Dolly Interlude

A week or two before Costume College, I went to the St. Vincent De Paul thrift store up in Port Orchard.  Probably combining that stop with an errand to Joann Fabrics since the nearest one to me is just down the street from that particular thrift store.  And there I found, for $8, an American Girls doll.

I'd known of them before, but my interest had probably been piqued by Lady Rebecca, who posts both costuming and American Girl doll videos on YouTube.  (And I did see her a few times at CoCo... and on the Sunday she had her Kirsten doll with her, and was cosplaying to match her.)

So for $8 I bought myself a dolly.  (And I can hear my mother groaning about how I am just like my grandmother.)

I let her sit on top of the toys shelving until I got back, then lint-rollered away the dust that had been on her in the store cabinet, and set to work detangling her hair.  There are no "before" photos.  Why am I so bad at taking before photos?  And I set to researching which one she was.  Apparently her name is Nicki Fleming, one of the "modern" dolls.  Also apparently the patterns that The Pleasant Company printed and sold for the dolls back in the 1990s are available to download online.  Which I did.  Plus I also had a handful of 18" doll size patterns I'd picked up at the thrift store at some point.  So, using the "Kirsten's Pretty Clothes" pattern, I made a few things out of scraps of linen left over from Costume College sewing.

Chemise and pantaloons.

Petticoat - actually not using the pattern because I didn't realize there was one for this.  The lace I got at CoCo.

An unlined red dress, made from a remnant in the bins of fabric I hold onto and tote around for the quilt guild.  Trimmed with baby rick-rack.

And an apron to go over the dress.

After watching several Sewing with Nancy videos with Joan Hinds, about making 18" doll clothes, I decided to try lining the bodice to make several more seams enclosed, and thus cut down on the need for as much fray-check.  So then came this dress:

Which has nearly invisible growth tucks.  And, hey, Nicki now has shoes and socks!

Still, I hit one or two small snags, which did not render the dress unwearable.  But I figured out how to resolve those on the next dress, and made this outfit from a very-happy-to-fray tweed I picked up at Costume College's Bargain Basement:

And a matching hat!  I accidentally cut the skirt where it was on the fold, thus that bit pieced into the center front.  There wasn't enough fabric to cut another skirt piece out.

So I think now I've finally figured out this sewing-for-dolls thing (she says confidently, haha...), and with her mother's approval, have bought Niecelet a used Kirsten doll (her favorite of the AGs thus far) for a Christmas gift.  She'll have arrived, stained and naked, by the time we get back from England, and I'll give her and Nicki a thorough cleaning and destaining then (Nicki has a mark on her lip, and one on her leg), and make some more clothes.