LSDS 1923's "Petite Hollandaise"

Bleuette Wears the Costume of A Dutch Girl

The Netherlands has twelve provinces: Drenthe, Gelderland, Groningen, Flevoland, Friesland, Limburg, Noord-Brabant, Noord-Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht, Zeeland and Zuid-Holland. North (noord) and south (zuid) Holland are only two of the twelve provinces, but Holland has often been used to denote what is rightly called The Netherlands.  People from any of these provinces are called "Dutch."

Traditional dress varies across the twelve provinces, and the costumes changed over time, also.

Bleuette had three patterns for a Dutch girl's costume published in La Semaine de Suzette, one in 1908, Costume Hollandaise, later Petite Hollandaise in 1923, and finally Bleuette en Hollandaise in 1930.

Petite Hollandaise 1923, # 6 & 7

1908 Illustration

1923 Illustration

1930 Illustration

 Coifs (white caps) featuring "ears,"pointed tops, flaps, caps with a gathered frill at the bottom, lace bonnets, and many types of decorations distinguish the various provinces.  A striped skirt is often part of the costume, but sometimes they are black.  Royal blue and orange are the national colors, so some costumes reflect that.  One thing the provincial costumes have in common is the "klompen," or wooden shoes.

You could make a lifetime's work of studying the costume variations and traditions of the Netherlands!  If you grew up reading "Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates," you might enjoy reconnecting with the Netherlands by making Bleuette the costume of a Dutch girl.

 

Incassable 301-1 Bleuette

Hello, bon jour! to a new member of my Bleuette family, a 301-1 incassable whose head is made of pressed paper and glue, also called pasteboard.  She is 29 cm, and dates from 1939 onward, a wartime Bleuette.  She has blue glass eyes on a rocker, though a few from this era have acetate eyes.  Those were not continued, but apparently served a purpose at the time.

You can compare her to my Rosette-sized incassable 301 below.  The pressed paper heads were a speciality of the SFBJ throughout their manufacturing years (1899 to 1957),  and sometimes cost more than a corresponding bisque head.  To be able to purchase a doll with an unbreakable head must have been a selling point with parents of rambunctious little girls!

Don't confuse composition with pasteboard, although both are incassable.

Bijou, a 29 cm Bleuette composition-head 301-1&1/2.

Composition is a poured material like porcelain, not pressed like pasteboard.

My incassable "SFBJ Paris" doll.

Another 301 mold incassable of larger size in my collection.

A slightly taller-than-Bleuette 301 incassable cousin.

Marilu, the Argentinian, Bleuette-inspired 16" incassable.

Happy Holidays from "About Bleuette!"

May all your dolls have unbroken heads, if not unbreakable!