Pupating in Madagascar

Hello there,

 My trip is almost coming to an end. To finish up I’m making my way through Africa. I landed in Madagascar, for a sunny getaway. I’ll visit the Avenue of the Baobabs later on. The Baobab is a typical tree you can find in Madagascar.

 Did you know Madagascar is known for their terrific silk-production? The cocoons of the caterpillar of the silk butterfly are used for silk fabric. Making silk is a very delicate process. As soon the caterpillar has made his cocoon, it’s carefully cut out of them and placed into a protected environment to grow up. After the cocoon is harvested, it’s washed, dried, ironed and sewed into a larger piece of fabric. Amazing how every fabric has its own story!

 What’s your favourite fabric to work with?

 Love,

 Dollie

FREE bikini pattern!

Hi guys,

 Time to chill! I’m in Zanzibar, checking another thing off my bucketlist. I really wanted to go scubadiving and the beautiful clear sea in Zanzibar is perfect for that. So when I got here, I went to the sea and saw all those colourful fish. Amazing!

 Now I’m relaxing on the beach in my favo bikini. I already gave away the pattern for this bikini, but if you have missed it, you can find it here.

 See you!

 Dollie

In the jungle...

… the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight!

After spotting the gorillas in Uganda last week, I really got the hang of it. I went to the neighboring country Kenya, to see more animals. This morning I woke up at 5 am to go on a safari. I really want to see some lions, as they are the king of the jungle. Lions are very lazy during the day, because of the heat. That’s why you need to wake up early, to see them active while it’s still chilly outside. Maybe I can even spot the Big Five. That’s a lion, leopard, African elephant, rhino and a buffalo. But I’ll also be very happy with spotting zebra’s and maybe some giraffes.

 I’m wearing my long tiger print pants, let’s hope the lions won’t mistake me for one of them.

See you!

Dollie

Jungle-fever

Hi guys!

 I’m still in Africa for the moment. I travelled to Uganda, the country of so many National Parks! I’m going on a gorilla tracking adventure later on. That’s why I’m wearing my jungle outfit.

 People in Uganda are all very colourful. Women wear tops and skirts in bright colours with nice prints on them. This is called a gomesi. The traditional clothes are worn when they are going to a marriage, on a visit to the king or at funerals. When a man asks a woman to marry him, he also wears traditional clothing. How romantic!

 I’m going to choose a lovely piece of fabric here and ask the friendly people to make a dress for me too. Or maybe I should add one to the DressYourDoll collection?

 Would you like that? Let me know!

 Love,

 Dollie

Mummies & Pyramids

Hi guys,

 I’m visiting some pyramids in Egypt. I hope I don’t bump in to a mummy! Or maybe I do, so I can see the amazing fabric that mummies were made of.

 Fabrics were always important to the Egyptians. But they only knew a few different pieces of clothing. Men wore a linen loincloth that reached from their hips to their knees. Most of the time, this was the only thing they wore. Rich Egyptians had a longer loincloth that was folded in a sort of pants with a nice belt. Sometimes they wore a long shirt with it.

Women wore long, tight dresses. The rich women had dresses that were made of a thin, shine-through fabric and decorated with pearls.

 All the Egyptian clothing was either folded in place, or sewn into a model. If it was folded, it were just big pieces of fabric that were wrapped around the body. The sewn pieces of clothing were mostly triangles or squares that were sewn at one or more sides and bound together with rope.

 Linen was the most used fabric in the Old Egypt. The farao even sent it as a gift to other rulers and some workers were paid for their jobs in linen instead of money. You could see how rich one was by the quality of their linen. Workers wore simple linen loin cloths that were made of very sturdy fabric, so it wouldn’t tear apart while working. While rich Egyptians had very fine linen clothing, almost as thin and soft as silk.

 Would you have liked living in the Old Egypt?

 See you!

 Dollie