Blonde Little Bitty Baby

 I got the blonde Little Bitty Baby.

I feel that her head is a slightly different shape from the others that I have. It is rounder. And her eye placement feels different to me.

I kinda like the face of the brown eyed baby better, but they are SO SIMILAR, this makes me feel crazy.

Here's a picture with Erin in the garden as well.

Pattern Review: McCall's M7717

 I have two little cousins who really love their 21 inch Adora Baby dolls, who are named Jamie and Lucy.

I knew that one day I would be called upon to sew for Jamie and Lucy, so I bought patterns when they were on sale at Joann. The dolls wear newborn sized clothes.

The doll in the picture is not Jamie or Lucy. She is my 1987 Berjusa baby doll, Katie. She's my beloved childhood baby doll who also wears newborn size clothes.

I sewed this dress using McCall's M7177. I used the newborn size.

I am not totally happy with the fit of the dress. The dress's length is nice. The width seems very wide to me.

I also had to ruffle the neck of the dress in order to get it to fit the neck binding piece. I am not sure that I am supposed to do that.

The dress is very cute and will make the girls very happy.

I made matching baby bonnets and diaper covers. The bonnet comes from Simplicity pattern 1600.

They are all set to dress up to their heart's content.

Winter is Coming

 Winter is coming...

Therefore my two Bitty Baby rescues are sunbathing in the back yard to get some zit cream treatment, while there's still sunshine.

Baby Furniture

 I ended up writing a shorter post than planned about the Caring for Baby set because I could tell it was going to be too long.

I have some furniture for small baby dolls that I hoped would fit the AG baby.

The first one is the beautiful baby doll cradle made by my Aunt Ella Mae.

The actual cradle was bought by my cousin Jackie on his travels, and Aunt Ella Mae decorated it with ribbon and lace.

The reason I actually have the Corolle Les mini Calins Rose is because I was always looking for a baby doll that looked nice and would fit the cradle. The Corolle baby was my favorite doll that I found that fit the cradle.

Both the AG baby and the Corolle baby fit the cradle well.

The cradle is low to the ground, so it might not look as good with an 18 inch AG doll in the shot, unless it was sitting on the ground.

Next is a Moses basket that came with the Bouncin' Baby. Unfortunately, it only fits the Bounin' Baby and does not fit the AG baby.

Then there is a walker for the Bouncin' Baby. It's a little small for the AG baby, but she does fit in it.

You can see more pictures of a Bouncin' Baby walker on the Confessions of a Dolly Lover blog.

Last but not least is the Bouncin' Baby rocking horse.

It fits both the Bouncin' Baby and the AG baby.

Unfortunately, the plastic is a little yellowed from age. I am not sure why this aged worse than the walker, they are both the same age and have been kept in the same conditions.

I know a lot of people have been finding 8 inch baby accessories that work well with the AG baby. It's nice to know that there are more fun things for the baby to play with!

Bye Lo Baby

 I fell down the rabbit hole a while ago when someone posted a cute antique baby doll on Facebook.

I researched the kind of doll, and looked at ebay, and I found a doll for only $10 plus shipping.

This doll was not in perfect condition, she had no eyes. 

I looked up the process of replacing the eyes, and felt that it was something I could do.

Well, who among us has not stress bought something during the pandemic?

So I bought the doll.

She is  a Bye Lo Baby. She was designed by Grace S. Putnam, a single mom trying to support her family.

The doll is probably from the 1920s. She's contemporary with my grandma's childhood.

In fact, my grandma once said that for Christmas "one year I got a little china headed doll that I loved." 

I wish I had pressed her for more details. It would be cool to think that she had a Bye Lo Baby.

As you can see, she does have eye now. I didn't want to share what she looked like without eyes. 

I had hoped that her original eyes had fallen back in her head and I could replace them.

Her eyes were in fact inside her head, but one of the eyes was smashed.

Rather than tracking down the right size of antique sleep eyes, I decided to put glass BJD eyes in her head.

They aren't sleep eyes, they aren't original, but at least I can enjoy her with eyes.

This would be easy to replace if I wish to, also. They aren't glued in place or anything, just held in place with silicone ear plugs.

I have also considered putting brown eyes in instead.

Right now, I am just enjoying her as she is. 

I doubt that I am going to start collecting antique dolls, but it's amazing to hold this doll in my arms and think that she is 100 years old.

It's the same interest in history that attracted me to American Girl dolls.

She fits in our family antique baby rocker like she was made for it.

I love her long, vintage gown.

I think I am going to name her Clara.

Welcome to the doll family, Clara!

Happy New Year!

Katie and I would like to wish you a Happy New Year!

Isn't she cute?

She's all bundled up for the cold weather.

Katie and Pooh Bear

Katie and Pooh Bear are ready for the holidays!

How about you?

I'm just really glad that I still enjoy Katie after all these years together.

Katie has been old enough to vote for over a decade now. LOL.

Katie and Rudolph

Katie and Rudolph are ready for Christmas!

This is my childhood baby doll, Katie, with my childhood stuffed animal Rudolph the reindeer, lying together on the baby blanket my grandmother made me.

It gives me all the feels.

Who says you have to grow up?

Katie's Santa uniform is new. I bought it brand new at Goodwill, with the tags still attached, for $2.
Score!

This is a newborn size. Katie can wear the 0-3 months size, but it seems that usually newborn size is a slightly better fit on her.

Clothes for Katie

My oldest and most beloved baby doll is Katie. She is a Berjusa doll that was made in Spain, and she is very realistic. 

I was looking at Halloween clearance a few days ago, and I saw this onsie on clearance.

I then remembered that Katie fits real life baby clothes.

I had to guess at the size, but when you have been carrying a doll around for thirty years, you know how big she is in your arms. I was holding the different sizes up against me.

The 0 to 3 month size fit her well. 

I used to get a 25 cent allowance as a little girl. I would then go to garage sales with my mom and buy used baby clothes for a quarter each.

It's literally been two decades since Katie has gotten any new clothes.

It makes me so happy to see Katie in this cute onsie, even if Halloween is over.

It gets cold in the winter where I live, so it will keep her warm.

The pumpkin face even glows in the dark.

The best part? It was a $5 onsie at 90% off. It rang up at 25 cents.

Vintage Doll- Katie

This is Katie. My grandparents gave her to me for my second Christmas.

Kathe Kruse and Corolle dolls

I am not a huge fan of baby dolls. I have two that are very dear to my heart. Katie is a Berenguer doll who was my constant companion as a child. Brenna is a Corolle doll that I bought in 1995.

However, I have wanted for some time to add a German doll to my collection. I lived in Germany for some time and it seemed like an important gap in my collection to me.

Kathe Kruse is a famous maker of dolls in Germany. When I looked at the Kathe Kruse website, I particularly loved the Minouche dolls- but I talked myself out of it for the time being. Fast forward about three years later, and Kathe Kruse dolls were on sale on myhabit.com. I finally ordered one.

I am going to say that I am not a fan of the Kathe Kruse dolls that have fabric tubes for arms instead of plastic arms with hands on the end. It just looks odd to me, probably because I did not grow up with these dolls.

Here she is in the box. I have to show pictures of the whole box, because I love that the German is included, even for the American market.

The face is hand painted.

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This booklet was attached to her wrist. It tells the story of the Kathe Kruse company. As advertising, I prefer this to a booklet full of other dolls, which I was expecting, to tell you the truth.

Here she is out of the box. It was easy to open the box, and she was only held in by ribbons, which could be untied. No scissors necessary.

I thought she would be full of beans, like the Corolle doll, but she is full of stuffing. She sits up very well. 

I think I'm going to call her Inge.

The stamp on the back of her neck.

Nude.

Together with Brenna, the Corolle doll. The Kathe Kruse doll is a bit smaller. I like her outfit much more. It looks just like something a German baby would wear, and it does a good job of not being too pink. I love the bonnet, and the little pink shoes.

 The collar on the Corolle doll's onesie is a bit too clownish for me, and I like clowns. Just not on baby clothing. I have been considering trying to sew her something new. It's tricky to figure out her size because her body is so floppy.

Lying next to each other.

Both the Corolle doll and the Kathe Kruse dolls are very high quality. They both have good points that are very different from one another. 

The Corolle doll had inset eyes, which I usually prefer. The Kathe Kruse doll's hand painted face, however, is adorable.  I have a friend who hates dolls that have visible teeth, so the Kathe Kruse doll would win points with her for that. The Kathe Kruse doll also has a head that doesn't flop around like the Corolle doll does, and she sits up better. It's easier to pose the arms on the Corolle doll- the Kathe Kruse doll's arms tend to stick out from her body.

Both dolls are wonderful and would make any kid or doll collector happy. Corolle dolls, however, are much easier to find in the U.S.