Run, Don't Walk, To Hobby Lobby for Clearanced Doll Clothes! UPDATED September 21, 2020

 

Doll Friends!

I come to tell you quickly on my lunch hour that you need to run, don't walk, to Hobby Lobby to grab up some great doll clothes on clearance. I got all of the clothes pictured here for $27 and change. The white pair of shoes were still full price but I got them on the 40% off coupon for $2.99. Otherwise the outfits and other pair of shoes were on clearance. The outfits were $2.24 each other than the one that is a dress and headband and frilly socks, that one was $3.24. The little beige pair of shoes was $1.24. Caveat: all those prices were pre-tax and so it kind of depends on the tax rate in your local area how much they will come to with the tax.  

Yes, I wiped them out of all they had. What can I say? I have a lot of dolls who need clothes. 

I'm not even sorry!

Better run, lunch hours nearly over.

XXOO
Heather 

UPDATE 9/21/20

Ok... So I may or may not have gone a little nuts... 

And gone to every Hobby Lobby within an hours drive of where I live. Teehee.

But sales like this don't come along all the time, right?

Who cares if I'll be eating ramen for the next two weeks!
Hahaha!

Kidding!!

Here is what I got: 

MIA; Making Doll Clothes & Surviving Winter... Introducing PCR Doll Rags!

Greetings And Salutations Doll Friends!

Oh. My. Goodness.

I feel like I've just returned to planet Earth after having been away for... 

Weeks? Months? Years? Decades? 

In any case, away so long I feel like I've neglected ya'll and my little blog here despite all my wanting to get here and make posts the last few weeks. I've just felt like I've been slogging through quicksand or something. At least when it came to my entire grown-up 'To-Do' list of basics...

However, one thing I kept hearing from the Spirit as I was trying to keep my head above the water/quicksand was 

"Just do what you can do and do it as well as you can..." 

So...

I sewed in an attempt to keep my rattled nerves from coming apart at the seams! Also, to continue to teach myself some quick techniques and inexpensive cloth source options so I could pass the techniques and cloth source option ideas along to you fine folks, my sweet readers..

Another objective of my weeks months (?) long sewing frenzy was to start making a few of said doll clothes to sell in an upcoming Etsy Shoppe!

Or that's the plan...

My Doll Clothes 'line' is going to be called 

*insert-drum-roll-here*

Penniless Caucasian Rubbish Doll Rags!

Cos I have a weird sense of humor and it makes me giggle every time I think of it and...

I'll take my giggles where I can find them, lately. Eh?

The idea behind them is to sell very simple basics that can coordinate with other simple basics so, together, the items can help bulk up a doll wardrobe and provide as many style options as possible from each item. Therefore, most of the items will be separates, tops and bottoms or skirts and I want to try and make a great deal of it reversable as well so you can get two looks out of one item! So that's my working concept anyway...

One inexpensive cloth option that I took a bit of a risk with but was happily surprised by...? These 12x12 inch quilters blocks I got on Amazon. You get 50 different squares, no duplicates and mostly small and unique patterns. The only tricky part is that this size of fabric doesn't really lend itself to any manner of pattern sewing unless you're just going to use a 'chunk' of the fabric as an accent to a fabric you have in more abundance... You'll see what I mean by that in an upcoming post when I used one panel to make two bodices with coordinating fabric otherwise...

For now, I wanted to see what I could do in a really simple way to use the fabrics by themselves... And... I came up with a really simple skirt you can make using the blocks.

. Quick caveat: mind you I didn't pre-wash the fabrics... That may be a huge no-no but all I read on the reviews of the fabric on Amazon said that they frayed rather badly when they were prewashed and so I decided I'd sew with them first, using the zig-zag to keep any frays from ruining the finished product. I hope. I haven't laundered any of the finished skirts yet but plan to soon just to see how they stand up... But for now, especially if you're an adult collector like myself and likely won't need to launder your doll skirts very often, this might be a nifty way to get cute skirts in fabrics I literally don't think you'll find anywhere else. Fifty unique skirts, if you're willing to make that many, for less than $22!! (Well, not counting the thread...) That's not bad at all... Eh?

I, of course, fell in love with the kookiest of the bunch and set to work right away!! I literally giggle every time I look at the bear fabric you see above and hate to report I'll probably have to keep that skirt for myself because I just love it.... LOL 

That might be a problem actually with my upcoming Etsy store plans; 

"Oh I like this one too much to sell!!?" 

Just kidding!! I'll be good! I'll post it for sale and if it doesn't sell, it's mine! 

Oh wait..... LOL LOL LOL 

Can't tell I've been locked in four walls too long can you? I've begun to LOL at my own jokes. Thank goodness it's mid-March. 

Actually the winter has thawed but now my whole state is flooded... I am lucky, I am one of the few without problems other than taking on a bit of water in our basement... Pray for Nebraska if you don't mind, ok? I can't even wrap my mind around all the destruction the water has created. Mother Nature can really be a monster sometimes I am telling you. We are supposed to be getting even more rain today... So, yes, please pray if you're so inclined to be a praying person. 

(Which I highly recommend because Jesus rocks! but I digress yet again...)

Anyway, so back to the skirts... What I did was... 

I cut them in half exactly at the middle which made two 6x12 inch pieces, then I sewed the two pieces together to make a really long 6x24inch piece, see below:

Then pressed my seams open (because my Granny taught me right and it makes the end product much nicer and makes running the elastic through the eventual casing much easier! 

Next I zigzagged around the entire outside perimeter to prevent fraying and so that I would not loose as much length in the skirt from having to turn it under twice when hemming and/or creating the casing for the elastic at the top of the skirt. If that makes sense at all. I suppose you could also use a serger (spell?) but I don't own one nor do I know how to operate one and just looking at them kind of stresses me out... How do you even thread all that thread and where? So maybe a serger owner can help me by clarifying it it would work the same? 

So here you see the bear fabric all zig-zagged. 

All of them zig-zagged and ready for hems and casings... 

Did I mention I generally always sew things at least a few at a time. Having been a prior rubber stamper, I got used to doing 'productions' of things and it just seems nearly as easy to make 2-4 of an item as it is to make one... Right? Not to mench, the upcoming Etsy store will not stock itself. 

I sewed the hem 1/2 inch and the casing 3/4inch. I used the Dritz Easy Hem I got at a garage sale once... they work like a charm! Well, at least they make hemming a lot less annoying!! YouTube likely has lots of videos explaining how they work so I'll let you check them out if you're interested. 

This fabric was another favorite and one I'll have a hard time selling... What can I say? I love kooky and strange and wholly original fabrics and how much more original can you get than these whimisical kitty cats on bright yellow background? I love it!

Here's a better shot of the bear fabric one... I just love it. 

Here is Layla showing you the other 'side' of her reversable top... That's what I mean about wish that Penniless Caucasian Rubbish Doll Rags will be able to have as many of the items be reversable as possible. What could be more fun than having two tops in one? Eh? Well... I suppose there could be a lot more fun things than that but... Still, nifty and something I would've loved in my doll clothes as a girl. I had ONE reversable cape my Granny made and it's still an all time favorite of all my doll clothes. 

Here are Carissa, Taryn and Harper modeling more tops and skirts. 

(The pants Harper is wearing and leggings Carissa has on are ones I purchased, I didn't make them... I do plan to attempt pants soon though...)

I've made a few blunders... If you look at the fabric on Harpers top? The pattern is upside down. Ugh. I did that more than once and on more than one kind of item. You'd think it'd be a mistake you only make once but when I end up cutting like six items out at a time, I sometimes get in a hurry and... 

Upside down birds happen. 

Oops. 

Did I mention I am going to keep my mistakes? LOL

Maybe it's on purpose afterall? 

KIDDING!

Second batch of skirts...

And some of the finished products that I just didn't get a chance to have the models put on...

(I showed more about the top in this post,)

So I'll keep you posted about the Etsy Store as I work on getting it up and running!

Once again, I am out of time!

Better run!

XXOO
Heather

PZAS Toys Doll Clothes Wardrobe Sets Are An Amazing Deal!!

Doll Friends!

I've recently discovered some doll clothes that I think are just fabulous... Well priced, well made, cute & classic styles, coordinating wardrobe all for a reasonable price! 

I got the  PZAS Toys Doll Underwear Set first and it was on sale for $5.50 with the $4.00 off coupon that's still on there as I type this... They arrived in this adorable little 'suitcase' box! What a great gift this would be to a doll lover!! So many of my dolls have gone without undies because I just don't have enough pairs for everyone. So when I got this box I just went around my doll room picking up dolls that were going commando and put them on. I think when my Doll Mad Money is renewed I will pick up a few more sets especially if they keep that coupon on there! 

Here is how they are packaged when they arrive, don't they look just like the Hanes or Froot-O-Loom panties you see at Walmart? Love it!

Each pair is different and there are even some 'fun' panies like the darker purple flowered ones and the pink-zebra print ones. They come mostly in regular cotton but the pink-zebras and a few others were 'silky' material. I love that they even have little bows! Such attention to detail! They really are well made. 

Here is Electra modeling the white ones with a pink bow. Tolly Tot's (the brand Electra is) are a bit on the slim side, somewhere between American Girl/Our Generation and Journey Girls. 

So I tried them on one of my more 'full bodied' dolls to see how they fit and... They fit great! They are stretchy and so accomidated her just fine. So cute!

So next I figured I'd try some of their actual doll clothes... I started with the PZAS Toys Doll Clothes Seven Outfit Set. I forgot to take a photo of the front of the box but just imagine the same front as the panties box only it said "Complete Wardrobe Makeover Seven Outfit Set" Or something along those lines instead. 

I was blown away by the quality and the fact that each outfit was in it's own plastic bag! You could even buy a set and break it up between several girls to make fabulous party favor gifts for a doll party or something. 

When I saw how great a quality the seven outfit set was and the fact that the ten outfit set was had an $8.00 coupon on it...

And two days later I had the PZAS Toys Doll Wardrobe 10 Outfit Set in hand...

Same box type as the other two only larger. 

And again, every outfit was packaged separately inside a larger clear plastic bag. Awesomeness!

Then... As I was taking them out, I thought the prints looked familiar... I was delighted to discover that several of the fabric prints that were included in the seven outfit set were in the ten outfit set! How totally cool!! Talk about coordinated oufits! 

Aren't they just fabulous classic little outfits? And with the coupon they were like $2ish an outfit! Unreal. 

So naturally I grouped the like patterened fabrics together in the modeling groups. Here we have Brooklyn, Svetlana and Pamela modeling a pretty pink grouping. 

Here we have Frann, Lake (will-be-renamed), Myfanwy and Heather modeling a blue and teal grouping...

the tops and dresses all have velcro closures in back.

Here we have Panda, Pastel, Dare and Susannah modeling a flowered fabric grouping. 

Claretta, Dora, Courtney and Samantha-Noel are modeling these last few outfits besides the swimsuit. The two red patterned outfits actually seem to have a pair of matching panties in the panties set! How fun!

And Meeka is modeling the swimsuit! Dora and Samantha-Noel jumped in the first photograph so she'd feel less awkward... 

It's a cute swimsuit and fits well. 

So I don't think you  can go wrong with these adorable sets! 

Better run!
XXOO
Heather