Dollies Dressmaker 1940s Coral Dress

Today's post is about a recently purchased coral 1940s dress, pictured above, purchased from The Dollies' Dressmaker website. Its design is based on Emily's "Meet" dress and the fabric is also very similar. But the colors, pattern, and design were different enough to encourage us to get one.

Immediately below is a picture from the American Girl website of Emily in her "Meet" dress. All other pictures in this post are of our Susan Shapiro doll modeling her new dress. She is posing with two of our puppies: Panofsky and Wooferton. The dress is quite fun, cheerful, and perfect for the summer. And as always it is some of the highest quality handmade doll clothing available. The Dollies' Dressmaker never disappoints!

Don't forget, today is the last day to enter for the "Hogwarts" uniform giveaway. The winner will be announced on Tuesday September 1st.

On Wednesday, I, Nora the Magnificent will be back with a new dress from Etsy seller Terristouch to share with y'all. Good luck to everyone who entered in this month's giveaway drawing!

Outfit of the Week- Old Fashioned Nurse Uniform

The Outfit of the Week is an Old Fashioned Nurse's Uniform from Etsy seller jillsfabricdesigns. We thought it would be good to start showcasing some possible Halloween costumes, since before you know it that spooky time of year will be upon us. Here is our blatantly stolen picture....;)



Isn't it wonderful? Click here to visit this costume's listing on the Etsy website.

Jill's Fabric Designs offers an array of clothing and costumes for both 18" and 15" dolls. There are five pages of items to choose from right now, and there have been over 280 sales. So this is definitely a hot spot for doll clothing from Etsy. Other costumes which are available from this shop include Snow White, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and Tinkerbell.

And as a quick off-topic reminder, our "Which Doll Should We Give Away Next?" polls will be closing down very soon so be sure to get your vote in!

Doll Closet Kokeshi Skirt

The last Doll Closet skirt which we will show you (for this month at least.... heehee) was titled "Yui Kokeshi Aline Skirt."

What do these words mean? The name refers to the type of fabric used- Alexander Henry Pink Yui Kokeshi printed fabric. Yes, the background color is pink. Penny looked past this issue because Stella wanted it for her wardrobe so badly. :)

What are kokeshi? Japanese wooden dolls with a long historical tradition. Penny has actually bought a couple modern kokeshi dolls known as Momiji message dolls. Click here to check them out for yourself.

We are going to blatantly steal a picture to show in this post because they are too cute not to share with a pic- This fellow's name is Donut!

We're pretty sure our above link is a British online shop....and we don't know if they ship to the USA. So we are looking into if there are USA dealers. Penny happened to pick up some of these Momiji in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian gift shop.... and they seem to be available from some Museum online stores, such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art.... Click here to see their Momiji.

And before I completely forget the point of what I am doing...Stella is modeling the white Doll Closet shirt with the Yui Kokeshi skirt in the photos below. Those little cartoon faces are so wonderful and the main fabric looks great paired with the black and white accent fabric around the bottom edge. Such a fun skirt!

If you'd like to check out the Etsy shop of Doll Closet please click here.

We've decided Saturdays will be our "Outfit of the Week" day... so look for that tomorrow at some point and on Monday we'll post the...uh...... (looks through a giant file of photos...)... We'll post about a new dress from The Dollies' Dressmaker! Yay!

October #25's Wonderful New Home and Friends!

...Three posts in one day! Yikes! I guess I am trying to get as much into the blog as possible before school starts up again. ;)

After being sealed in her cardboard box and being hauled around by UPS personnel, the August Doll Giveaway October #25 is now enjoying her new home with Jane M. and has been officially named Toby! How cute is that name? So cute!

As you can see, in this post we have many lovely pictures, taken by Jane, of Toby with her new dolly friends. And we even get to see a couple of the girls wearing the Etsy seller suzymstudio outfit we included with the dolly prize.

Jane has captured some beautiful outdoor shots, which is awesome because Penny here is too paranoid to let us go outside for photo shoots in our handmade clothing. "There's dirt and bugs and grass that could make stains!" Yeah, she's kind of uptight about that kind of stuff. Heehee.

Thank you so much for sharing these pictures with us Jane!
They are super-duper-wonderful!

Libertyjaneclothing.com Now Open for Business!

Penny has been checking this url on and off for about a week because Liberty Jane announced they were going to open a new website that would offer complete outfits, separates, and shoes for sale.

Woooohoooo!

Click here to check it out for yourself. This is a dream come true for those of us who want parts of Liberty Jane outfits, but not the whole sha-bango offered in the Ebay auctions.

Have fun shopping everyone!

p.s. The Liberty Jane Fall Design Contest will be open from the end of August to mid-October. Click here to learn more.

p.p.s For those who don't have the time to craft contest ideas and make Youtube videos, Liberty Jane is now offering a custom design service. Information on this is listed under FAQs on the new website and categorized as "Special Projects." :)

Doll Closet Bold Patterned Skirt

It's me Nora! I'm making a surprise appearance and stealing some of Stella's new clothes in the process! Yippee! Don't I look like a professional model??

Here is "my" new outfit courtesy of Penny's further purchases from Etsy seller Doll Closet. One would think by now we must have exhausted our inventory of Doll Closet items to show on this blog. Not true! We have so many more items! But after Friday of this week we'll turn to other sellers to make sure my blog stays spicy and yummy with a healthy mix of modern and historical clothing. ;)

So we see a patterned skirt in nice bold colors being modeled by Marvelous Me in the photos below. The colors and forms remind me of my favorite jade and magenta fancy painted horse on Cinderella's Carousel at Disney World. Why I am slyly slipping a mention of Walt Disney World into this post? Well, Penny just told us that we are going to Disney World in October! That's like less than two months away! Wooohooo!

We'll try and post some photos after we come back...that is if we manage to take time away from the awesome "House of Mouse" fun for picture-taking. ;)

But instead of completely hijacking this post for this good Disney news...... we'll encourage you to enjoy our pictures of wonderful handmade Doll Closet clothing!

(p.s. Later today we'll show you some pictures of October #25 in her new home! Stay tuned!!!)

agseamstress Blue Plaid 1940s dress from Etsy

We bought this dress awhile ago and are finally getting around to posting about it....months later. As you might have guessed, Penny was collecting handmade doll clothing long long loooooong before I showed up and wanted to start a blog back in ol' 2008. So needless to say, we have a lot to show you. Which is one of the reasons we decided to post our outfits 3 times a week. Lucky for us, we also get our guest reviews! Wooohoo!

My ramblings aside, this summer Emily received a new blue plaid dress from Etsy seller agseamstress. Here is the link to the Etsy shop.

We thought we would make this brief posting foray into "historical" clothing before returning to some other modern Doll Closet items this week. This dress was not advertised as a 1940s dress but we thought it would work well as one for our Emily. All we needed to add was a bright red hair ribbon for contrast, fancy knit socks, and some shiny leather T-strap shoes. Emily is very happy with her new dress and likes how the blue of the dress goes with her eyes.

Wednesday and Friday's posts this week from Nora the Marvelous (that's me) will be on two skirts purchased from Etsy seller Doll Closet. As you can tell, we really did go "skirt-crazy" in that store! But we can justify it by admitting that a lot of "modern" girls live here in Badger's Wood.... and Stella really loves skirts. ;)

Enjoy the photos of Emily below and toodles for now!

Outfit(s) of the Week! Two for Samantha or Nellie Up for Auction!

Well we were browsing Ebay and we found a wonderful pink reproduction/interpretation of Samantha's Lawn Party outfit up for auction- courtesy of Ebay seller sewaddicted2. Auction ends in about eight hours.

Click here to see it in all of its pink glory!

And in addition, The Dollies' Dressmaker has really outdone herself this time with a seriously awesome Mariner Ensemble for either Samantha or Nellie. Auction ends on August 25th- this coming Tuesday.

Click here to see its fabulousness!

Is fabulousness a word? I guess not....but it should be. ;)

These are both most likely going to go for high prices, but it is still fun to look at them- such high quality work and wonderful details!

Doll Closet Floral Skirt and Beaded Purse

Stella is our model again for today's post on three items from Etsy seller Doll Closet. We have included in today's outfit the white peasant blouse (that has a reoccurring act on this blog), a new patterned floral skirt, and a beautiful blue beaded purse. Click here to visit the shop of Doll Closet- they have posted several new items in their shop this week.

Interested in skirts?

Click here to see a cool new skirt with lemons from Doll Closet!
Or here to see a flowery blue one!

What color beaded purses are available right now?

Beige!
Chocolate Brown!
Bright Red!
Light Blue!
Hot Pink!

So many colors to choose from! And the beige and chocolate brown purses could probably work for some of the historical characters as well.

So below you will see Stella modeling the "duds" and two up-close shots of the beaded purse. It is much more awesome in person than pictures can capture. It is the perfect size and fun to hold with its modeled shell shape and tiny tiny beads. SO many beads! And SO much work! Needless to say, we are very impressed. ;)

For Monday's post from Nora, we will look at Emily's new blue plaid dress from Etsy seller agseamstress. Click here to visit the shop!

Luckily, there are three dresses in stock right now for you to peruse. Agseamstress does seasonal releases on Etsy and through the doll boards- so if you see something you want I'd get it now. Once upon a time Penny saw a lovely colonial gown in the agseamstress shop in the morning, and by the afternoon it was gone! And there was only one available. Tears and sobbing! Lesson learned---> buy now or regret it later.

Bon Jean Yellow Dress Now on Etsy and New Damsels Dress Auction

Several bits of things to randomly post about today:

1) The Bon Jean Creations yellow dress from yesterday's Ebay auction has now been moved over to Etsy!

Click here to check it out!


2) Lourdes asked for us to post a link to the Damsels-in-Dress ebay auctions.

So here ya go!

We also have a link to the Damsels' blog far down in our sidebar to the right. But click here to check it out without scrolling. ;)

And Damsels is also crafting a new website, which you can see here.

There is a wonderful blue 1940s Damsels dress being auctioned right now- closing on Tuesday August 25th and as a sneak peek ... I stole a picture again. ;)

Bonjean65 Ebay Auction ends at 17:53 PDT

We just discovered today that Ebay seller Bonjean65 is selling a yellow version of the green dress in our guest review here.

Interested? Click here to check it out!

Doll Closet Light Blue Shirt

Another magical find from the Etsy store Doll Closet: a light blue shirt with cream and light brown foliage growing all over it!

Stella is modeling it in the pictures below along with a white tube top from Etsy seller suzymstudio that we have temporarily turned into a white skirt. ;) To finish off the look Stella stole the "Meet" shoes that came with our lovely Sundari.

Interested in shirts from Doll Closet for your modern dolls?

Click here.

Or here.

Or even here!

The last shirt can also be used as a skirt, just like we have done with our white suzymstudio tube top for this post. Definitely versatile! Curious about suzymstudio? Click here.

And finally, in the last two pictures of this post, best friends Sundari and Stella are chilling together and treasuring their cool summer duds while they can. In two more weeks they'll have to go back to school where they have to wear uniforms everyday. Bleh! Luckily Penny bought them some nice uniforms that are really cute, which we will eventually get around to showing you....

I'll be back on Friday with the last Doll Closet item of this week! Toodles everyone!

Extra Extra Read All About It: JLY Retirement Rumors? Or Truth?

We all know that Chrissa, Sonali, and Gwen won't be available anymore once the supplies run out, as they are Limited Edition "dolls of the year." However, recent chatter on the boards has stated that eight of the Just Like You dolls will no longer be carried in the American Girl stores as of September 3rd, 2009. Several other outfits and accessories will also be out the door.

Will they still be available online? Will they be completely retired altogether? Not sure which one is the true answer....but we wanted to let everyone know what is going on, especially in case this news effects your voting in our polls to the right. ;)

Here are the numbers:
JLY #1
JLY #2

JLY #5 (in our Part 6 poll)
JLY #7

JLY #11
JLY #12

JLY #14 (in our Part 5 poll)
and
JLY #21 (in our Part 4 poll)

Rumors say that there will be "new" JLY dolls released in September to fill the gap left in the store merchandise by the 8 missing dolls. So even though it is sad to see dolls possibly go into retirement, it is exciting to think we might have new JLY dolls to drool over very soon.

Again, here is the website for you to look at the dolls with their JLY numbering system.

Doll Closet Floral Tiered Skirt

Penny recently started a shopping "raid" on the Etsy store Doll Closet- so this week I will be showing you three posts - from me, Nora - all of Doll Closet merchandise!

Click this link to take a peek at what is currently available! Here you will find a lot of modern clothing in yummy bold designer fabrics- dresses, skirts, pants, and tops! They also carry wonderful beaded purses. Penny purchased one of these purses and we will show it to you on Friday of this week.

With over 540 sales, you can trust that Doll Closet items are very popular! They are high-quality, fun pieces that any doll would love to have. Not sure what to pick out for your special doll? They also offer gift certificates for the shop!

Today we feature our beautiful Sundari modeling a floral tiered skirt from the Doll Closet. We paired it with that yellow tank top purchased from MyOwnLittleWorldToo on Etsy, and stole the sandals from the Julie "Meet" outfit to complete the look.

The skirt is a lovely mixture of yellows, greens, oranges, and whites- like a tasty sorbet treat! You know, like those big BIG tubs of sorbet that they sell at the grocery store....hmmm, now I want sorbet.... Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah - our Sundari is ready to go for a walk on the beach in her charming new ensemble! Now we just have to tell Stella that Sundari "borrowed" her top... heehee.

What is Sundari standing in front of? An original painting from Etsy artist MWilson. Click here to check out her art for yourself. We thought the painting would look cool as a back-drop for our modern outfits.

On Wednesday, I will post about another find from the Doll Closet Etsy shop....see you soon everybody!

Outfit of the Week: Rebecca Frock from Keepers

Auction ends on Monday evening (exact time dependent on where you live of course)- so we wanted to sneak this in so y'all could check it out for yourself.

Keepers Dotted Teal Pleated Frock for Rebecca- the 1910s. Click here to see the Ebay auction page.

And this time we stole a picture because the color of the fabric is wonderful and too pretty not to post. Sorry for stealing it Eve! But it was all in the interest of celebrating your craft. ;)

Isn't this dress beautiful?

Dollies Dressmaker Josefina Skirt and Camisa

If you haven't guessed it by now, Penny's favorite color is blue. If a doll outfit is being offered in blue it is really only a matter of time before she breaks down and buys it. :)

So for today you won't be all too surprised to find our Josefina modeling another blue skirt paired with a lovely camisa with lace and flower details. The skirt is made of a fascinating floral, banded, fancy fabric that is quite eye-catching.

This outfit is courtesy of The Dollies' Dressmaker website where you will find outfits created for almost every type of American Girl doll that you could possibly own- from Felicity to a Modern Girl of Today. Yes, Kaya is left out- but she probably wouldn't have had a very robust wardrobe as a Nez Perce girl.

What's set up for next week? Three modern outfits! Not sure which ones we will show you and on which days- but we have a bunch of them lined up to showcase. So stay tuned for next week's outfits- and don't forget to enter into the "Harry Potter" Hogwarts uniform giveaway if you haven't done so already!

Terristouch Josefina Skirt and Camisa- Red, White and Blue

Tired of your Josefina wearing the same old clothing? Frustrated with waiting each year for a new American Girl Josefina outfit to be released? Endlessly hoping that she is not forgotten with the new AG releases?

Well take matters into your own hands and buy handmade! Over at Terri's Touch you can find many wonderful outfits for your Josefina.

Recently, we bought this flattering camisa and skirt from Terri- one of her smart-looking interpretations of American Girl's Josefina Feast Outfit. I just love the red braided belt and ribbon accents against the deep blue floral fabric. Josefina's favorite part is the ruffles around the neck and sleeves. Overall it is a very lovely ensemble! A+++ for Etsy seller Terristouch's Josefina outfits!

Stay tuned for our next showcase of Josefina duds on Friday from The Dollies Dressmaker. See you soon!