Costume Party (Countdown to Christmas)

Another in my series of seasonal suggestion posts..

Christmas (and New Year), the perfect time for parties and dressing up. And there are plenty of options out there for the dolls to strut their stuff and turn themselves into historical characters or indulge in some fantasy.

For example, here’s a fab sparkly silver party dress and bolero that happens to be on my list from Santa this year, very elegant with pretty layered skirts and a glittery waistband, from My Doll Best Friend here; the shoes and headband are available separately.

Or go a bit more vibrant and be ready for dancing with this eye-catching flamenco two piece also from My Doll Best Friend, the floral and red chiffon tutu with red satin bow detail is paired with a red jersey camisole, here.

Here’s a cute blast from the past, the Nifty 50’s outfit from The Dolls House consists of a black polo shirt, pink felt roiund skirt with tulle underneath for body, a belt with buckle and a matching pink chiffon scarf, ideal for the dance floor! Here it is.

The Charleston more your thing? Let the dolls turn back time to the early 20th century with this gorgeous flapper outfit, the fringed sparkly dress is set off by long pink gloves, feather and diamente head dress, necklace and a tote bag (which I don’t think quite matches…). Another gem from My Doll Best Friend at this link.

Maybe the 1920s are too recent, lets go back further in time to when ladies wore more elaborate gowns, like this pretty purple and white Victorian style dress from Petalina, I especially like the little violet roses and that flowered collar. Find it here.

Ah, why not zoom another hundred years or so back to pre-Revolutionary France, where ladies of the court wore impossible complex gowns with layers of the finest fabrics imaginable. This Marie Antoinette dress conjures up the era beautifully, with a rich pink satin overgown trimmed with gold and enveloping the  ruffled ivory satin layers beneath, with gold stitching detail and little pink satin roses to the bodice.  Another delight from Petalina, here.

History is all very well, but pure fantasy has no limits, any doll could float prettily round the room as a butterfly fairy in shades of pink and lilac: the satin and velvet bodice complements the layers of lilac and white netting that form the skirt, decorated with tiny sparkly sequins shaped like butterflies. And of course a fairy must have wings, made of lilac net and organza that simply velcro on to the back of the dress.  Find your fairy garb here.

Not enough of the pretty dresses? Don’t forget the many prom dresses from Frilly Lily I posted about here.

Not enough history? Then the A Girl for All Time dolls and outfits, currently with a Tudor, Victorian and 1940s doll and clothing might fit the bill – details in this post.

All images © My Doll Best Friend, The Dolls House and Petalina

Fab Furniture (Countdown to Christmas)

Another in my series of seasonal gift suggestion posts..

Ok, you have your dolls, and your outfits, but they need some things to make life more interesting, or at least just places to chill out. Luckily, there is doll-sized furniture available – this great shot from mydollboutique shows some of the options available, from beds and wardrobes to chairs and even a chest of drawers:

All these and several other items are to be found at the mydollboutique furniture page.

With several dolls, why not invest in bunk beds? I love these ones from My Doll Best Friend, made of hard wood with pink cotton bedding they’re ideal for a doll sleepover. Find them here. There are matching single beds in this design available also.

And why have one chair when you could have two and a matching table to boot? Again from My Doll Best Friend, this set is of solid wooden construction, though will need an adult to assemble. Click here

Here are some fancier chairs with table from mydollboutique, they’ve been on my wishlist for ages, I must admit – you’ll find them on this page.

Personally I’ve fallen in love with these pink metal frame beds that My Doll Best Friend is stocking along with her wooden beds. They come with bedding in pink heart, white heart, pink patchwork and the white patchwork design shown. Sadly, while the furniture above is ideal for 18″ dolls, these beds are a little smaller, so will give a good night’s sleep to Soy Tu, Schildkrot and other 45cm dolls only.. The bedding sets are availble to buy separately, which is handy. This bed and the others can be found via this link.

As a final shout out for doll bed design, here’s a clever one from Petalina. This beech wood bed comes with pink butterfly bedding as shown and is the perfect size for 18″ dolls such as Gotz. Petalina’s page can be seen here

So what’s the clever part? Well, you can buy extras for it – buy a second bed and a ladder and voila, bunk beds. Or stick with a single bed, add rockers and yet another style of sweet dreams for your beloved doll to drift away with.

Oh and finally, wardrobes! Along with the mydollboutique one shown in the top most image, you can find nifty wardobes like this plain white one by Kidkraft over at Petalina: here

And this fancier pink-curtained version is over at The Dolls House here.

Yep, going to some nicely furnished doll bedrooms in the offing with any of the items above, we’re all definitely spoilt for choice.

Images © Petalina, My Doll Boutique, My Doll Best Friend, The Dolls House & Kidkraft

Cardboard Creativity (Countdown to Christmas)

As the dreaded or delightful season of gift giving looms ever closer I decided to do a series of posts with some suggestions of what would be great stocking fillers or big pressies for doll-lovers, doll-owners or dolls themselves.

A little while ago I featured the rather ingenious village shop, made all of cardboard, from Frilly Lily, which you can read about in detail here, and which looks like this:

If you fancy something a little less pink, or a gift that’s even more creative howver, I found two great “colour-in” buildings, a castle and a house, over at mydollboutique.

The castle is a decent size, over a meter wide and nearly that tall (exact dimensions are 96.5 x 109 x 89 cm) and comes flat packed in panels that slot together. It can be coloured in with pen, pencil, paint or whatever seems suitable, and has pre-printed details of stonework, windows, door etc. The drawbridge lowers, even! As you can see in the pic above it looks great all coloured in, although I’m not sure blue would be my choice. Its a good mix of play and art that should make for hours of fun for the lucky recipient. Its hard to tell scale, but there was a pic of the castle with two dolls dressed as princesses (mydollboutique has lovely princess dresses also) that really shows what a substantial object this is:

If your taste runs to the more mundane, there is also a playhouse in the same range, same flat-pack panel design to be assembled and coloured, with outlines of flowers, grass, fencing and a tree on the sides, an opening door & window –  there’s even a wee chimney! Final dimensions for the house are slightly smaller than the castle at 89 x 63.5 x 96.5cm.

Hats off to whoever came up with these designs, I think they’re just great! And at around £20-£25 each won’t break the bank.

Follow the links below to find them:

Frilly Lily village store
Colour-in castle at mydollboutique
Colour-in house at mydollboutique
Princess dresses at mydollboutique

Images © Frilly Lily and mydollboutique respectively.