Thinking about Fashion Dolls, French and Otherwise

For months, I have been obsessed with French Fashion Dolls and all the accouterments one could create and collect for them. However, I don’t particularly like their faces. That hasn’t stopped me from collecting the stuff and slowly creating an appropriate wardrobe. I modified the bust on a Planet Doll Mini(27 cm) to have an hour glass figure so that she could wear fashions from the 19th century beautifully. I have many outfits for her that are in prints appropriate to the time period. At the recent UFDC Convention, one of the convention dolls was a Petite version of the French Fashion Doll. I added this photo from a member photo in my French Fashion Doll Sewing group when I realized that there was no picture of the actual doll at the website. The wool skating outfit she is wearing was made by her owner. Apparently since she was a Convention doll, she is not up for regular sale, yet.
This doll is the same height and wears the same size shoe as my darling Planet Doll Minis. (I have 4 of the 5 available head sculpts-they are my favorite doll.) Soon, there should be French Fashion Doll patterns being sold for the size doll that I actually have. I am thrilled by the idea of having to make only minor adjustments to elaborate patterns rather than completely redrawing them.

I was looking for lingerie for two larger dolls when I found lingerie sets for Little Miss Revlon-a 1950’s 10.5 inch fashion doll. I was intrigued and began doing some research. LMR is but one of the many 10.5 inch Glamour dolls from the fifties. They include Madame Alexander’s Cissette, Ideal’s Little Miss Revlon and Vogue’s Jill. These were the best known. Each of these dolls was a teen-aged doll with an incredible wardrobe of clothes. Unlike Barbie who came out in the 60’s, these dolls have much less exaggerated measurements. I like this size doll because although they are a little bigger than most travel dolls, which measure from 4.5 inches to 9 inches tall; they are still very compact. I also find them easier to sew for than a smaller doll. After doing some research, I discovered that patterns made for these dolls will fit my Planet Doll Minis. Not only are there vintage patterns still available for this doll, Simplicity has reissued one of their patterns (#3522) to fit this size doll. This pattern includes a complete wardrobe of patterns and can be purchased new on the Simplicity website. I had hoped to pick it up at my local Hobby Lobby, during a dollar pattern sale, but they didn’t have it. I am still looking to buy it locally, but will buy it on-line if I must. It has most of the base pieces I need to create this wardrobe. I don’t think I will make all of the multiples in every color, but I do think it would be fun to have at least one of each outfit. I have a lot of fabric that will be beautiful in many of these outfits. I think that making these fifties style outfits will be my next personal sewing challenge.

What I find really interesting is that each of these dolls, after being discontinued for years, is now available once again. Madame Alexander re-released Cissette in the 1990s. Vogue re-released Jill in 2007 and Tonner is currently releasing a vintage Revlon collection of 3 differently dressed Little Miss Revlons from the original molds. The only problem is that there are many more dressed dolls than fashion packs available. At least, Vogue does have fashion packs that they offer for this delightful size doll.