At lunch today, they announced the total raised for charity, raffle winners, and more. We heard from a Mattel designer who shared some of his inspiration and work that goes into designing Barbie dolls. The centerpieces were adorable.
And, of course, we received the convention doll and more gifts.
We’re all set up in the sales room now and just waiting for the doors to open.
We left the live auction at 10pm last night when they were approximatly 1/3 of the way through the auction items. We placed a few bids but didn’t win anything. Here are photos of some of the OOAK dolls that were auctioned.
Today started off with more room sales and then I taught a workshop this afternoon where 10 conventioneers learned how to make Barbie size shopping bags, shoe boxes, and decorated shoes.
This evening, we had our Northern Lights dinner. The centerpieces were very pretty.
Now we’re hanging out in our room waiting for the auction to begin. More to come.
We also received this doll at the meal.
We loaded up the van after lunch and arrived in Livonia mid afternoon. After a couple hours of set up and some supper, we’re now open for business.
I’ve been packing all day and I’m ready to head to the GAW Barbie Convention in Livonia, MI, tomorrow after lunch. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the fashions I’m taking with me. My collection this year features shades of blue, pink, and purple and is made from silks, lace, vintage printed and embroidered handkerchiefs, and Liberty of London Tana Lawn. Every dress comes with a coordinating hat or fascinator. I also have about 100 hats made in a variety of colors, and a variety of miniatures. Hope to see some of you there!
The GAW Barbie convention is just a couple weeks away! Here’s a little preview of what you’ll see from Hankie Chic at the convention.
Here’s a first glimpse of the doll I’m donating to the charity auction for the GAW Barbie Convention later this month. Her name is Juneau. Her dress is of Chantilly lace layered over silk taffeta. I found the lovely shade of pink silk fabric from Silk Baron. I love how it matches her hair. And of course the dress is sewn entirely by hand. I even stitched pearl beads onto the centers of the flowers on the lace.
I’ll be selling out of my hotel room and in the sales room. My dress collection is done (I think!). My color story is shades of pink, purple, and blue in silks, vintage printed and embroidered handkerchiefs, lace, and Liberty of London Tana Lawn fabric. No peeks at the collection until I arrive and set up my room, so stay tuned.
Now that the dress collection is done, I’ve been working on the smaller items. I’ve got about 80 hats made so far. So the question was, how do I display them? I was doing some antiquing this weekend and came across some vintage salt and pepper sets with large holes. That got me thinking about hat pins and hat pin holders … and what if I could display hats like a bouquet. So I stopped at a craft store to pick up wire and other supplies to make little hat stands that will stick into the holes of the salt and pepper shakers. I think I’ll be able to display about 24 hats per shaker.
I’ve also been working on little Barbie size shopping bags. I’ll have more designs available, but here’s a taste. They make great table gifts!
While I was at the GAW Barbie convention last month, I visited with Pam Seeman of Paintbox Designs. She had some adorable hats for sale, which she said are made by her sister. I bought a couple hats for inspiration and proceeded to buy some supplies when I got home. Since then, I’ve made about 10 hats, and have learned to better manipulate hat straw to get the shapes I want … sometimes incorporating happy accidents. Took me about 8 hats before I realized there’s a thread in the straw you can pull to help shape it!
I remembered browsing a Barbie Bazaar magazine at GAW room sales that had instructions for making a variety of hats from hat straw, so I started looking up old issues on eBay and Etsy to find applicable articles and just received a few issues I purchased.
The February 1999 issue has the most detailed instructions, including where to purchase hat straw. The US supplier mentioned, Sandy’s Victorian Trims, still seems to be in business and has a website, sandyslace.com. I purchased hat straw on Etsy from grosgrainribbons.etsy.com and from a couple of eBay shops, so it seems to be readily available.
The April 2000 issue of Barbie Bazaar has more hat-making instructions, using a variety of materials and techniques.
I even found an article about using hat straw to make purses.
Here are some of the hats I’ve made so far.
If you have been drooling over the 2022 GAW Barbie Convention exclusive dolls, I have 2 sets for sale on eBay (seller name hankiechic). Love the dolls, but no room! I’m including the original outfits and acrylic throne as well, and even paying for shipping within the US.
Believe it or not, I actually took time to do some room shopping and wander the sales room at the GAW Barbie Convention. I didn’t make it to every room, but I did find some treasures.
We moved everything from our hotel room to the sales room this afternoon. We managed to consolidate our displays and fit everything on one table. Today was only for conventioneers, but tomorrow we open to the public. Anything that doesn’t sell tomorrow will be listed in my Etsy shop tomorrow afternoon or evening.
Hankie Chic 