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Somewhere in Time, We Find Diana & Rose By Lisa A. Lawrence Having entered the doll world with Franklin Mint’s® Princess Diana collection, I intended to buy their entire line. When they stopped producing dolls and outfits, my collection would be complete. I would never buy dolls or their clothes again. How naïve! For a few years, this plan worked. Then I discovered a whole new world of doll collecting online. I joined several Princess Diana and Franklin Mint Yahoo!Groups®. The collectors on these groups were both informative and demanding. Instead of complaining about the various Diana outfits that the Franklin Mint was failing to produce, the seamstresses of the groups started making their own recreations and offering them for sale! This was too wonderful! I was hooked. My plan changed. I would buy as many custom-made Diana outfits as I could, and THEN my collection would be complete! Three years later, I’m still buying them and the designers show NO signs of slowing down on what they offer. In fact, the demand for these dresses far exceeds what the designers can keep up with! Here are some of their outfits, with one Titanic Rose thrown in. (Most of the pictures are thumbnails.) Recreations by Tommie Peacock
Photo courtesy of Sandy Arkanoff
Red Cross Badge by May Wong
Tops by Sharon Fighter
Gonzaga Gown by Pam Fernandez
Silver Pumps & Diana Wedding Slippers by S'n'E Shoes http://sne-shoes.bizhosting.com
Outfits recreated by Ann Sago
Photos courtesy of Sandy Arkanoff Outfits by Marion Witherspoon
Recreations by Jane Mahlig
Outfits by Linda Schuck
Recreations by Betty Herr
Sweater by Jane Mahlig Recreations by Janet Caudle
Recreations by Axelle www.hobbiesondisplay.0catch.com
Recreations by Joyce Stuchl www.shesews.com (Pictures include some Franklin Mint® outfits)
Photos courtesy of Ellen Puerzer One day, while browsing the doll boards, I came across an announcement that Joyce Stuchl would be offering recreations of the outfits worn by Jane Seymour in Somewhere in Time®. Uh-oh! Well, I immediately signed up for all the outfits and quickly went searching for Franklin Mint’s vinyl Josephine doll to act as my Elise McKenna. While I now have enough Josephines to have one for each outfit, at the time of these pictures, Scarlett agreed to act as a stand-in! These are my dolls, my outfits by Joyce, my photos and my hours and hours and hours of beading!
(thumbnails)
Thanks to the many people who worked hard sewing, photographing and beading the outfits that were used in this article. I personally spent over $850 adding to my collection to take these pictures (this does not include the many outfits I had before I started the article!), over 100 hours learning to take digital photographs and use Photoshop and Fireworks, probably 40-60 hours taking photographs (I know, I know…, they could be better!), 8 hours working on layout and about 60 hours beading! From now on, I’m sticking to writing! But wasn't it worth it! Postscript Joyce Stuchl died on July 13, 2003. I, for one, am very grateful that I was able to get so many of Joyce's outfits. They are wonderful little treasures that she left behind. |
