Oh my...it's been a little bit since I last posted, huh? Time flies when you're having fun buying up all the dollies you can find on the internet because a certain pandemic which shall not be named has brought all the doll shows to a screeching halt! Thankfully, doll shows finally started up again recently in my area, and this last weekend was the best one yet! The picture above shows all the little cuties I brought home on Saturday! Some were from a doll show, a couple were given to me by a dear friend, and one was delivered by mail!
23" Vinyl Gotz Anna Maria from 2002
She was designed by Hildegard Gunzel to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Steiff bear. She is a limited edition of 1500 and comes with her own little Steiff teddy. Her original price was nearly $500! I have seen her go even higher on ebay. For this reason, I didn't hold out any hope of ever finding her for a decent price. And then I walked into this awesome little doll show that always has wonderful treasures at awesome prices. I spotted her within minutes of arriving, and when I saw her $40 price tag, I didn't even think twice. I just picked her up and told the nice lady behind the table that she was going home with me!
This baby was a recent purchase on Goodwill's online auction site. The package was waiting for me when I arrived home from the doll show! It is a 21" composition Horsman Dimples with tin eyes. She first came out in 1928. She is in near perfect condition for a doll almost a century old! Of course, she'll need a pretty dress and a frilly bonnet, but I think I can take care of that.
Here she is, next to my much smaller Dimples, who I think is about 16" in height. That smaller baby is wearing an original, tagged dress and bonnet for Dimples, however, it was meant for a slightly bigger doll so it is a bit roomy on her. My guess is it was probably meant for an 18" doll. However, when I found the 21" Dimples on shopgoodwill and nobody was bidding on her at first, I put in a top bid of $25 and won her! So now I have two Dimples babies the wrong size for the original outfit. Oh, well! I'll either have to get another Dimples doll the correct size for the dress, or find another original outfit in a larger size!
1960, 23" Ideal Betsy Wetsy. I have always loved her sweet face.
She's in relatively good condition, but will need a good bath. Some little mama trimmed her hair, but it's still thick and shiny with no missing plugs. I've got lots of vintage doll patterns for clothing to fit her, so I'll probably sew her a darling dress and bonnet. Unless, of course, I have something vintage stashed away that will fit her.
11" Reproduction Bleuette by Susan Dunham
I have a couple of repro Bleuettes in my collection, but I don't do much with them so this one will be up for sale soon. I bought her for the express purpose to resell, so hopefully what I make from her sale will pay for everything else I purchased this day!
12" Ideal Bonnie Baby--1960
I think this was my most exciting purchase! Bonnie Baby is an extremely rare and hard to find doll. She was only made for a year (I think), and I have never seen another one in person. I first spotted one in a Facebook group, and when I saw that sweet, little face that looked so much like my large Ideal Bye Bye Baby, I knew I had to have her! And so started a quest to find one. However, like I said, they are rare, and the couple I found online had sold long ago for VERY high prices. So I figured it was probably not meant to be. But here I am, browsing the doll show, and a seller has a bunch of large boxes in front of their table, just piled full of dolls. Like at least 50 dolls in each box. I start digging through and pulling out dolls, because, well...how could I not?!? You just never know what you might find. And there, at the very bottom of the box, I saw some little baby legs and pulled her out. I about gasped when I saw who she was! She had no price and the seller told me to make an offer. This seller also had the repro Bleuette, so I offered him $20 for both dolls. He accepted! Woohoo! I think she's even wearing her original outfit.
Adorable composition Effanbee Patsys. These were given to me by a dear friend that went to the doll show with me. She had me stop by her house on the way home from the show so she could give them to me because she no longer collects this type of doll. Aren't they precious? They even came with extra clothing. The little one has roller skates! How cute is that?
14" Patsy
9" Patsyette
I also purchased more vintage hankies and old rayon trim for my sewing projects. Also, a pair of knit baby booties. I'm sure I have a doll with bare feet that can wear them.
Oh, back to the same vendor with the boxes of dolls...he had these tinies as well! On the left is a 4" painted bisque Hertwig. On the right is a newer (yet still vintage!) Caco dollhouse brother. And I honestly only purchased the little modern doll in the middle because of her adorable, crocheted dress. I thought I could remove that dress and give it to another doll. However, now that I look at her, she's really sweet. So I may just make her a cute little wig and let her keep the dress. All three dolls cost a total of $5.
This doll was NOT purchased at the show. I found her back in May, again on Goodwill's online auction site. (I am their best customer, I think!) She is a 12", 1948 Madame Alexander "Precious". All hard plastic and strung. She is also a very hard doll to find. I had never heard about her before seeing her in the auction, so a little research led me to find out that she was made for only one year and has a unique face mold. One recently sold on Ruby Lane in the same, original dress mine is wearing for $645! I was able to get mine for $60. Crazy! Anyway, the reason I am showing her to you (aside from the fact that she is just too adorable) is because I have wanted to make her a bonnet to match her original dress. So I pick up vintage, yellow hankies whenever I can find them in the hopes of making a match to the dress. About 10 hankies later, I finally found a yellow one that matches! Who knew there were so many different shades of vintage yellow?
Here's the hankie winner! And it's even edged with beautiful lace. This will become a bonnet, just like the one she is wearing. I made her the white one when I was figuring out how to make bonnets out of hankies. It's a simple, rectangle design.
Side view. The front edge of the hankie is turned back, and then another row of lace is sewn to the very front before I run some gathering stitches along the edge to draw it up to fit her face.
The back has a simple casing that is drawn up with a ribbon. I used a piece of scrap lace here, only because I had run out of vintage rayon. I think I will show how to make one of these bonnets in my next post. They are so cute and easy to make...I made 5 of them the other day for all my little bare-headed babies. Because babies always look 100 times sweeter with their faces framed by pretty bonnets!
So that's the end of my great purchases on this wonderful, dolly day. It was also the last doll show in our area until probably spring. There is an antique show coming up next month which might have a few dolls, so we'll see. Now that the weather is turning cooler and there are no more doll shows to attend, I will turn my focus to fixing up all these little darlings. Stay tuned!
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