June 11, 2023, Meeting

The theme of the June meeting was "Brides," and member Myrna Loesch provided this beautiful (and delicious) wedding cake for the refreshment table. 

Member Jan Irsfeld did a program on bridal fashion, with dolls from her collection of Madame Alexander Cissys modeling her beautiful hand-tailored bridal gowns. Jan explained that she keeps scrapbooks of pictures and articles from fashion magazines featuring outfits she finds beautiful or intriguing and uses these to inspire her own creations. Some of the dolls were dressed in outfits she had made for a 1987 Las Vegas exhibit of bridal fashions from around the world.

Queen Elizabeth the First of England stated that she could not wed because she was married to England.  Jan accordingly dressed Good Queen Bess as an Elizabethan bride.

This torso gown shows how a bride might have appeared in 1955.

These two dolls appeared in the Las Vegas display. They model bridal fashions from Africa and Japan.

This Cissy represents a French bride in floral lace finery.

The blond bride represents England while the belle with bare shoulders models Jan's interpretation of a 1992 bridal gown.

Two more international brides. The Spanish bride wears a black lace mantilla and a dress adorned with embroidered flowers. Next to her is a bride from Shanghai, who also holds the dress that she will don for the post-wedding reception.

This bride from Mexico is bedecked with bright ribbons.

The bride with the wide-tiered bodice models a version of a gown from 2015. The other Cissy wears a dress in the style of 1957.  Jan hand painted each flower on her wide lace skirt.

A bead-encrusted bridal gown made by Jan.

Members brought many examples of bride dolls to share.

Pam Hardy displayed two porcelain dolls that belong to her daughter. This doll portrays Sarah, the Duchess of York, at her marriage to Prince Andrew.

And this doll represents Princess Diana when she married Prince Charles.

Nancy Countryman brought examples of Madame Alexander brides, including this little Lissette,

and this much larger red-haired Elise.

A Kitty Collier bride by the Tonner Doll Company.

This porcelain doll designed by Suzanne Gibson represents Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston, who acted as First Lady during the administration of her uncle, President James Buchanan.

Myrna shared this lovely reproduction French fashion doll made by former member Mary McKenzie and dressed by Jan in a bridal gown in the style of the 1870s to 1880s.

She also displayed this composition Madame Alexander Wendy Ann she had won at a recent luncheon with the Fort Worth doll club. The doll dates from the 1940s.

This Madame Alexander Cissette belongs to Sylvia McDonald, who told the club that the doll was given to her daughter in 1969 or 1970.

This Nancy Ann Storybook wedding party is from Sylvia's childhood.  She told the club that in the 1964 they were used as decorations in a relative's wedding and the bride and groom were redressed for that wedding.

Ann Meier displayed this wedding outfit her grandmother had made for her childhood Saucy Walker doll.

Jenell Howell brought this BJD elf adorned in a wedding dress from a Madame Alexander Elise.

Bette Birdsong shared this Gene doll dressed in bridal finery.

This antique Mold 1469 doll made by Simon and Halbig for Cuno and Otto Dressel wears belongs to Sharon Weintraub. She models a hand-sewn and beaded antique bridal gown from the 1920s.

These diminutive dolls also came from Sharon's collection. The center doll is a pink-tinted frozen Charlotte dressed in an antique lace bridal outfit. Sharon told the club that it was a tradition to dress a small doll in scraps of the bride's gown as a keepsake. The taller bride and groom are wedding cake decorations by Hertwig and Company of Germany. The small pair are also German cake decorations.

Two sets of antique all-bisque German bride and groom dolls in their original boxes. The large pair are from Hertwig while the miniatures in crocheted costumes are by Carl Horn.