Echinacea!

She is finished! My beautiful dryad girl!

I don't have that much to say except LOOOKIEEEEEEE!

 

I wound up not taking process photos of the flower crown and skirt ferns. If you're really curious, I'll just tell you. If you're not curious, suffer. I cut up a green t shirt into strips and stretched it out to the edges curled in on themselves n wouldn't fray. Then I sewed 3 strips together at one end, braided them until they were long enough to go around the doll's head, and sewed the free ends and the bound ends together.

Then I dug through my box of fake flowers from when flower crowns were a trend in 2014, and found small ones, and poked them in between the strands of the braid, dabbing a little tacky glue on the backside where the stem poked out. When the glue was dry I trimmed the stems. It was pretty genius, I say.

And the skirt ferns came from that same box, but I poked their stems in between the brown stitches where I sewed on the waistband. Nothing really keeping them there but tension. Hope they stay.

 

In other terrific dolly news, I visited an old boss/teacher/friend of mine after several years of not seeing her, and I was telling her about all my art projects, including the Echinacea project, and she revealed that she collects AG dolls too! She couldn't take me inside to show me her collection cause covid, but she sent me pictures later. Do you know how rare it is to meet another doll lover in real life? Super rare. I think she's the first one, actually, other than my younger cousin who got me into them in the first place. Do you know how rare it is to meet an AG doll lover older than my parents? Super duper rare! And of course she's indoctrinating her new granddaughter into AG with a Bitty Baby.

Newest cutie and sewing adventures!

 Whaddup gang! the gang is small. There's like one of you. Hi, Quinnley! *waves*

It seems American Girl released new dolls when I wasn't looking. Courtney the 80's girl caught me by surprise already- I went to the Seattle AG place back in the winter before it closed (*sheds a single tear for the AGIG meetups that were held there*) and picked up her bowling-alley-carpet-lookin pieces. Love that. Who knows when these new Truly Mes came out, but when I saw that 89 had streaks of blue and green in brown hair, I HAD to have her. My hair is blue and green and brown too!!!

I just ADORE it. Ive been infodumping to my non-doll collector friend about this and even she agrees that this hair is majestic af.

But the thing about getting new dolls is that I HAVE to have a name and personality or backstory picked out beforehand, otherwise I will just have a hunk of vinyl I know nothing about.

So! Her name is Echinacea and she's going to be a dryad. Now I know the name of a flower doesn't seem quite right for a tree spirit, but I knew it had to start with an E and be nature-inspired, and it was the best I could come up with even after looking through official latin plant species names and greek mythological figure names.

 

Now what I'm going for is like.... renaissance faire costume. But, strangely enough, Etsy doesn't have any doll outfits that are cute, the aesthetic I want, well-fitting, and in my price range. So I have to make my own.

To start out, I have a duplicate of Josefina's Beforever meet outfit, since my cousin and I had some of the same things. So I took the Josefina camisa and dyed it this teal with some RIT dye I found in the garage. And I used a seam ripper to take out the ruffles on the sleeves. Thinking about doing the same thing with the neckline. We'll see.

 

And I want a skirt and I want it to be made out of leaves! Maybe that's aiming a little high.

For this, I took a fat quarter from the quilting store that had been floating around my room for a while. I cut a circle out of the middle. If I REALLY cared, I would have measured around her waist to find the circumfrence of the circle I needed, divided by pi to find the diameter, and divided THAT in half to find the radius so I could measure that distance out from the center of the square in 4 directions and then draw a circle connecting those points. But I didn't really care and instead used my patented Cut And Hope Method. Works every time! (works maybe half the time.)

 

To make the waistband, I cut a chunk off the fat quarter that was uhhh more than 2 inches wide? and happened to be a bit longer than her waist measurement. This is pure dumb luck, people. The Cut And Hope Method is really serving me for this project. So I folded that in half lengthwise, and then tucked the edges up into the fold so there are no raw edges. This may be called bias tape. But it may not. Its not cut on the bias or anything. Then I sandwiched the top edge of the skirt in between them.

Got it all together with a cute running stitch and brown embroidery thread.

 

Ok but now what will she wear as a top? I felt like it should be brown. And I had some brown felt! lucky me.

So I made this... What is this? A corset? A bustier? A vest? I'm calling it a vest. 

I made this vest by tracing the top half of a t-shirt pattern and cutting it down to size using Guess and Check. This is a real method that 4th graders use to do math. It is a real method I use to go about my life. Anywho felt stays together pretty nice and won't fray, so I wasn't worried about raw edges.

But to get the pieces together, I used cross stitches, which makes for EXCELLENT detail work if i do say so myself.

 

 

The final two steps were making closures for these clothing pieces. I poked holes with the fattest embroidery needle I had down the front of the vest, and threaded this leather lacing from an old bead kit through.

This was also my first time doing a button. I cut that hole and bound up the edges myself. I'm mad skilled. Ran all the way through the woods to my grandma's house to dig through her button box and found that lovely redwood button. The vibes are impeccable.

But this outfit isn't done yet! I still want it to be made of leaves! I'm gonna poke stems into the waistband. Oh and I wanna make her a flower crown! So tune in next time for more sewing excitement!

-Gwen

Andie and Rylan

Pride month is over. Like Way, way over. But here are Rylan and Andie, as gay and as proud of it as ever. So nice of that rainbow to show up for them ; )

I added it in PhotoscapeX, some free editing software that I'm trying to replace Aperture with. Aperture won't even open anymore. Has a little grayed out "no" symbol over its icon in the dock. Guess its finally truly dead. Photoscape x is pretty fun though. More features like adding rainbows.

 

(reminder to give your gf a smooch on she forehead)

 

Another one I've been considering trying is Photopea, which, i hear, is just photoshop copied element for element. Pretty poggers. But idk how to use photoshop so there will be a learning curve for using photopea too. If I learn how to use the clone stamp tool, then I can start using sticks to prop dolls up and have them do more dynamic poses.

 

This guitar is the only part of Tenney's collection I liked. Its exclusively Rylan's now. She likes to play Brandi Carlile covers on it. Here, she was singing Caroline. Now, she is practicing Wherever Is Your Heart. Andie tries to sing along, but she isn't any good. Not that Rylan cares- she thinks her girlfriend has the cutest voice in the world and is enamored just at her trying.

Happy pride month every month from Andie and Rylan! Long live the lesbians!!

-Gwen

Lily by the Kiwi

What up gang its been a BILLION years since I've posted. 

I've been in college and have had mental health issues like mad. WHOOP! But I still love my dolls and instagram is such a hard-to-look-at platform. So here I am.

 

The weather was GORGEOUS today and I just got back from a high school graduation party for one of my younger sibling's friends. I've talked to the same 8 people (my immediate family and my college roommates) for a year and a half, so I went just to have some novelty and socializing. There was yummy pizza and cookies, and I chatted with my old 8th grade english teacher and my elementary school librarian.

 

My family went off to another person's graduation party and I stayed home, one party is plenty for me. But the light was so nice outside, and the shadows were so bright, that I was suddnly struck by the urge to take doll pics again. Well, the urge is always there, but the energy and brainpower isn't. I'm on new meds now so I hope that this wanting-to-do-things streak will keep up.

 

Here's Lily in my favorite outfit for her under our big kiwi... tree? bush? Its a whole bunch of vines climbing up this pole by our deck, and it was pretty scrawny the first 3 years we had it, but now its branched out into this huge vine monster waving many arms and tendrils in the air. I love it.

Hope any of you still out there are enjoying the weather in your area. Monday is supposed to be 90. YEW!

Gwen

A snowy walk

Rylan and Andie went on a walk in the snow a few months ago, when we had a thick blanket of snow all over the property. It was such a nice break from the soggy deadness of winter.

Andie is wearing the fair isle sweater outfit, that had that nice puffy jacket sold seperately or something. Its easily one of my favorite AG winter outfits. Rylan is wearing a Lorilizgirlsanddolls flannel. It is my favorite Etsy purchace ever, but unfortunately Loriliz is no longer active. Her mittens are AG, but I don't know from what outfit, likely before I started collecting in 2013.

They breifly debated making a snowman, but decided it was too darn cold for that and decided on walking instead. 

Maybe they shared a snowy smooch, who's to say

In this one, I'm unsure if Andie fell over or if she's trying to make a snow angel. Whatever it is, Rylan is egging her on, or laughing at her for falling. 

Another shot of the abandoned snowman endeavor.

Bye from Andie and Rylan!

Do you miss the snow as soon as it melts or do you get so much snow you are glad when it leaves?

We don't get that much snow in western washington.

Kaya in the ferns

Howdy fellas! It's been a fat minute since I've posted, but worry not, I'm still interested in dolls. I've just been mostly working on maintaining my instagram since it doesn't ruin the quality of my photos.

This picture of Kaya, for example, I worked hard on focusing and making clear and crisp for your viewing pleasure, but dumb ol blogger had to go and make it grainy. I mean, It could just be my computer, but these were clean when I uploaded them but got grainy as soon as I added them to the post.

Now I know a lot of you aren't on here anymore, but if any of you doll bloggers are still out there, I'd love for you to tell me how to fix this stupid ass problem. I want the work I put into my photos to be reflected on the screen.

Also, aren't these boots cute?! They're from Kit's gardening outfit. Not too fond of the rest of the outfit but these boots? Damn I love em.

These pictures were taken out by a lovely mossy boulder in my yard. Most things are still too dead from winter for acceptable photos, but lucky for us, moss and ferns stay green year round.

I may have posted about this previously, but Kaya belongs to my cousin Barrett, who's house is being remodeled. I get to use her dolls while she gets her room put together. Kaya is easily my favorite in her collection. I've photographed her before by some different ferns further back on the property, wearing pieces from Isabelle's collection. Pastels look nicer on brown skin, I think.

That being said, I'm not too fond of this outfit. The light blue turtleneck might have been a mistake. But the boots and yellow Our Generation jacket really make me happy.

Welp, Kaya had a fun time out fiddling around in the ferns, and I had a good time taking pictures.

Hope anyone reading this has a good day!

Signing off,

Gwen

The arrival of Aurora (and many others)

Up the front walkway abloom with late august lavender came a stranger. No dread arose in her chest from being someplace new and unfamiliar, instead it was near bursting with excitement. Everywhere she looked she saw possibility and beauty. And everywhere she looked she noticed what plants were growing and which needed attention.

She grinned and nodded at everything on the front porch. Teal bench, little old teapot, hostas making a big leafy sea. There were high hopes to be had for this new home. Coming upon the door, she went to knock, but found that it swung open under her knuckles. Before she could think "that's odd"-

The door was yanked open to reveal a blond girl, who immediately spouted greetings and questions. 

"Hello! Welcome in, welcome in! Was your journey here uneventful? My name's Lily. The rest of the house is here to meet you. What's your name?"

When the blond girl Lily paused for breath, our stranger managed to wedge "Hi I'm Aurora." In before the next barrage of words began.

"Behind me here is Rylan, Leo, Cameryn, and Andie. Say hello everyone!"

There was a staggered chorus of "hello" "hi" "howdy" and suchlike.

Peering inside beyond Lily and the door, Aurora saw more faces than she ever expected, including one who was studying the ground from atop a cardboard box. She started inside, unsure of what to do with herself or her stuff now that there was such a large greeting party.

"Uhh, Just so you know, everyone, there's like. A whole bunch of girls coming up the driveway. I saw them on my way up." Said Aurora to the room at large. 

"Oh yeah that'll be our cousins, we're expecting them too. Let's go out and greet them!" Chattered Lily. "And Andie? Get down from that box, please."

Aurora watched as Lily skipped out the door, shouting "Yoo-hoo!" and waving. She was followed quickly by Andie, who had slid off the box grumbling and was now being tailed by the girl with the afro, who must have been Rylan. She looked around the inside now. They were in a living room, and she was accompanied only by Cameryn and Leo. She wondered vaguely who was who, especially since both seemed like boys names but one appeared to be wearing a skirt. Oh well. One could never assume these things. 

Presently, Aurora wandered outside to have a look at the cousins. Four seemed like a lot of cousins. But then again, even one cousin would be a lot for her. Lily was hugging everyone and cooing "how are youuuuuu?!" While Andie was smiling distantly and patting whoever was nearest on the shoulder. Rylan stood by holding Andie's hand.

She was surprised when Lily dashed past her viewpoint by the flower pot.

"Hey everybody! Come get up on the bench so we can all see each other and introduce ourselves! We've got like five new people today!"

So everybody made their way over to the bench and did their best to scramble up. Cameron and Leo wandered out of the house and said a pleasant hello to those they past on their way up the bench by way of the side brace on the legs.

After a lot of kerfuffle and hubbub, everyone was situated on the bench and ready to listen. Aurora stuck her bag between her legs. No one had told her where she should put it yet.

"All right, I'll go first." said Lily. Nobody disputed. "I'm Lily. Our BFG's name is Gwen, and I'm her second doll." 

"Hold up, what's a BFG?" asked Aurora

"Stands for Big Friendly Giant, like the Roald Dhal book. But in our case its our Big Friend Gwen." Somebody answered. 

Lily continued "Andie is my sister, and Mckenna and Maddie are my cousins. Andie, Your turn."

"Ok uh." Andie said to the armrest opposite her. "I'm Andie, Lily's older sister. This is my girlfriend Rylan. I was BFG's first doll, and uh. Mckenna and Maddie are my cousins. Yeah. You go now, Ry."

"Howdy, everybody, I'm Rylan!" said Rylan cheerfully. "I am everybody's housemate and Andie is my girlfriend, aaaand I'm nobody's cousin and nobody's sister. Let's continue."

The one in the green shirt and denim skirt started speaking. "Hi! We are Leo and Cameryn. I don't think the Seattle dolls have met us before, but we live here on swamp road with everyone else. Lots of housemates means lots of frenemies." 

"Hold up. Which one of you is Cameryn and Which one of you is Leo?" Asked Aurora.

"I'm Leo." said Leo the green shirt and denim skirt. And next to me is Cameryn. She doesn't like talking very much. Except to me. It's chill."

"Leo, are you aware you are wearing a skirt?" asked one of who were presumably the Seattle dolls.

"Yeah man. My shorts are in the wash but I look great!"

Realizing it was her turn, Aurora took a breath. "Hey all! I'm aurora and I just got here. I guess I'm your housemate now. Uhh. yeah." She bit her lip and stared at her feet, embarrassed she couldn't come up with something better.

The girl next to her went. "I'm Maddie. Mckenna is my sister and Andie and Lily are my cousins."

Mckenna introduced herself in a similar way, adding that she loved gymnastics.

When it was her turn, Saige said "I'm Saige and I live with Mckenna, Maddie, and Kaya. And I can read y'all's natal charts if you want. I don't know why we didn't add our sun signs in here."

"Yeah yeah we know you're an astrology nerd, Saige." Said Kaya. "Anyway, I'm Kaya and I live with Mckenna, Maddie, and Saige. But I guess we live here now. It might be fun."

~~~~

I bought Aurora at the very end of august when I was staying with my aunt for a drama class.My cousin, Barrett, doesn't use her dolls much anymore so they are staying with me to make room in her house while they remodel the kitchen.