Dolls! Sindy Then and Later

 

I bought this Sindy doll some time ago at a doll show.  I left her in the original handmade dress for years until I spied this little outfit at my local market last week.  How gorgeous is it!!  I have the pattern for the jacket, which was published when these dolls were popular, probably in the late 1960's.  The knitter of this jacket has used almost the same coloured wool as the  original one!  I am knitting a scarf at the moment, and when that is done, I am going to have a go at knitting up some of these vintage doll patterns.

 

She has the dearest softest and dewy face paint!  There is some ground in dirt on her chin, but I just don't want to scrub at it fiercely and remove the pigment.

 

I looked up a Sindy identification page on the internet, and I don't know much about these dolls, but I think she is the Frankenstein one from the odds and ends sent by Pedigree to New Zealand, according to the Petra Dolls Sindy Information Page. 

 

In other dolly news, I gave in recently, and bought a dolly from ebay in a mad greedy grabbing doll-buying rush, and then realised she is not what I thought she was, but I still quite like her.  She was sold as a 1980's doll and still has the lovely Sindy face.  According the the Petra Dolls site, she could even be from the late 1970's.  I really do not know, and if anyone reading this does and could throw some light on which Sindy she is, I would be most grateful.  She is wearing another one of the little outfits I bought from the market stall and a ridiculous wig over her shaved hair.  She was wearing one of the Styling outfits when I got her, which I have forgotten to take a photo of.  At the moment she is in the salon waiting for her hair to dry after a treatment to get it to sit a bit flatter and longer, but I don't like her chances!  She was originally a black haired doll but I think this honey blonde wig colour suits her.

 

 

Bad Hair Day!

If this mess doesn't flatten out a bit, I will try and see if I can get a reasonably priced replacement wig.  I will let you know of the outcome with her hair soon.

I was very lucky this week and got a porcelain Ashton Drake My Little Ballerina doll at the local op shop. She is very grimy, and I have not done anything with her yet, but I will show you all how she cleans up soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Dolls! Patons 1970's Knitting Pattern Book for Dolls

I was quite a long way from home earlier in the week getting some footwear for work.  After I had done that I walked around the drab little shopping strip that happened to be full of op-shops.  There were four all up and I went around to each to see what was on offer. The only find was this little pattern book for dolls using Patons knitting wools. It was sitting on the top of some magazines in full view so I didn't even have to try hard to find it!

I don't recognise any of these dolls, and I would say they are from the 70's as there is a Peasant Outfit for a 24 inch Wendy Walker doll.  I did a quick google search for Wendy Walker dolls, but just found a few of them on ebay and couldn't identify them for sure.  In my mind, the hat that goes with the Peasant Outfit places this book in the early to mid 70's.

Peasant Outfit for a 24 inch Wendy Walker is on the right

The Patons wools used for these doll fashions


Don't you love the fashions for these Sindy dolls.  Notice how some of the Sindy dolls have eye lashes and some don't.



The book is really useful for identifying the dolls as most of the instructions name the doll the outfits were designed for.  These two in the pic below are 16 inch Wendy Walkers, and I wouldn't mind one of these for my dolly collection.  I have been ebaying off some quite gorgeous knitting wool that I can't use because of my dodgy back, but I reckon I could just about manage making the little outfit on the left which is knitted in  Bluebell wool.  Not sure about the crochet part, but I might give it a try.  Isn't the bag gorgeous!

There is also this kinda creepy baby toddler doll called Sally-Ann. A lot of people say to me when they know that I collect dolls that the eyes creep them out. Well I rarely have that problem, but this Sally-Ann doll's eyes do creep me out. Pattern 19 in the bottom left pic below is called a sleeping bag.

These two dolls don't have names clearly stated in the pattern design, but when you get a little further down to the doll measurements section, they are described as "Nacho".  I had a quick look on google for these dolls, but couldn't find them, so maybe Patons gave the doll that name.  I do like the cable and striped jumper and of course the overalls.  The dolls have strange squashed faces though.

Finally, for Audra, here is a pic of two Teddies.  They state in the instructions that they were purchased from David Wang, whover he was.  I think the blue outfit is a Sherlock Holmes outfit, but they just call it Coat, Cap, Boots and Scarf.  Patons could have got a bit more imaginative I think and called it a Sherlock Outfit.

My sewing and blogging out-put has been low due to a bit of a bad back episode which has calmed down and general blah about sewing anyway. I am still studying and that takes a bit of time out of my week, but I am determined to sit down and do some work on my owl and fox fleecy dressing gown which has been giving me a bit of grief.  I hope to blog about that in the next couple of days.

Dolls! 1995 Fashions for Barbie from Handmade Magazine

Fossicking in the op-shop last week, I came across a 1995 edition of the Australian Women's Weekly Handmade magazine, volume 11 number 4. Advertised on the front of the magazine was 'Barbie dazzler - complete teen-doll wardrobe to knit and sew'. With my 1960's Pedigree Sindy doll in mind, I paid the grand sum of 20 cents and the mag was mine.

It is an 8 page fashion spread of fashions to make:

I got this wool on sale at Lincraft to have a go at knitting the jumper. It is 4 ply and uses tiny needles. Goodness. The jumper has an 80's picture jumper look about it. That fashion might still have been going strong in the mid 90's, but I can't remember. The evening dress at the top of the above photo has a 1980's look to it, don't you think?

I will have to do some adapting because Barbie and Sindy have quite different body dimensions. Barbie is a slimmer doll with a smaller waist and large bust. Sindy looks bigger around the hips, with shorter arms. I have not done the actual measurements yet, but will before I start making the outfit.



Original Sindy doll



Reproduction 1960's Barbie