Sasha Doll Festival 2024: Recreating The Secret Garden in Miniature

The story behind this 2024 Sasha Doll Festival display is as personal as the garden is carefully made: a childhood favourite, translated into three dolls and a miniature English scene. For the Dress a Sasha event, the creator chose Mary, Dickon and Colin from The Secret Garden, drawing on the 1975 BBC adaptation and a book her grandparents sent her in 1978.

Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel had opened a window on India and northern England for a child growing up in the sunny southern hemisphere. Its tale of three young people finding healing and renewal in a garden stayed with her. As an adult, she watched the television series and decided to recreate the young characters’ outfits, along with details that anchor the scene: Mary’s robin, Dickon’s fox, and roses associated with Colin’s late mother.

Three dolls, three distinct looks

The competition rules allowed up to three dolls, so each character needed a costume that suggested the period while making use of materials already at hand. Mary wears a shirt made from a striped work shirt the maker had kept from years earlier. Brown fabric became her dress, with a petticoat edged in cotton lace. A Sasha hat, finished with a broad apricot-peach satin ribbon left over from the maker’s wedding, completes the outfit.

Mary’s long boots were Ruth Hartley boots previously used for the maker’s 2012 “Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross” Dress a Sasha entry. The BBC version shows Mary in ankle boots, but the longer pair still suited the display. The doll chosen for Mary was Miranda, a blond Sasha with a green dress.

Dickon’s clothes combine beige cotton for his shirt with brown fabric for a waistcoat. The maker would have preferred brown leather for the waistcoat, but had no suitable piece; a vintage button helped suggest the look. Yorkshire tweed, purchased for the project, became his knickerbockers. Elastic threaded through their lower edges makes them cling to the legs and also helps the outfit sit around the doll stand pole.

Black lace-up ankle boots were commissioned from Ruth Hartley for Dickon. The maker’s own pair had gone missing during the project, then turned up after the new boots arrived. For his hair, an auburn Bebe wig went over the doll’s own hair. It wasn’t long enough for the intended style, so the maker tousled the wig instead of curling it.

Colin’s costume evokes the black velvet appearance of the television outfit through black cotton with a subtle geometric pattern. The fabric gives him the air of a pampered, privileged boy, while handmade cotton lace at the collar and cuffs echoes Mary’s petticoat trim. Long white socks and original Gregor black slip-on shoes were already in the collection. A brown Bebe wig, purchased for the project, supplies the longer hair. Both Nicholas James, used as Colin, and Timothy, used as Dickon, had the right hair colour for their characters, but their hair was too short for the period styles.

Building the garden

The setting began with backdrop boards screwed together, thick card cut for the back and side walls and the base, and paintwork inspired by the garden walls in the television version. Green felt covered the base and the two doll stands; the same felt had served in the maker’s 2012 entry.

Small pots found at a local Oxfam were repainted to resemble grey stone, complete with a marbled finish. The technique came from an earlier school production of Annie, for which the maker painted a marble staircase and the Venus de Milo. One repainted pot had originally been Wedgwood.

For climbing and bush roses, pyracantha twigs gathered from the maker’s garden formed the structure, bound with dark green raffia. Miniature paper roses, made from recycled paper and purchased from Papertree, were wired onto the branches. Green tissue paper suggests leaves, while grit from Odells, a local ironmonger and general shop, weighs down the pots and holds the arrangements upright.

The scene’s small animal figures carry their own touches of improvisation. A needle-felted fox, originally made as a Christmas tree decoration, represents Dickon’s companion. Mary’s needle-felted robin arrived without legs. The maker bent a black hook from a sewing-box hook-and-eye set into shape, then stitched it to the bird’s belly so it could perch on the spade.

That spade was assembled from a bamboo chopstick, thick card and a cable tie, with glue and green raffia securing the pieces before painting. The robin’s hook-shaped legs catch on its handle. The idea came together in the final days before the festival, as did Colin’s trowel, cut from a chopstick and thick card, bent, glued and painted.

Colin tends tulips brought home from a 2018 trip to Amsterdam and Delft. Their original pot sits inside a miniature terracotta one, beside a rose arranged in a larger terracotta pot. Together with the fox, robin, roses and hand-built tools, the flowers complete a scene that ties the three characters to the garden that changed their story.

A childhood favourite, made tangible

The display was presented with the maker’s book and a DVD of the 1975 production, alongside an information card explaining the inspiration. The finished arrangement brings together reused fabric, vintage doll accessories, found objects and small handmade details. For the maker, the pleasure was in revisiting a story loved since childhood and giving its characters a place to meet again.

1975 BBC production DVD, back cover of the maker’s copy of The Secret Garden, and the entry information card.

Front cover of the maker’s copy of The Secret Garden and the 1975 BBC production DVD.

The Secret Garden Dress a Sasha display with book and DVD, ready for the Sasha Doll Festival.

Side view of Mary’s hat and its added satin ribbon.

Dickon and Colin.

Colin with his trowel and tulips.

Colin with tulips and roses representing his late mother’s flowers.

Close view of the handmade trowel.

View down onto the climbing roses and wall, with Mary and Dickon.

Close-up of the robin perched on the spade handle.

The robin perched on the spade beside Mary.

Mary and Dickon with the robin, roses and fox.

The fox, Dickon and Colin.

Roses and tulips in their pots.

Roses and the fox.

The Secret Garden Dress a Sasha display ready for the Sasha Doll Festival.

Read about the maker’s 2018 trip to Amsterdam and Delft.