Pipos Cheshire commission completed!

 I was very excited to get a Pipos PI commission. I never get them anymore, and I miss doing them. That's how I started my commission business way back in 2010, on Den of Angels. I started with Pipos PI and then added Pipos Jr. PI. Through the years, I've done quite a few different sizes, and quite a few different styles. Then a few years ago, I pretty much quit doing BJD stuff. It was a mix of personal things going on, health issues and being burnt out as most of the work I had going on was for dolls that I had to adjust measurements for. And my Calico Critter store was really taking most of my focus. But, I began to miss doing BJD work, and I felt like doing only Critter stuff was making me lose out on some of the pattern making skills that I had worked so hard to develop, and honestly, some of my sewing skills. And I was. I had gotten pretty darn rusty at drafting patterns. I DO draft patterns for Critters, but most of my Critter work is just using the same pattern that I already made over and over again so I spare myself a lot of grief with not having to make a new pattern pretty much every time I sat down to work on a project. That is nice, but it does come at a cost. And the sewing for my basic Critter stuff is actually quite simple, very different than a lot of the BJD stuff that requires intricate work.

So, I decided to slowly get back into the BJD commission world. Its crazy how little work there is these days. Back when I began, there was always a list of projects people were looking to have made. I'm sure there is a myriad of reasons, and I can list a few, but I won't bother. It is what it is. I just kind of miss those early days.

This particular project that is actually the focus of this blog post - I got off on a tangent! - came from someone that I have done several commissions for through the years. In fact, she was asking for a second pair of pants like a pair that I had made for her about 10 years ago! I was so excited to work on this! Now, I no longer had my original pattern. And the shirt she was looking to have made was also a different style. But finally, a Pipos project! We worked out the details of fabrics, cost, etc, and I got started on it as soon as I could.

When I say I had gotten rusty at drafting patterns, this is the truth. I have gotten a lot of it back over the last year, but it still is taking me so much longer than it used to to get a pattern like I want it. I used to be FAST at making patterns. Like, lucky, lightening fast. And I used to churn out projects equally fast, for that reason. But these days, it takes me probably 5 times as long to complete anything. It bothers me, but all I can do is what I can do, and thankfully, my customers have always been super patient and kind about the turn around time. 

To get the pants how I wanted them, it took me about 3 or 4 rounds of pattern work, then test work. So, it took awhile. I love them now, though, and thankfully, so does my customer. The shirt was simpler to make. I showed her how it turned out, and she was happy with it. It was really cute and had the right look. But, the more I looked at it, the less happy that I was with it. I have been known to nitpick, and I was once again nitpicking, but to me it wasn't quite perfect. I can't send something that I am not 100% behind - my customers deserve my very best work -  so today I took an hour or so and took in the sides - turning it inside out and doing one side at a time, and then each side of the lining separately. Then I took in  another place here and there, and then - perfect! It looks exactly like I wanted it to. After that I was able to do the final top stitch around, and the hand work, such as sewing on buttons, snaps and the always awesome chains on the shirt! I also moved the second chain on the pants, since I sewed it on before I made the shirt, and you couldn't see that chain with the shirt. 

I'm completely happy with this outfit, my customer is completely happy with the outfit, and now I can send it out by the end of the week! This is being modeled by my lovely and adorable Pipos PI orange Star Cheshire. I think he wishes it was his....:D

Making Ghostface American Girl Doll Edition

 Sydney is my favorite - in some ways - of my 3 American Girl dolls. It's funny, because I originally wasn't too keen on the dolls, and got her (and her twin, who I gifted to a family member) on a late night spur of the moment the year that they came out. 

As soon as I opened her up, Sydney began to form. She's a very pretty doll. And I have a lot of fun with her personality. She is my football fan, loves horror and Halloween. Her best friends (aside from her twin, Amber) are my Woof pups - I can't remember the brand, but I got them from Walmart this Spring. They are soft, but jointed and posable upright pups. I did a "monster" glow up on 3 of them, and therefor, the WoofMunsters were born. So Syd hangs with her 4 Woofmunsters. 

The first year that I had her, I made her a Jason mask out of felt. I loved the way it turned, and Sydney lived in it for weeks, refusing to take it off. (That's Sydney for you.) While the Jason mask was cool, it was only the mask. I dreamed of making her a Ghost face costume, but it seemed pretty impossible.

The next year came and went, and I barely even put her Jason mask on her. Now this year, I actually managed to make Sydney the costume of her dreams! 

How this came into being was an odd path there. Here's how it came together: First off, I had bought a BJD skull head back in the Summer on Etsy. Well, a long story short, due to all the problems the seller was having with casting the head cap for the head, I ended up just getting a refund for the head. (I have no ill feelings for the seller - she is very nice, and the problems were just beyond her control.) So, this put me on the path of trying to sculpt my own bird skull head. That didn't turn out - I loved what I was doing, and it was actually turning out looking like I wanted, but unfortunately, I didn't get back to working on for about 3 weeks, and somehow in that amount of time, the darn thing molded, so in the trash it went.

This experience, though, gave me some confidence that I could actually do some sculpting. I have made plenty of polymer clay food in the past, but sculpting heads and faces isn't something I have much experience with, if any at all. Then, the next thing that led me to making Sydney's costume, was the antique doll broken eye. I'll do a blog post simply on this project later, but again, long story short, I bought some Hearty Air Dry clay because it adheres to glass. I didn't need much of it for the above mentioned project, which meant that I had a lot of clay left over to use for other things.

I got to thinking, hey, maybe I could sculpt the Ghostface mask for Sydney after all! The Hearty Clay is different from the regular paper clay type air dry clay, in the sense that it is light weight and also dries like foam. Not exactly like foam, but if you ever have used it, you'll see why I am comparing it to that. The problem here was finding the time to do it. I expected time to - as usual - get away from me, and I would once again find myself filing away this project for next Halloween. On Thursday night a few weeks ago, I decided if I wanted to do it, I might as well do it now. So I turned on what was left of the Thursday Night Football game, and got to work.

I used a floating wigless AG head that was rolling around here to be rehomed to sculpt it on. I covered the head in plastic wrap, and started slapping the clay on it. I got the basic shape to where I was fairly happy with it that first night. It probably took 2 hours, maybe? I let it dry and then tried to fill in any rough parts and fleshed out any of the features that I felt were lacking a day or 2 later. 

Then it sat in my room for a good while, maybe 2 weeks or so. The other night - again, during a football game (I think this one was a college game) I worked on sanding down the face to smooth it out, and trimming the excess around the edges. This clay doesn't sand down great. I did see that it was a little smoother, but not like I had planned on. Once I figured it was as good as it was going to get, I painted it. Filling in the black of the eyes, nose and mouth wasn't as simple as I expected it to be. I had to do it as neatly as possible, and naturally, I had a few spot to patch with the white paint. A day or 2 later, I painted the final layers. I had I tiny edge of the mouth that I needed to fill in, so on this last Sunday (yesterday, as of the time I am posting this blog) I touched that up, and then mod podged over it to seal the whole thing.

After the glue sealer was dry, I turned my attention to gluing the white felt on the inside of the mask to cushion it for my doll's face. That went simply enough, once I switched to a paint brush and mod podge. The squeeze bottle Aileen's Tacky glue wasn't holding. I am sure it was because I wasn't able to squeeze enough glue onto the mask, but there was no getting that lid off to just dip a brush into it. The mod podge did the trick. I first glued down the middle part, let it dry, the shaped around the inside of the mask with the felt, making the necessary cuts to get it to fit inside neatly within the curves of the mask. I let that dry overnight. 

Making her costume was simple, and it isn't done with much detail. I just laid Sydney out on the no sew cheap, low quality costume fabric, pinned the shape I wanted around her, leaving the neck hole to be cut later. After I cut the front and back out, I held it up to Sydney and cut the neck hole where I wanted it, keeping in mind that it could stretch and make the hole too wide if I wasn't careful. Thankfully, I got it how I wanted it, the first cut. Then, I cut a several inch line down the back so it could slip on over her clothes. I didn't cut it long enough at first, which resulted in unsightly pulls in the fabric at the neck line. Like I said, poor quality! But no big deal. It's a costume and she runs around in it. I lengthened the cut in the back, and it goes on and off easily.

Next, I made her long white gloves as I don't want this to stain her. I just pinned white knit around one arm and hand, pinned in where I wanted it, slipped it off, sewed it, then cut out the second one, using the first one as my pattern. I also secured a strip of white neck over her neck, just in case any of the costume fabric got against her.

With all that done, it just left me finishing the mask. I went back and forth and back and forth over how I wanted to finish the mask. I had planned to stitch elastic to the white felt on the inside of the mask to secure it to her head, and then just drape the black fabric over her head to create the hood effect of the Scream mask.

What I ended up doing was cutting a small close fitting hood out of white knit to secure it to her head by sewing the white knit onto the felt on the inside and trimming it down to the right size once it was sewn in. That probably doesn't make much sense, but it worked well. No elastic needed. That also gave me something to sew the  black hood onto, as i was regretting my decision to not glue it onto the mask, which I would have needed to have before I glued in the white felt, to keep the fabric away from Sydney's face. 

Now, her costume is complete, and I am so proud of it and of myself that I actually did it! It isn't perfect - there's flaws here and there, but I absolutely love what I did. I doubt I'll do much more of a photo shoot than these quick few pictures that I took when there was a pause in the rain this afternoon. But its done, and Sydney can live in it for the next few months, and she will be happy to do just that. 

Here's some of my progress photos of the project, from beginning to end.

I wish I had gotten pics of the mask before I started sanding it, but in the first photo, you can see the sanding process being under way. The third picture here is after the first round of paint, before the second and the sealer.

                                    

The story of Dolly - a tale of disappointment to happiness - the Journey of an old Effanbee doll

 It's a dramatic title, but it sure was a dramatic experience. You see, I found earlier this year on eBay, 2 dolls - 20" Mary Jane Effanbee dolls. 1 is what I have determined (and am open to be corrected. This is just through a great deal of online researching and asking questions in my Antique doll groups.) the 1921 Mary Jane. She is full composition, and the ad for her appeared in Sears and was the only one they sold with full composition, from what I've read. The other is what I believe - and has been confirmed by a fellow doll collector - to be the 1919 Mary Jane on a leather body. Someone had taken photos from their Effanbee book, showing a third version of Mary Jane. I thought it would be  neat to have all three, but didn't really pursue finding that last version of the doll. 

Earlier this week, when looking for a doll for a family member, I saw what I believed to be that third version of the Effanbee Mary Jane. She was advertised as being 20", and I got SO excited to have found her. She was only $52, so I hit that BIN quickly! 

While waiting for her to be shipped, and I had to wait until the end of the week for her to finally go out, I had planned out what I was going to name her. I found a spot for her on my doll shelf where she would be safe next to my other 2 Mary Janes. My collection of these somewhat hard to find dolls would be complete! I couldn't believe my luck.

Fast forward to when she arrived on Monday, and when I finally got to open the box, I noticed something just a little concerning. It was a much smaller box than I would have thought a 20" doll would be in. I then shrugged it off with the worry of how they had managed to contort her into fitting into the box. I've seen dolls shipped in this way. And then, when I opened that box and found a much smaller box inside....Well, my heart sank. What the heck???

So, then I opened the second box, and carefully tucked inside was a small 12" doll. Adorable, yes. But the third 20" Mary Jane she was not. To say that I was devastated was an understatement. It was crushing. I politely contacted the seller, taking pics of the doll with a measuring tape and a screen capture of their listing where their AI description listed it as 20." (I detest AI. And why now, all of a sudden, that this is the Go To way to list an item for so many is really frustrating. It reads so idiotically, and often isn't even correct.) 

I was very unhappy as I fixed dinner, waiting to hear back from the seller as I had asked if I could return the doll for a refund. I did hear back from the seller pretty quickly, and thankfully, this was a very sincere and nice seller, not going on the offensive. It was an honest mistake, but man, was it an upsetting one! I ended up agreeing to a partial refund and to keeping the doll. I admit, I was feeling  a little sorry for the doll. It wasn't her fault she was the wrong doll, and 1 I would otherwise never have actually bought! Silly, I know, but I am one of those people who imagines dolls and plushies having feelings a little too easily. 

And so now, I am asking my groups on FB what exactly this 12" little cloth body, jointed doll is with the composition shoulder head and arms/hands. I can't find ANYTHING like her anywhere. All I know is what materials she is made out of, and that she has Effanbee stamped on her. She definitely looks old. And her face looks SO much like the Mary Jane in the Effanbee book. But I am certain they didn't make her in 12."

***EDITED - my groups have concluded that she is a Baby Catherine from 1915-1918! Wow. I'm very excited!***

I've named her Dolly, and will find a place to safely place her on my doll shelf. Here are pics of her. She definitely needs a new dress. I have to carefully - CAREFULLY  - clean her, as she is composition and you can't get them wet. Her wig is mohair and has definitely seen better days. It's cute, though, and it fits her. I won't be replacing it. She did come in a dress that basically fits her, but I really do not like it. It's better than nothing though, so she will be safe in it until I can sew her something that is more her era. 

Summertime Sewing for the American Girl Dolls Part 1

 I've had a goal this year to slowly - or quickly, as time and energy permit - start to burn through some of my stash of fabrics. My dolls would be thrilled, as they are kind of like the shoemakers children - they never have any shoes, or clothes, in their case! I've tried to make myself not buy any more fabric until I use up a lot of what I already have. It is HARD. I love buying fabric. It's not really that I just want to buy something. Fabric shopping is an experience. It always smells so good around bolts of fresh clean fabric. There's so much inspiration being surrounded by bolts of fabric. And that's where my problem lies. I have many, many plans, and just not time to actually bring many of them to life!

Last year I had a goal to make all of my AG dolls Christmas dresses. That didn't really work out as I didn't give myself enough time to take much of a dent out of my goal. This year I plan to start much, much earlier. But not during the Summertime. No, no! Summer is the time to FINALLY get into my 4th of July fabrics. My fruity fabrics. Fabrics that just scream SUMMER before I can start to relish the soothing tones of Autumn. 

During the early part of the Summer, I used the Keepers Dolly Duds 1920's pattern to make 3 dresses. I made 2 in the blue floral - once for myself and one to give to a family plus one in purple and pink for the same family member. I adore Keepers patterns. These turned out looking so nice! They are not a quick sew - it can take a couple, or 3 - hours to complete one. But it is well worth the effort! I need to make one more for my other 1920s doll. I just need to pick the color scheme that I want for Eddie Mae. 

Next, I used this pattern - I believe from American Heritage - to use up the scraps of the purple and pink. Something went horribly wrong. I must have used the wrong pattern piece to cut the waistband as once I finished the dress and put it on the doll, it is 2 inches too narrow to fit the doll! This is why you should always have a model on hand while sewing. It's something that I know full well, but neglected to do. I know it isn't the pattern. I used it many years ago for several dresses and it turned out very nice. (I only lengthened the skirt 1/4" to roll the hem.) Unfortunately, I have zero fabric left. So I'll have to figure out how to fix it. But, I figure that is a job for a much later time. 

My next project was getting into my stash of 4th of July fabrics that I had bought a couple of years ago. No, most of this isn't historically accurate, but I do think the country look of it will make for fun outfits for my historical dolls. I didn't get very far into this particular project. I still have 2 prairie dresses to make as well as 3 or 4 colonial dresses. (Only 2 of the dresses will be for my own dolls.) Whether I get to them or not this Summer, we shall see. The remaining fabrics might go back into the stash for next year.

What I did do, was finally get into this wonderful red, white and blue stripe that DOES work perfectly for MaryEllen. I bought it several years ago and just hoarded it protectively, so it didn't get wasted on the wrong project. Instead of using any of the patterns that I bought - none were suiting me for MaryEllen's dress, I decided to just try making my own. I don't make my own patterns as often as I used to, and I'm truthfully out of practice sewing and drafting for AGs. Thankfully, it turned out great! The dress has 2 looks to it, and fits my doll's personality perfectly!

MaryEllen's dress is to blame for my abandoning the 4th of July project. Not only did I finish it on the 3rd (or 4th) but it set me on a 50's kick. I had other fabrics that I had been hoarding for my 50s dolls, just waiting for the perfect idea to come along. Since I made my 50's pattern that I was very happy with, I just decided to use that to make these beautiful lemon dresses for my dolls! 1 of the lemon fabrics I had had for awhile, and the other was a more recent purchase. (Earlier this year, I admit it.) I had forgotten that I already had lemon fabric on hand (it's so easy to do that!) and since I am a sucker for fruit fabrics, I bought a whole yard of it. I'm so glad that I did! This gave me the fun of designing 2 different lemon themed dresses for MaryEllen and my #61, Clara. When the weather turns less scorching, I will make a matching bolero jacket for each. 

And that left me with 1 more 50s MUST MAKE for the Summer. My strawberry and cherry gingham fabrics! I just adjusted that same 50's pattern that I used for the other dresses, and this time, I simply added short sleeves. I had a lot of fun adding the red ribbon to them, as well as the red buttons. Sometimes when a design comes together, it can be really exciting! The only thing that I wish that I had done for these, was to add a sash. I don't enjoy sewing them, but they do add a neat period correct detail. It isn't necessary, so I decided to save myself the trouble.

I do have a couple of other Summer friendly things that I would love to make for my 50s girls. I have some chicken fabric that I plan to make  into blouses with coordinating pedal pushers. And I have 1 more cherry print fabric that I should use for Clara, since she never got a dress when MaryEllen got her 4th of July dress. But, truly, these girls can wait for more clothes as I have other dolls in much more need of clothing!

Hopefully, I will have a Part 2 for Summertime Sewing for my dolls, but we will have to see!

Thrift store EPIC Treasure found! Antique doll find

  

I can't believe this happened to me. I dreamed about it for YEARS. But I never thought it would ACTUALLY happen! I first discovered the amazing world of French Bebes back in 2015. I obsessively looked at them. I would look at Theriaults Youtube videos, look at their auction site. Of course, none of it was anywhere near what I could afford. I found, at one point, the German dolls, which are much more affordable. But still, nothing that was anything that I could get back then, or the following while that I would dream and Google. I even looked into reproductions. They seemed far too expensive! 

Then, as time passed, I pretty much went off and put them out of my mind. I would occasionally still look at the dolls. I'd see the posts now and then of someone finding an antique doll at the Thrift store and dreamed about how amazing it would be to experience that.

And now, finally today, that person was ME! Now, granted, I didn't buy her for any exceptional steal. She wasn't $5. But happily enough, I just sold my Ruby Red collection and it has helped me pay for this. 

There is a booth in the back right hand corner of the Thrift Store that opened up maybe last year or possibly the year before that sells vintage dolls. The reason that I went in there today was to see if they still had any vintage (mostly mommy made, I'd imagine) style dresses for vintage dolls. I have my small collection of vintage dolls, and I thought it would be fun to see if they had any left so I could get them a couple of new things to wear.

And that's when I saw her. I first saw her bisque face. Then my eyes went down to her jointed wrists, then back to her face. Then I walked zombie style with my hand stretched out to see if she really was an antique doll. Her tag read "German bisque head, composition body, mohair wig." I looked at the back of her head and took a picture of the stamp. Then I checked out her body and saw that, yes, it was composition with wooden balls at the joints. She looked like she was in very good shape.

I sat on the floor - not something that I would normally do. It's not the cleanest place - and took pics of her to do what many people who are on facebook do - post on your groups to ask for any information to see if something is a good purchase or not. I figured that I would first go ahead and post my question to my composition group as her body is composition and I know that many collectors on there collect more than just composition dolls. Next, I posted it to the Antique Doll group that I just joined a couple of days ago. As luck would have it, that group sent my post to the admins for approval, which would inevitably take longer to get the information that I was hoping to get quickly.  I didn't get a response before I had to make a decision to buy her or leave her. I decided to just buy her. I figured, even if she turned out to be a reproduction, it was still a good price! Considering the wear and very real aged look to the body, the repro thing was unlikely, but I was kind of keeping myself guarded so I didn't come out of there thinking I got an antique doll only to find out that she is simply a reproduction. (I've seen that happen.)

Finally, after a short period of time, I did get some info - some from my own googling and some from helpful group members. She's made by Peter Scherf. The A.M. on her head stood for Armand Marseille, who cast the doll for Scherf (who started the company in 187- something and passed away in 1887.) I found out that she was made anywhere from 1900-1920, with one person saying specifically around 1900. She could be anywhere within those 2 decades of being made, and as much as I'd really love to know the exact date, I'll truly never know. What I do for certain, is that she is old and perfectly beautiful. And now the prize petunia of my doll collection! 

This doll is around 18" tall. Storing her is going to be interesting. I could get a display case for her, but I would still worry about a cat somehow managing to knock it off, even if its in a far back corner of my doll shelf. At this junction, I've decided that I am going to buy a trunk, pad it and line it in fabric, put ribbons in it and tie her to the inside of the trunk. I'll have to store this under my bed, but she will be very safe under there. That way I don't have to worry about her and I can get her out to "play" with her whenever I want. Thrift store EPIC Treasure found! Antique doll find

The big layaway has arrived! BJD order from DDE!

 This was the largest BJD order that I have ever put on layaway at one time. While you can't do layaways for a year like you can with BJDivas, if your layaway has a certain dollar value you can pick up to 9 months. That's what I did with this layaway. I ordered these dolls after I listed quite a few of my dolls for sale on DoA thinking I could easily pay this off once I crossed the difficult bridge of rehoming the dolls. My original plan was to just get 3 Fairyland Realpukis in grey skin (Toki, Obi and Soso.) But then I thought that it would work out better in the end if I added a couple more dolls to qualify for the 9 month layaway as it would put the monthly payments down to a reasonable amount to just pay off every month until I got that monetary boon from selling some stuff off. With that actually very good thought in mind, I added a Resinsoul WS Mei to my order and also the Doll Leaves Oscar that was on sale at the time. This gave me the amount I needed, so I submitted my order on a 9 month layaway.

Between selling a couple dolls and paying the monthly payments, I was finally able to get it out! I shouldn't really say "finally." I had grand plans of paying it off quicker than I did, but I was still able to pay it off a whole lot faster, considering that I put the layaway on in November. 

Here's the pics of the dolls that came:

This is the RS Mei in WS. I've named her Ligea. She doesn't as of yet have a wig or proper eyes, but I also have to figure out what I want for her to have. Her style is going to be what I have dubbed Vampire Rococo. Rococo in dark colors, maybe some aging to the fabrics if I can get it in my head how to age fabrics neatly. Her best friend is the young gentlemen in the picture below. 

This is Doll Leaves Oscar. I could have sworn that he was WS, but nope. NS. Which is fine, though all this time I had been picturing him in WS! Lol! I have one other Doll Leaves doll, Royal, who I got back in 2015 and named D'Arcy. Oscar here has a different updated body and it is much more stable and I'm pretty sure, much taller. I'll compare the two at tone point. He's likely to inherit Bonnie's old  (not so old - I got it for Xmas) wig that is a white blonde wavy wig. I think it'll suit him, though now I'm not so sure actually seeing him in person. He will also wear the Vampire Rococo style, which suits his expression perfectly. I still need to name him. Oh, sorry for the wonky eye pic. The eye came out during shipment, and it doesn't have enough eye putty for me to actually get it to stick back in the head. I think leaving it completely out of his head would have been a better option!

FL Realpuki grey skin Soso

FL Realpuki Grey skin Toki

FL Realpuki grey skin Obi

These 3 Realpukis complete the Realpuki family. I have 4 now of each sculpt! Some I bought myself, a couple were gifts. I bought the Obi here with the face up as that was the only option. I'm so cheap when it comes to buying a doll with the face up. I feel the same sense of regret as I did last year when I ordered my RPKs last year and they came with no face up. How on earth am I ever going to paint anything THAT SMALL???? I hope I didn't make a mistake. But it is what it is, and these poor guys are left up to my own struggling face up capabilities. They can just stay as is until I finely want to take on the challenge.

I haven't named all of my Realpukis and the names that I have come up with are tentative at best. My plan was to get them all home and then decide with them all together what to call them. I need to figure out what I want to do - do I want a theme for all of them? Do I want the Toki crew to have a theme, the Soso to have a theme and then the Obi crew to have a theme? Hmmmm.......I'm not sure! It'll be fun to figure it out and then figure out how I am going to dress them. I've only made a couple of things for them to wear at this point. 

Heidi's Valentine's Day Dress (American Girl Doll Kailey)

Since I tried my best to complete the AG Christmas Goal and make each doll her own dress for Christmas - I failed to complete it, spoiler - it was quite fun and I felt inspired to move ahead with my plans to make 4 of my AG dolls special Valentines Day dresses. This is a far less daunting task. Having only 4 to make is a whole lot easier to accomplish than Christmas dresses for nearly the whole crew 2 weeks before Christmas! I will finish the Christmas project. I'll just be picking at it through out the upcoming weeks when I have time to make more of them. It might not be the right season for Christmas dress making, but I love the holidays so much, tapping into the energies of them through out the year is pretty normal for me. :) 

I bought some Valentines tights from a seller on Etsy - DollSecrets, the place to go for holiday tights - and then I picked out some fabric at Joann's. I already had one piece of red heart fabric from previous years to use for one of my dolls, so I just needed 3. I had a vague idea of the tights that I ordered, so tried to keep them in mind when I picked out the fabric. It was a decent selection this year, considering. There wasn't a LOT to choose from, but I was happy to find 3 pretty fabrics for my dolls. I went ahead and grabbed the fabric for their Easter dresses while I was at it. I always wait too late to get the good stuff - and Easter doesn't exactly have lots to choose from any way. I'm delighted with what I got, but that'll be a project in the upcoming weeks. Let's get through Valentines Day first!

I normally enjoy making my own patterns, but lately I've just been buying patterns from Etsy. There are so many adorable patterns and talented pattern makers. It's nice to give myself a break on pattern making and just enjoy having to not think through how I am going to make every single thing for my dolls! I wasn't really sure what I wanted the style of dresses to be for these 4 Valentines dresses. But I finally found THE one. It's the Hyacinth dress from BuzzinBeas. 

When I went to town the other day, I went into the library to get the patterns printed up (I also bought a colonial and civil war era pattern from another shop.) It was a complete disaster in there and after a great deal of struggling and then leaving (my phone wasn't getting the email confirmation that it was actually me trying to sign into my email) but in the end, I was able to print them out. 

I've been really sick these last couple of weeks and therefor, I am a little worried that I won't get my girls their dresses made in time. I did manage to make Heidi's dress yesterday. The pattern is pretty simple and sews up nicely, so I finished it in a couple of hours. Today I really need to get some work done on Etsy orders and commissions, so I don't know how much time I can justify working on another V-Day dress, but we will see. I'm probably not up to doing a great deal of work today any way, but we will see. 

Here's how Heidi's dress turned out. I ADORE it. I did lengthen the skirt a 1/4" and I do wish I had lengthened it a full 1/2." I just don't like short skirts on my dolls. And I had to sew a placate in the back for it to close. Heidi isn't a fat PM, but she's thicker than some of the modern super skinny dolls. I'll probably have to do that with the rest of the dresses I am making as I don't think any of my girls is super skinny. No biggie. I'm just glad that I know how to do that. 

I will say that the dress doesn't exactly go with the tights. It's really no surprise since I didn't wait until the tights came to purchase my fabric. But it's okay. It's Valentine's, after all! I doubt any of the tights that I bought will go perfectly with my fabrics. 

Bonnie's 1920s look

I planned this project out based on the monthly Project Journal on Den of Angels. I always want to do these, I have tried to do these a couple of times, and usually I have no time to actually do it. This month, being December, coincided with free time due to the holidays, so I felt that there was perhaps a shot in the dark that I could actually complete a challenge!

The theme of this challenge was "Pick a Decade." I remember back in 2012 doing this one for a 1930's themed dress for Honeysuckle, my Pipos PI Baha. I did finish that project, but I sadly no longer have that dress. 

For Bonnie's 1920s ensemble, I wanted her to have a dress, undergarments, stockings and of course, a cloche hat! I found inspiration pics on Pinterest and put together a mood board for her. First things first, i worked on her undergarments. I made these on the first weekend in December, on a Sunday while watching whatever game was on the local stations we get. (Which could have been a good game or a lousy one.) I had wanted to really capture the straight clean lines of 1920s, but, it didn't really work with Bonnie's figure very well. It had to fit her right, and so in doing so, I had to compromise just a little with the 1920s form of the undergarments. I still like very much how they turned out.

I think I should have used a wider ribbon for her shoulder straps, but that's a rather minor details. One I just might change at one point though....I think they turned out adorable! It was cute enough that I didn't really mind her spending so much time hanging out on the shelf in them. 

Fast forward to the very end of them month....I wanted to at least do her dress before the Project Journal for the month ended. I went through more than one fabric option. I had wanted blue at first. Then I thought, maybe a plaid. And then I settled on this red print that I bought for another project and had some of the fabric left over. It looked somewhat 20-ish, so I thought it was a good fit! I picked out one of the dresses from the Mood Board on Pinterest that fit the fabric and also looked the simplest to make. At this point, I really wasn't wanting to take on anything complicated.

I also didn't bother to take the time to do a test run of the pattern pieces I drafted to make sure they fit. I just cut the fabric and hoped for the best! Thankfully, it actually turned out pretty well! There are things I would maybe tweak a little here or there, but for the effort I put into it, I'm pretty happy. I took the entire afternoon and slooooowly hand sewed it. Like snail pace hand sewing. It wasn't a very good day to work on a project, honestly. I wasn't really feeling good, thus the hand sewing. I could just lounge on the couch and pick at the sewing while watching College Bowl games. Which is how I have spent a lot of time during the holiday!

I at first hand sewed a narrower belt than what I ended up re-doing today on the machine. I had whip stitched the first one and it wasn't neat enough, so it bugged me. The machine sewn wider belt suits the dress much better. I might add a button to the decorative ribbon tie at her throat - it seems a little unfinished there. 

Bonnie's stockings are pretty much simple, thrown together thigh highs. Stockings are never a favorite thing of mine to make. I'll do it, but I don't have it down to the amazing art that other people have done. 

Bonnie's hat, I am pretty darn happy with! I made the pattern pretty quickly and decided how I wanted to do the brim after looking at patterns for making cloche hats from the 20s. (Thank you, Pinterest!) I had to take it in the back just a little bit, which was easy to do neatly and you really can't tell that I had to do that at all unless you look in the inside. I added the brown buttons today. :)

The only thing Bonnie needs now is a much more 20s appropriate pair of shoes. I've found some on eBay, and of course, they are not cheap. Eventually though I think they would be worth the price. I'll just get some that would work for a span of decades. I plan to keep Bonnie vintage, but she doesn't need to be strictly historical. She's a fairy after all, who just happens to love human clothes from the 19 teens through the 1950's. :) I can even mix the decades and throw in some modern pieces, too! She's going to be great fun to dress. Next, I need to give some of my other minis some love so they don't feel bad compared to Bonnie who has quickly earned her place as a favorite!

The Christmas Dress Challenge

 Since I've finished up my Etsy orders for the year, this frees up a lot of time that I can now spend on sewing for my own poor neglected dollies. I still have BJD commissions to work on, and I will focus on them along side my sewing challenge. This is a flexible challenge. I don't expect to actually sew a dress for my dolls each day. I'd like to, but I know how life goes, so there will inevitably be days where I'm not able to work on it. So if I do not meet my goal, its okay!

THE GOAL. *rubs hands together excitedly* I would love to make every one of my AG dolls their own Christmas dress! I've wanted to do this for so long. I'd also like to make each one of my vintage dolls a Christmas dress. This makes the challenge harder and less likely to complete, so I will at one point have to weigh priorities to see who wins out in getting a dress made.

 WHO NEEDS DRESSES. Thankfully, a few of my 20 AG dolls do already have a dress or don't need/want a dress. Sydney (Nicki Hoffman) wouldn't be caught dead in one. Myrtle and Elsie (30s) have their dresses that I made a few years ago, as well as Clara (50s.) And I also hand sewed Georgette's (Caroline) dress a few weeks ago while watching football on a Sunday. So that's 5 dresses down! Here's who's left:

AGs:

1.Delphine (Caroline #2)

2. Felicity

3.Elizabeth

4. Gretchen (Kirsten)

5. Victoria (Samantha)

6. Mary Ellen

7. Ginger (Rebecca 40s)

8. Doris (Blaire 40s)

9. Aggie Mae (RW Lindsey 20s)

10. Eddie Mae (RW 20s)

11. Lucinda (#27 modern)

12. Marli (Kailey modern)

13. Summer (Chrissa modern)

14. Lindsey (modern)

15. Lori (Kira modern)

Vintage dolls:

1. Esther (17" Saucy Walker brunette)

2. Hester (17" Saucy Walker red head)

3. Blanche (17" Mary Jane)

4. Meredith (18" Miss revlon type)

5. Joan (18" compo unmarked)

6. Edith (17" compo unknown)

7. Marilyn (18" MA Wendy Anne)

It's a daunting list, so my Vintage dolls will likely not end up getting their dresses by Christmas. Which is okay as I will be less likely to want to change them out of Christmas dresses than my AGs, which means its okay if they get them after the holiday is officially over. 

I needed to get more fabric - ha ha, imagine that. I do have a box of Christmas fabric out in the storage building. Unfortunately it still needs to be brought in and washed after the mouse invasion. I figured if I kept waiting for that to happen, it'd be February by the time that actually happened. Joann's was having a 60% sale on their holiday fabrics, so I was able to go in there and get most of what I needed. I don't believe I have enough for the vintage dolls. That's okay! Excluded in my fabric pics below is the one for Delphine, as it's already cut out and awaiting sewing. :)

Normally, in years past, I would be drafted my own patterns for all of my dolls. This year, I'd rather buy a dress pattern designed by someone else (of which there are many, many wonderful patterns) which will make doing this so much easier. I have been buying patterns on Etsy off and on all year. I've printed up the Pleasant Company patterns (free downloads on agplaythings.com) One or 2 might be my own designs, but I need to just keep this as simple as possible. For my vintage dolls, I was able to find some vintage patterns to download on Etsy for my 17" walker dolls and my Miss Revlon type doll. It was harder to find these than I would have originally thought. It's so hard to find things on the Etsy search engine these days, so I know these patterns were there all along, but I finally found some over the last couple of weeks. I got them printed up yesterday at the library yesterday. So I should be all ready to go! 

Last night I already got started on the project and so it was technically Day 1. But I hadn't done the introduction to my Challenge post yet, so I wanted to get this one posted before I got into any of  the finished dresses. 

Garden Prep 2024 - the plans and some things done

 I've been very excited to get to gardening time. I learned a LOT last year - one of which was the differences between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes. Sure, I heard the term when I started watching youtube videos on growing tips. But this was AFTER I had bought and planted all of my tomato plants. I had no idea the growth heights indeterminate tomatoes could go to - I mean really, my garden last year was a mass of tomato jungle! So this year it was no decision - I was going to get determinates and save myself the headache of building 7 foot trellises. 

So in order to get the kinds of tomatoes I was looking for, I needed to strike pretty quickly and get the tomatoes when they were available. While I was waiting in anticipation for nurseries to put out any tomato that wasn't indeterminate, I starting getting my garden area prepped and ready for the tomatoes.

This wasn't a simple task. Last year, I built a cinder block "box" area with the intention of doing raised garden beds for my strawberries. It didn't happen. Instead, I simply lined my strawberries in their pots within the boundaries of this box. This year, I wasn't sure if I wanted to fool with strawberries again, being that last year's strawberry output was a little disappointing. But in the end, I figured I'd give it one more go, and fix up the patch like I wanted.

What I have is a low garden bed that is in between a bed and inground. This year, I added fresh soil and compost, put the strawberries in ground and mulched around each plant in the hopes of avoiding berry rot from the growing berries being on the wet ground. It really looks great. And so far, I've seen all but 2 of my plants growing strawberries.

Next, I went over and over and OVER my plans for the main garden area. It's not really very large - pretty much only 10 X 10 or so. Last year I had a mix of peppers and tomatoes. The peppers were started too late - in June, so we only had one decent harvest. I figured this year, I didn't want to hassle with them, even though I was going to be planting much earlier this year. I rechecked the correct spacing between tomato plants and decided that I would just fill the space with tomatoes. And after much, much driving myself crazy with research, plant garlic and basil between the rows of tomatoes. 

Getting the main garden patch prepped was actually pretty easy. I added more soil and fresh compost and used my cultivator to turn it under and voila! It was ready to go. As of last week, all the tomatoes are in the ground and have already grown a little bit since I planted them. I hope using my smaller regular tomato cages are going to be okay with my mostly Roma determinates. I need to get a few more cages and we are all set. 

I haven't yet planted the garlic. I've researched how you prep your seed bulbs and it's on the docket to do very soon. The basil is a tale for another post!

I had planned to build boxes with untreated wood and sealed with linseed oil for the squash. In the end, I wasn't able to get them built in time, and just have reused the containers from last year. They worked great - it was my support for each plant that was a disaster! This year I will build trellises, but that is still an upcoming project. 

The squash was a little stressful. Admittedly, I got mine in June last year, so I would imagine that I started my search a little early. I still had time - and in face still have time - to start from seeds, but I'd rather not. After more than one failed town trip and quite a few nurseries coming out empty handed, I found what I needed at Menards, of all places! So this year I am doing 3 of those, 1 zucchini, 1 cucumber and 1 pickling cucumber. The cucs I have yet to figure out where I am putting them, but I do know  they will be in containers.

I'd like to grow some pumpkins. I discovered they can be done with a trellis, if you go with a smaller pumpkin. I got some seeds for the sugar pumpkin. Which is ideal, as my plan is really to eat them. I hope I can build a box for them, we will just have to see. I need to get something figured out pretty quickly as I need to start the seeds.

Another thing I am trying this year is lettuce. Right now, my plants are all in pots and doing well. For how long, I'll find out! I've had them for at least 2 weeks, maybe a little longer. I'm planning on doing carrots, and I need to sow those seeds pretty quickly. 

My plan of doing green beans is pretty much out at this point. I bought 4 snap pea plants, and now they are taking the spot where I was going to put the pole beans. I'm still not ready to give up on the beans, but I should probably just accept the defeat and move on.

I do plan to do potatoes. I need to prep the seed potatoes and get them started. I'm going to try the container method and hope for the best.

Annd, I went just a little crazy with the herbs this year! I got things I hadn't tried before and we will see how well they do. I already mentioned that I would do a specific basil post - maybe I'll post about the different experience with the herbs. I have a lot more garden talk to blog about - I'm just kind of doing a quick recap. I regret not blogging about each step of the way instead of just posting it on facebook. Blogging can be a fun "journal" sort of experience, much more in depth than facebook can be!

Calico Critter - How to Change out the Eyes Tutorial

 Ever wanted to customize your Critter with new eyes? Here's how I changed out mine! I am NOT the creator of this concept - I discovered it and figured out my own system of doing it, with the tools that I had one hand. There is another customizer's video that you can watch on Youtube - just type in custom Calico Critter and you will see her complete customization of a Critter, with painting, sculpting, etc. It's quite cool. Since I am only interested with this project of changing eyes, I will explain how I did it. First things first - 

Tools 

*Aleene's Tacky Glue - other glues might work, but I can't say for sure.

*Pins with 4mm heads. If in doubt, take a Critter with you to compare. These are just a smidge smaller than the Critter eyes, but the best I found for both Adult and Child size. Babies need a smaller size.

*Wire Cutters

*Pliers - or I'll show you how I just used my wire cutters

*3mm Half round chisel - here's a link where you can buy just a single chisel

*Small phillips screwdriver or something comparable 

Step 1:

First step is to remove the eyes from your Critter. Take your chisel and wedge it carefully under the eye. Be careful not to come on too heavy handed - your don't want the tool to slip and mar your Critter's flocking. I did that. Once you get it under the edge of the eye, wiggle it a bit and the eye will pop off. It will soar and you will likely not find the cut off piece for awhile. 

Step 2:

That was easy enough! Now you are left with the posts still stuck in the eye socket. It'll look  like this:

It's a little unnerving at this point. :P What you need to do now, is to take your small phillips screwdriver or something comparable to push the post into the head. Do not use something that is wider than the eye socket or you will run the risk of causing it some damage. I don't know what else you can use, but this tool is what I used. It's a screw driver set for miniatures that had different heads on it. I used the star tip, but any round head will work. 

This is how it looks once the posts are pushed into the head. Note: I didn't care enough to take the head off to remove the posts as the rattling doesn't bother me. If it will you, now is the time to take the Critter's head off after softening the plastic with a blow dryer (be careful not to overheat and melt the glue holding the flocking on) and then pop it back on in the same manner. 

Step 3:

Before we continue, let me show you the size comparison between the pin head and the original Critter eyes. You can see the pin is probably a mm smaller. It doesn't matter. 

Now that the eyes are cleanly removed, we will prep the pins! First, take your pin. You want to bend the post down. So do this with either pliers, or if you only have wire cutters, you can still do this. There is usually a tiny little spot at the bottom of your blades where they won't cut. 

Next, you need to cut the post down. Here's a tip: You need to hold onto the post that you are going to cut off, otherwise it will fly into No Man's Land to become a potential hazard. I had a hard time trying to take a picture of exactly how I held it, but I held both the part I was cutting and also the pin head to also keep that from flying off. You just need to be super careful with the sharp end. 

 You want to cut off about half the post. If you cut off more, that okay too, you just want to leave enough of the bent part to help it stay in the head better. Test it in your Critter head to make sure it is short enough not to push the eye back out. Next step, gluing in the eye!

Step 4:

Take your glue and carefully fill in the eye socket. This is where you need to be careful to not overfill the eye. If you do (and I did it) the glue will seep out around the new eye and possibly get on the flocking. You don't wan this, but if it does happen, take your finger nail and carefully scrape off the extra glue. If you catch your over filling mistake before you push in the new eye, simply take a paper towel, roll it very thin and carefully dip it into the overfilled hole until its down to a better level. 

Step 5:

Now it's time to put in the new eye! Carefully and gently push the eye into place. You want to make sure it's in solid and doesn't slide out but don't push it too hard where it sinks back into the head. 

Now repeat that step until you are done! Here's my whole redone Marshmellow Mouse Family.