Ladie Faire Doll Designs

One of my hobbies is to customize 11 1/2 in. fashion dolls (Barbie, Charice, Candi, Alysa etc.), creating custom clothing, styling hair and sometimes re-painting to produce dolls that reflect a certain historical period or fantasy milieu.

I am trained as an historian, so I attempt to bring authentic detail and spirit to my designs (the materials are unabashedly modern--making tiny clothes in linen or wool would be prohibitive), but most of all I do this because I enjoy it. I do use some manufactured patterns for historical Barbie clothes, but rarely produce something that is exactly like the pattern--or exactly like another ensemble I have done. I have also designed some patterns of my own, particularly for the Medieval and Fantasy costumes.

This site is broken into multiple segments, according to theme or time period. The Medieval/Rennaissance section includes European Medieval styles, Italian Renaissance and some later Northern European styles up "Tudor" and potentially "Elizabethan." This section also includes designs inspired by characters in in Fairy Tales and Arthurian legend, for whom Medieval and Renaissance styles are appropriate. The "Antebellum Belles" section contains a series of dolls representing the fashion of the 1850's--particularly the large hoop skirts that most people associate with the costumes in the movie "Gone With the Wind." The "Victorian/Edwardian" section, which for convenience is based on the fashions popular in the time period associated with the later years of Queen Victoria's reign followed by her son, King Edward,(ca. 1860's-1911); this time period is often referred to as the "Belle Epoque" in regards to decorative arts and clothing fashions; the Art Nouveau movement influenced decorative and jewelry designs, and fashion for clothing includes the more exaggerated and ornate styles associated with "Victorians"--the wasp-waist and the bustle, to the more simplified and sleek styles of the turn of the century--into which falls the "Gibson Girl" in America. The "Other Period Designs" section is a catch-all for other historical period costumes that do not fit into the previous categories, for example, I currently have designs there representing the 1770-80's--the time of the American and French Revolutions; the 1830's--the time period of Jane Austen and the Napoleonic court; and the 1920's "Flapper" (some more modern designs, '30's, '40's, 50's may appear here). The final section "Faeries/Fantasy Designs" contains a series of "Faeries," inspired by flowers and seasons; in the future, I will have some designs based on the characters of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

To the right on this Home Page appear my latest creations--these will up for auction on E-bay until indicated, and you can access them there by clicking the links. Occasionally, custom-made dolls will appear here which are not available for sale, but were commissioned works.

Please browse these sections and enjoy! Feel free to provide feedback for me on any of my designs or on the site as a whole (it's my first!). I may entertain requests for custom designs depending upon my free time.