My favorite Cissette

This Cissette was not as much a project doll as some of the others in my collection. I didn't have to restyle her hair, and she didn't have any unsightly damage. On the contrary, her hair, face paint, and dress were virtually perfect from the day I won her on eBay.

One of the reasons this doll is my favorite is because of her dress. I like the cotton dress in light blue floral stripe, with its cute little rhinestone accents and light blue ribbon sash, better than any other Cissette dress I've seen. So even though the dress was the only thing she wore when I bought her, my goal was to eventually complete her.

And I have managed to do so. I was able to find a pair of original Cissette stockings from a local dealer at a doll show here in Denver. Through eBay, I found a seller who was able to supply me with a number of Cissette panties and slips — and of course, the best pair went on this doll. By getting her Cissette strappy sandals one at a time, I was able to get them for about $15 total — a real steal when it comes to these tiny, hard-to-find shoes.

Although the original owner of the doll said that the dress was original, it seems that might not be exactly true. The lovely ladies in the "JustCissette" Yahoo! group I belong to tell me that this is a boxed dress from 1961, which was sold in a number of different fabrics, and usually without a hat. Since my doll has the triple-stitched wig that dates her to 1957 or 1958, she actually predates the dress by several years.

Supposedly, all this information is contained in a Cissette reference book by Marjorie Merod. I will definitely have to look into adding it to my collection of doll reference books!