Ruby Red Fashion Friends Doll Stella

 I recently bought several Red Ruby Fashion dolls due to a recent sale.

I have always thought that these dolls were very pretty. The high prices were a bit of a deterrent, and I am pretty loyal to American Girl.

The sale made me decide to get some!

The first doll that I opened is Stella. She is gorgeous! I love her hair.

I REALLY love her eyes. The description says that she has green eyes, but I think that they are blue and hazel, like mine.

I really like the sweet faces and the posing ability of the Ruby Red dolls.

They can share a lot of clothes with the Wellie Wisher dolls and the Hearts for Hearts dolls.

The dolls and the clothes feel high quality. What I do not not like is that the clothes that they come with look very mismatching to me, except for the more expensive special edition dolls. I will be changing the clothes on all of the dolls.

They are 15.5 inches tall and skinny, so they are a lot more portable than the AG dolls, as well as poseable.

They are also a bit risky. Some dolls from this line, especially the Siblies, had eyes change color over time. This is one reason why I was reluctant to spend so much money on one of these dolls.

I made the jumper she is wearing. The pattern is the Forever 18 Inches Faux Button Jumper,

Right now, I am very happy with the new addition to my doll family.

1980s Doll Clothes Patterns

It looks like our newest historical doll is from the 1980s! Her name is Courtney Moore.

I am not a fan of 80s fashion, really, so I haven't been looking very hard for patterns.

Yes, I was alive in the 80s.

No, it does not make me feel nostalgic.

On Pixie Faire:

Crafty Lil Turkey Splash Back to the 80s

Crafty Lil Turkey 80s Ensemble

Doll Joy Puff Sleeve Joy Top

Eden Ava Couture Awesome 80s Party Dress

Farina Rae Hip Hop Hannah Romper

Flossie Potter 1980s Workout Wear

Forever Eighteen Inches 1980s Romantic Heroine

Forever Eighteen Inches 1980s Mix and Match

Frog Princess Fashions Holly and Lace Dress

Frog Princess Party Like it's 1985

Jen Ashley Designs Wild and Wacky Sweatsuit

Liberty Jane Off the Shoulder Tee

Little Miss Muffet Puff Dolly

Matilda's Closet Fanny Pack

Miche Designs Roller Skates

Thimbles and Acorns Fantabulous! Overalls and Oversize T-shirt

Thimbles and Acorns Jelly Flats

Elsewhere:

Appletotes Aerobics Exercise

Faux Button Jumper 4

I just had this pink fabric lying around, so here is another Faux Button Jumper from the Forever 18 Inches pattern.

Yeah, I was running out of energy to make T-shirts to go with the jumpers a bit, so this jumper got paired with Tipi's original shirt.

This outfit looks very spring-like to me, even though it is fall.

Surjan looks pretty in it. Surjan is just a lovely doll.

Faux Button Jumper 3

Here is another jumper made from the Forever 18 inches pattern.

This one is blue, and it's the first one that has a pattern on the fabric.

The print is maybe on the large side of the scale, but I think it works.

Also, this jumper and the red one together will be cute for the Fourth of July.

 I really like Tipi's meet outfit, especially the shirt, but this one is cute too.

She is happy to have a change of clothes.

Blue is my favorite color, so it's not surprising that I use it in doll clothes a lot.

This jumper is actually lined in pink. I think it adds a cute touch, although obviously you can't see it when she is wearing it.

Faux Button Jumper 2

Here is another Faux Button Jumper for Hearts for Hearts dolls made from the Forever 18 Inches pattern.

It's really cute too!

Here is my blog with the first jumper.

After that first jumper, I stopped adding packets. Pockets in doll clothes are always amazing, but I am bad at getting things straight.

I felt that the risk of adding crooked pockets canceled out the added cuteness of having pockets.

I am super happy to have Rahel out of the outfit that she came in.

I love Rahel, but I think her outfit is pretty much a stereotype, and it bugs me.

I cut her plastic necklaces off, and then discovered that they actually unsnap in the back. Oh well.

They would never lie flat, and that annoyed me, too.

Pattern Review: Forever 18 Inches Faux Button Jumper

Forever 18 Inches Faux Button Jumper for 14 inch dolls was  a Freebie Friday a couple of weeks ago.

I wanted to try it out, but the pattern is JUST for the jumper. It does not include a shirt to wear under it.

So first I made the free Liberty Jane T-shirt pattern for Hearts for Hearts dolls. I lengthened the sleeves so that it would be warmer for autumn weather.

Then I made the jumper.

It's really cute! Here is Hearts for Hearts Consuelo modelling it.

You can choose whether to make the jumper lined and whether to add pockets.

I made both of those options. It would be faster if you skip them.

The jumper turned out really cute! I am happy to have more clothes that my Hearts for Hearts dolls can wear.

Doll clothes rarely use a combination of dark colors like this- at least not the ones made by doll companies- but I think it looks great.

Consuelo can put her thumbs in her pockets!

I did make several mistakes in this pattern, but none of them were unfixable. Next time I will know better what I am doing.

Overall, this is a relatively easy pattern and a good addition to a doll wardrobe.

Secret Snarker 2018 Part One

I always look forward to Secret Snarker each year. It really sparks my creativity to design a gift for someone else's doll.

This year I was very excited, because I was assigned agate13. She wanted gifts for her Kanani, who attends Hogwarts and is a member of Ravenclaw.

I love Harry Potter, but had not used this as inspiration to sew doll clothes before.

It was pretty obvious and straightforward to make a doll-sized Ravenclaw uniform.

I used the pattern from Read Creations to make a Hogwarts robe. This pattern is free, which I greatly appreciated!

I did need to read the directions for the robe at times, but it was pretty straightforward to make.

I made the robe lined in blue for Ravenclaw, of course.

I used the Luna Lovegood uniform made by Kate Lauren Designs as inspiration. It's not so easy to get a good look at the Ravenclaw uniforms, as they are not always front and center in the movie.
I really appreciated having this as a resource.

I used the Button Up Shirt pattern by Liberty Jane.
I thought that the sleeves were more detailed than I needed. I really just wanted a basic pattern, since I had so many pieces to sew. There are days when I appreciate detailed patterns, and days when I just want to sew as basic a wardrobe staple as possible.

Also, the collar was 7/8 of an inch too short. I had to draft a new collar piece to get it to work.
So yeah, this was not my favorite pattern.

For the gray pleated skirt, I used Forever 18 Inches Timeless Schoolgirl Skirt. I was inspired by the Luna Lovegood uniform made by Kate Lauren Designs to use this rather than a more classic pleated skirt.

There are plenty of the other kind of grey pleated skirts out there, and this one was worn by Luna, so that makes it special.

I did not follow the directions to make the skirt. I thought it made sense to hem the bottom of the skirt before I pleated it, so I did.

So, there is a classic Harry Potter uniform! Kanani should be pleased.

....
You can view Part two of the swap here.

You can see what I made for Secret Snarker in 2016 and in 2017 in older blog posts.