Spring Time

A glance outside from the window, you see partial sun, green grass, seemingly nice weather. Step outside, and there's fifteen mile per hour winds, a temperature of forty degrees, and foreboding, dark rain clouds in the distance. Are you sure it's spring?

The dolls had been dying to get outside, so I had scheduled a "spring party" outdoors with the new picnic table this weekend. Unfortunately, on the account of rain, the spring party was transferred indoors. Though inside, Sonali, Gwen, Nicki, Emily, Marisol, Ruthie, Mia, and Jess still had a good time. They talked, ate cookies, and played games. The silly girls even began singing! :P



It figures that the rain stopped as soon as the party was coming to a close. Either way, I wasn't complaining. Everyone quickly headed outside to splash in puddles and pose for some photos.

You can see all the spring photos here. The pictures included in the post are just a teaser :)
Models:
-Ruthie Smithens: Electric Turquoise Drawstring Dress by The Heritage Clothesline
-Nicki Fleming: Eyelet Spring Dress by The Heritage Clothesline
-Jess McConnell: Precious Pink Party Dress by Melody Valerie Couture
-Sonali Matthews: Dainty Dots Dress by Melody Valerie Couture
-Gwen Thompson: Chrissa's Meet Dress by American Girl
-Emily Bennett: Kit's Blue Bell Dress by The Heritage Clothesline
-Marisol Luna: Flower Garden Dress by American Girl
-Mia St. Clair: Chrissa's Sundress Dress paired with Sonali's Meet T-Shirt by American Girl

As you may or may not notice, we have two new dresses from the Heritage Clothesline. Micah does an amazing job, the quality, customer service, and price are great. The Electric Turquoise Drawstring dress is shown on Ruthie, and the Eyelet Spring dress is shown on Nicki. A big thank-you to The Heritage Clothesline!

Thanks for reading,
-Brooke

The surprise!

I'm posting this late, but, as promised, a post on our surprise items! Picture heavy post to follow.

The surprise was... couture! Two Heritage Clothesline dresses to be exact. Brooke ordered Samantha her ice cream dress and Jess a lovely, red frock. Both are stunning, and we are so happy to have these two new dresses for the holidays!


First is the ice cream dress, inspired by book illustrations.

It is a lovely, crisp, and white with beautiful black ribbon detailing. Very, very pretty! Amazing quality, and looks just like it does in the book! This has to be one of the prettiest Edwardian-era dresses I've seen, even better than those made by American Girl! Samantha looks so beautiful with her dark hair and eyes against the white dress. This dress seems to work for both winter and spring, which is very nice. Samantha is so happy to have her new dress!














Next is the Toy Soldier red dress, which was promptly claimed by Jess. I think it looks very nice on her, red looks very great with her coloring. The dress is made from a rich, red fabric that has white lace detailing. Everything is absolutely gorgeous! This is a great holiday dress.














Well, these aren't the greatest pictures. Sorry for not posting much these past few days!
-Avery

Our first couture piece!

How ironic! If you read my earlier post "Hi!", I was complaining about how long it was taking for our first couture piece (Kit's Blue Bell Dress) to arrive. It came today, only a few hours after I posted! Is that weird or what?

Well, I'll hand this over to Brooke now:

Kit was so thrilled to receive her dress! Micah (heritage4 on the doll boards) is an excellent seamstress! This is an amazing dress. It has a white and blue pattern as the the main fabric. It looks so perfect for the 30's, almost like a chicken feed sack dress that was talked about a lot in Kit's books. The collar, cuffs, and ribbon belt detail were a blue check pattern, which complemented the other fabric really well. It also included a hair ribbon, which was the blue check pattern too.

The quality is excellent! She paid great attention to detail. Everything about the dress was perfect! We're so happy it's finally here! Our first doll couture piece experience was great!

Naturally, I took Kit outside for a quick photo shoot. It's hard to describe, but this dress almost needs to be worn outdoors! I was outside snapping some quick shots, but I was getting some strange looks from my neighbor next door who was mowing his lawn... haha! :P

~Avery~

and Brooke <3

Couture vs Custom?

Guess what? We ordered our first piece of "doll couture" today! It is the Blue Bell Dress, made by AGPT member heritage4! We couldn't have chosen a better outfit because it looks like there are no more for sale! The dress will mainly be for Kit, the poor thing hasn't had her dress changed since JANUARY! :O That sounds pretty horrible, doesn't it? :( The dress was specifically made for her, following the styles of the 1930's. It goes great with her dark blue eyes. So this will be Kit's piece of couture, but I think Ruthie and Emily will also wear it, since they're both around that time period too. They're all quite good friends because Emily doesn't have Molly around, and she fits in with Ruthie and Kit. I can't wait til it arrives, because I have a feeling Brooke will let me model for blog pictures! The picture is from AGPT member heritage4.

Today we also made 4 designs for the Liberty Jane contest. One we really, really like, but we're almost positive it won't win because it involves a specific print and embroidery. So, Brooke's going to try to make it herself! I'm pretty sure it won't turn out to look like much, since Brooke hasn't sew in years, but hey, we can try!

With Brooke's new found addiction/obsession with doll couture, her custom dolls are kind of being put on hold.

She was really looking forward to making a #25 with gray eyes. She was *this* close to buying one from a board member. But, Brooke fiddled around too much and couldn't make up her mind, and the doll sold. So ever since then, she's been wanting to make a #25 with gray eyes. We were going to do an eye swap with Ruthie, so Ruthie would have her long awaited brown eyes. There were also another custom doll that she's been looking at on the dolls boards, a #24 with #23's wig. But all that's been put on hold. With limited quantities of the handmade outfits, she's been putting her focus more on those.

Pictures from AGPT member new2ag.

They're such pretty dolls! The #25 with gray eyes would be named Katy, and the #24 with #23's wig (or you can think of it as a #23 with brown eyes) would be named Demi.

Sorry my posts have slightly off topic the past few days, with all this about couture and custom dolls, etc. I promise I'll get back to the "normal" posts that are about moi.

On a different note, it is already July 1st! Where did June go? It is hard to believe I've only been on summer vacation for 16 days, it feels like an eternity!

~Avery~

Doll couture-It's addicting! New JLY releases

No joke, doll couture is addicting. Thanks to the wonderful doll couture blogs (The Couture Review, The Doll Wardrobe, Damsels-In-Dress, etc.), Brooke and all of us dolls have officially been sucked up into the couture world! The thing we like is that the hand made doll couture items are really better quality than the outfits from American Girl! American Girl used to be a great company, but now the historical outfits have gone way down hill. Modern, JLY, and GOTY things are still okay, though. But where are all the details in the historic outfits from the Pleasant Company days gone?


We like way too much stuff :P As of right now, we haven't officially ordered anything. But we're looking at quite a large amount of outfits, which include:



Liberty Jane outfits by Cinnamon Miles are amazing. Yes, they're modern, but so adorable! We want to order Spring #7. I know I've already posted these pictures, but just for reference again. THESE PICTURES ARE NOT MINE, they're from Liberty Jane Ebay listings.Summer #2 is sold out, but once Cinnamon gets back from vacation she says that she'd be more than happy to work something out with different fabrics for a similar outfit.

The other modern outfits we like are from Melody Valerie Couture. You can visit their Etsy here.
We really like their Pink Spring Party Dress and Dainty Dots Dress. There is only one left of each, so I don't think we'll get them. They're really pretty though!

There's also a lovely dress for Kit that heritage4 from AGPT is taking commissions for. The blue in the fabric goes perfectly with her lovely blue eyes. THIS IS NOT MY PICTURE, it is from heritage4 and modeled by her Kit.

We're also looking at some Dollies' Dress Maker outfits by Cindy Hernandez. THESE ARE NOT MY PICTURES, they're form the Dollies' Dress Maker website. We're looking at some for our Olivia (PM Samantha):

You can read about this dress at The Couture Review by Sitara's Sonali, here.

Nellie:

Emily:

Poor Emily only has her meet outfit for period clothing! We're looking at this dress, but we're not sure about the color with her ginger hair and blue eyes.

and Ruthie:

Kit and Ruthie want a few other outfits too. I seem to find a lot of clothing from the Sam and Kit's eras that I really like. Here are the extra outfits for Kit and Ruthie. The pink one I believe is Damsels-In-Dress by Jean Marie (the link to her blog is at the beginning of the post), but I'm not positive. The other brown dress I have no idea, but it's beautiful. These ARE NOT MY PICTURES, they are FarmHouseGirl's from AGPT. Her custom Ruthie with brown eyes is modeling.

We're also thinking about giving Ruthie an eye swap so that she has brown eyes instead of grey. I think that if she had brown eyes, she would look a lot better, and be the *real* story illustrations Ruthie. One of my next posts will be about custom dolls.



Here's a dress I like for Samantha. I have no idea who makes it either. THIS IS NOT MY PICTURE, it is FarmHouseGirl's. It is modeled by her Rebecca.

Doll couture is slightly expensive, but in my opinion, it's worth it too pay a little extra for something hand made in the US. That is the beautiful thing about having a job, you have spending money! Being a kid, relying on allowance and odd jobs to make purchases doesn't work out too well. We're definitely not getting all of these outfits, at least not right now. We're not even sure who sells a few! The plan is to try to get a couture item for each doll, mainly the historicals, and build a wardrobe of high quality, hand made items. It could take a while, to say the least! But, yes, we're addicted now. Hey, at least we're not addicted to drugs or something :P Another thing is that AG released some new Just Like You items today! Not exactly couture, but as we're on the subject of clothing, why not!? I'm not sure about the new releases. Here's my opinion on the things, sorry if I sound a little harsh:

Photographer Outfit: Very cute, but it needs a shirt under the blazer! I also don't like the beret. I wish the camera came with it. I really like the blazer, it is adorable.

Flutter Flower Outfit: I like the top and shoes, but the skirt is weird. The gatherings are funny... I do like the colors of this outfit, though.

Honey Puppy PJ's: Adorable! I like the leggings that come with it. They look very comfortable.

Wilderness Outfit: I love the top portion. The shirt and vest look great. But what is up with the pants? I don't know if I like them or not. The print just doesn't look right. The shoes should have been brown, not black.

Petal Hoodie Outfit: I love this one, it's my favorite! I'm pretty sure I'll be getting it. The hoodie and pants don't look too tight, and have mix and match potential. A very decent price, too.

Tap Dance Outfit: This looks basically like Marisol's tap outfit. Marisol will be glad to hear that, since we weren't able to get this for her. Overall, it looks pretty cute.

Jazz Dance Outfit: Again, looks a lot like Marisol's. The thing is, it really isn't a good outfit for practice or preformance. And are those purple jazz shoes? Marisol will most likely be getting this.

Sparkly Angle Costume: Pretty cute, and I like that it can be used for Halloween and Christmas, although they're two totally different holidays. Down side is that the wings don't come off, so the dress can't be used separately.

Bowling Team Set: I like the colors in this outfit, they're bright and fun. I wonder if you can order replacement part bowling pins and balls to make a bowling alley :)

Soccer Star Set: Not 2-1 anymore, but for the same price, which is too bad. I like the green/black combo. It also comes with a trophy and certificate, which I like. What I find interesting is that we ordered the old blue and white soccer outfit a few weeks ago, and instead of the white and blue ball it was supposed to come with, it came with the black and white on in this outfit...hmm!

Sporty Scooter: Kind of weird looking, if you ask me. Brooke just saw an infomercial about a human sized version of this a while ago.

Pet Portrait Studio: Over-priced! They do have a picture of Paris though! The camera should have came with the photographer outfit.

School Lunch Set: Again, over-priced! You get a plastic sandwich, applesauce, a cardboard raisin box, and a lunchbox. You could get a really nice AG or couture outfit for $28 instead of this.

Salon Chair: Basically the same as the old one, only blue instead of pink. You can get the same thing at Target for the Our Generation dolls for like, $20 vs $60.

Salon Station: Pretty expensive, but I think it's cute. I like the little extra things that come with it. I really don't think that the 9-year-old dolls and their target age owners should be this concerned with makeup and appearances though.

School Desk Set: I really like this! I think the price is reasonable, and it comes with extra things. If wish we had somewhere to put it. It's backordered until July 24th already!

Starry Doll Carrier: Pink, starry, it is what it is. Very expensive just to tote your doll around in.

Hair Care Kit: Comes with some good doll hair essentials. Kind of pricey.

Hairstyle Helper: Basically hair ties and clips, which you can get at the dollar store, in a fancy case-thing.


There's also Dress Like Your Doll and Bitty Baby things, but I don't feel the need to review those. I would have actually put the pictures of the outfits in my post, since I find that a lot easier than clicking links, but it I had so many pictures already, and that's 20-or so pictures saved on the computer that we never get around to deleting. Sorry for the excessive linking, I just needed to give credit to the people's photos. Another long post with lots of pictures!



~Avery~

PS: Look at the time! It is 3:46 AM!