Why are so many of Little Miss Revlon's coats so full?
Because her skirts are very very full. Yes, she is a fashion doll, and fashions of
the mid-Fifties favored full skirts for women, but not all the time. Yes, she
was meant to appeal to girls 5 and older, all of whom wore crinolines and
petticoats with their best dresses, but not all the time. It bothers me
that LMR in her snazziest attire could
not drive a car because her skirts would not fit behind the wheel. It bothers
me that clothing for this wonderful doll emphasizes that she is a toy.
So I decided to test
all the patterns I could find that were
meant for Little Miss Revlon, and a few meant for later dolls. A couple of
weeks later, the Yahoo group Little Miss Revlon and Friends announced
a winter coat photo event. All we had to do was to photograph our little ladies
in coats. I was off and running.
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| Left, Advance 8814 coat. Right,Frankencoat |
Advance 8814 for Little Miss Revlon offers the styling of fashion magazines for humans. The sailor
dress is close to Ideal's version. Would the coat be less full than those from
patterns Simplicity and McCall? Well, no.
It is most definitely a swing coat. I made it up in unlined blue
corduroy, and took tiny pleats in the back to tame some of the fullness between
the shoulders. It fits almost exactly
the same as Simplicity 2254's coat. McCall's 2162 (1957) is shown in fake fur
on the pattern front. It is a lined raglan sleeved coat that probably looks a
great deal like my blue corduroy Franken coat from Top
Fashions for Teenage Dolls. I couldn't bring myself to test it.
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| Version 1 is blocky |
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| Version 2 moderately better |
Top Fashions for
Teenage Dolls (Hollis &
Janitch) were designed for Tammy-like dolls, wider necked and thicker bodied
than Barbie. There are several coat styles in the book and I thought they'd
work for LMR. My favorite, a trench coat, was a disaster on a 10 1/2 inch doll.
In general, the coat styles in this book are a single pattern piece for the
coat and another for the collar. They seem too big on LMR and friends. A swing coat with sleeves separate from the
coat body might work, and it did. I fiddled with the pattern to make it
narrower and achieved nothing more than a wide coat. Not what I was looking for, but acceptable,
especially over a dress with a full skirt.
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| Almost. Too wide, but usable, with separate sleeves. |
The LMR coat in Johanna Gast Anderton's Sewing for Twentieth Century Dolls is very full and wide with seemingly short arms. There's a reason for this. You want to accommodate any dress sleeves the doll may be wearing, as well as that dratted full skirt. It makes up nicely in whatever fabric you like. After testing the pattern in paper towels, I usually do a second test in felt to avoid having to make linings or facings. Try the coat on a dressed doll, and pin any excess. I usually pin out darts between the back shoulders. In a lighter fabric, you can change the shape a lot by making several small open bottomed darts. After making a plain coat, I got out leaf colored felt and felt leaf shapes and had fun.
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| JGA pattern for LMR coat |
When Barbie came along, my mother used Simplicity 2254 for
LMR to make the coat. It worked, so I thought I could use Barbie patterns for
LMR and friends. Barbie has an ostrich
neck, so collars that look fine on her may look awful on Little Miss Revlon. Her arms are longer, so
any coats with elbow length sleeves should work for LMR and friends? Years ago I made up
Simplicity 4883 and Simplicity 4424 for Barbie. Would they work for LMR? Yes
indeed. Were they what I wanted? Not by a long shot.
By this time. Little Miss Circle P, who does most of my in process modeling, was getting a bit punchy. "Slinky dress, leopard coat, time for fun," she said, hiking her dress up on one side.
Little Miss Revlon's friends include American Character's Toni, Vogue's Jan and Jill, Miss Nancy Ann, and lady dolls from 9 to 10 1/2 inches. These include but are not limited to Cissette, Suzette, Circle P and Circle X dolls.
