Doll Photos

 I am trying to take more pictures of my dolls! I try to spend five minutes a day now changing an outfit or taking a picture in the backyard. It helps. 

I don't have to wait to have enormous amounts of free time to do something with the dolls!

Jess looks gorgeous in everything. She is the Doll Most Likely to Be on Cover OF Vogue and Then Become a Therapist.

I got Gwen's dress at the thrift store for $14! I love it so much!

I am not sure which dress this is that Danielle is wearing, but it's giving me 1920s vibes.

I'm going to put it on Claudie and Phryne Valancy too,

Joss is ready for summer!

I think that the Squishmallow looks like Jip and would be perfect to pair with Samantha's modern dress.

Speaking of which, here is Astrid modeling Felicity's modern dress. I love it. I want all four of them at this point.

I am just concerned about how difficult it will be to repair them when the elastic wears out.

Saige and Sam are modelling Cowboy Cool, as always. 

Pattern review: Eden Ava Couture Hawaiian Sundress

 I bought an embroidered top at the thrift store, and I could immediately envision the doll dress that I wanted to make with it.

I used the Eden Ava Couture Hawaiian Sundress pattern. It matched very closely to the dress that I had in my head, and it was easy to use.

The difference is that I made the bodice an inch longer, in order to utilize more of the beautiful embroidery. I also made the neckline a V to echo the embroidery.

The material of the blouse was difficult to work with as it was thin. It turned out very well, though.

I love this dress! I wish that I had finished it before summer ended. I had a very busy summer, however, and I ended up getting COVID at the beginning of September.

This dress cost me very little because I bought the blouse at the thrift store that sells clothes by the pound. It probably cost me less than a dollar. If only all my doll clothes were so cheap!

Favorite AG Dolls

 I really should downsize my American Girl doll collection.

I am reluctant right now to sell even the dolls that I am not very bonded with, just because AG keeps making changes like putting an imprinted star on the dolls' foot.

Some dolls, however, I would never part with.

My two childhood dolls are Anne and Felicity. They are so special. They aren't going anywhere.

I am very careful with them and their collections. Each has a dedicated wardrobe that they don't share.

Anne, in particular, as an original Girl of Today #6, is super rare. She sold online recently for a thousand dollars. That makes me even more careful with her!

Fun Fact: Anne is named after Anne of Green Gables.

Samantha is the doll that I wanted as a kid and couldn't get. She's the first one that I bought as a newly minted adult.

Mara Frances is the first custom that I made, and she has such character. She always makes me happy.

I am also very attached to my Create Your Owns. They are all Jess molds. I love the Jess mold and I like to see more variation that AG makes with this mold.

Danielle is the first CYO that I designed (of two.) I love her! She has glasses and hearing aids.

Aurelie was the first CYO that I got at MCM!

Nadia also came from MCM.

As did Fern.

And Steffi.

Phryne Valancy is a 1920s CYO that I designed myself.

I adopted Cora from the mom of Super Inky!

I really want to do a group photo of my Jess mold CYOs some day!

I am also super attached to Girl of the Year Joss Kendrick. I really love her face mold, and I love that she is hearing impaired like me.

I am also falling more and more in love with Claudie lately. She has the sweetest face.

These are probably my top dolls, but they are almost all special to me in one way or the other. 

123 Mulberry Street Drop Waist Pocket Tee Dress: Pattern Review

 I wanted to make more cute new clothes in a modern style.

I was happy to try the 123 Mulberry Street Drop Waist Pocket Tee.

The cutest part about this pattern is the pockets set into the skirt. I love realism like this in doll clothes.

For the first dress I made with this pattern, I was using a plain blue T-shirt. I wanted to accentuate the cutest part of the dress, the pockets. So I used scraps in a contrasting pattern for the backs of the pocket, to make them more visible, and to hem the sleeves.

Evette learns to sew and to reuse clothes in her books, so this outfit is perfect for her!

For the next two, I made the sleeves wrist length. My dolls like staying warm in winter too.

I love this dress for Saige because the hot air balloon pattern is so perfect for her. 

This was was more difficult to sew just because the fabric was more slippery. Still cute.

My CYO Danielle is the model here, and I think she looks like a librarian in this outfit.

I really like this pattern.

My MCM Dolls 2021

 I don't know what is more fun- the MCM experience or the dolls.

Okay, it's the dolls. The usual MCM sale is usually a hot mess, but we love it anyway.

Here are the dolls that I got at the sale this year.

First, the CYOs. They all have the Jess face mold. I am partial, what can I say?

This is Nadia. She's a Jess mold with medium skin, dark brown eyes and dark brown hair.

She has earrings.

Her box said "eye shadow" on it. Her eyelids are a shade darker than her face, and she dos look like she has eyeshadow on! It's cute. I find it endearing.

Here is a comparison picture of Nadia and Danielle, a CYO I designed myself. I left Danielle's glasses off so you could see her face better.

Danielle has darker skin and hair, as well as freckles. Nadia has looser curls, although they have the same wig in different colors.

Danielle's face seems fuller.

They are very similar, but they do feel like very different dolls.

This is Fern. She lives on a farm and loves animals. Her character is Charlotte's Web inspired, and also a bit of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird.

Fern has medium skin, freckles, grey eyes and brown hair in a short bob. Fern does not have earrings.

This is Steffi. She's a California girl who is friends with Joss.

Steffi has dark skin, dark brown eyes and dark brown hair. She also has earrings.

When I bought her, I thought from the picture that she had the new eyes and that they were crooked.

I have never been to happy to be wrong. She has great eyes!

Here are Fern and Steffi together.

Here's Jessenia! She's a JLY 85.

And here is the #62 who is going to live with a friend. She has the new eyes, but that's okay because she is going to get eye swapped.

Only one doll out of the group had the new eyes! I was very lucky.

I am very happy with all of the dolls I got!

You can read about my sale experience here.

MCM Sale Report 2021

 This year's sale was online.

I had a pretty good entry time at 10:45 am. The sale started at 9 am.

I was able to log in and start promptly at 10:45.

There were a lot of Create Your Own dolls left.

They had 350 CYOs this year. I went through the whole list and made a list of the ones that I liked best, as well as saving pictures for future reference.

I found three that I really liked still available. I decided to buy two CYOs, both Jess molds.

There was a third Jess mold that I liked, medium skin with brown eyes, but three of them was a bit much for my budget, as they are the highest priced item.

I also bought a second Joss for myself to customize, or possibly to give to a younger cousin. 

I got a JLY #62 for a friend. I had two friends ask me to pick them up a doll. Due to the limit of only four dolls per customer, I had to turn one down. (I'm sorry!)

I skimmed the accessories really fast. I didn't want someone else to buy my CYOs while I was looking.

I only ended up getting Blaire's piglet from the accessory section.

Then I checked out only five minutes later.

The search function was really my friend here. Since I had a long list of my favorite CYOs and had marked them in order of preference, I could easily search for my favorites. I also used this to grab the JLY # 62.

This went really smoothly for me and was a good experience. I know this is partly because I had an early entry time.

I was really pleased with what I got, and I didn't even have to drive to Madison. (Yet. That comes later.)

There was a second sale at 5 pm.

This was originally billed as a book sale, where you could buy AG books at leisure without worrying about missing out on the dolls you wanted.

However, they had dolls left over, and they were available for purchase. they even had CYOs still available!

I ended up buying two more dolls, since the prices were reduced. And that was an act of will power.

You could only buy eight at a time, but you could make as many purchases as you wanted.

So I actually bought six dolls, five for me, one for a friend. 

This is a lot of dolls!

Here's the post I wrote about picking up my MCM dolls.

Here are the blogs I wrote about previous MCM benefit sales.

Here is a link to my blog post on the MCM sale in 2023- the very last MCM sale ever.

2020 Benefit Sale

2019 Benefit Sale

2018 Benefit Sale

2017 Benefit Sale

2016 Benefit Sale

Spaghetti Dinner set

 I have recently been kind of collecting doll food, because I didn't have any, and it seemed like something that would help round out my collection and help me take better pictures.

I was delighted to find the spaghetti dinner set at the Mattel Toy Store.

This is an amazing set.

I had earlier bought the lasagna dinner set, and I think this set is better than that one.

This set comes with two plates, two forks, two drinks, two pieces of toast, two salads, three pieces of spaghetti, a pot, a serving spoon, a block of parmesan cheese and a cheese grater.

I actually couldn't get everything on the table that I own, and had to leave the parmesan cheese and the cheese grater out of this picture.

These are also not the original plates: I used the real china ones that I found at the thrift store.

I think the reason it has three pieces of spaghetti when everything else is in twos is so that one piece can be in the pot. Very realistic, and a lot of fun.

One reason I think that I like his set more than the lasagna one is that it has drinks.

It has more pieces overall than the lasagna set, but having the drinks just makes the set feel like a real dinner.

All the pieces look good: the least realistic part is the tomato slices on top of the salad. AG should've gone with cherry tomatoes instead, they'd have been easier to depict.

I am really, really happy with this set. It makes me feel less need to buy any other food sets. 

Danielle and Aurelie are happy to have this nice dinner!

Another Blind Bag Food Set

 The two AG food blind bag sets that I wanted the most were the hamburger and the turkey sandwich.

I was very lucky, because the hamburger was the first one that I got, and the turkey sandwich was the second one!

The sandwich is a really solid, realistic looking piece of food, and I am very happy with it.

The carrots, of course, are clumped together and look less realistic. But I am glad that my dolls have veggies to eat.

Now the dolls can have a picnic together. It's the perfect time of year for it!

These two cuties are Danielle and Aurelie, and they are very happy to enjoy a meal together.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

 Kanani, Aurelie and Danielle are eager to show off their holiday looks!

Aren't they cute?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The Kindness of Strangers

 I am in a group on Facebook about sewing for 18 inch dolls.

A lady in that group posted a free knitting pattern that she had designed. I complimented her on the pattern.

She knitted me a doll dress and coat and mailed them to me all the way from Switzerland, out of the kindness of her heart!

I was so surprised and so touched.

She made me this beautiful doll coat, modeled by Aurelie. 

She also made me this cute doll dress modeled by Kanani. 

I really love the tiny sunflower buttons on the back.

This gesture really touched me. It was so kind of this lady to do this for a complete stranger.

I'm actually a little speechless, can you tell?

So this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my health, my family, my home and the kindness of strangers.

Create Your Own T-shirt

American Girl now has an option to design your own doll T-shirt.

You get a voucher to make a T-shirt when you order a Create Your Own doll.

I was very excited when they added graphics for Joss, which were surf and ASL themed.

I made this T-shirt that has a graphic with the ASL hand sign for "I Love You."

Danielle also wears hearing aids, in addition to Joss in my collection, so she claimed this shirt initially.

I think they will have to share it.

The circle graphic says "Surf Play Love" around the edges.

The shirt is very simply made- the sleeve do not have a separate seam. I assume this makes it easier to print the design on the T-shirt.

I am really pleased with this shirt, but it would have cost $14 plus shipping without the coupon, making it about $20.

Would I pay that for a doll T-shirt?

Probably not, unless I could add a picture of my own guinea pigs or something.

It's a cool service, though, I am glad that they are offering this!

Summer

Here are some pictures of the dolls enjoying summer!

Kit

Melody

Anne

Danielle

Laura

Addy

Aurelie