Waiting for Grace: Holiday Dress Up

We are enjoying the last few days of holiday festivities with another poppet getting dressed for New Year's Eve. 

Ingabrittaa, who just a few weeks ago was wearing a Saint Lucia dress, has selected a party dress for the big night. Because multiple poppets live in my home, keeping them all dressed for the appropriate seasons, especially if there are multiple outfit changes within a season, is really quite time consuming! 

My usual path to sanity is to change the outfits of only one or maybe two dolls a week. But this month has been a special time with our Waiting for Grace series and wanting to properly welcome GOTY 2015 with a blog post per day during the month of December!

Ingabritta is modeling the Sparkle Party Dress from 2013.

The dress comes with cream colored tights, ruby red shoe, and a headband. The dress itself features a mesh overlay which is artfully fashioned into a "bubble skirt" style.

The satiny ribbon waistband features fabric rosettes.

The dress also features a deep cranberry colored rose fixed to the shoulder.

These glittery ruby red slippers could definitely be used in a "Dorothy" outfit!

And the final touch is a headband with a row of faux-diamonds.

Ingabritta, a MyAG 56, is really a rather charming and energetic poppet, even though her hair is ridiculously unruly. We have done our best with the short notice of her outfit change and photoshoot! I prefer her in dresses and outfits that seem younger, and the Sparkle Party Dress has a baby-doll silhouette.

I do not have a single complaint about this outfit--I love the design, the fabric choices, and the color. This dress is a quiet classic well suited for the younger set. A+

Waiting for Grace: Meet Sari

Happy Saint Lucia's Day (December 13th). My poppet Ingabritia is holding Sari, the doll from Kirsten Larson's collection. 

In Kirsten's Surprise, Kirsten is finally reunited with her beloved rag doll Sari on Saint Lucia's Day. Sari had been packed in a giant trunk for the family's trip overseas from Sweden to their new home in America, but the trunk was not immediately brought to their temporary home at Uncle Olav's farm.

The Sari doll body is made entirely of cloth and soft batting and is very light and squishy. Her face is made with a few simple stitches of colored thread and her hair with braided yellow yarn.

While the dress hems are sewn, Sari's shawl and bottom edge of her apron are left unhemmed and the loose edges made to look like fringe. Her shawl appears to have been glued into place (I do not want to pry it up to look underneath for any stitches). For these reasons this rag doll is best as a prop or display rather than heavy play.

While Sari's cloth body is a light off-white color, her feet are made in a contrasting red fabric, giving her the appearance of wearing red stocking or red boots depending on your imagination. This feature alone delights me to no end for its simplicity as well as for its range of open interpretation in play.

The Sari doll is an easy to overlook accessory from Kirsten's world, especially considering the original price in the Pleasant Company catalogs was $16 for this tiny cloth doll. However, that price looked like a bargain after questing for a Sari doll in pristine condition this summer. Since the face is hinted at with so few stitches of the embroidery needle I was particularly interested in finding a Sari with a symmetrical face and eyes. 

I love this little piece of Kirsten's world because of how the story of Sari captures the love of a girl and her doll. It was never a matter of how expensive or fancy the doll was--Kirsten played with real dedication even with her substitute straw doll--but about the story telling and bond created through playing together.

Waiting for Grace: A Saint Lucia Surprise

December 13th is Saint Lucia's Day and what better way to prepare for the Scandinavian festival of lights than having my youngest poppet, Ingabritta, dress up in the Saint Lucia Gown and accessories?

The Saint Lucia Gown, Wreath and Tray are from Kirsten Larson's collection and are truly great fun. Ingabritta, a MyAG 56, is often found playing in my special armoire full of Kirsten outfits and accessories. 

This is our first Christmastime with the Saint Lucia Gown and accessories as I bought them this summer on the secondary market. While I always adored Kirsten Larson (introduced by Pleasant Company in 1986 and retired by American Girl in 2010), other than a few of her outfits, I had never purchased a Kirsten doll or actively collected from her line while she was in production. Recently I decided to collect her items and have found most of them, though I have not bought a Kirsten doll and may wait for a BeForever Kirsten (though no word on if this will ever happen!). 

Very newly acquired in this quest is Kirsten's Scenes and Settings, so I was able to put Ingabritta into a photoshoot with a real backdrop! I especially love how the snow filled window panes and the cross stitch tapestry set the mood for a wintery evening.

The gown itself is made of a lightweight linen with a scalloped trim at the neck, sleeves and bottom hem. The red-and-white stripped stockings go up to her knees, even a bit past the knees if you pull up a bit on the stockings--I am uncertain why they are a bit oversized.

The red sash is permanently attached to the back of the gown. This is useful because it means the sash can not get lost and it also helps keep the sash in place once tied in front. The red sash is made of similar woven cotton as many of Kirsten's hair ribbons, just thicker and wider. The waist of the linen gown itself is elasticized.

The wreath is one of the more fun accessories from Kirsten's collection. The leaves of the wreath are made of fabric and the clusters of red berries are made of plastic.

The wreath comes with six white candles. This wreath is the older Pleasant Company style wreath and the candles are painted wood rather than plastic as found in later wreaths. The entire wreath is gently wrapped by a red ribbon and topped with four red bows.

The Saint Lucia Tray features a checkered cloth, a sprig of greenery, a heart shaped candle holder and candle, and best of all, two Saint Lucia buns.

Ingabritta was so pleased to get dressed up in a traditional Saint Lucia's outfit and pose with all of its accessories in a photoshoot. Both Ingabritta and I adore the clothing and accessories from Kirsten Larson's line and we look forward to posting more photoshoot looks from the past!

It almost goes without saying, but this entire set earns an A for being totally adorable and awesome. A wonderful distraction from all the holiday waiting, wishing, and wondering!