Easter bonnets can serve as a great inspiration for some lovely miniature doll costumes.

Spring is in the air and Easter is upon us.  What better time to explore some antique and vintage photos of women and children in Easter Bonnets and Easter scenes.  One thing is for sure.  People still love to wear fancy hats during this holiday but none can come close to the gorgeous hats they wore long ago.

With that being said, Here are some great images of Women and adorable children in bonnets.  Click on the images to see larger photos

[Show slideshow]

Here is a great gallery of old Easter Postcard images.  I just love all of the props and the amount of thought and detail that went into each of the settings.  WOW!

We just don’t seem to go through all of that trouble now that we have photoshop, lol.  Gotta love it.

[Show slideshow]

Stephanie Gets Her Sailor Dress!

Let’s get to start costuming these miniature portrait doll sisters. The first step is to make a simple pattern for the sailor dress.  I use normal paper to make the initial pattern and then transfer it to card stock to make it sturdy and easy to trace around.

I start by studying the dress in the photo. It is a simple classic & timeless sailor type dress.  It consists of a yoke, slight puff sleeves, a collar & flare skirt that according to the customer is above the knee.  There will also be embellishments of white cuffs on the sleeves, a white insert in the yoke and a red “tie’ and red trim.  The Collar will also be white trimmed in red.

You can either lay the doll down on paper and trace around her to get an approximate size and shape of the pattern or you can fold a small piece of paper in half and just “eyeball” the pattern.
I initially make the pattern without the seam allowances and add them in later in the final draft.  You can see in the photo that the length is also longer than needed, but that is not important at this time.