. . . for me, that is, not for the doll.
If you're not familiar with them, the Sunshine (and Happy) Family were a doll series from the early- to mid-1970s post-hippie era. The mom, Steph, wore a long floral prairie dress and they drove around the country in a pickup truck selling crafts. I think there were eventually farm animals and a spinning wheel. Very Seventies back-to-the-land.
They predated me by quite a bit but they're exactly the kind of thing with which I would have been obsessed had I known about them when I was a kid--small but not too small, endless accessories, Little House dress (I was never into Little House myself but owned and loved a lot of long calico dresses handed down from older neighbors. I never really outgrew my prairie dress phase).
I got my dolls in the mail today. I don't really want Steve but this pair was one of the cheapest I could get that had Steph and her apron.
Their faces are a little bit creepy.
The earliest aprons had two patch pockets on the front. This one is a little later and doesn't. The third iteration of the apron was shorter and had narrower shoulder straps. I'd like to get an apron with pockets but it's not a big deal since this one is the same cut.
Steph's dress is actually a bodysuit and A-line skirt with an elastic waist. Later dresses were one piece with an elastic waistline and short sleeves; I ordered one but it hasn't arrived yet.
I've already ruled out the bodysuit and skirt option--there is no way I'd ever wear that--so one-piece dress it is.
The fabric is tricky. I looked for both deadstock and modern but 1970s-style calicoes and came up empty on prints that were the right color, scale, and "feel". For once both Cranston and Concord failed me! I finally settled on this Moda Catalina floral which is less 1970s than I'd like but is a bigger scale. I'm slightly tempted to overdye it in yellow but I'll probably talk myself out of that.
If you're not familiar with them, the Sunshine (and Happy) Family were a doll series from the early- to mid-1970s post-hippie era. The mom, Steph, wore a long floral prairie dress and they drove around the country in a pickup truck selling crafts. I think there were eventually farm animals and a spinning wheel. Very Seventies back-to-the-land.
They predated me by quite a bit but they're exactly the kind of thing with which I would have been obsessed had I known about them when I was a kid--small but not too small, endless accessories, Little House dress (I was never into Little House myself but owned and loved a lot of long calico dresses handed down from older neighbors. I never really outgrew my prairie dress phase).
I got my dolls in the mail today. I don't really want Steve but this pair was one of the cheapest I could get that had Steph and her apron.
Their faces are a little bit creepy.
Steph's dress is actually a bodysuit and A-line skirt with an elastic waist. Later dresses were one piece with an elastic waistline and short sleeves; I ordered one but it hasn't arrived yet.
I've already ruled out the bodysuit and skirt option--there is no way I'd ever wear that--so one-piece dress it is.
The fabric is tricky. I looked for both deadstock and modern but 1970s-style calicoes and came up empty on prints that were the right color, scale, and "feel". For once both Cranston and Concord failed me! I finally settled on this Moda Catalina floral which is less 1970s than I'd like but is a bigger scale. I'm slightly tempted to overdye it in yellow but I'll probably talk myself out of that.
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