A Brief Non-Doll Interlude

Since I talked about my daughter's Homecoming dress, I thought I'd show you how it turned out.

 

This pre-ruffled fabric turned out great for the 20s look. It gave the movement and visual interest of fringe without me having to sew on yard after yard of fringe. Also, she didn't have to worry about pulling off strings when she sat down. We found the headband at Claire's (teenage girl heaven.) It's meant to be worn like a regular headband, but she wore it down to get the flapper feel.

Here's my other daughter.

 

She already had the dress and shoes (actually the shoes used to be mine from before she was even born.) We added the black feather boa from JoAnn Fabrics, a black sequined headband and black feathery clip on hair piece from Claire's, plus the big earrings. We ended having a lot of fun with the theme of A Night at Gatsby's, even though most of the other girls just wore the usual dresses, and the high heels they took off the minute they got to the dance. But we've never been afraid to be different, and it made us happy, so it was fine.

One last picture: since I will be sharing some of my sewing for dolls here, I will also be including some pictures of my sewing area. I don't have a whole room, but I do have the back part of Mr. BTEG's and my bedroom exclusively for my sewing stuff, which is still nice. I took a picture of my sewing table with both leaves out. I usually have only the right leaf out, because as you can see, the window is completely inaccessible with that leaf on the left hand side open. But I needed the extra room to cut out the stretchy knit fabric for the dress without having excess fabric hanging down the side and messing up the cutting.

 I'm going to make this week easier on myself, so you should see some doll stuff soon.

Days Flying By

Here I am starting up a new blog, and I've been too busy lately to do much of anything. My eldest daughter is in her senior year of high school, and consequently her last marching band season. She has practice three days a week and the football game Friday nights. Sometimes she also has marching band events on Saturdays. I'm trying to go to every football game and every event. I'll miss marching band. It's been a fun four years.

My youngest daughter is back into her dance routine. She is involved in seven dance classes a week, including pointe. It's great to see her body getting so strong.

Both of my daughters are going to the homecoming dance next Saturday. The theme this year is The Great Gatsby. The three of us have had fun picking out 20's style accessories, but that does take up time. I am also sewing The Dancer's dress, so that's more time. I'm hoping it will turn out well, though.

I have been doing a little bit of doll stuff, mostly sewing. And at the moment I don't have much to show for it. :(  I'll have to keep working this week, and hopefully get some pictures up soon at any rate.

Pre-Mattel American Girl Samantha

Meet Samantha! She is the only American Girl doll I own, and she was made in Germany for Pleasant Company, which I guess makes her a little bit special. My guess is that I received her for Christmas of 1996. I could take pictures of her body, but it would probably make more sense for me to borrow my daughter's Samantha and show comparison pictures. In the meantime, I will say that my Samantha's body is relatively chunky compared to more modern dolls. I purchased Nellie's Spring Party dress for Samantha, and it is rather tight. In fact, I can't get the Velcro completely shut.

Picture courtesy of American Girl Wiki