Christmas is coming

We are seeing lots of visitors coming around and hope you are coming up with lots of ideas! This Christmas the only thing we are doing is outfits since we are saving for new new girl of the year. We have found a few awesome things thrifting and plan to post a Christmas picture of the treehouse, just you wait it looks amazing and it was under 5 dollars to do.

All you new to American Girl moms take a deep breath and just enjoy the process, open your eyes to a new world ha! I see things perfect doll size all the time but we have so much stuff. Remember your girls/boys will love it all.

So much to post about, so little time

The things we have coming up:

Customizing a doll

Doll makeovers 

Halloween decorating 

Our latest thrift finds 

We still love our tardis 

Making fun with off brands.

While we have amassed a fairly large doll collection (ok super large by most standards) all of our accessories and clothing are either made or bought off brand.

This camper is made by Our Generation which is a Target brand. It was 60.00 new although. if I remember correctly I either had gift cards or it was on clearance to make it much less. You can click on the picture to see the detail.

The jeep being driven by Isabelle (GOTY 2014) It is also a Our Generation item and runs about 34.99 but it is easy to find it on sale. The camper comes with a connector that goes on the jeep for hitching the camper and jeep. It was a pain to put on but worth it.

I know I still need to do an intro post with all our dolls. The dolls here are Hannah (JLY) and Isabelle.

For the price I think both of these are better priced than the AG stuff. Probably not as well made as AG things but the price tag makes it more affordable to those of us who have a budget.

My next project.

I was at Goodwill the other day and found this bed from Ikea. I paid way too much for it (12.00) but we have no Ikea close and so I bought it. ( Normally I do not spend that on things for the doll house!) I plan on trying to get measurements off of it to make more since we are getting tools soon.

It needs a mattress, bedding and a paint job. I plan on using scrap fabric and leftover paint. I don't want to put anymore than the 12 I have into it already.

I will also have an update soon on the tardis which will have SOUND soon. So excited.

This is just a teaser post until I get real pictures

We did it.

We finish our plans we started months ago. The Doctor and Amy Pond had their final adjustments late Christmas eve and the tardis, well, the tardis was done but our aurdino did not get here in time.

I only have quick Christmas pictures but I promise better ones soon.

As you notice Amy Pond's outfit changed some since the last time I posted. We have a friend who is another young whovian and that outfit went with her doll. :) We recreated the outfit Amy wears on her action figure. We never did find a pair of pants and while we liked his bowtie I found one yesterday we fell in love with (pictures below)

I am hoping to have the pictures up soon, with directions on how we made everything. Thanks for looking.

Fixing your American Girl doll hair.

I am pretty sure I have pinned every pin, googled and looked at every site and tried everything on our doll. After a bit of trial and error I found the best way for us to make our doll pretty again.

Elizabeth is the new favorite because she is Felicity's best friend and I am pretty sure L thinks if she plays with her long enough Santa will bring her Felicity. ;) But this poor hair. You can't see it is dry and frizzy, it looked terrible.

What I did to make it look like this:

1. Hot water wash with baby shampoo.

2. Low setting straightening iron (set on the lowest temp while damp!!)

3. A tiny bit of conditioning spray.

It took me about 30 minutes and my daughter was so happy at how pretty she looked!

Before

And After

I really am the worst blogger.

We are working on an 11th Dr and Amy Pond AG set.

So far we are using a Saige.

So far, so good! Her scarf will be here this week and her shirt will be made this week as well.

The Dr is being made out of a Molly.

We are also making a Tardis that will hold both dolls. Pictures to come soon.

This is our inspiration

We've been so busy.

We have not been crafting. I know, I know the horror! Life has been busy and we just haven't been able to.

The girls are getting ready to start a youtube account to do stop motion with their dolls. We've gone from 2 dolls to 13 since last Christmas. We were lucky enough to buy a lot from a local woman and selling a few of the dolls and most of the clothes allowed us to keep a majority of the dolls for the girls. I am still sewing for them and getting ready to open my Etsy shop. Mama needs more money to make more clothes :)

Here are L's two favorite creations of mine. These were done pre-sewing machine, so not my finest work but I love they are her favorites.

Kaya is a new addition to our family. I bought her used to sell and well, L fell in love with her so with us she stays. I bet lots of AG Moms can relate!

I have been a terrible blogger!

We all have those times where life just runs away from us. I've been doing some sewing but not much housing or thrifting.

My daughter had her 8th birthday party and I decided to make outfits for everyone's dolls. Seemed so much easier in my head!

My first prototype ended up being a shirt. I think Julie looks lovely in it.

 My second ended up being a skirt. At this point I was ready to throw in the towel. 

Eventually, I just made my own pattern and come up with these cute dresses. Sad for my little girl only two of her friends showed up. Boo for people who do not RSVP.

Dad knows how to protect his investment! hahaha

We had a rodeo last night in our house! Kit is a fabulous singer ;)

It is not even finished yet and I am in love!

I am going to miss Hot Mess doll when I send her to Grandma's house for sewing.

Today was the day I decided to sew. I started off easy and made a little skirt, then moved to socks (on her)  and ended with some shorts. As I sent my girls off to bed I knew I wanted to attempt something with the shirt my daughter had picked out from the thrift store (.99) size 12 and asked me to make something/anything for the doll. This was I came up with and there is so much more fabric.

The really awesome part is the top is made from the SLEEVE. I still need to add a clip to the bow and sew up the hem but I honestly couldn't hold back and had to blog asap. I knew it was a hit when she came out of bed (again) and said " OMG ITS AWESOME"

Updated house pictures!

This is Emmy (JLY) sitting in their living room. We made the couch out of foam and the chest was a .99 Goodwill find.

Other side of the living room. Obviously, we need to paint the dresser that we "think" will become the entertainment center. We are not sure yet. Dog basket and kitty house 1.00 at a thrift store here in town and the dog L calls Meatball was .49 at Goodwill.

Emmy's side of the room until we get the walls put up. Bedding is being made by Grandma and where the shoes are is usually the trundle, but I have that out to cover it. Bed-10.00

Bella's (another JLY) side of the room. In this picture you can see the trundle.

kitchen/dinning room/laundry room. So far my favorite part of the house and I am SO glad we did buy that medicine cabinet. 

Dining room full shot both dolls.

Full bedroom

Full bottom. I was sad to see whomever had the house before us got paint on the hardwood. Another thing "to do" I think next week I will hit up the craft store for "wallpaper" ;)

Thanks for looking and remember, all you have to do is click the picture to see it larger!

Today I attempted socks for the dolls.

One of the girls asked for some socks for her doll. And I decided to try and make some.

I bought these socks in a 3t for .88 at walmart.

All rolled out. I needed to decide how long I wanted them.

I put pins in knowing I would cut them down the middle of the pins.

Cut down the middle.. notice the jaggedness? Thanks to my toddler trying to help.

I then turned them inside out (should have been my first step) and sewed the line and toe section.

Finished project. One sock made one pair of socks for the doll. Next time I think I will use adult socks. For an experiment I think it turned out ok. I wont use the black ones I bought to do the same thing because I am just not loving the way they came out. I will make some soon with an adult sock and see how much I like those.

The house!

Getting it ready (ignore the floor!)

They screamed when they saw it. SCREAMED.

They did get a box of supplies and the Our Generation kitchen for Christmas so the house is pretty well stocked. We left it a blank slate so they could decorate however they want. We have already had a ton of talks over wood flooring or carpet! It is a big deal in the doll world.

Somewhat closer up image.

Last night when I went to tuck the girls in I found the house like this:

They had rearranged and boy what a mess!

I loved the little touches they had done with things we found at thrift stores.

We will be doing a tutorial on the beds with trundles soon (total cost 20.00 for two beds including trundle)

The clothes were a HUGE hit and they have asked me to make more <3

Follow us as we build their dream doll house!

We've been busy!

I read somewhere (I wish I had the link) that you can alter baby clothes to fit your AG doll, so I set out to goodwill and bought a few things to give it a try.

Dress one turned into:

For .99 we have a cute little dress or nightgown.. whatever. 

Ignore our poor model, she has been used and abused for measuring,modeling and I think she was even run over by the car!

\

I know that last dress needs to be ironed but whatever lol.

Once I felt I had it mastered I went to Thrift Town and spent 10 dollars. Nothing was over .75 (not pictured are three tanks I thought I would turn into undies or something but havent done it yet)

And my results so far ( I am not done yet!)

 

And the dress I turned into a jumper just to see if it would work:

Not bad.. not great but ok.

Note to myself or anyone else who wants to try this try to stick to newborn, 0-3 months or even preemie would work well. The "jumper" I made was from a 6-9m baby dress.

I made all these at night while watching tv, so super easy and super cute.. and even better I am going to have a wardrobe for the dolls for around 20.00. I still have other dresses to alter and turn into things and I really need to figure out how to make shirts