All of my modern dolls sitting in my little work area 🤍
L to R: antique teddy bear from an estate sale, American Girl Doll Wellie Wisher Emerson who I bought used for $12 because someone had previously cut her hair, wearing a Madame Alexander outfit, Rainbow High Victoria, modern Molly Mcintire wearing a vtg Pleasant Company Samantha sailor dress, 1980’s My Melody plush and the last doll is a mid 90’s Heidi Ott doll from the Faithful Friends collection, wearing a handmade dress from Etsy
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My DIY WellieWishers Playhouse
A few weeks ago, I found this Our Generation brand beach house at a secondhand shop. A little doll playhouse has been on my wish list for a long time, specifically because I wanted to renovate it into a customized dream home for my five dear sweet Wellies!
I love these little kiddos. They’re so cute and charming. I had originally only planned to get Emerson, but then I found Willa at a thrift store and couldn’t resist adding the rest after that. And I love making clothes for them, including these particular outfits.
Ultimately I would have been thrilled to find the actual WellieWishers playhouse secondhand.
But I’ve never seen it in any thrift store. And this is retired so it’s as expensive on the secondhand market as it was when it was available new from American Girl.
I also noticed, when looking at other people’s photos of their dolls using this house, that it’s actually very small. It’s not meant to accomodate all the Wellies.
So I started looking for an Our Generation brand house, since they make tons of larger-scale doll house playsets. They’re actually made for 18 inch dolls, but they fit 14 inch Wellies a bit better. The Seaside Beach House playset seemed like a good choice. Here’s how it originally looked:
When bought new, it comes with lots of small accessories, mostly food and dishes. The one I found and bought didn’t come with any of the accessories, which was fine. If there were any that I absolutely needed, I could make them.
Once I acquired it, I got to work with the renovations.
Kendall helped me out, since she’s crafty and likes to make things.
First I took out the plastic bench. It folds out into a bed that can fit one 18 inch doll or two 14 inch dolls. Then I moved the kitchen around so that the shelves fit under the window and open up the floor, making it all one room instead of two rooms.
This did unfortunately disconnect the power source for the overhead light and all the little kitchen and beach sound buttons. But I plan on replacing them with maybe something better.
Once everything was rearranged, I painted and wallpapered the walls. Then I added all the little accessories.
With the kitchen moved, the little porthole window is above the sink, which looks nice. I added a roll of paper towels and some hand soap by the sink.
The Wellies are only six years old and not allowed to have very hot things that can bun, so their stove and oven are for pretend play.
The fridge is “real” and holds their snacks. To the left of that you can see the oven and underneath that, a second oven that I told the Wellies is actually a dishwasher. I took the handle off until I decide how to make it look like a dishwasher.
With the countertop underneath the row of windows, the plants can get some nice direct sun. To the left of the plants is the girls’ microscope. On the upper shelves are gardening supplies.
Emerson’s job is to water the potted herbs.
The top shelf is for toys. I had a great time compiling all these mini toys for the girls: two little rabbits, a troll, real metal toy trains, a koosh ball, a slinky, and dinosaurs. The second shelf holds dishes. The bottom shelf has mini American Girl books and magazines, plus some microscope slides, a deck of cards, and a flower press.
This little bench, and the stuffed lamb, were also recent thrift store finds. My aunt made the two stuffed chickens. I made the felt cactus.
It’s kind of small and will only sit one Wellie or two smaller dolls, but it’s too cute to not use.
I made the pom pom rug also. The carpet is a rectangle of soft velour fabric. I’m still undecided whether to use carpet or to make a faux wooden floor.
The door has a screen in the window, and the window moves up and down to let in a breeze. Attached to the outside screen is a little plastic bug.
On the right of the door are two seahorse-shaped hooks to hold jackets and hats.
The door locks, too!
There’s still room outside to put up the table and chairs I made for the Wellies last summer.
And there’s room for younger siblings to come by and play.
Behind the house is the wooden tree swing, a perfect place to enjoy the evening breeze.
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A hooded bat blanket!!
aka I had an idea for a hooded baby blanket thing, bat wings with little bat ears, but I wasn’t sure the construction technique I was thinking would work? and I didn’t want to waste a bunch of fabric, so I tried it doll-size first. It works!! And it’s fully reversible! That’s not super relevant for this particular blanket/cape since both sides are made out of the same fabric, but now I want to make a little red riding hood cape that reverses to be a big bad wolf costume
I did intend for the ears to be more “actual bat ears” and less “off brand Batman”, but that’s what prototypes are for lol
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Emmie has a new dress, and had to show it off immediately. Now she can fit in better with the “big girls” on my desk, who are dressed in plaid and red.
My Wellie Wishers often get overlooked when I’m sewing, and I felt bad that Emmie had to stay hidden away while her big brother, Paul, was out as part of the Christmas party scene. I printed out the Empire silhouette dress pattern by Eden Ava Couture at a reduced size and it fits quite well. I added a sash to it to fit a little more closely and add a girly touch.
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Happy Halloween!
Summer and MJ threw a big party for all the other dolls! Complete with cookies and drinks and friendship.
Sariah's moms aren't entirely comfortable with her really celebrating Halloween but after a lot of begging they let her wear her fall shirt and go to the party, which is mostly chatter and snacks and a mildly spooky movie. Lexie is wearing an outfit my mom made for her--a black jumpsuit with a fun witch skirt and golden belt. She's also drinking a delicious cup of apple cider while she chats with Jossy, who has a cute little witch hat dress.
Olive, Persephone, and Quinn are (trying to) watch Coraline (on an imaginary TV). Persephone felt like she was too old for a costume, but kind of regrets that now. Still, her shirt is adorable. Olive procrastinated too much on their costume and ended up just painting a skeleton on second hand leggings and shirt. Much to her friends' amusement, Quinn decided to put her crutches on the couch and sit on the floor. She feels really cute although her little boo outfit isn't really a costume.
Summer and MJ, party hosts and new stepsisters, are taking a break at the edge of the room from all the commotion and comparing notes on the party. Overall, they agree it is a success. Although the main drink available is cider, MJ felt like making herself a strawberry milkshake. In the background, Miko is dressed as a ballerina. She is having fun but needed a break, so she climbed onto the couch above all the people and noise to rest.
And finally, while the older kids have a party, Cala and Sophie are going trick-or-treating. Cala is (clearly) a pirate princess, while Sophie is apparently a spy princess. She may have also had too much candy already.
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I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday and saw Bryant in person! If the benefit sale wasn't the following day I probably would have got him, but I'm holding off for now. I did get a picture of him and Ashlyn together though because I wanted to see how similar they are and I think they would make fantastic siblings!
They have the same skin and hair color, same freckle pattern, but different colored eyes.
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