Paula Walton’s doll-making notes
Posts pertaining to making Izannah Walker-style doll clothing.
This doll is SOLD. Thanks so much for looking.
I’ve just listed this doll on eBay. She turned out so well! I finished her clothes this afternoon, and immediately decided that she is one of my favorites. I hope you agree. Click on any of the small photos to enlarge them.
These two dolls have already found new homes. Thank you for dropping in to see them! Just for fun, the girls are dressed in antique mourning print fabrics and wool felt hats to celebrate All Hallows Eve. Pack their hats away after Halloween and pose them with antique daguerreotypes or tintypes for a stunning monochromatic year round display. Check back soon to see additional pieces in their wardrobes.
If you would like more information on these two dolls or others that I am currently working on, please call 860-355-5709 or email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com .
The last few days have been scorchingly hot here in Connecticut! Much too warm to garden, or work on the antique cupboards that I’m in the midst of 
cleaning and painting. So I have been distracting myself from the heat by making doll clothes. Which has worked pretty well for several hours at a time, once I finally made allowances for the heat. It’s been too hot to sew in both my new studio and my sewing room, so I wandered around the house until I found the least stifling hot room and set up a sewing machine. After all, that is why God made portable sewing machines 🙂
My newly claimed sewing area was not without it’s problems. First off, I needed a flat surface to plop the sewing machine on. I didn’t want to haul anything heavy or have to move furniture too far. I wound up grabbing a child size Mission oak desk that was the nearest thing to hand. Not ideal, but I was starting to work up a sweat, so I didn’t really care.
Next it was time to plug in the machine and get it threaded. Oops! No bobbin in the machine. That meant a trek out to my studio through the blazing sun to get one. I grabbed two, just for good measure and came back in the house.
With the machine finally threaded, I started sewing on some glorious early brown and red stripped fabric that I had chosen to make an Izzy dress. More problems, the tension on the Singer Featherweight I was using was off and the machine was skipping stitches. There ensued a small pause for the removal of the offending stitches and tension adjustment. Back to sewing… and still skipping stitches!!! Reread the last two sentences a few times and you’ll begin to see why I trooped back out to my studio to get a different Featherweight! Good thing I have a spare 🙂 Once I cooled down and gulped a glass of iced tea I finally got to sew!
I am quite pleased with the way the dress is turning out and once it’s finished I’m planning to make a Turkey red sunbonnet to go with it, as well as a red embroidered apron. I had such a good time sorting through my antique fabrics and picking out just the right ones, that I almost managed to forget I was hot 🙂
I hope that where ever you are that you’ve managed to find a moderately cool spot of your own. This doll has been sold. Thank you for stopping by to look at her:)
Thank you so much for looking! This doll is now sold. You may custom order her younger sister:) by calling 860-355-5709 or emailing me paula@asweetremembrance.com.
I’ve just finished listing this doll on eBay. She is up for auction with a wardrobe of two dresses, an antique indigo print summer dress and a brown reproduction Civil War era brown cotton print dress for fall and winter. You know how important it is for a girl to have a choice of ensembles 🙂 .
***Thank you to everyone who came to the show last year in 2011!!! I hope you are enjoying your purchases. I’m not doing an online show in 2012 because we are having a wedding in the family instead. ***
The show is open! Hours – Friday, June 24th at 8 p.m. Eastern Time through 10 p.m. Sunday, June 26th.
The show includes dolls, antique bears and toys, vintage and antique cooking items, small handcrafted treasures plus a few surprises for sale on a first come basis. So don’t wait!
The show is posted on my blog, www.paulawalton.com. You will be able to view the show by visiting paulawalton.com from 8 p.m. Eastern Time on June 24th through 10 p.m. Eastern Time June 26th. If you see something you would like to buy, you can either email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com or call me at 860-355-5709, please no phone calls before 9 a.m. or after 10p.m. Eastern Time. I will be accepting checks, money orders and Paypal for payment. You may also place items on lay away. If you would like to pay using Paypal, I will invoice you. If you wish to pay with a credit card, you may do so through Paypal as a guest – you do not have to open a Paypal account.
As always everything, except carousel horses and large pieces of furniture, will include free shipping. If it is possible for you to come pick your purchases up in person, then I will subtract a bit from your total 🙂
I will be posting additional items throughout the weekend, so check back 🙂
Click on these links to go right to the show:
Antique Children’s and Doll’s Furniture
Want to see more??? Visit my main website for more of my work.
My Valentine’s Day post this year was about chemises. Continuing with the undergarment theme, today I’m talking about pantalettes. Unlike my previous post, this time around I will not be modeling any of pantalettes. 🙂
All of my reproduction Izannahs wear pantalettes as part of their authentically recreated clothing. I base the pantalettes that my dolls wear on a pair that are part of the original garments belonging to one of my antique Izannah Walker dolls.
You can see another photo of these pantalettes here.
The origins of pantalettes can be found in early 19th century France, and from there the fashion soon spread to England and America. Pantalettes were worn by women and children of both sexes.
The legs of pantalettes can either be two separate pieces that are joined only at the waist (as is the case with my doll’s version) or the legs can be sewn together with either a side or back opening. The hemline of the legs varied from below the knee to ankle length.
To view c. 1860’s Girl’s Clothing Styles post, click here.
To enlarge any of the smaller photos, simply click on them.
April is starting out to be a terrific month. Friday was my son Blair’s birthday. The whole family got together to celebrate for the entire weekend.
Friday also brought some very welcome news, when I learned that I have been chosen for Early American Life’s 2011 Directory of Traditional American Crafts. This makes my 23rd time to be juried into the directory. Thank You EAL! Please look for the Directory issue of the magazine which will be on newsstands on June 21st.
In between all of the partying, I managed to squeeze in a little shopping time. On Saturday I went to a couple of thrift shops with one of my sons and his girlfriend. We found quite a few small treasures. Sunday brought the opening day of the Elephant’s Trunk flea market. I was able to replenish my supply of antique white cotton fabrics and I found a wonderful antique paisley shawl. Now all I have to do is decide if I can possibly restore the shawl, or if it is so far gone that it is fair game for doll clothing! Always a dilemma 🙂
This doll has been sold. If you love her and would like to order a similar doll, I would be happy to make one especially for you.
Let’s try this again! My photography skills dramatically improve in the daylight hours.
To read more about this doll check out my previous posts about her,
If you would like to purchase this doll, please visit my website A Sweet Remembrance, or simply call (860-355-5708) or email (paula@asweetremembrance.com) me.
This doll has been sold and will soon be leaving for her new home in upstate NY.
I stayed up late into the night sewing lace onto sheer white cotton because I dearly wanted to finish this doll. I was full of impatience to see what she would look like, once I finally dressed her in all of her frothy layers. It was well worth the effort, since I am very pleased with how she turned out and had sweet dreams of her while I slept.
Since I snapped these photos just before I stumbled up to bed, I had to use a flash. Her paint does not have as shiny a finish as the glare from the flash makes it appear. She looks so much more wonderful in person. Late night, sleep deprived photography is never my best.
The paint on this doll looks very old, you can see areas where the paint has worn through to show the underlying weave of her stockinette head. Her hands look like they have held countless cups of pretend tea, been clutched for comfort by a small owner, and generally loved for years on end.
The dressmaking details of her clothing include French seams to join the panels of her sheer white skirts, two rows of tucks at her dress and sleeve hems, three rows of tucks on the bottom of her pantalettes, and hand stitched lace flounces around the edges of her knee length chemise, pantalettes, and apron. All of the fabrics and laces that I used in making her clothing are antique, and she comes with an antique doll’s petticoat that I have cleaned and restored. I wish that I would have been able to add a few more rows of tucks to her dress, but I just did not have enough fabric.
The doll herself stands 18 inches tall. She has a pressed cloth head, oil painted head, shoulders and limbs, and is filled with organic cotton stuffing. Her body is covered in antique, glazed linen.
Even though it is overcast and rainy again today, I think this young lady needs a ruffled white sunbonnet to keep her shoulders from burning and ward away freckles. I do still have a few bits of fabric and lace left…
You can purchase this sweet girl for $1200, which will include her sunbonnet and free shipping if you live in the US. If you love her just the way she is and feel that you don’t want a bonnet, she would be a bit less. Please call me at 860-355-5709 or email paula@asweetremembrance.com if you are interested in buying her, or would like to ask questions.
Now that I have posted this, I suppose I really will have to break down and do all of the house cleaning that I’ve been putting off while I sewed. Especially since I have someone coming on Saturday for a private tutorial. 🙂 It would be nice if she could walk in the door and not be immediately buried in fabric and tripped up by stray threads! LOL
Thank you for looking, this doll has been sold.
It’s a quiet rainy Sunday here. A sleepy day full of billowing white fog and the sound of raindrops bouncing along the roof. I’ve been sorting through my piles of antique fabrics and lace, pulling out lovely pieces of sheer woven white on whites, embroidered whites and wonderful soft laces. It may be that I’ve been influenced by the fog, or maybe I’m longing for forgotten summer days and the look of sheer white flounces on little girls dressed their Sunday best. What ever the reason, I feel inspired to sew layers and layers of ruffled and tucked white clothing.
A shy looking, sweet-faced Izannah with wavy curls is going to be the recipient of my indulgence in all white dress making. She is sitting patiently by my side as I sew, being good as gold while I measure again and again. Holding quite still as I drape first one fabric, then another around her.
I tell myself that I’m being quite virtuous by working all day, which is my justification for ignoring all of the cleaning and laundry that I should be doing. But in my heart of hearts I know that I am really taking a day to spend playing with my dolls. 🙂
Izannah Walker Journal 