Nähst du mit - will you sew with me?!

Recently i bought some dollhouse dolls, because of one Caco-couple i was interested in.

All the other dolls in the parcel (I guess the most are vintage Ari dolls) were dolls someone liked and played with a lot. And this someone made some cute tiny clothes for them - or maybe it was a Granny or Mummy?!

All these cute little clothes reminded me of a book i once bought on a fleamarket. It's a sewing book for children and it´s lovely! It explanes everything you need to craft: sewing, embroidery, knitting and crocheting.

Illustrated with masses of cute pictures and drawings, like this instruction to sew tiny dollhouse dolls clothes:

Look at all the sweet details - there's real water in the bathtub :)

Your doll needs little panties or a dress?! here they are:

I have some little naked Ari babies i played with as a child and i think i´ll make them some of these tiny clothes someday...

So, will you sew with me?!

*Nicola

News from Lundby Village

yesterday afternoon when all the older lundby kids went out to play with friends, mrs. lundby decided to visit christine, because she wanted to know how the idea with the lonely hearts announcement worked out. (and she also was a bit curious about the villa - but pssst!)

fortunately christine was home after work and had the time for a little talk. she told mrs. lundby that she had another idea for the "menhunt"! when she bought the house she knew she has to rent out the lower part of the house, because she doesn´t need all the space and she also needs the rent. so she will make a announcement to hire out the appartement with a search for a male roomer - isn´t she clever?

christine´s dachshunds piff & paff were very interested in baby, but baby first was a bit shy... but look it tryed to stand on the sofa to get a better look on the dogs! mrs. lundby is very happy about that. baby often comes to briefly with four elder siblings and so it´s good to see, it is going it´s own way.

later on christine showed mrs. lundby the appartement. it´s crowded with furniture the previous owner left and christine bought with the house. she doesn´t like anything in here, but maybe the new roomer will use it first? she also needs a kitchen...

she also would like a man with a car - the garage is so empty! she is going to work by bike but she´s dreaming of a car, too...

when baby started to stand in the buggy to look for piff & paff, it was time to go home...

christine promised mrs. lundby to call her soon when she get´s some answers on the announcement.

on her way home mrs. lundby was thinking about the lovely big villa and all the space christine has just for her own needs and about the lovely modern lether sofas...

and christine went into her big house just with piff & paff at her side and thought about how cute baby was and that mrs. lundby is a lucky person with a lovely husband and a bunch of children...

and they both thought how good it is to have a friend!

*nicola

credits: the house is the lundby stockholm mansion, the most furniture are original lundby from the 70s, some from the 80s. dolls: christine/lundby, mrs lundby & baby/caco, so is baby´s buggy. piff & paff are playmobil. there is also an unknown birdcage in the corner of the livingroom (info´s about it are welcome).

Käthe Kruse Däumlinchen Babies

the käthe kruse dolls i always loved the most! the cute little däumlinchen (thumbelina) babies.

just 25 cm small, with a soft body and dangling arms and legs. they were made with painted hair or wigs from real human hair. here you see bobbele from 1986

this sweet little guy is from my childhood, i called him phillip and i played a lot with him. in the catalogue he was wearing a yellow felt cap, but i never had one. i bought him without and crocheted him a yellow baby bonnet - but i like him more without :)

both are from the same catalogue from 1977/78 like louise. at the catalogue they are called fritzl und charlie. little charlie on the right was bought years later, but he likes to play with phillip since then.

you can also have sleeping däumlinchen like this one in the vintage carry bag. she is from the 80s and is wearing a little christening robe.

last not least: billy from the 1989 catalouge. he is one of a series of afro-american däumlinchen käthe kruse made since they were produced in the 50s. billy is named mohrle at our home and belongs to my daughter mara.

i hope you liked this little trip to the world of käthe kruse dolls? i´ll tell you soon more about christine and the lundbys... promised :)

*nicola

Kaffeeklatsch at family Lundby´s home

ever since mrs lundquist (the woman we know as christine), moved to lundby village, mrs lundby wanted to invite her for a kaffeeklatsch, to welcome her and to get to know her a bit better. today is the day...

mrs lundby first was bit nervous, because mrs lundquist owns this big stockholm mansion and is a real business woman with her own immovables company, but after a few moments of unease she noted that christine is a very lovely and normal person.

they had some fruitcake & coffee and after that some sparkling wine... and here you can see them in an very cheerful admosphere :) mrs lundby couldn´t understand why christine was a single for so long and so they had the idea that she has to write a lonely hearts ad at the next newspaper...

meanwhile the lundby kids were going mad downstairs. mrs lundby asked the twins sabine & sabrina and peter & klaus to look for baby while christine´s visit. she layed a very nice table with cookies and juice for them and first everything was okay...

but then sabine, who is the more agile of the twins, freaked out! she began to immitate a guy from the last comedy show she saw on tv and climed up the chair to tell some jokes.

baby didn´t like that and started to cry...

so sabine had to stay at the girls room all by herself... nonetheless christine and mrs lundby had a nice afternoon and i guess it was the beginning of a great friendship :)

*nicola

credits: thanks a lot to tina from fimozauber, who made the tiny cookies and the fruitcake in lundby size for me!!

Doll Fashion

because i am a fashion designer (with a diploma - hohoho ;D ) i collect everything i can get which contains doll fashion:

i found this "neue mode" doll fashion magazine at our local charity shop, last summer and i can´t get enough of the pictures!

all dolls are wearing outfits from the 70s i grew up with.

my sister and me had this printing set with disney animated characters, but we never used it to print fabric for our dolls - isn´t that cute?!

all the dolls are from schildkröt, wehncke and zapf, three well known german toy companies and they are shown in sizes from 30 cm up to 52 cm.

i had one of these schildkröt baby dolls called "schlummerle" ( i can´t translate that - schlummern is a cute word for sleeping...), they have a soft body and cute baby arms and legs made of plastic.

i even adore these very, very cute drawings at the sewing instruction part of the magazine.

and i´m a bit sad that i never had a granny or mum, who would have sewn dolls fashion like this for my dollies - maybe that´s the reason why a began to sew myself and guess what were the first things i sewed.... yes, doll clothes :)

*nicola

Sometimes...

everything is different! i planned to show you a lot of new things - i had so much ideas when i came back from my short sylvester trip. but actually i had to care for my youngest daughter cosima, who is ill with mononucleosis. she was so ill :( we had to go to the hospital over the weekend. now she is recovering day by day and i´m very thankful!

but leastwise i have some wonderful pictures from a lovely doll´s house you can get at ebay on sunday.

the seller allowed me to show some more pictures she send to me today.

this house is from the 60s and the scale is 1:12 (no scale for me but i think it´s absolutely lovely). the measurements are: base plate: 82 x 55 cm, width 76 x 32,5cm, the rooms are 20,5cm high, the terrace roof is 20,5 x 33cm, and the height of the house is 21,5cm. awww, i love the dolls they remind me so much of the dolls a played with when i was a small child (before the lundbys came into my life). the furniture are great too - aren´t they?!

i hope you enjoyed these pictures although they are not made by me... :)

*nicola

The Lundby Advent Calendar 2007 - Part 2

finally i want to show you the second part, of the tiny goodies from my lundby advent calendar. sorry, i´m so late, but i had a bad cold with sore throat during the holyday season (thanks for all your good wishes!!) and then i made a short trip to the island of rügen...

there were some cute little christmas plates, a lovely tiny pie and some mixed nuts and ginger bread packages. i was very pleased with these things!

here we are with another bag with parcels and i agree with helene - they are a bit to big! a supercute casket with a necklace and... a picture... yes, a picture... the sort of modern lundby pictures i don´t like that much... but i think i´ll find a better "painting" for it and then it´ll be okay.

further on there were two "pieces of fabric". i guess the one with the christmas tree is ment as some kind of christmas carpet. the other one, made of fabric like they use for shower curtains, could maybe be a kind of blanket... i don´t know?! i don´t think christine or the lundbys would like to cover themselves with a "shower curtain" ;D

my absolutely favorite was santa´s costume :) it´s made with real fake fur and it came together with a little beard to stick on - awwwww!!!

at door 24. there was a little monster... um, baby... my youngest daughter cosima called him jesus because of his "birthday", but i think the real jesus must have been much more handsome! you don´t think little "monster jesus" is ugly...

he is! i don´t know who painted his face, but it must have been someone, who never took a real good look how humen eyes look and on which place the eyebrows belong... jesus´ body is really cute with tiny little fingers and tiny babyfeet, so maybe he needs a new face?! the blanky was part of the calender, too. it perfectly matches with the two star pillows from the calendar, but i think i have to trim the edges, they are not so well done.

all in all i was pretty happy with my calendar and i think next december there will be one more :)

i wish you all a happy & healthy new 2010 and i´m looking forward to a year full of mini treasures and dollhouse dollies adventures, together with you! nice to meet you here, my dear mini collector friends!!!

hugs, yours nicola