Category Archives: Effner Dolls

“Garden Picnic”

Who would like to have a picnic in the garden with sweet Lucy? She’s all ready for a happy outing, and is bringing the sweets!

garden picnic 235

garden picnic 237

Lucy is wearing a most appropriate dress printed with roses and other pretty blossoms. The dress is a drop waist style with a pink ribbon tied around the waist.

garden picnic 051

A lace merino wool sweater in lace weight heathered aqua covers her shoulders in case it gets a little cool, or they find the perfect picnic spot in the shade. Bullion stitched embroidered rose motifs are scattered on the front of the sweater which can be worn open or closed.

garden picnic 232.jpg

Lucy is bringing to the picnic the yummiest of sweets: an iced donut, a flower-shaped cookie, and an iced strawberry sweet roll. I promise these are calorie free! They all fit into her crocheted picnic basket, and can nestle inside the little rosy cotton lawn napkin.

garden picnic 239

A crocheted headband with bow, panties (also with a bow), anklets, and bracelet complete Lucy’s “Garden Picnic” ensemble.

garden picnic 243

garden picnic 240

garden picnic 233

“Garden Picnic” for the Little Darlings will be available tonight (June 16, 2017) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.

Maybe Lucy will inspire you to have a little picnic in the garden today?

“Sweet Summertime”

8 Replies

Yay! It’s time to celebrate summer! June has been nothing but warm, or hot, and sunny, sunny, sunny! It seems like we’ve had more blue sky days this month than we’ve had all year. It sure is glorious seeing the sun shine all day long! I hope you’ve been as fortunate with sunshine as we’ve been, here in northern Illinois. If not, I’ll bottle some up, and send it to you. (Don’t you wish that could really be done?)

My Little Darling, Gina, is here to celebrate summertime with you. She is dressed in sunny yellow, flowery pinks, and of course, blue sky blue.

sweet summertime 108

The cotton Japanese print I used for this dress is both pastel and bright, perfect for summertime. I originally made a deeper aqua cardigan for this dress, but thought the sunny yellow accessories were a better choice. The dress is decorated with warm white English cotton Cluny lace and hand dyed soft yellow hand made silk bows. A matching silk ribbon sash ties around the waistline.

sweet summertime 154

The knitted lace capelet, crocheted headband and drawstring purse are made with buttery yellow bamboo thread. (Please excuse Gina’s messy hair; it’s a very windy day.)

sweet summertime 099

The lightweight capelet features lace stitches all the way around and closes with a pearl bead and loop.

The drawstring bag is decorated with a bright pink resin rose and hand beaded sepal at the rose’s base. Inside is a fringed hanky made out of white cotton lawn and folded into a triangle.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

sweet summertime 122

Gina’s headband is crocheted with tiny pearls and ties at the back of her neck.

sweet summertime 105

sweet summertime 103

“Sweet Summertime” will be available tonight (June 11, 2017) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.

“Dainty Darling”

4 Replies

Hello all, from grey and wet northern Illinois. I heard yesterday that we’re having a wetter than normal spring, no surprises there. Anyway, I’m all for pretending the sun is shining brightly. 🙂

Without further ado, here is my Little Darling, Alice. Alice wears a sunny yellow dress made out of one of the Little House on the Prairie 2016 prints from Andover. This print has a formal colonial look to it rather than a country calico look. This style of print must have been intended for “Sunday’s best” dresses. I’ve used two other prints from this collection; these were dark calicos. You can see those two ensembles here and here.

dainty darling 914

I highlighted this sunny yellow ensemble with the warm pink shade found in the roses. Pink can be seen in the crocheted rose hair decoration, drawstring bag, bracelet, bows on the shrug, and waist sash. Doesn’t pink look pretty with the yellow?

dainty darling 935

dainty darling 911

dainty darling 917

dainty darling 929

Here’s a close up shot of Alice’s tiny accessories. The tiny hanky is made with cotton lawn, has a fringed edging, and is folded and pressed into a classic triangle. (Just like my grandma taught me to do.) The hanky fits into the drawstring bag, which has lots of room for extra pretties.

dainty darling 921

Alice’s shrug is like a whispery soft spring breeze. It is knit with lace weight mohair/silk, and is dyed to a light ecru. It has tiny pink bows on the edges of the sleeves. I’ve also hand dyed the rayon knit tights to a light ecru.

Where do you think Alice is headed in her new ensemble?

dainty darling 901