Harper is wearing a replica of a vintage 1957 sleeveless dress with matching bolero jacket made from cotton lawn.  Hat is made from silk and loaded with faux flowers.  The pink handbag is faux leather.  

Japanese Lawn 1952 Reproduction Dress for Tonner

One thing I was still able to do with a broken wrist was make new patterns and shop for fabric online, and, boy, did I ever.  My latest obsession is with Japanese fabric, especially prints.  I think this one from Stonemountain Fabrics is beautiful.  It's fully lined in silk/cotton and I chose this one because even though there is a little more hand sewing than the last dress, it also didn't have a lot of complicated pieces to cut out.

Peach Embroidered Lace Dress for Tonner

I've had this pretty length of embroidered lace that I bought from Frenchfashions.net for at least two years but matching it was a problem until I ran across this 35-year-old  cotton jacquard in my old stash of miniatures fabric.  After a lot of searching, I found some silk tissue taffeta to make the cumberbund and clutch.  I chose to make this up because it didn't require a lot of hand sewing or pieces to cut out.  Trying to cut with left-handed scissors is still dogging me.   

 

Rose Appliqued 1956 Reproduction Suit for Tonner

 So it's been almost 4 weeks since I broke my right wrist.  I couldn't use my  right hand at all for the first two weeks and I was bored silly from not being able to do anything.  After about two and a half weeks, I was able to use some of my fingers, and operate the sewing machine with my left hand.  Fortunately, this suit of rose rayon was already cut out prior to my accident because I just can't get the hang of left-handed scissors.  It still took me four days to make it because it required hand sewing to attach the appliques, sew on buttons and snaps, and make the hat flowers, etc.  And using my right thumb in any way was painful and required frequent breaks.  But I felt great after it was done!

  

Floral Linen Suit for Tonner

This might be my last post for a few weeks because, with a broken right wrist and a cast up to my elbow, I can barely type much less sew.  Such a bummer because I have a lot of new fashions in the pipeline.  Wonder if I can learn to use left handed scissors.