dearest-darlingest-dolliest

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

Great suggestion! Thank you :) Gloves might not be the worst idea for the safety-conscious!

So, I feel like I discovered a new technique for fixing up dolls’ wigs, and I’m wondering if anyone else has tried this?

Instead of doing a full-on hot water dunk, which tends to leave hair looking stick-straight, I like to boil a pot of water, let it cool for 10 minutes, and then dip the edge of a washcloth in the hot water and carefully run the wet washcloth over the doll’s wig. This did a superb job of smoothing out my Elizabeth’s hair, which was dry and frizzy, without sacrificing her lovely, gentle waves. It has also helped me to smooth hair that is closer to the wig cap, where it would be hard to fix the hair with a full-on hot water dunk.

Of course, the biggest issue here is safety: it can be hard to handle a washcloth that’s dipped in very hot water, and I have definitely come close to burning myself with this technique. I make sure to use a big cloth, only dip a small portion, and use the dry part as a shield between me and the hot part of the cloth.

I know a lot of people love the good, old fashioned hot water dunk, or using a flat iron, but neither of those techniques have worked super well for me. Meanwhile, the hot washcloth has been *chef’s kiss*

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

Pastels for Spring 💜🎀🐇

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

Happy Birthday, Addy!

The 9th of April is a special day for Addy. On the day the war finally ends, she decides that it’s finally just the right time to celebrate her birthday. 

Addy doesn’t know exactly what day she was born. “I was born in the spring. My momma know that much,” she says to her new friend, M’dear. She listens closely when M’dear suggests that Addy choose a special day, a near-perfect day, to be her birthday. 

April 9th certainly is special, but it isn’t a perfect day. M’dear says, “I’ve told you I’ve been around a long time, and I never saw such a thing as a perfect day.” If it were perfect, Addy admits to herself, then her brother Sam and sister Esther would be by her side, celebrating with her. But she knows it’s the closest thing to perfect that she’ll ever see, at least until her family is reunited.

Addy carries this banner and lantern into the streets to celebrate the end of the war. Now that it’s over, Addy has hope of reuniting with the rest of her family. She waves her banner high for everyone to see.

I made Addy’s banner for her, based on the one from her retired collection. I cut a piece of canvas and hemmed it, then sewed a sleeve for the dowel. I used a fine-tipped Sharpie pen to write the text, and used a paper stencil of the heart to make sure that the stars were lined up cleanly. I went on to eBay to look at auctions of the original banner and get an up-close look at it, to make sure I got all the letters, numbers, and stars exactly right.

This banner is also seen on the front of her book, and in the interior vignette illustrations.

For her lantern. I painted a piece of paper, folded the paper in half, cut slits on the fold, and then unfolded it and glued the edges together. I placed another paper cylinder inside, then made a strap by which it could hang from the dowel.

After everyone finishes celebrating in the streets, all the residents of the boarding house come inside to eat cherry pie and ice cream. Even Sunny comes to the table to sing hello! Mrs. Golden pulls two cherry pies from the pie cabinet, and Poppa serves vanilla ice cream to everyone. A few weeks earlier, he found an old, damaged ice cream freezer and fixed it up just in time for this celebration. 

I made Addy’s ice cream freezer with a few very simple materials; you can see how I did it here. You can read how I made Sunny and his cage here.

(If you’re wondering why there’s one slice and a whole pie, it’s because Mrs. Golden made two pies. Addy’s slice is what’s left over from the first one!)

I made the cherry pie by rolling out a crust made of baking soda clay, and laying it in this mini aluminum pie tin. The top crust is also clay. The filling is red seed beads mixed with red paint and some cornstarch to give it thickness and to stick together. 

The slice of pie is painted clay. The scoop of ice cream is a ball of clay that I poured white paint on and let harden. Then I flecked it with black paint and placed it onto the slice. The pie server is a piece of aluminum pie tin that I cut into the shape and glued onto a piece of wooden dowel. 

After everyone is finished eating, M’dear has a gift waiting at the table for Addy.  

It’s a painted tin with something special inside.

This is a small mint tin that I painted. I found a listing for the original tin on eBay for an up-close look at the design, and replicated it as best as I could. I used acrylic paints and a tiny brush, then varnished the whole thing.

There’s a note inside. 

Underneath the note is a whole heap of benne candy, which M’dear always shares with Addy when Addy does her homework in M’dear’s room. Benne candy is a sweet brittle, made with hardened sugar and sesame seeds. 

I made these from clay that I rolled thin with a rolling pin, let dry, and then cracked into small pieces. For the seeds, I used the tip of a pin dipped in white paint and held it at an angle to make a seed shape. 

M’dear has one final gift for Addy: two of Sunny’s feathers tied with a white ribbon, which Addy tucks into her snood. “Let these remind you to always let your spirit sing out,” M’dear says to her. 

“I will,” Addy promises. “I will.”

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

Happy birthday, Addy! 💕🎂🎉

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

For reference, here was my Elizabeth’s hair before.

And here it is now. Even with the bad lighting, I think you can see that it’s a lot smoother and shinier now—and it feels so much easier to style.

So, I feel like I discovered a new technique for fixing up dolls’ wigs, and I’m wondering if anyone else has tried this?

Instead of doing a full-on hot water dunk, which tends to leave hair looking stick-straight, I like to boil a pot of water, let it cool for 10 minutes, and then dip the edge of a washcloth in the hot water and carefully run the wet washcloth over the doll’s wig. This did a superb job of smoothing out my Elizabeth’s hair, which was dry and frizzy, without sacrificing her lovely, gentle waves. It has also helped me to smooth hair that is closer to the wig cap, where it would be hard to fix the hair with a full-on hot water dunk.

Of course, the biggest issue here is safety: it can be hard to handle a washcloth that’s dipped in very hot water, and I have definitely come close to burning myself with this technique. I make sure to use a big cloth, only dip a small portion, and use the dry part as a shield between me and the hot part of the cloth.

I know a lot of people love the good, old fashioned hot water dunk, or using a flat iron, but neither of those techniques have worked super well for me. Meanwhile, the hot washcloth has been *chef’s kiss*

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

So, I feel like I discovered a new technique for fixing up dolls’ wigs, and I’m wondering if anyone else has tried this?

Instead of doing a full-on hot water dunk, which tends to leave hair looking stick-straight, I like to boil a pot of water, let it cool for 10 minutes, and then dip the edge of a washcloth in the hot water and carefully run the wet washcloth over the doll’s wig. This did a superb job of smoothing out my Elizabeth’s hair, which was dry and frizzy, without sacrificing her lovely, gentle waves. It has also helped me to smooth hair that is closer to the wig cap, where it would be hard to fix the hair with a full-on hot water dunk.

Of course, the biggest issue here is safety: it can be hard to handle a washcloth that’s dipped in very hot water, and I have definitely come close to burning myself with this technique. I make sure to use a big cloth, only dip a small portion, and use the dry part as a shield between me and the hot part of the cloth.

I know a lot of people love the good, old fashioned hot water dunk, or using a flat iron, but neither of those techniques have worked super well for me. Meanwhile, the hot washcloth has been *chef’s kiss*

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

It’s a beautiful winter day, and Josefina is glad to be exploring outdoors!

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

The abridged version of Sunlight and Shadows has some extra illustrations in the Looking Back section.

In the first image, you can see Clara, Tia Dolores, and Papa, as well as some other women working in a garden.

In the second image, the depiction of Josefina and Teresita weaving is adapted from the illustration in Josefina Learns a Lesson. But the scene was extended with added depictions of Ana with her sons, Francisca spinning, and two other women at the loom, and sweeping in the background.

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

My sister got me the most absolutely gorgeous doll outfit in the entire universe. Made by DreamWorldCollection on Etsy modeled after the Tudor style😭 I’m so amazed. I’ve been obsessed with tudor history since I was a kid.

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

During the Christmas season, Josefina likes to display all of her nativity scenes on the top of the piano. All of them came from faraway lands in South America! Her grandfather traded for them on one of his trips down to Mexico City. 

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

American Girl Best Friends Aesthetics: Daughter of Irish immigrants Nellie O’Malley is a hard-working and responsible girl who is good with tools and cares deeply for her family. After leaving her dangerous job at a factory to become a maid, Nellie finds a friend in a wealthy girl named Samantha Parkington.

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

josefina montoya

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

Tombstone, Arizona Territory 1884

Pauline works as a maid in a big, beautiful house, doing chores for the family that lives there. She sweeps floors, cleans out fireplaces, carries water into the house, and washes clothes and linens. When she’s not working, she likes to sit under her favorite tree and read scary ghost stories! She imagines what it would be like if that fancy house was haunted by a ghost, or had monsters living underneath the floors. Maybe, Pauline wonders, that is why she is never asked to do any cleaning in the attic……. there must be a dreadful ghost up there! 

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

I miss being 9 when the height of indulgence was getting an american girl magazine in the mail and following the tutorial to make the world's ugliest pencil case. That was pure joy

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

American Girl Moodboards // Caroline Abbott

I must keep breathing, because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

I found an interesting completed auction on Ebay today. A child-sized version of Ivy's Meet Outfit. While Pleasant Company and early American Girl historical characters had child-sized versions of their outfits available for purchase, Ivy did not.

Ivy's outfit has the type of tags you would expect to see in an outfit normally available from American Girl, so this probably isn't a homemade costume or a knockoff.

Instead, this is probably a clothing set meant for the American Girl fashion shows. I found a few photos which let me know that outfits for Kaya, Caroline, Cecile, Marie-Grace, and Ruthie (other characters which never had child-sized outfits available for sale!) were included in the fashion shows as well.

(source)

(source)

(source)

So my conclusion is this: American Girl produced child-sized versions of character outfits on a small scale that were only available to those who were hosting American Girl fashion shows. Seems a bit silly to not sell the clothes featured at a fashion show, but that's American Girl for you. Would be interesting to see if American Girl would have any success reviving this in child AND adult sizes *cough cough* in light of the current American Girl craze.

(source)

[dearest-darlingest-dolliest]

Since I started learning to sew 2 years ago, one of the things I always wanted to make was Samantha’s Christmas dress, but in blue. Today I finally accomplished that. I had to get a little creative with the lace, since I didn’t have the recommended size, and was leery of working with taffeta, since working with other special fabrics like satin and velvet make me want to swear. But it turns out it was much easier than I thought it would be, and it turned out beautifully. 

I hope to get more sewing projects done now that I’m not so exhausted and busy.