Samantha's and Kit's Dolls

 One of my grail items for many years has been the dolls "owned" by Samantha and Kit.

I really love the dolls for dolls, and I have the ones for Felicity, Addy, Josefina and Kaya. I didn't have the ones for Samantha and Kit. They were grail items for me.

I always loved the story of Samantha's doll. We can all sympathize with seeing the perfect doll and yearning for her.

A very generous and sweet friend sent me the ones for Samantha and Kit!

I am so awed by her generosity, and so happy!

I have a lot of pictures that I want to take, but these are the ones that I have so far!

Thank you so much! You know who you are!

Thrift Store Find: Addy Walker

 This weekend, I had my best thrift store find yet.

The store has three places where I sometimes find AG: a shelf where more expensive items are displayed, a shelf where porcelain dolls are piled, and a shelf where play dolls like Cabbage Patch and Our Generation are piled.

The porcelain doll shelf was really full, so I was pulling dolls out and looking at them just to be thorough.

On the bottom of the pile was this beautiful Addy, and she was marked as $3.99.

I grabbed her and I ran straight to the checkout. I did not breathe until she was stored safely in my trunk.

I think that the collection of an adult doll collector was donated to the Goodwill. Most of them were porcelain. Addy was on a stand like the porcelain dolls and was priced as though she was one of them.

Addy is a Pleasant Company doll. I think from the way that her wig is made that she is a first edition. I think she has been sitting on a shelf untouched for all these years. The elastic in her pantaloons gave out, but that's normal with age.

A Tale of Two Addys

One of my friends found a Pleasant Company Addy for $25 earlier this year. She lives further south than I do, so when we found out that it was snowing here today, she suggested that we take pictures of our Addys enjoying different weather on the same day.

Here is my Addy:

Here is hers:

I think hers looks like she has sunburn across her nose!

I am really in love with my Addy and so happy. Now I have two Addys, Beforever Addy and Pleasant Company Addy!

Thrift Store Find: GOTY Isabelle Palmer

 I have been having some amazing American Girl luck at the thrift store lately.

I found Girl of the Year Isabelle Palmer for $30.

It was hard to resist a deal like that, when many new AG outfits cost more than that.

My mental conversation went a lot like this:

Me: I don't need more AG, especially blonde classic molds.
Goodwill: Can you resist a $35 GOTY Isabelle?
Me: No.
Goodwill: 1
Beth: 0

She is a bit TLC and was wearing nothing but her meet pants.

I changed her clothes and brushed her hair, and here she is!

I was drawn to Isabelle when she was first announced because I liked her name, and I like ballet.

However, I didn't really feel drawn to her collection, and decided that I did not need another blonde.

Fate had other ideas in mind!

I also found the clothes that she is wearing at the thrift store on a different day, apart from the sandals.

Pattern Review: Picture Day by All Dolled Up

 This is a pattern by All Dolled Up.

I do not think that the pattern is currently available for purchase: the pattern designer went out of business, came back and is now on etsy, but I did not see this pattern on etsy. The etsy shop is at this link.

I stocked up on patterns before they went out of business the first time.

This dress was inspired by a vintage 1940s picture that I saw of a dress that looked like this, in red and white. I thought, I have a pattern that looks just like this!

It was straightforward to put together. It is not lined, which feels weird to me, but there's no way to line the bodice without also lining the skirt, which would make it hang badly.

I will admit I did not read the instructions at all, because my laptop at home needs a new battery.

Kit's Beforever shoes are perfect to match with this dress!

It's a cute dress, and now I want to make it in more colors. Red is just not my favorite.

Anne Love

 There is a rumor that AG is coming out with historical twins from the 90s.

What I have seen of that collection has just made me love Anne more.

Anne is my Girl of Today from 1995. She is Girl of Today # 6.

Have you seen the original Girl of Today clothes? They are so awesome. They are all different colors and they are made of the same fabrics as real clothes. 

Anne had some fun in the snow lately. She gets to do all the things.

Removing Claudie's Painted Eyelashes

 I have removed Claudie's painted eyelashes. 

I kept her the way she comes from AG for a few months. But I really think she is cuter without the extra eyelashes, and I have no regrets.

Here she is before eyelash removal:

(the wet spot on her forehead is from a snowflake melting on her face)

And here she is after:

She is cute both ways! No judgement from me, you can keep your Claudie any way you like.

Here is my blog post on how to remove the eyelashes if you wish.

Pattern Review: KDD Classy Yoke Coat

 I thought that the Keepers Dolly Duds pattern Classy Yoke Coat and Tam are just so beautiful. 

I was kind of intimidated to sew this. 

Luckily, it was much easier to sew than I anticipated!

The hat especially was easy to make. It uses 16 identical pattern pieces- 8 for the outside and 8 for the lining- and voila! you have a hat!

My Just Like You 44, Zia is my model here. She is beautiful!

I even did- gulp- real buttonholes, you could add hook and loop tape instead if you prefer.

I know I am going to be dressing my dolls in this coat every winter. I am very happy with it.

I might be on a not-very-secret mission to eventually sew all Keepers Dolly Duds patterns. I am so pleased to have tackled this pattern!