Bleuette Birthday "Step and Repeat" Backdrop

It's Bleuette's Birthday soon, and there should really be a red carpet entrance to the party, so the press can make the most of all the party-goers in their party dresses.  Would you like to try this at home with your Bleuettes?  

Here is a link to a repeat banner and a central birthday banner for you to print on standard 8.5" by 11" size paper, photo paper, or cardstock.  Mine are on matte photo paper attached to a white foam board.  I used two repeat banners and a central banner, but you could also just use the repeat banner, if you like, printed two or three times.  The links will go to my shared files on Google Drive, where you can click on the download arrow to save the pdf  for each of them to your computer.

Have fun!

New Year, New Decade for Bleuette

Bleuette has been through the twenties before,  some even call the 1920s the golden age of Bleuette, but now she has a chance to make her mark on the 2020s, in this new year and new decade.

Premier Bleuette, Lili, is about to put on her coat and make some New Year's Day calls on friends and neighbors.  Have a happy year, Bleuette!

Pre-catalog G-L 1907 School Smock
made in wool check

Santon Creche Figures

Now that the tea has been cleared away, Mimi and Bijou have set up the creche with Provencal santons, the "little saints" made of porcelain.  It is a tradition in many French homes, and, of course, we have a tradition of nativity scenes here in America, too.  Our scene features a new "stable" this year.  In the tradition of many Bleuette crafts published in La Semaine de Suzette, it is made from cardboard.

Mimi is a 27 cm. SFBJ 60 8/0 Bleuette, while Bijou is a taller Unis France 301-1 & 1/2.

Tea to Welcome Bijou

Mimi, an SFBJ 60 8/0 Bleuette, welcomes Bijou with a surprise tea-for-two.  

A great friendship is in the making!

Bijou in G-L 1934 Marin d' Ete

This is a reproduction of the sailor suit in the summer 1934 G-L catalog, but it was also a pattern published in La Semaine de Suzette in 1935, issue 15, as Marin Classique. Either is just right for our 1930s Bleuettes.

Bleuette in Composition

Bleuette heads were made in three materials:  bisque, pasteboard, and composition.  Here is a Bleuette whose head is made of composition. Say bonjour to Bijou.

She is marked "71 UNIS FRANCE 149, 301, P.C. , 1&1/2"  Historian Samy Odin says she was made in 1936, and was shown in the 1937 International Exposition.  Her head is incassable, that is, unbreakable, and she has 1 on her feet.  She has blue glass sleep eyes.  Historian Colette Merlen also shows this head marking, dating it to the mid-1930s. 

She came with what looks to be an original human hair bob wig and the cardboard pate used by the SFBJ.  Her slippers are oilcloth, and look to be the same age as she is.  She also came with a G-L L'Enfant Sage school smock in red gingham, which was offered in the 1933 G-L Summer catalog of Bleuette's ready-made wardrobe, and continued to be for sale until 1940.

A Japanese Bleuette-Size Doll

In honor of the enthronement of a new emperor and empress of Japan, here is "Momo" by Madelyn Baughman--she is Bleuette size and makes a lovely international friend.

Bleuette Cousin Restored

After being stored for years wrapped in tissue paper in a hatbox, this SFBJ cousin to Bleuette finally received some much needed attention.  Although her incassable head was in perfect condition, her composition body and hands had no paint at all and her composition feet and wood limbs had very little. She needed re-stringing and re-clothing, too.

Her mold is the simply-named "SFBJ Paris," a mold used by the SFBJ mainly in the first 20 years of their company history.  The "SFBJ Paris" mold was used for lovely bisque-headed dolls, incassables, and for a variety of mignonettes in an array of sizes.  Later, in the 1950s, the mark was used again, but not the old molds.

Her head is pasteboard--layers of cardboard or heavy paper steam-pressed in a cast iron mold with glue binding the layers.  Very nice threaded glass sleep eyes join lithographed paper teeth and original mohair wig to create a pleasant expression.  Her feathered eyebrows are painted over molded-in texture, and she has painted lower eyelashes with hair upper lashes. Her feet have the SFBJ 1 mark. She is 13 inches tall (33cm).

This little 20th century French girl now wears a dress made from a pattern published in 1924 in Lisette magazine, Paris.  Years' worth of Lisette patterns were for a 33 cm doll, a perfect fit.

A 1923 Lisette cover

Wardrobe of  Lisette Patterns

Autumn Hats

Crocheted cloche for
G-L 1924-25 Scotland

Crocheted pillbox for
G-L 1954 Gai Matin

Tissue-paper braid Boater
G-L 1934 Domino

Straw cloche for an antique Verlingue mignonette

Teddy Bear Picnic

G-L 1957 Kermesse dresses for Bleuette 251 and her sister, a reproduction Rosette