Doll Mania 3 or Bored, Bored, Bored.

          The downside of the whimsical decision to document every doll my sweet mama ever gave me is that there were such a darn lot of them.  Some of them have been cute, some less cute and others downright ghastly.  I was five when I got my first fashion doll, the original ponytail Barbie. She was my first, but by far not my last.


Ken, Barbie's fuzzy haired flat-footed boyfriend. Not an athlete. Definite scholastic pallor. My kind of guy.



Alan, Ken's best friend




Midge, Barbie's best friend and naturally Alan's boyfriend.






Skipper, Barbie's sister. I never heard of her until I was given her and her friend for a birthday.




Ricky, Skipper and Scooter's friend and possibly Alan's kid brother, they look alot alike to me.





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I probably got interested in sewing primarily because of fashion dolls. My cousin PJ would come down to play when we visited Mamaw and Papaw's house. She would bring her dolls, I would bring mine, and Mamaw would park us on the screened front porch with needles and thread and her scrap bag. It was a good way to keep us occupied





 

Skooter, Skipper's friend.

Mama was of the Collect The Whole Set mindset, so she bought all the Barbie family as soon as they came out, well in advance of my birthday, to be sure she didn't miss out on any. 

Here's a cool idea. Lets buy our kids a ton of stuff they didn't even ask for, then grumble at them for not keeping it all tidily put away.








But I digress. Where was I? Ah yes, fashion dolls.  When I was a schoolkid Mama ordered a set of clothes for Barbie and Ken from the Sears Catalog, or possibly Spiegles.  It was to be a trousseau for their wedding and honeymoon.  When she went downtown to pick it up there had been a backorder and the wedding trousseau was no longer available. Instead she brought home a set of theater costumes. She also got me some clothes from Barbie and Ken's world travel.....Holland, and Mexico.   This I believe may be a blessing in disguise.   Here are a few parts of those costumes.  As you can imagine, (or as you know from living with me most of your life) this extensive set of exotic clothing did far more for my imagination and my fashion sense than a mundane little set of honeymoon clothes would ever have done.



Guenivere's velvet gown, which Ken used to wear to cook breakfast.It wouldn't fasten in the back due to his broad shoulders, but he never seemed to mind.



Cinderella's eeryday dress. look like anyone you know?



Ken's Arabian Nights jacket which went with gold lame pants and pointy toed slippers. He was Shaherizades Genii.

the skirt of Barbie's arabian nights sari. The choli was pink satin, and there was a dupatta that matched the skirt.

Ken's King Arthut gear.

the whole cinderella set, and you just know Barbie wore ken's stuff all the time, especially the balloon pants.

better view of the Guinevere.

The holland outfit, with my favorite skirt ever. That big full skirt made her waist look tiny, haha!


Aside from Barbie and friends I also had a Tammy and a Mary Poppins.  I have no idea whether Tammy was named for the Tammy movies or not, but Mary Poppins definitely was a movie tie in.



These are Topper's Dawn and friends, there were a whole lot of them and I inherited some from a cousin a couple of years older.  They were very fashionable, bu the 70's Dawn dolls had cooler clothes than Barbie, and at 6 inches tall it only took half as much fabric to dress them.



Penny Brite appeared in my life by my request. I actually saw her on the tv commercial, thought she was cute, and wanted one. I think this is the first doll in my life I actually requested. Whoever claims she has bendable posable legs and arms needs to find themselves a dictionary. I still think she's cute, but I always hated the clothes they made for her. The Barbie Theater experience spoiled me for mundane clothes. Oddly enough it didn't occur to me to make clothes for her. She's the same size as /Susie Sad Eyes, and easy to dress, a straight childlike figure.

More later, I wish I could say that's almost all of them, but I wouldn't want to lie.