American Girl in the big city

So... I went to the Los Angeles American Girl Place store at the Grove this weekend. The last time I went was about a year ago... and for good reason. The store itself is awesome, it's huge and fun and I feel like a kid when I go inside (and get lots of weird looks from the people who run the store- I swear the lady who rung me up was the same one who did a year ago and she was equally as weirded out with me then and she was now), but the drive to it was horrible. LA drivers are the worst drivers, we almost got hit so many times I lost count... and it's funny, I felt a lot less safe in the good neighborhoods than the less good ones we had to go through- it seems insurance and fancy cars make people not care if they get hit. And the parking... goodness the parking at the Grove was terrible. It took us half an hour to find a space, but we were safe and did get to go.

The store itself was magic. I love seeing the dolls in person and I HAD to go to the store to look at the girls in person- the pictures American Girl posts of how bright their eyes are really are deceiving. And I now know which doll I want next (which will be some time next year- going to say it here so I don't forget, the My American Girl #19). I didn't take any photos inside the store because I didn't want to appear like a total creeper, but I wish I could have. The store itself was decked out for Christmas already (which worked for me because I wanted to visit in Christmas and knew I wouldn't get the chance again this year). I picked up a new brush, the special Holiday store only outfit, Kit's lunch pail...

and Miss McKenna.

I wasn't going to get her, but then I remembered how much I regretted not getting Kanani last year when I had the chance... I decided not to regret it again (especially because from what I've seen of the 2013 GOTY, I'm not in love ). I am really loving the quality of the doll, she's my first not second-hand AG and I am glad to welcome her to the fold... although no more dolls for a long, long time, at the very least this is the last girl for 2012.

Target is having a great sale on the Our Generation outfits, I picked this one up for only nine bucks. Very pleased with that considering it even comes with tights and shoes.

Hope everyone has a great Veteran's day today!

Happy Halloween!

 

Bee Frankie wishes you all a happy Halloween (and wishes me death for putting that on him).

So... why haven't I posted in a while...? Mainly because I've been sick and sleeping a lot. I swear, I'm getting a new cootie as soon as I get over the last one. :( The other reason is that a lot of my doll projects as of late have just failed badly. It's discoursing to say the least.  I have a Springfield girl I'm working on repainting and possibility re-rooting, but the idea kind of scares me... has anyone re-rooted a doll this big? I've rerooted Blythe dolls in the past, but their scalps come off... these dolls don't. I COULD try to remove the scalp... but that sounds like trouble...

I hope all of you are having a great Halloween... and if Sandy came your way, I hope you are safe from the storm!

New outfit

Grainy Instagram 2am photo time!

Not too crazy with the stitching on the striped shirt, but outfit accomplished. Feeling all kinds of sick, good night!

American Girl Rehab

I've had this fixer upper American Girl for quite some time now... over a year. And barely now am I doing anything with her. I think if anything I was afraid to.

Here's her "before"

 

And trust me, this is after quite a lot of work was done to her... she once had a yellow tipped nose (in the end I had to just sand it off- you can't really tell in photos, thank goodness) and she has a brand new wig (her previous one was cut in a bob that wasn't working in any way :|).

My main focus on the make over was her makeup. Her upper lip was more or less gone. I applied acrylic paint that didn't 100% match her old look, but then that was greatly faded as it was and not a good benchmark. I also applied some chalk pastel blush (that is not and won't be sealed... I'm having/ have dealt with sealant and vinyl in the past and have had too man bad experiences with the stuff to ever want to risk it again).

 

Hmm... should the inside of her mouth be painted darker or not at all? The color looks too opaque and  pink... I think if I ever try it again, I'll have to get more supplies to help with thinning the paint. But all in all, I think she came out ok.

Eeep- long time no post!

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates- I've been spending a lot of time sleeping off this Fall sickness of mine... I haven't had too much time to play with my girls. I did finally make some clothes for my fixer-upper American Girls (and got them rewigged thanks to The Doll Makers tonight).  Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon as I'm finally getting back my energy. I hope to have a real update some time this weekend, as long as Pokemon TCG events don't get in the way!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Doll Project a day Challenge Day Seven Complete

Looks like the week is over and so is this challenge! It was a lot of fun, but I think next time I need to plan out projects beforehand, and make sure they are easy enough not to take up a chunk of my day (as much as I love sewing, it takes up a bit of my time). 

I'm thinking of a challenge that I'll have a week to finish...  this week's challenge will be "Best Dollar Store Fairy Ever" ...and by "ever" I actually mean "in this apartment". I'll do another post about this later on.

Here's day seven's project:

I made a doll photo shoot room!

The lacy floor trim came from Michale's (as did the drawer, which I got with a 40% off coupon :D). I painted them both in white. The walls are just a large moving box that we had laying around. I cut in half (so it folds away nicely) and painted it with some turquoise that seems to photograph nicely (or nicely enough for now... I still need to work on lighting ><). The flag garland is just paper (with orange sharpie lines)  hot glued to string. All in all I think it came out nicely- or at least better than the last attempt (that you can see in some of the previous photos).

Mariah got a new wig and glasses... although because of the wig, they always look crooked on her. :|

...and I just wanted to show Madison again. She seems to get along best with Maurice the cat. :3


If anyone wants to try this challenge, let me know... I might make some sort of site badge. ^_^ Thank you all for checking this out, I hope you enjoyed it!

Doll Project a day Challenge Day Six Complete

Ok, technically I finished this piece at 2am the next day, but given the fact that I made shoes from a pattern for the first time and they almost worked, I'm going to cut myself a little slack. :P

Today's project ended up becoming tomorrow's project when Madison showed up in the mail today. I usually don't like to order these dolls online if I can help it, but Madison seems to be not stocked at any of my local stores, so I had to order her... unfortunately she came with oily skin (not as bad as the last Maria I got, but it's still a little noticeable) and the areas around her eyes were not properly cleaned of the oil (which I need to get the guts to fix later on), but I'm still very happy with her.

Anyway, onto today's project... I made a four piece outfit including a shirt, pants, shoes and headband.

With every time I work with these patterns I get a little better. I suppose practice really does make perfect (although I'm a long way from perfect).

The shoe pattern is from Liberty Jane and meant for an American Girl and it really shows. >< I ended up adding the strap to the shoes to hold it on better. I'm still really happy with the results, especially for my first time using the pattern.

One day left to go! I hope I can make it! :D

Doll Project a day Challenge Day Five Complete

Day five had a lot less sewing and a lot more glue gun. That made it a lot easier to work on, at the very least.

I present you with... the great and powerful Trixie!

All I really did was make the hat and her little cape... it didn't come out perfect, but the person I made it for seems happy enough with her, so that's what matters. ^_^

Only two days left to go!

Doll Project a day Challenge Day Four Complete

...yeah, day four's project did not go so well. The pattern I used was one I modified from one for an MSD BJD. Its a pattern I've used for years and feel comfortable with, but I didn't do a good job scaling it.

I intend to cut down the tulle underskirt (which was meant for a witch Halloween costume, but then my cat Buttons decided it would make a great snack, so I decided to use it while I still had any left of it).

The morale to this story is this: just use premade patterns, there are tons out there for a decent price. Ah well.. I didn't really have enough of this material to make anything half decent any way. At least I got it 50% off as a remnant.

So I'm thinking today's challenge should stay away from sewing. XD

Doll Project a day Challenge Day Three Complete

Today I finished up something that I've been wanting to make all week: Miss Maggie's Undies and Tankini pattern! 

I found the pattern really easy to work with (although I had to have my husband explain how the elastic part was done because when it comes to elastic my brain glazes over and I can't read. Fortunately I was able to sew it by myself). The same kind of brain glazing happens every time Terrakion comes into play when I play Pokemon TCG, but thats neither here or there...

And here it is! Sorry for it being only one photo, all the other ones came out blurry. I also made Emma Jean a matching headband.

Hope your Wednesday was a good one!

Doll Project a day Challenge Day Two Complete

Since I had a lot of non-doll things to do today, I went for a super easy doll project today...

A 18" sized kitty litter tray.

The litter pan is actually a mini pan for baking loafs in that I got on sale at Michales. From there all I had to do was add some shredded paper as the litter and of course add the kitty.

It was super easy to do and will add a lot of charm to any doll sized room (or perhaps it'll just add a bit of kitsch).

Doll Project a day Challenge Day One Complete

It was a long time coming...

But I finished her last night.

Note to self: pick smaller projects, especially for day one.

Doll Project a day Challenge Day One

I'm sure this exsists already, but I've decided this week to do a Doll Project a day Challage!

The rules are this:

Complete a doll project, big or small, once a day. It must be started and finished within 24 hours. Doll project can be anything doll related, as long as you have some hand in it's creation. Creations will be posted the day after it's finished (example: Monday's doll will be posted on Tuesday, but it has to be done before Tuesday).

Hope that's simple enough! I've already started on today:

Anyone interested in joining in? If so I'll link to your blog on these posts! Good luck everyone and have fun!

Win a Springfield Collection Flip Chair!

Hey everyone! Doll Diaries is giving away a Springfield Collection Flip Chair!

Click here to go to the site and see how  to enter!

Personally, I'm thinking I might just pick up one of these this weekend anyway, it'll go nicely with the bed I made yesterday!

Thursday Doll craft

Today I decided to make the 18 inch doll bed My Froggy Stuff made a tutorial for. I actually had everything needed for it on hand, which is great because usually when I do one of these projects it ends up costing more than if I had just gotten whatever it is from the store. Although I did run out of duct tape at one point (fortunately I had a enough of a different color to finish the project and cover up the stuff I did with the old color).

 

I pretty much followed the instructions from the video I linked to above, only I ended up needing three cereal boxes for the mattress, and I added a plush headboard instead of a paper one.

I made the indention with a stapler and hot glued felt on top of them... I'm not sure how long it'll hold, but hopefully it will.

They also came out crooked. >< That's what happens when I go off the beaten path...

Here's how it looks done (without the trim I later added to the headboard).

 

 

Goodnight!

Mariah's new outfit

Today I would like to introduce you to Mariah, my first Springfield girl.

Shes about a year old and was originally a Maria (I think... it was a while ago and as she's wigged and I redid her makeup, I'm not 100% sure). I was on a real customizing spree at the time, which is why I did all that to her. She was wearing a brown wig with bangs up until recently, when I realized this Volks wig fit her perfectly... I'll have to keep this in mind in case I ever luck out and find one of these girls used for a good price (and their hair is unsaveable).

I have to admit, shes my little mini-me, I'm glad she was my first girl (even if it took me so long to finally get one!). Your never too old for dolls, as the saying goes. I think I want to try and add more blush to her face and maybe redo her lips (as I think they are too light and the top is crooked ><). But all in all I really love her! People really don't give these dolls enough credit for their cuteness.

I recently made Mariah an outfit out of a shirt and jeans of mine that were not even worth giving to the Salvation Army... but the pieces I salvaged came out ok!

 

Both patterns came from Liberty Jane,  they were the trendy top pattern and the leggings pattern (that for some reason always looks a little baggy... maybe I need to adjust my printer settings).

Here is how it looks on my girl:

The bow looks better on the shirt when it's laying down, which is kind of a shame, but ah well...

I even tried my hand at making her some sandals out of felt and foam. I've been wanting to try to make doll shoes for years now and I barely tried them now... I just sort of winged it, but next time I will try it with a pattern.

Thank you for reading!

Springfield Collection Dolls: Get out your clicker finger . . .

 Reblogging this because this is such a sweet cause!


Springfield Collection Dolls: Get out your clicker finger . . .: I received this email from Sharry earlier in the week and meant to share these videos yesterday, but as usual, life gets in the way. These a...

Dolls of the LA County Fair 2012

So I had said my next post would be about my first Springfield  Collection girl, but earlier in the
day I remembered I had taken some photos of 18" vinyl dolls that were at the LA County Fair. American Girl had a display in the kid's section and a few children entered doll related crafts that were displayed on dolls. Unfortunately I flat out forgot to take photos of the outfits the adults made for the dolls (which is a real shame because they were impressive).

Please enjoy the photos I did remember to take, hopefully I'll  recall (or even learn how to use a sewing machine and enter a doll outfit myself) to take photos in 2013!

Hooray for an Our Generation girl!!

Unfortunately I didn't take photos of the adult entries, which is a shame because there were some Springfield girls in that mix (and a lot of "doll and child" matching outfits that were so cute!). Hopefully next year...and hopefully I will get another post done for today!

Thrift store find- My Generation Girl

I've been sick for the last week, part of why I have so much time to sew for my girls, but yesterday I decided to go out and do a little thrift store hunting. I haven't gone thrifting in a long time, mostly because my husband isn't a fan of it, but yesterday he agreed to take me to the local, always crazy, thrift shop.

I found this My Generation girl for six bucks... I had thought she was on sale, but apparently not. Ah well, it was still a good price compared to getting her for 20-something new.

Here's how she looked when I got her home...

 

She was in pretty good shape, body wise... her eyes look wonky here, but it was just the angle she was standing on... the only real problem with her was her very matted hair. I considered shaving it all off and putting a wig on her, but decided to give it a try and see if I can save her hair.

This is how she looks after her spa treatment

 

She looks a lot happier. She had a few smudge marks and dirt marks, but they came right out.

Heres how the back looks:

All in all, this was one of my better "restoration" attempts... I do have to wonder how old the doll really is (I get the feeling she is a new doll. I can't wait to make her a dress.

Tomorrow I'll have another post featuring my oldest Springfield girl (but really shes only a year old).

Hey Springfield girl

 

So it's fall, and for me that means it's time to bust out the 18" girls and start sewing again! I haven't done much sewing this year (before this I've sewn all of three outfits for this year). These patterns came from the Liberty Jane which I bought like a year ago... it was nice to finally make something again after all this time (although I really should have used green thread on those pants- but I didn't have any).

I had another Doll Salad Blog, but I can't find the email address it was attached to, so I'm going to use this one for now.