Issue 15 - Civil War / Victorian Collaboration - Margie's Purple Floral Civil War Dress by Bbeauty Dolls

As a doll designer, different types of dolls intrigue me.  I have my favorite brands and I am always exploring new dolls at shows, from marketplaces, and as I meet friends with diverse collections. My work studio has a vast amount of dolls in all shapes and sizes and in all different kinds of skin tones.  As a designer I love to play with shapes and sizes and enjoy the process of always bringing out the best in my doll models.  With my collection over the next week, I will enjoy showcasing several different dolls alongside my American Girl ones to demonstrate the diversity of what I work with.

Ruby Red Fashion Friends have been an intriguing addition to my collections of models with their sweet faces and jointed bodies and a large fan base behind them. Since last year, I have been working in the background on creating and designing more products for this size and other 13-14" dolls in this category for wigs, clothing, and shoes as part of our ongoing efforts to provide more options to our customers.  This was the perfect opportunity to showcase how adorable historical wear is on these dolls.  There are many patterns already available to sew all sorts of styling for these dolls and a pretty good following of those who love to see these little dolls in historical wear as well. Margaret (shown above) I lovingly have nicknamed Margie for short is my first collection set of our Civil War Collection.

I wanted to select a pretty cotton print for almost a day style Civil War dress and ended up using Keeper Dolly Duds pattern called Meg's Ball Gown for 14.5" Dolls which does mean that this dress will also fit a Wellie Wisher or other similar sized 14.5" dolls.  I opted to keep the bertha collar very simple because of the very beautiful jewelry set made by Sata & Haykush Designs.  I omitted the bows on the shoulders and extra lace to give a more day dress look and center the elegance of the jewelry where the dress didn't over power it.

Because Ruby Red Fashion Friends are such a sweet child like doll, I opted to keep the skirt ankle length to show the boots and reflect more of a child's style length for this dress rather than taking it all the way to the floor.  I used a vintage crinoline with a crochet lace hem as the perfect underthings and paired them with bloomers and white tights so that she would be dressed from head to toe.

In the pattern they use a lace to create a design accent on two front panels of the dress in four rows.  I loved the idea of just using simple ribbon here to create chevrons. The ribbon in her hair ties in and I love when design accents make sense.

The pattern makes this a one piece dress, where even the Bertha collar is hand stitched to the shoulders and front and I enjoyed that about this pattern design.  It made it an easy to dress piece with a few snaps as closure in the back.

I designed the same Victorian Boots that I did for American Girl in the Ruby Red size.  These don't fit the other 14" dolls because the feet are more slender on a Ruby Red Fashion Doll and that's what I intended to design.  There are several small businesses that make fantastic shoe options for this doll, but not many that do historical so I wanted to bring that to the table for these dolls.  You can purchase boots separately here. 

With this piece I wanted to provide a few options, so I decided to sell the full doll as an eBay auction and then dress sets for those that wanted to dress a doll already in their collections.

TO PURCHASE THE OUTFIT ONLY:

Margie's Dress can be purchased as a set that includes only her dress, tights, and boots on our website here

TO PURCHASE MARGIE AS SHOWN:

Margie in her full collection and set can be purchased on Ebay for auction Ruby Red Fashion Friends Custom OOAK Civil War Historical Doll “Margaret” | eBay