Golden Gate Glamour

When I heard that Sandra Stillwell was having a convention in San Francisco this year, I knew I had to go. Last year I had the privilege of attending Gene's last convention in Philadelphia. It was only my third doll convention ever, and I thought that would be it for me.

Sandra also had a small doll convention in September last year in Nashville, but I couldn't make it. I was green with envy when I saw all the photos from the convention. The doll fashions were stunning, and the activities looked like a lot of fun. I knew that I wanted to be a part of this year's convention.

I arrived in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 1st. I wanted to go on the tour on Thursday, it is a great way to get to know the other doll lovers and a lot of fun. I was happy to see a couple of familiar faces when I arrived at the hotel shuttle waiting area.

The convention was held at the Embassy Suites, it was a great place to stay. I loved my suite, and the food was very good.

Wednesday evening I had dinner with an old high school friend and her husband. I hadn't seen Emma since my wedding reception 17 years earlier. It was great to reconnect.



Thursday morning I enjoyed a great breakfast in the hotel's courtyard and joined the other tour attendees in the lobby. The first stop was shopping in downtown San Francisco. I was especially excited to go fabric shopping at Britex. Britex was wonderful, unfortunately we only had an hour in the store. I could have spend the day there, but then I would have spent a fortune. I did splurge on a beautiful piece of floral Italian silk charmeuse.

Our next stop was a private tour of the beautiful Palace Hotel and lunch.

We ate lunch here. Our table was on the far left. My ideal San Francisco trip would be staying in the Palace Hotel and shopping all day at Britex, which was only a couple of blocks away.



Our third stop was across the bay at Lacis Museum of lace and Textiles in Berkley. Lacis was a cool store/museum full of antique lace, hat making supplies, books, buttons, and other great things that I love.

Thursday night the convention officially started with a dessert reception and a sneak peek of all the fabulous things that we would see this weekend.

Zita dressed in blue loveliness "Legacy of Light" was the centerpiece doll.

The burgundy companion outfit was also available for purchase.

I wish I had been able to buy "The Master's Touch"

We also received swag; "Rich Girl" outfit except for the black dress, and a burgundy fur jacket and hat.

Friday we all stayed at the hotel and enjoyed a lunch and lecture about Balenciaga. "Peccadillo" was the centerpiece doll. I didn't own a "Green Eyes" Gene doll already, so I bought her in this wonderful green suit.

"Espana Noche" was great too. I wish I had bought it.

Everyone loved this suit. It went fast.

We also received a velvet swing jacket and a gift box full of fashion separates to go with the things we had received the night before.

Later that afternoon we attended a presentation given by Wayne Nilson and Lynne Day, former Ashton Drake designers for Gene. I found the lecture very interesting, since I thought it would be fun to be a doll fashion designer for a doll company. I may have changed my mind after that lecture. I loved seeing the slide show of their work.

Of course there were more eye candy to tempt our empty wallets. The fashions for this event were inspired by the San Francisco company LilliAnn.



Friday night's dinner theme was "JAMIEshow", this was the gorgeous centerpiece doll.

"Princesa" dressed doll was available for sale.

"Barcelona" was available as an outfit.

"Flamenco" was available as a dressed doll.

Everyone loved the "Marquesa" dressed doll. She was snatched up fast!

A birds-eye view of the courtyard at the Embassy Suites.

My Room

Saturday was the highlight of the convention. A tour of the Balenciaga exhibit at the DeJung Museum. It was breathtaking, we weren't allowed to take photos of the fashions, but I bought a book with better photos than I would have been able to take with my camera.

Then we went to the Legion of Honor Museum to see the "Pulp Fashion" Exhibit. That was cool too. Who would have thought to recreate history's greatest fashions out of paper?

Golden Gate Glamour ended with a 10 year anniversary banquet celebrating Sandra Stillwell events.

"X" (# 10) was the centerpiece doll.

Sandra gave us some ideas on how to use all the separates that we had received over the weekend. So much fun potential!









You should have heard the gasps of delight when we opened our last gift box and saw that we had all received the fashion that we had been lusting after. What a great night!





Sunday morning I flew home. I took a plane, boat, van, and car to get home. The weather had been warmer in Seattle that weekend than it had been in San Francisco, go figure.

Just a few photos of my ferry ride to the south end of Whidbey Island.

I hope there will be a convention next year! For more details and better photos of Golden Gate Glamour click here.

Thank you Lori Richards for the links and friendship during the weekend.

"The Misfits" Cherry Dress

A couple of months ago on the doll board The Studio Commissary, there was a discussion about how some people were interested in Marilyn's Monroe's cherry dress from the 1961 film "The Misfits". I was instantly intrigued. I googled, and found some photos of Marilyn in the dress. It then became an challenge/obsession to find some cherry printed fabric.







I was pleasantly surprised to find this fabric at my local JoAnn Fabrics store.

This is what I came up with.

The biggest challenge was getting the bodice to fit right. I wanted to use self fabric ties on the shoulders, like on the real dress, but they looked too bulky. I ended up using ribbon to get the look I wanted.

This dress also fits the Tonner dolls well.



This dress will be for sale on my Blog Store.

Sharing a Commission

I have been working on a few commissions lately. I don't accept commissions much anymore unless it is something that I planned on making in the future. Then I move it up to the top of my massive list of "things to make".

This is is a faux "Obsidian Society" that I made to fit the Tonner dolls.

Though I don't own any Fashion Royalty dolls, I really like this outfit.

Image Property of Integrity Toys




Here is my Antionette in her auburn wig. It is my favorite of the three. I need to fuss with the wig a little more I think.


The Suit is made of black silk dupioni, lined in cream, with cream and black tulle ruffles. I even tried to replicate the ribbon trim on the side of the skirt.






Here is Brenda Starr modeling the suit. I prefer it on Antionette though.

Red, White, and YOU!

When I first saw this outfit, I knew it was a "Must Have".

I would have preferred to buy the outfit alone, but now that she is here, I love the doll too.

High Seas Daphne likes the outfit too, though her hair is a little high on top for the hat.

I can't wait to put this outfit on a Gene doll.

The Return of the Tonners

They're Baaaack! After spending 10 months in their boxes, they are finally out again. When I came home from the last Gene Convention with a trainload of new Gene dolls, I decided to put the Tonners away for a while. Gene is still my first love, but I have always loved the Brenda Starr line too and was so sad when they discontinued it. I am finding myself drawn to the Ann Harper line and have bought a few dolls and outfits so far. Somehow Marilyn Monroe snuck into the group picture. She is new too.

To Catch a Thief

Grace Kelly wore this stunning outfit in the 1954 film "To Catch a Thief". Edith Head is one of my favorite designers, I love her classic style and have recreated several of her costumes in miniature.

I made this outfit several years ago, but I wanted my own copy. I had the genius idea to cut out as many jumpsuits as I could out of the piece of black knit that I had. Lesson learned- just because you have enough fabric to make 14 outfits, doesn't mean you should. It felt like it took forever to finish all these outfits.

"Pool Pose" Madra loves her new resort wear.

Because the jumpsuit is made of knit, this ensemble fits the Tonner/Tyler dolls too.

I think Daphne Dimples makes a lovely Grace. I use to have a lot of problems photographing the early Tonner dolls. Their skin is rather dark and would always look really dark in my pictures. I shined a light on Daphne while I was taking her picture and am really happy with the results.

She is still a little dark in the full body shots though.

Antionette can also wear this outfit. She claimed that she wanted to jazz it up a little by wearing her red sandals, but the truth is she doesn't have any other shoes.

Outfits are for sale in my blog store.