Jenny as A Little Princess

My Friend Jenny restored as Sara Crewe.

Sara comes with her doll, Emily, a restored vintage celluloid doll.

Emily has working sleep eyes.

In many of these posts I've talked about the various books I used to read as a girl. I'm one of those people who can read the same stories over and over. I loved the books by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I read A Little Princess and The Secret Garden probably just about every year. Burnett can enchant a young girl like almost no other author. Who wouldn't want to live in a world with fabulous dresses and dolls, Indian servants, and friendly monkeys? Of course there is that period where Sara has to be a slave!

This Jenny doll was crying out to be Sara Crewe. A previous owner cut her hair. Not too much, but now her layers are a bit uneven. It is easily minimized by styling in a curly 'do. You can see the "before" pictures of both these dolls and the method of hairstyling I used in the Illustrated Life post, my previous post.

I had a great time making Sara's dress with a remnant of checked taffeta. This is the dress she would wear at the beginning and end of the book when she's still rich! I made Emily a matching outfit, since this is described in the book. I also re-wigged Emily. She was a brunette before.

I have a ton of dolls to work on right now, thanks to a recent consignment sale. I have a couple new felt faces in the works as well. I think I will do another Burnett doll (I'm sure you can guess which character!) for my next project! Frances Burnett wrote stories as a child and acted them out using her own dolls, so I'm sure she'd approve! Keep watching!