Molly’s Novelty Bishop Dress

Laurel is dancing on the ceiling with excitement over her new American Girls doll clothes.  I was pretty excited myself when I discovered  that a packed-away treasure trove of samples would fit Laurel’s doll Molly.  These were all made for the doll schools Mildred Turner and I did around the country.

The dolls for those events were 20″ porcelain.  Styles were shorter then, so the 2″ difference in the dolls’ height is to 18″ Molly’s advantage now. I would have enjoyed making these garments even more if I had known that someday I would have this precious granddaughter to share them with.

I’ve always been a big fan of the bishop style.  The ease of construction, the comfort for a child, the versatility of the pattern–all these features appeal to me.  This dress is what I call a novelty bishop.  About a hundred years ago, at the first SAGA regional convention in Spartanburg, SC, I took a pleater class from Connie Harbor.  She called anything that was not a standard yoke dress or bishop, a novelty, requiring special pleating.   Hence, the name.

There are earlier posts on this technique which substitutes a solid fabric for the smocked portion of a print bishop dress.  Smocking on prints can be tricky and on this classic Liberty of London tanna lawn print it would be even more so. 

The sleeves are longer than the sweet ruffle sleeves as seen on Children’s Corner Gwen bishop pattern.  These are simply unsmocked and edged in a tiny black dot French lace.  The same lace trims the smocked area.

Laurel and I are having so much fun with these clothes and her doll.  This afternoon, my dear husband Bob took Robert to flag football practice and Laurel tagged along.  She was excited about playing American Girls with the sister of one of Robert’s teammates. While I was at dinner with the PlayGroup Mamas, Bob took them to dinner and then brought them to our house to spend the night.

When I got home, Laurel chattered about playing with Caitlin and enjoying one another’s dolls.  Then Laurel confided,  “Nana, Caitlin’s Bitty Baby reeeeeeally needs to go to the doll hospital.  She has black marker alllllllll over her face!  You can’t even see a spot that is not covered in marker!”

“Why did Caitlin do that to her doll?” I asked.

Laurel rolled her eyes and replied, “She told me that the dolls do that to each other at night while she is asleep.  But I don’t think so.”