People who visit my website seem to not have any idea! I hate to be rude so I take time to answer emails about custom sewing– and when you make your living with your hands, time is money. In the time it takes to reply to one such email, I could have sewn the snaps on a dress and finished it. 

Custom sewing involve much time dealing with emails, phone calls and such, besides the extra time it takes to do one dress at a time. When I make dresses for the site, to even come out with minimum wage for my time, I have to sew production line style– cut out several dresses at once, fill the right bobbins, put the right color thread on the machines.

If someone wants to choose ribbon color, it takes more time– plus I have to get that color ribbon in the right size or sizes.  If they want to choose the fabric, it can be difficult fabric to sew, or not the right kind for the era or style, or just something I hate— and I have to deal with recieving it and discussing trims and such.

Anything a customer wants to have “their way” means it is CUSTOM SEWING. This always takes more time!  This means I will make $5 an hour instead of minimum wage! I TRY to earn $15 an hour sewing— and THAT INCLUDES THE COST OF THE MATERIALS, SO NOT REALLY $15 AN HOUR.   I am thankful I can supplement my social security with work I can still do and that I love to do. Not many are so fortunate. But if you want to customize the doll clothes you buy, please find someone who either has enough income so they are just sewing for “fun” or find someone who will do it but will charge you for their time. Most of the people I know who do custom sewing have dress prices ranging from $300 and up. They get paid for their time, but probably not much more than I do, if they spend hours communicating with customers. But if that is what they like to do that is great because the world needs them.

I can’t afford to and do not like to do custom sewing. I want to choose the fabric and trim and use the patterns I have, not modified for what someone else wants. I only sew for old dolls.

I hope if you read this you will understand better that ANY REQUEST TO CHANGE ANYTHING on a dress puts it in the “custom sewing” category, and I simply cannot afford to do any custom sewing. Thank you for understanding!

Many of our long time followers recommended we share a link to last year’s Christmas story ” The Doll with the Sawdust Heart”. If you wish to do so you can find it here: https://joannmorgan.com/the-doll-with-the-sawdust-heart/

It wasn’t that she didn’t like her beautiful clothes. They had been hand-crafted by an expert seamstress well over 100 years ago. She remembered back then…

Some children had been rummaging through the remains of a house that had burned many years before, and a little girl found her in a box. Her clothes had burned away—even her hair—but the rest of her was miraculously intact.  She was a beautiful lady doll.  The girl had rushed the doll home to show her mother. The mother saw the incredible beauty the doll had been, and had at once decided to rescue and restore her.

The mother first took a damp cloth and carefully cleaned the doll, gently wiping away the smoke and dust, showing the lovely colors underneath. Then she went through her trunk and selected clothing of fine silks and velvets that had been stored long before, and no longer fit anyone. These she cut up to use the fabric to make the doll a dress. There was old, soft cotton batiste for underwear. The fancy fashion lady dress she made for the doll was trimmed with tiny glass beads and silk fringe. When the dress was done, the mother cut her own long golden hair and had a wig made for the doll who was now a beautiful fashion lady dressed in Victorian style. They called her Princess Elizabeth, a dignified Victorian name.

Princess Elizabeth from then on was always on display in a glassed-in corner china cabinet—now antique– in the living room. She watched the family day after day and year after year, seeing children grow up to become parents, then grandparents themselves.

This particular year she watched as the fourth generation since her resurrection from the ashes began to decorate the house for Christmas. As with every Christmas, her heart was sad, because she saw the same nativity scene set up under the Christmas tree generation after generation. She was sad because the family had never known that she should have been the mother sitting by the manger. She had been created as a Creche doll, the Virgin Mary.

When the fire happened, her clothing was burned away, miraculously leaving her whole, but with no evidence of who she had been.

The children setting up the Nativity this year were two little girls, Mina, aged 9, and Bethany, age 11, and their brother Danny, who was 8.

Danny had been born a normal baby boy, but by the time he was three he had become more and more silent, unable to communicate with those around him. He had been diagnosed as autistic and despite excellent treatment, had retreated further and further into his own private world.  Danny loved his sisters, though he could not tell them. He loved to help them with things like setting up the Nativity, decorating the tree, or in summer picking bouquets of flowers for their mother. He even enjoyed playing with Legos or jumping rope, but he never said a word to anyone. The girls let him join in their activities but had long since learned there would be no input from him. The accepted Danny as Danny and that was it, but they always talked to him just as though he was normal, simply never expecting a reply.

This year, as in so many years past, Princess Elizabeth watched from her glass enclosed shelf as the decorations came out and were placed. This was a traditional family, who celebrated Christmas for what it was—the celebration of the birth of Christ.  The man of the house had put the strings of tiny colored lights on the tree, now the children and their mother got to unpack the shining ornaments and hang them. The tree was old fashioned too—a live mountain fir tree, a full and even shape that reached to the high ceiling in the living room. It was in front of the big bay window so passers-by and the neighbors could enjoy its beauty too.

 As they decorated the tree, the room was filled with laughter and “oh look, a glass bird!” Or Santa or pine cone or bejeweled glass ball.

“Tell us again about the baby in the manger,” Mina said. She wanted to a hear the story every year.

“The star on the top of the tree is the star that told them where the manger was, so the baby could be born, and then it stayed there so the Wise Men could bring presents!”  She secretly wanted to see those presents, but never said so, just wanted to be sure they weren’t forgotten.  From the time the tree was set up and ready, each night it seemed more and more wrapped presents would appear under it. Mina would slip in when no one was around, choose a very small one, and put it by the manger in the Nativity, so it would be like the Wise Men brought new ones each year.

Princess Elizabeth in her finery, watched all this and was pleased at the love that seemed to have always been in this house. If she couldn’t be where she belonged, by the manger, then she could at least see the love and hear the laughter.

This year as she watched, Danny seemed to be fading. He had started as energetic as usual, but as each day passed, he seemed to become frail. Only Elizabeth seemed to notice. How could she help him? She knew she was only a doll, and there was nothing she could do, but because she was a special doll, representing someone very special, she could dream and feel things. 

Three days before Christmas, some friends came to visit, bringing with them their undisciplined child, Robert, a young boy of 12. Robert was reaching puberty and had become quite obnoxious, and loved to make fun of other people. As the adults gathered in the den to talk and have snacks, Robert joined Mina, Danny and Bethany who were playing a board game on the carpet near the Christmas tree, a favorite pastime. They asked Robert to join them but he said it was too stupid.

Robert roamed the room, walked around the tree, and stopped by the Nativity scene. He picked up the Mary figure. She was about the same size as Elizabeth but she, like the other figures, was all porcelain. Robert turned her around looking at her, then dropped her back to the floor. She fell against a porcelain lamb, and shattered into many pieces.

The three children stopped playing, horrified. Robert laughed and went outside to sit on the porch. The girls ran to tell their mother, while Danny stood staring at the pieces of Mary, touching one or two, his eyes filling with tears. It was only a figurine, but she had been there all his life. She was part of Christmas, the family, and love.  He started to cry inconsolably.

Elizabeth on her shelf could only look on. She wished she could cry.

The visitors left and the children were put to bed, Danny still weeping, his parents unable to ease his pain. The next two days passed quickly. Mary was not replaced in the Creche—they had tried to find a replacement but by Christmas Eve there was nothing left in the stores for Christmas.

Everyone went to bed early, so they could rise early on Christmas day and light the tree and open gifts

Sometime in the dark, Elizabeth heard the door to her cabinet open, then felt little hands carefully lift her down. In a little while, she was filled with joy.

In the morning, the family came down the stairs, lit the tree, and poured hot chocolate for everyone, and brought out sweet rolls so no one would get too hungry before dinner. As they gathered around the tree, they were surprised to see Danny curled up between the tree and the Creche. He opened his eyes, yawned and stretched.

“I put Mary where she belonged,” he said clearly, shocking everyone. He pointed to the figure by the manger. The fancy lady doll’s clothing was covered with a shawl that went over her head and shoulders, the way it had looked on the figurine that had been broken. Her jointed knees had been carefully bent, so she was kneeling. Her arms were posed touching the manger. She seemed to glow.

The best of all was Danny. Danny was a normal little boy again! He looked well, laughed and played and spoke as though he had never spent years in silence.

“It was her”, Danny’s mother said. “We thought she was a lady doll—now that I see her like this, the serenity on her face, I know she was always meant to be Mary, a creche doll. When Danny put her back where she belonged—a miracle happened for him…”

 And Mary, who had been a sad Elizabeth for so long, seemed to glow in the light of the star on the tree. She knew where Danny’s miracle had come from.

If you missed last year’s Christmas Story you can read it here!

I have been working  hard on getting out a long-requested basic dress, slip and panty pattern for the 1950s hard plastic girls, Toni and Sweet Sue, and those with the same body shape and size like Nanette, Alexander Maggie and Margaret, and others.  The pattern will be a well fitting basic pattern that can be used many ways— which I will cover in future blog posts after the pattern is released. It will come out in four sizes, actually five because the 18″ Sweet Sue pattern will have a sleeve pattern for the regular arm and an additional sleeve pattern for the doll with vinyl arms.. If there are requests I will add sizes later.

This pattern will  be less expensive than some of mine that are more complicated, and will be great for anyone who sews who is just a beginner or someone with lots of experience who just wants a good, handy basic pattern to create  dresses from.

Unlike the makers of the old commercial patterns, which claim to fit “Toni or Sweet Sue” in varying sizes– my pattern is made to actually FIT,  and since Toni and Sweet Sue have completely different body shapes, for the dresses to fit well each has to have their own pattern. If you look at the pictures of the dress, you can see the fit is very nice, not loose or sloppy. Unhappily, if you buy the Toni pattern and try to use it for Sweet Sue, it will be sloppy. If you buy the Sweet Sue and try to use it on Toni– it will be much too tight!

I wish I could print it on tissue but that is prohibitively expensive, but the patterns are clear and very easy to trace off on tissue for ease of use.

 Once the pattern is available,  I will be doing posts on ways you can take the basic pattern and make fancy or plain dresses, long or short dresses, how to change the sleeve and so on.

I have it close to going to press and will post when it is ready, but this process takes some time so it will be at least a couple of weeks. I am anxious to get it done and get back to sewing! My next batch of dresses for these dolls will be made using this pattern, with alterations to make it look different.

The pictures on this post are of the dress I am doing the pattern for.  I welcome your comments or ideas! Thanks for visiting!

Many of my dress customers are enchanted by and collect the dolls of their childhood, and for a goodly portion, that means the hard plastic dolls from the late 40s through the 50s. Not too many remember Cissy, although she was very prominent and extremely popular in the later 1950s, not many played with her, and for a good reason— she was very, very expensive. My daughter was in love with her, but when I looked at the price– it was more money than I earned in a month! As a single mom, there was nothing I could do but ask her what other doll she really liked– and even that one I had to buy on layaway and pay off over two months!

But Cissy was beautiful and very much a doll of the times. To get to know her, click here and read my article telling about her– it is too long for the blog and I don’t want to bore those of you who are not interested.

Cissy is the only fashion doll I still sew for, and I do so because I do have customers for her clothes–plus it is nice once in a while to get away from the little girl dresses and design a lady fashion. Cissy is harder to sew for– but also fun to do once in a while. She wears the same kind of dresses and slips I wore for dress up when when I was young and gorgeous! 😀