Advise

It seems sad to live in old shoe boxes - for the most part face down. Coming out every now and then to be admired.

We are all "vintage" (well, 1960's for sure). I am probably the oldest (50's?) - a Klumpe Rodan felt doll an Aunt gave to my owner.

We were a Christmas present in 1967 while the family was in England visiting relatives.

Even the boys are a little miffed about living in a box....

So here is the pickle - do we stay in the box or come out? And if we do come out where do we go? A little strange to be on display - so any suggestions? We could actually move out all together but our owner says that ain't happenin (phew sigh of collected relief)... Jewels

Dolls and Christmas Past

We all have our favorite memories of Christmas past.

Here is my brother (4) and I (6) in our old house in Sarnia, Ontario. See that Santa in the back - my sister still brings him out every year (his paint has been refreshed many times). And what I wouldn't GIVE to have all those old decorations and toys (sigh) - if we only knew then what we know now!

I still have the doll I was holding>>>>> Though I really wasn't big on dolls..


...more bookish (heh, that's why I became a Librarian). But somehow over the years I have built a little collection.

During our Christmas in England in 1967, I received a whole collection of "dolls of the world". If you lift the skirts of the little ladies (we don't lift his skirt of course) you will see little Dutch shoes and Moccasins - all intact.

Here we are getting ready for Santa that year....we were very concerned he would not know where to deliver our presents. One of our relatives went outside and pretended to be reindeers on the roof just to assure us we were found in the right country!

One of my aunts, on the same visit, let me have this Spanish lady to bring back to Canada.

I'm not really sure where this last doll came from (from one of my Mum's Girl Guide friends?), but she's part of the collection to.

And of course there is my Christmas doll. She used to be on our tree and started out with a pink satin dress with balloons on it (if I remember correctly). At some point I had to give her a new outfit. All in all a nice little collection, don't you think? Cheers, Jewels

Doll Patterns including Barbie

More patterns to share from my big find on Friday. These are all for doll clothing.
At first glance you might think they are regular patterns - they really are gorgeous.
I think the first one is fun - it includes directions for making the "closet".

This one looks like it dates back to the 1940's - it is the oldest of the bunch I picked up.

There were several Barbie Doll patterns from the early 60's. I only ever owned one Barbie Doll - I got her as a present at a Christmas Party for a company my Dad used to work for. They were an annual event at the old Kenwick Terrace downtown Sarnia, Ontario, Canada (that building is long gone). Not knowing anything about being a "collector" at that young age (I'm not going to date myself) I proceeded to chew her feet off (I kid you not). This is a reason I won't make millions from my old things :-<...

And who could forget Barbie's sister Skipper?

Poor Ken - never a real Groom - I hear he and Barbie are just friends now... Happy 50th Barbie - you go girl. And if anyone who is a serious Barbie collector (as you can tell by my story, I am not) is interested, I would be happy to send you the Skipper and Barbie patterns (I'm keeping the rest) - they are not all complete but still fun to look at. All I would ask for is the cost for postage. First one to ask can have them, just include your email address.