I had never heard of Judy Littlechap, when I stumbled across her at my local Goodwill (a second-hand store). She was nude in a plastic bag, marked $2.99, but the date on her backside said she was from 1963.

At first I was hesitant to buy her. We’ve all seen a date on the behind of a doll and went “Ooh la-la, a vintage doll” only to take her home and discover her head doesn’t go with her body.

Just look at the three different complexions that are shown on her face, her torso, and then her arms. That seemed like a red flag.

But I thought, “For $2.99, I guess it doesn’t hurt to purchase her.” After all, she had a lovely face and figure, and I thought cleaning her up and making her some clothes might be fun, even if it didn’t turn out to be financially rewarding.

And she did need some cleaning. I’ve left her uncleaned for these photos, so you can see what I’m working with here…

I’m not sure what got splotched all over her arm, but the back of her left leg was dirty like that too.

And I’m still not sure whether or not I’ll be able to get the red staining off of her right leg. There’s also a bluish stain on her right foot’s pinky toe. I’m not sure if you can see it in the image below.

That’s probably from keeping her in her shoes for too long. But none of her clothes (or shoes for that matter) were in the plastic bag with her.

So I set about making her a swimsuit, so she could be presentable when it was time to introduce you to this little lady. I’m not 100% happy with my swimsuit pattern, so I’m currently in the process of making revisions.

It looks okay in the front, although it bunches up a bit in the crotch zone.

That “bunchy” crotch was even more pronounced in the back, as you’ll see below. So my next rendition of this swimsuit will likely have a narrower crotch and a better back closure area.

A little research told me that the doll I had found was a Judy Littlechap…

The Littlechap family of dolls had a brief 1 year run in 1963 before they were canceled. I’ve seen their wardrobe, and they had some really amazing outfits!

Yesterday’s blog post asked everyone to help me decide what to design for my Judy Littlechap doll next, so if you didn’t see that post, you might mosey over to yesterday’s post, read it, and leave some ideas for me.

While browsing on eBay for these dolls and their outfits, I saw that someone had posted a Judy Littlechap as “rare” because she had blue eyes.

Lo and behold, guess what I was holding in my hand… a blue eyed beauty!

Yes, she needs a little spot checking. That’s not a “beauty mark” on her left cheek; it’s dirt. So I need to gently clean off her smudges without marring her beautiful face paint which appears to still be very much in tact.

I visited Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, where Taswegian1957 had posted some tips on cleaning a vintage Judy Littlechap doll, but if you have any tips of your own, I’d love to hear them.

Thanks, by the way, Taswegian1957, for your helpful guidelines. That was a great blog post about not just how to clean up a vintage doll, but you also offered some great backstory for the whole Littlechap family of dolls!

For anyone else who would like to read that informative blog post, click here: “Vintage Find at the Market”.

As you can see, Judy Littlechap is quite tall, at 13 inches, but ironically, a person named Christine C. recently reached out to me, asking if I was planning to design any doll clothes for the new 13 inch Barbie that’s being marketed to toddlers as a “My First Barbie.”

I don’t currently own a 13 inch Barbie, but with a very Barbie-esque figure, I’m starting to think that perhaps Judy Littlechap will be able to swap doll clothes with this new 13 inch Barbie.

My own birthday is right around the corner, in March, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one of my daughters got me a 13 inch Barbie for my birthday. If that’s the case, I’ll be letting everyone know whether or not these two can, indeed, swap clothes.

Meanwhile, if you have a doll that’s slightly bigger than or slightly smaller than more common dolls, you might want to look into my paid doll clothes design and alteration courses on Creative Spark!

I just came out with a new class in doll pants design. Learn more about it in the quick video below.

 

Are you worried you don’t have enough time for an online course? Well, for any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to follow a schedule. Just sign up when you’re ready.

It’s a one-time fee for the course, and there’s no specific time limit to finish your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. So go check out my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.

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