Saturday, October 31, 2015

Thoroughly Modern Millie Costume

My dolls didn't all dress up this year for Halloween, but I thought I would show you the costume that I sent in for the American Girl Fan photo contest!

Last year I made a Thoroughly Modern Millie 1920s Flapper Girl dress. This costume is based on Millie Dillmount's costume in the 2002 Broadway musical, which is based on the 1967 movie of the same name starring Julie Andrews. To read more about Millie and the inspiration for the dress, see the post I made last year here. That post also talks about what fabrics and pattern I used.

This year I paired the dress with a pair of black flats from Hobby Lobby and a human pearl necklace. The necklace was a little long, so I clipped it in the back. The style of the time was to have super long necklaces like in the picture below:





 
Happy Halloween!

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Disney Tees :)

Today I am excited to show you two new shirts I recently made for my dolls! I think they both turned out really cute! :) 
 
The first shirt is up-cycled from a blue t-shirt. It says 'Sharkbait Hoo Ha Ha', which is a quote from the Disney movie Finding Nemo :)
 



The next shirt is made from the Banded Dolman Shirt pattern from Doll it Up. It is up-cycled from a light pink t-shirt, and says 'Faith Trust and Pixie Dust'.

 
I printed the words and a picture of Tinkerbell on a piece of iron-on transfer paper. When the paper is ironed onto the fabric, it has a plastic look until after the shirt is washed. Once the fabric with the transfer is washed, it gets a crackled texture. I prefer this crackled texture, so I may hand wash these shirts in the future.



 
Thanks for reading!

Sunday, October 18, 2015

'Banded Dolman Shirt' pattern

Doll-it-Up recently published a free pattern called the 'Banded Dolman Shirt'. I was excited to see this style of shirt offered as a pattern, so I downloaded it!

I thought these shirts were cute, I had to make two!

 
The first one I made was of a purple and white striped knit fabric.  I believe this fabric has rayon in it, but I'm not completely sure.  It has a different texture than regular t-shirt knit.

 
The shirt is designed to be made of stretchy knit fabric, because it doesn't have any closure.

 
The second one is a little more dressy. I made it from a sequin t-shirt!

 
The back of this one is solid black t-shirt fabric. It is a little tight to get on.  I think the sequins make the fabric less stretchy.  I might add Velcro to the back.

 
I also made this hat from the Newsboy and Beret Hat pattern that was free on Pixie Faire last Friday.

 
The hat is fully lined, so it can be reversible!  I think the black side looks great with the sequin Dolman Shirt.
 
 


Friday, October 16, 2015

Sculpey Adventures #1

I recently got some Sculpey to try my hand at making doll size items, like food.

I decided to try to make some candy canes first. They seemed relatively simple, and with Christmas coming up, I thought they would be great for my first try! For the most part, I followed a tutorial which I found here.

These are the colors that come in the Oven Bake Clay 'Brights' package. There is one ounce of each color.

 
To make the candy canes, I used about one-fifth of each of the red and white colors.


I softened the clay, rolled it, and stacked the red and white like so. I think since the white overlapped to the upper side, my candy canes ended up resembling a zebra pattern in a few places.

 
I rolled and twisted the colors together.

 
This tutorial suggested cutting the long strip into one 3" strip per candy cane.

 
I rounded the ends, and curved the clay to look like a candy cane.

 
After baking, the candy canes had a matte finish. This would be perfect for an old-fashioned candy cane. However, I wanted my candy canes to look shiny, so I painted them with Sculpey Gloss Glaze. It goes on a clearish white color, but dries completely clear and shiny!
 
 
Here is the finished product!
 

 
Size reference:
 
 
Thanks for reading!
 

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Some 'Our Generation' Clothing for Inspiration

Today I went on Target.com to take a look at the Our Generation sets, for inspiration of things to sew or make.  It seems like the Our Generation line has a lot of variety in the kind of things they offer, but a lot of the items online say "In store only".  The Targets that I have been to don't appear to have a lot of variety in the selection of OG items.  Nevertheless, I saw some fun stuff!


Our Generation Deluxe Outfit - Snow Bright
 
Photo from Target.com
 
The 'Snow Bright' outfit is $17.99 on the website.  The Aztec print coat looks very cozy for cold days, and could also be worn with jeans or leggings.  Warm ups are essential for a doll that loves to play in the snow.  They are the best way to stay warm! 
 

Our Generation Regular Outfit - Plaid Skirt
Photo from Target.com
 
This 'Plaid Skirt' outfit is $12.99.  Each piece looks very versatile.  This outfit would be so cute for a Holiday event!
 
Our Generation Deluxe Outfit - Putting on the Glitz
Photo from Target.com
                      
This is the 'Puttin on the Glitz' outfit, which is $17.99.  This dress is so sparkly and would be great for a party.  The ruffle at the hemline is so cute.  I'm not sure if I personally would pair it with the pink tights, but that's just preference.  The hair bows would be great mix n match accessory items.  I think this color would look great on Beth!
 
Our Generation Regular Outfit - Fluffy Sweater
Photo from Target.com
 
This outfit, called 'Fluffy Sweater Outfit', is $12.99.  It is one of my favorites that I saw.  It is so versatile!  Rather than tights like the two outfits above, it has leggings.  The shorts would be great for summer with a light blue, white or pink matching top.
 
Our Generation Rgulr Outfit - PJ's wth pngun
Photo from Target.com
 
The 'PJs with Penguin' outfit looks so cozy.  It is also $12.99.  These are adorable winter pajamas!
 
There were more cute sets, but I'll limit this post to five :) Thanks for reading!
 
 
Disclaimer ~ I am not affiliated with any doll company and 100% of this post is my personal opinion.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

What My Dolls Are Wearing 3



Today I bring you another "What My Dolls Are Wearing" post!  I enjoy going through my doll clothes and putting together new outfits!

First up is Beth wearing a cute outfit for the fall weather!

 
Her ensemble consists of a grey sweatshirt layered over a simple red dress.  See the post about the top here
 
 
 
I think these boots are so cute!  They are from Sophia's on Amazon.  I can't wait to include them in a photo shoot this winter.
 
 
39's outfit (I haven't decided on a name for her yet) is actually available in my Etsy shop.
 

The leggings are made from brushed lace.  I am so happy with how they turned out!


 
Thanks for visiting!
 
Do you think Beth looks good in the color red?

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Kidz n Cats Doll Review

As some of you may already have figured out, this is the “accidental post” that I mentioned in my last post :)
 
I have thought for some time about doing a review on Lia, my Kidz n Cats Sophie doll.  For some reason, it just hadn’t gotten done…  Until today!
 
In case you don’t know what Kidz n Cats dolls are, or have never seen them, here is some basic information before you read my review:
 
-          They are made in Germany by Sonja Hartmann
-          They are 18” tall, like American Girl Dolls, but are “slim”
-          They are made completely of hard vinyl, their bodies are not cloth
-          The Kidz n Cats line includes boy and girl dolls
-          Their ability to perform realistic poses makes them popular among doll collectors/photographers
 
I tried to make this review as thorough as possible, so it is kind of long with lot of pictures.
 
To start off, we will begin with the basic structure of the doll. 
 
 
She is made of hard vinyl, and has eleven joints.  These joints are at her neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, legs at hips, and knees.  The ball and socket joints allow movement in almost any direction (which we will get to later on in this post).

 
I am pleased with the quality of Lia’s soft hair.  It is made of kanekalon, which is what American Girl doll hair is made of.   It is very long and thick.
 

 
It is not one single color of hair, but at least 3 different shades. 
 

 
The wig is a parting wig, which means it does not have a sewn in part.  Therefore, you could change her part to anywhere on her wig and it would look natural, which allows for a larger variety of hairstyles.  On Lia, her wig cap can be seen from above, and also slightly from the front in certain styles.
 
 
 
Her hands have slightly blushed fingernails and creases on the fingers and palms.

 
 
The rotation of her arm and the shape of her hand allow her to hold small or larger objects without assistance.
 

 
Her feet also have blushed nails.  Her feet are larger than AG doll’s, so she does not fit into most of the doll shoes I have.  The shoes she wears in this post are from Hobby Lobby.  I find these to be the best option for an inexpensive shoe for her.
 

 
Her eyes are set in (they don’t open or close) and are incredibly detailed.
 

I used the eyedropper in Paint to grab the different colors of her eyes.  According to Paint her eyes have these colors: (although I can see more colors than just these shades)
 



Top left - Outer ring of eye
Top right - Lightest color found while using the eyedropper
Bottom left - A shade of blue found inside the eye
Bottom right - Pupil of the eye
 
Her eyes are framed with long, lovely eyelashes.  The top has glued on lashes in addition to painted, and the bottom has painted.
 
 
Unfortunately, Lia’s left eyelash has come slightly unglued.  It might be difficult to tell, so I have pointed it out in the picture below.
 
 
The next picture shows the shape of her ear.
 
 
Now we'll move on to Lia’s range of motion.  I have had Lia for over a year, and over that time her joints have loosened up a bit.  When I first got her, she could not bend her legs so much when sitting.  It was also difficult for her to stand.  I have noticed over time that she her range of motion has improved, but she still stands better with a pair of shoes and often needs to be tilted slightly forward.
 



Seated on the ground, she can sit with her legs pretty much in front of her
 
Lia has got her middle splits down...

 
 
…As well as both her right and left splits.
 

 
Her arms can be held up...
 
 
...And front to back.  When I attempt to make them go side to side, they pull back to the frontwards position.
 
 
Her head can be looking up to the sky…
 
 
 
Or down to the ground a little…
 
 

 
When turning her head to the side, she can turn it upwards as well.
 

 
Her head can turn in each direction far enough for her to be almost directly facing backwards.  
Now let’s look at Lia in comparison to Maggie (AG Rebecca).
 
 

Maggie has a different build than Lia, which explains why Kidz n Cats dolls are called “slim 18 inch dolls”.  Although they are the same height, they have different body measurements.  The clothes I have made for my AG dolls usually don’t fit Lia.  In this review, Lia wore:
 
Shirt - Made by me from the free Pixie Faire “Trendy T-shirt” pattern
Shorts - Made by me, based on her meet pants
Shoes - Hobby Lobby
 
In summation, I would say that my Kidz n Cats Sophie is a great doll for photography.  Because of her joints, she can do many realistic poses.  However, I don’t feel too comfortable standing her up for an outdoor photo shoot, as I am afraid she would lose balance and fall over. 
 
Would you like to see Lia (Sophie) in her meet outfit?

Disclaimer – I am not affiliated with any doll company and this review is 100% my own opinion.