Vintage Hats

Today I just have to talk about something that has been leaving me at times of wanting to just tear my locs from head, and that is vintage hats.  For sometime now I have been collecting them not only because I love them so much but also I just love using them on my dolls.  Most I don't spend a lot of money on and then there are some that leaves me myself thinking Woman have you lost your Mind!! Here is one particular hat for example

I have had my eye on this hat since October of last year on Etsy.  The hat still sits and sits problem is she wants 45.00 for the hat.  Which mind you is not such a bad price but for me to buy it for a doll!  Ok I know what most of you are thinking Cheryl has completely lost every single ounce of sanity that she once possessed.  But I can't help it gosh just look at it.  It has Miss Somebody written all over it.  Now the most I have spent for a hat to place on a doll was *clears throat*  25.00 dollars.  Ok ladies you can all get up from the floor now and stop laughing.  This all goes to say I never cared what it cost to me to make a doll if that what it takes to make the spirit of that doll come alive for me.  

Now I did contact the seller and asked her if she would consider negotiating the price with me and of course the answer was no.....sigh just think that hat has been sitting there since October.  My question now to everyone is to what expense would you go to making a doll your dream?  I had someone yesterday try to break it down to me that I am just give away dolls because I don't take in account the labor nor do I take in consideration how much money it cost to put the whole doll together.  I just hate cutting corners, most of the fabric I use is reproduction colonial or civil war fabric which I spend anywhere between 8 - 11.00 a yard for which most of the skirts I use a yard in a half of fabric and around two yards for the dresses.  Ok  now let me stop rambling off I guess I am just a little down over a old Vintage Hat.

Peace and Blessings

Cheryl...Snatch JOY~!

Dolls Dolls Doll and more Dolls

I know I been missing for sometime how the heck is everyone! I am so tired I feel like six dumb trucks have ran over me and backed up to make sure the job was done lol.  I have been working on dolls dealing with the SNOW wait I need to say that again ..........Dealing with the SNOW.

I really need to get outside of this house for about a week pack away my sewing machine cut the shop lights off and pretend that a sewing machine does not exist.  Wishful dreaming huh?

Here is what I have been working on....Remember this doll I did earlier I made a pinafore for her to wear

I think she turned out great I wish you could get a better feel of this.  I all she needs now is a couple of dolls to hold.  This is the one that reminds me alot of myself when I was a younger child.  I call her Penny.  Now I know you remember this one 

I wish I had a way of taking better pictures.  I removed her head rag and added more hair along with a crocheted scarf.  Now this is another one of course you remember her
with all that said let me now introduce to you
Jane Serepta “Jennie” Dean (c. 1852-1913)

 

At the age of fourteen, Jane Serepta “Jennie” Dean of Prince William County set out for Washington, D.C.
to find a job and save her family’s farm. Formerly enslaved, she and her father Charles both strove to improve their lives. Charles had learned to read and write, and so had Jennie, even though she had just two years of formal education in the new Freedmen’s Bureau school. Charles was trying to buy a small farm when he died
suddenly. Jennie determined to help her family hold onto it. She found domestic work for prosperous whites Washington, D.C., and a supportive black community there in 19th Street Baptist Church. Not only did she
secure the farm, she financed her sisters’ educations. On visits home, she evangelized and organized Baptist missions that became full churches. Some survive today. Troubled by the lack of educational opportunities for black children, she encouraged schools in the churches. In the 1880s she conceived and campaigned for the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth. She raised money among local black and white
 people as well as northern white philanthropists. The school opened in 1894 and eventually educated over 6,500 students on a 100-acre campus. Jennie Dean remained active on the managing board, fundraiser, and
supervising the women’s dorm until her death in 1913. One who knew her observed, “She taught that life is a privilege as well as a responsibility and that birth or origin have but little bearing on success or failure if the
will to help one’s self is cultivated and encouraged.” Today, besides a memorial at the original campus, an elementary school there bears her name.


I met a man name Marcellus Dean the other day and this was a relative of his.  The story just touched me so I had to make a doll after her.  Her hat is a little too yellow I may antique it a bit to tone it done some.  I am pleased how she turned out.  And finally, this next doll is a work in progress but I am going to take suggestions on what to name her.

 

Once I am done with the shows and a couple of orders guess what?  I am going to have a giveaway!  But it will only be open to followers and if your out of United States I need to look into it more I am not familiar with mailing outside of the United States and Canada.  I am sorry for those of you who do follow me and live outside of these areas.  I still have a few more dolls to make and the rest to finish my first show will be on the 28th that is just around the corner.  I leave you with a group shot lol too funny and it still not all the dolls but a few of them waiting on me to finished them up.  Patience ladies I will be with you all in a moment

 

Peace and Blessings

Cheryl...Snatch JOY~!

 

Fanny Mae James

Hello My Name is Fanny Mae James. Please call me Fanny for I think my parents had a sense of humor to give me three first names. No James is not my last name, that would be Hill. Only time I heard all three names being called at me is when mother was in such a temper about something, which didn't take much for her. She had been this way every since father was taken off to fight in a war that had no substance for us. Mista over on the Flint plantation gathered up all the able colored men's to come help fight in a war which put the colored men's on the wrong sides of the fence. Mother cried many nights I could hear her whimpers as I laid pretending to be sleep.

Times grew harder for it left six women to tend a land that would have taken 12 men to work it. We did the best we could, sitting out on the front porch I'm starting to catch a chill. Seem like the seasons are changing around us, almost time for harvest don't know how we gwan gather up the crop and then take it into town to try and make a few dollars. Mother says with the Lords will we gwan be just fine.

Hey everyone as you can see the chair arrived and I love it! but after further examination of it I can tell that it was once a rocker a some point. The height is so short but it works out fine for the dolls. They sit nicely in it and their legs have a natural hang. I been feeling under the weather for about a week now. Today we are going to have a major snow storm, maybe it will not be as bad as predicted you never know weather folks sometimes can be a little too dramatic. This just gives them something to talk about lol. For a few days I have been trying to blog but for some reason was not able to comment on post kept getting error messages so please don't think I have abandon you all. I am still trying to push these dolls out waiting on more wool for hair. So I have been making a few shawls for some of them to wear. Once I get all the dolls finished I will post pictures of them with their props. I have been showing the dolls as they are in last stages of completion.

So I am going back to sewing and praying I don't get snowed in this weekend.
Peace and Blessings
Cheryl...Snatch JOY~!