TollyTot 20" Doll Ariel Joins the Doll Posse!

Hi Doll Friends!

Just a quick post here to show you my latest 'haul' from a thrift store. 

I got all this for $4. The dolls were 99c each and the doll bed was also.

I didn't know what to make of the Ariel doll. I'd never seen anything like her before. I am not going to lie, there are only two reasons I bought her. 1) I have a flat out weakness for Ariel. She is my favorite Disney princess and has been since my best friend in High School memorized The Little Mermaid when we'd basically live at each other's houses when we were teens. Then 2) I was going to steal her dress for my other dolls at the very least. 99cents for a sparkly doll dress is pretty good. 

Except for when I got it home, I realized it was attached?!?

It had 'lights' in the dress and when Ariel spoke when you push the button in her chest, they light up. Kind of creepy I thought! I thought I'd probably get rid of her because who wants a doll with a dress you can't take off. Pretty sure the prior owners had the same thought... Till...

I opened up her back panel and realized you could remove the dress by taking out the cable. We also took out the batteries because I am not a fan of talking dolls. As I looked her over, low and behold what do I find but that she is a TollyTot doll! TollyTot's are some of my favorite of all the 18" dolls ever made! I am loving her more and more as I look her over. 

Words

PS

Stay tuned! Belle is a recent find too!

PSS Did you notice the first photo had a one eye'd doll with a green dress? Well, look how amazing it looks on Lilly, my HeartforHeart doll! I have learned to always look at the dresses on dolls even if the doll itself is in bad repair. So pretty!

Upcycled Doll Clothes! A Tale of Five Doll Dresses Made in 24Hours!

Hello Doll Friends!!

     As I've mentioned in several prior posts, most recently this one making doll clothes by Upcycling them from gently used baby clothes is really a fabulous way to bulk up your dolls wardrobe while not deflating your pocketbook. Baby clothes, gently used, are a dime a dozen in this country and so they are an amazing, endless, source of doll clothes material! It's already got all the expensive embellishments, the fancy smocking, the delicate lace etc without you doing any of that hard work! In the correct sizes (newborn and 3mnth sizes) the dresses are practically made, it can literally take you about 20mins if you're like me and go super slow and deliberately, to 'make' a doll dress! 

   To prove my point, I challenged myself to make five doll dresses in 24hrs... And a normal 24hrs, just a regular weekday where I worked and I took kids to school etc. Then again, I wake up at 4am everyday so I can actually have time to do things I like to do... So I have a bit more time than most people! Still, it was a normal day and I spent probably a few cumulative hours actually modifying and sewing dresses. 

   I went ahead and took a few step by step photos since, well, why not? Don't you just love the digital age? I figure the more times you see how easy the steps are, the more likely you'll buck the "pay $10to$30 an outfit for a doll" system! There are so many reasons to upcycle and money and time are just two... Just think, you're helping keep textiles out of landfills too! Good for the Earth too! You just can't lose!

So here are the steps to make this dress:

Front of dress. Modeled by the lovely Electra! (TollyTot)

Back of dress.

Here are the before photos, with no alterations, you can see the dress is nearly a perfect fit already (it's a size 3mnth) except it's too wide and arm holes are too large.

Front before.

 See? Arm hole too large!

So let the modifications begin! Here is item before I started sewing as you can see, I measured it on the doll to see where I needed to take it in to at arm opening. Then I just make a strait line, in pencil, down the dress from that point. Then I pin it together and literally sew down those pencil lines, taking pins out as I go.

Since this was a knit dress and I don't own a serger, I was a bit worried the seams would fray after I trimmed the seam allowance... So I zigzag stitched a second seam just to the right of the first so it'll keep from fraying. This is an extra step you don't 'need' to do but kids are hard on doll clothes and I like them to stay looking nice through the washing machine in the future so I try and make them as sturdy as possible. Takes a few extra minutes but it's worth it to me. My Granny taught me to sew and she was never one to cut corners! So here it is with both seams sewn.

Then you just cut off the extra material beyond the seams. That is always the most nerve wracking part for me for some reason but it must be done! 

Then, all is left is to turn it right side out and put it on your doll!! Here are the dresses I made in 24hours! I am going to do a separate blog post about the dresses for the HeartForHearts dolls because it was a bit different but otherwise I went through the same exact procedure with three of them in photo. The other one is made from a ladies blouse sleeve. (The one worn by the blonde TollyTot with the Princess Lea buns in her hair) 

I took some before photos of the other two dresses I modified so you can see what they looked like:

Well, that's it for this post. Thanks, as always, for stopping by! See you next time!

Busy Day At the Sewing Machine and Craft Table! New Upcycled Ensembles! New Bedroom Background! Easy Upcycled Doll Chairs!!

Greetings Doll Friends!!

As you may or may not have noticed, I have been online very little the last 36hours or so. It's so cold here where we live that school was was called off which means I am also off work at school! Which was like a gift! I was just thinking I wish I had just one more day to try a few more projects!! My wonderful and amazing friend M had come over this weekend to show me how to thread my sewing machine. I hadn't threaded it in like 15 years!!

What a difference a machine makes!!

Here is some of the Doll Posse modeling items I've made since the last post. I can't really take much credit though! Such is the power of upcycling!

Here is the highlight reel of the upcoming week here in DollWorld!

Three doll nightgowns upcycled from child's pajamas. I have one more pinned just need to stitch!

Upcycled an OshKosh dress into a dress and a short and top outfit. So far... Have lots of material left...

Made a Guess Jersey Doll Dress by upcycling a baby shirt. Made a matching belt by upcycling a watch band purchased by mistake once... 

This doll dress practically made itself! All I did was move the buttons over on a premie sized baby dress!

Last but not least is another easy one but I love how it came out. It was a 4T skirt and now it's a doll skirt and tote bag.

Then on the non sewing side of things, I built a (collasable) wall for the 'bedroom' side of the play background. We had changing the background room back and  forth between living room and bedroom but then I found this great big bit of great cardboard...

Since we have a new bedroom space I decided I would attempt to make some easy plush chairs I saw on MyFroggyStuff. I think they turned out cute! My DearDaughter thought they worked great with MonsterHigh Dolls too!

Ok, that is it I think? I will come back one by one on how to make each project and to talk about all manner of doll things! Have a fantastic day!! See you next time!! 

Throw Back Thursday; Meet Kimberly!

Greetings and Salutations! It's Thursday and so I thought I'd do a Throw Back Thursday and introduce you to my doll from when is was a girl! Meet Kimberly!

She was made by Tomy in the early 1980s and originally came in roller skates and shorts and top. I think I have the clothes buried in my dear daughters "non 18inch doll" stash of doll clothes. If I find them, I'll come back and show you a photo.

She has rooted hair, a fully plastic body that is posable and is just a touch shorter than American Girl Dolls and other 18inch dolls and so can make a great little sister. Then again, not all real girls are same height and so she could be just a shorter friend too.

She fits right in!

Friends come in all shapes and sizes afterall. 

Have a fantastic day! Stop by again!

Meet and Greet

Hello again! I know I am on a bit of a posting blitz here but work at a school and am trying to get a lot of the ideas I've had so much fun doing posted before I go back to work next Monday. 

With that said I thought I'd do a little meet and greet! I will introduce you to all the dolls I will be using to model the items I have made. We have several recent new additions to the doll populace in our house, doubling it this Christmas and Late December Birthday of my dear daughter. I know that sounds extravagant but I'll explain as I introduce you to the dolls. I'll 'introduce' you in the order in which the dolls came home to us. Which brings us to our first model:

Calla was my dear daughters first ever 18" doll, she got her on her fourth Birthday five years ago. She is made by Madame Alexander and has blonde hair and blue eyes. Madame Alexander dolls have soft bodies too but their shoulders are plastic, meaning their soft torso starts lower down, below the shoulder. They are also a bit thinner than American Girl Dolls but I like them and think they have very pretty faces. I also like that they have poseable necks although Calla seems a tiny bit 'looser' in her neck than she was when new but she will still hold a pose with it. She's been played with quite a lot and is still in really good shape for having been buried in the bottom of the toy basket on more than one occasion and having been played with pretty roughly by a young girl. 

Shuri came home around same time as Calla. I'd purchased Calla at full price before Christmas and then when I went back about two days after Christmas, they were half off!! So naturally I HAD to buy one! Dolls need friends afterall. 

Rose came from a Thrift Store, I got her for about $2 as I recall. She had a small tear in the bottom portion of her bottom, her hair was a total wreck and she had writing on her foot of first owners name (think Andy in Toy Story). For $2 I figured I'd take her home and see what I could do with her and she has since become my favorite of all the dolls really. Her body type is very similar to American Girl Dolls but I can keep her in my craft satchel for fittings because my daughter likes her less than the ones from American Girl Doll. Which brings us to our next doll.

Panda was my daughters first 'actual' American Girl Doll and is one of the modern type where you can pick the hair and eye and skin colors. She has an imaginative name just like all my daughters dolls and is lovely as all the American Girl Dolls are in my opinion. Still not quite sure they are worth three times the price of others but they're made very very well. 

The next doll to come home was one very popular last year, obviously, being as she was the American. Girl Doll of the Year for 2013. Yes, that is right, her name is Saige. She was a gift to dear daughter for Christmas from her Grandpa. I love her long hair although I think it might be a nightmare if you had a younger girl who isn't likely to take quite as good of care of it as she might ought.

The next three additions all came from an, at least I thought, unlikely source. I shop at Aldi quite a lot and so know they usually have toys around Christmas... So I was in around mid-November and rounded the corner and saw 18" Dolls!!! With very pretty faces!! They are called Style Girls and are made by a company named New Adventures. They were only $20! So I just had to buy one for my daughter, a new friend for Saige to join the crowd with. Here is the first one:

Dear daughter named her Sabrina and I think she is very pretty. Upon opening her, we were both pleased by her hair quality and the quality of her head and legs but her torso leaves a bit to be desired. She isn't stuffed very tightly and so her middle is a bit wobbly. I have played with idea of doing doll surgery and undoing her stitches and stuffing her a bit fuller but I haven't gotten brave enough yet. You can make her stand up but only if propped against a doll chair or something. The clothes she came with were very cheaply made for the most part. One or two items were nice but for most part, we are gonna get rid of all the clothes she came with. For the money though, she was well worth it!

Which brings me to the last two members of our doll posse and how they came to join the family. Two days after Christmas I ran to Aldi for milk... Wasn't even thinking about toys or dolls in any way, figured they'd probably sold out of them long ago and Christmas was over anyway. My dear daughter was lamenting that very thing the day before after I told her that Sabrina was only $20 because she had gotten Christmas money she would like to use to buy another one (they always have the pictures of the other dolls in the selection on the side of the box as you know). So I again round the corner and there are like 10 left!!! That wasn't the best part though! They were also half off!! That's right folks, a brand new 18" for $9.99!! So I did what any rational person would do, I bought two. I bought one for my dear daughter: 

She named her Rebecca and I shamelessly purchased one just for me because I've always wanted an African American doll for the posse but they are usually the first from the assortment to sell out and so  I've never found one on sale!

I named her Isla. Isn't she gorgeous?! Now that you've met everyone I bet you are wondering what the dolls that are not in the scene do with their off time? 

Well, like most show business, they hang out and chat in the green room of course!

Hope you've gotten a kick out of the Meet and Greet and I'll see you in the next posting! Have a fabulous day!!