AGFMB Member Special Feature: Introduction to Numberonekitty

Numberonekitty! Numberonekitty! Numberonekitty!

It seems like the type of name we should say as a cheer....
So.... Numberonekitty!

Welcome to the American Girl Fans Message Board Member Special Feature Introduction to Numberonekitty. As explained by Caroline, "Numberonekitty would love to sew for other people, but she hasn't yet settled on which serger she wants to purchase. She will be in touch with us on this so we can get the word out when she's ready to open for business." (We'll let you know if we hear anything more on this!)

Numberonekitty creates AG-sized food and lots and lots of very pretty doll clothing. So we thought that we'd show a little of both in each of our posts on her. All the photos which you see in this post are the property of Numberonekitty.

We begin with her crisp white apron that is being modeled by Addy.
Her pattern for the apron was modified from Samantha's pinafore.
Addy is such a beautiful doll! She is on the
Badger's Wood dolly wish list and Numberonekitty's pictures
remind us that we should get her soon. :)


For a modern outfit we wanted to show you Numberonekitty's
Nicki doll wearing one of her handmade tops.
She explains to us that "this is my version of a smocked
babydoll top- the kind which seem to be so popular
these days with young girls."

And last but not least we have some really awesome carrots

handcrafted by Numberonekitty! I am kind of getting hungry
just looking at this picture....

Thank you Numberonekitty for allowing us to showcase your
handmade AG-sized clothing and food.
They are truly wonderful!

Stay tuned for more Wednesday posts featuring the outfits and crafts of Numberonekitty in the future. For our AGFMB Member Special Feature next Wednesday we are going to sneak in a special surprise for you which only one other person knows about..... ooooo, I love secrets!

And this coming Friday we will begin our
Oktoberfest Costume Extravaganza!

What is this Oktoberfest thingy of which I speak? Well in order to celebrate the season of costumes and our Elephant Costume Giveaway, we thought we'd show you a costume every Friday in the month of October. We will skip October 23rd because that whole week we will be in Walt Disney World. But on October 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 30th we'll show you some of our costumes that we have squirreled away here in Badger's Wood- all new and never before seen on this blog!

Goodbye September- Hello October!

Liberty Jane Summer Camp Outfit

Here is Ramona hanging out with our little white dog Muddiford and modeling the Liberty Jane Clothing Summer Camp Outfit....which looks remarkably similar to the outfit Demi Lovato wears in the "Camp Rock" Disney movie. ;)

Ramona first models the outfit as it arrives, with its red tunic shirt, dark blue skinny jeans, and brown suede boots. As an nice little extra you also get the long beaded necklace to accent the duds. After those initial pictures below, you then see the Summer Camp outfit with the "Breakout Performance" painted suede jacket. In other words, the last two photos represent our first attempt at our Liberty Jane Mix and Match Game. What do you guys think?







Stay tuned next time for our American Girl Fans Message Board Special Feature introduction to Numberonekitty on Wednesday!

And of course, next Monday, October 5th, we will be continuing our "Liberty Jane Mondays." The link above goes to the website store, and this link here will bring you to the current Liberty Jane Ebay auctions. :)

Goodbyes for Kirsten :(

So most of us who follow Avery's blog or read the fan message boards already know that Kirsten Larson will be joining Samantha Parkington in the American Girl archives. We must have been psychic when we chose to show off LinneaAnne's homemade Kirsten items this Wednesday.

This is some more sad news from AG. But perhaps they plan on introducing another new doll from a similar time period. Who knows? AG works in mysterious ways.

What we do know is that here at The Doll Wardrobe we wanted to acknowledge her departure. We were more than a little shocked to hear about Sam's archival and didn't do much of anything on the blog to remark on it since we were mostly just sitting here stupefied and dumb-struck during the process.

But now we are a little more prepared for this second archival, though it is rather soon after the first one last year. So we are going to rip-off AG's Sam archival website tactic and ask you to share your thoughts on Kirsten. ;)

Please join us in saying "Goodbye Kirsten" with your comments. Tell us about your own experiences with Kirsten. What are your favorite memories of Kirsten? And if you have the doll, why did you get her? And when? Any positive and warm thoughts for Kirsten, the character and/or the doll, are welcome and greatly appreciated.

It's time to get a little nostalgic everyone. :)

Outfits of the Week- Ebay Highlights

Here we are again, looking at upcoming auctions on Ebay that present some interesting doll clothing for us to drool over. :) All pictures in this post are the property of the listed Ebay sellers and I use them here only to showcase their wares.

First we have a nice yellow and green dress for the 1860s and
the petticoat is included as you can see in the photo below.
This is being offered by Ebay seller kmkdollshop
and the auction ends tomorrow, Sunday,
September 27th (18:30 PDT).
Addy looks so pretty in this dress!

Our second highlight is the Keepers Dolly Duds version
of the green coat from the cover of "Really Truly, Ruthie."
Such a wonderful green color!
The auction ends Monday night,
September 28th (18:00 PDT).

The third auction showcased today is this cranberry-colored
middy top and pleated skirt combo for Rebecca
offered from Ebay seller sewing*genie.
This auction ends Thursday, October 1st (17:53 PDT).
Yet another impressive Rebecca outfit from sewing*genie!

And last but not least, let's flash forward to something groovy
for Julie (or a modern doll who wears vintage duds)-
this five-piece jeans set offered by
Ebay seller idreamofjeannemarie.
This auction ends Thursday, October 1st (17:15 PDT).
So tempting! That purple hat is adorable.

Be sure to check out the other items being offered by these sellers- each week's auctions usually feature more than one outfit. :) On Monday we continue our "Liberty Jane Mondays" tradition with the Summer Camp Outfit. Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Toodles!

Keepers Dolly Duds Green and Blue Polka Dots Dress for Connie

Penny purchased this 1940s ZigZag frock from Keepers Dolly Duds for our custom 1950s teen doll Connie Bonacorsi. We thought it was a fun and jazzy dress that would be okay to use as 1950s duds. Plus Connie needs something to wear to school. She can't really wear fancy party dresses everywhere she goes. ;)

The combination of green and blue is quite stunning with Connie's dark hair, and we love how the two fabrics are combined in this design. There are so many wonderful details: the tiny buttons, the white cuffs and collar, and the full skirt with the pleated contrast inset. Yet another perfect dress from Keepers- Thank you Eve! Connie just loves her new dress. :)






Come on back to The Doll Wardrobe tomorrow (Saturday) when we present some highlights of outfits in upcoming Ebay auctions. And of course, stay tuned for Monday's Liberty Jane Clothing outfit being modeled by our new Ramona (fka Ivy) with our first LJC mix and match.

Have a great weekend everyone!

AGFMB Special Feature: LinneaAnne Intro

How slow am I in posting today?!?

Pretty slow.... I really need to write these things ahead of time and schedule them. Sorry for the delay everyone... I hope your days were less busy than mine. I still have homework to finish, eek!

So today's American Girl Fans Message Board Member Special Feature shows us some items from "LinneaAnne." All images which you see in this post are the property of LinneaAnne.

Caroline at AGFMB explained to us that LinneaAnne can't sew for other people right now, since she is a full-time college student. Yay for college! I hope she is having fun in school and taking cool classes. :) We also found out that LinneaAnne has been a fan of The Doll Wardrobe for some time now. How exciting! It's always nice to know that people enjoy the blog.

Have you ever looked at the American Girl outfits and accessories
and said to yourself: "I could totally make that myself!
And probably better quality!"

Well we don't say that very often over here in Badger's Wood because we just aren't very crafty people- but we are pretty sure that LinneaAnne can make anything American Girl makes and end up with a higher quality, homemade product. Just check out the pictures below to be convinced!

First we have LinneaAnne's own version of
Kirsten's birthday dress and apron.

Second up is the Sari doll which LinneaAnne created for her Kirsten.
Her caption reads "After over ten years of missing her, Kirsten finally
got her Sari doll. She's been partially finished, waiting patiently in my sewing box for a few weeks now. I stitched her hair and face on this morning, and Kirsten is so happy to have her." In this picture Kirsten does look very excited to finally have her doll. :)

Our third picture here is LinneaAnne's version of the
American Girl spoonbag for Kirsten.

And last but not least, we show you LinneaAnne's
version of the AG St. Lucia holiday buns for Kirsten.
She explains to us that, "Because my mom is from Sweden,
I grew up celebrating Lucia every year, and of course eating Lucia buns!
When I got Kirsten's set, I was disappointed...
they were the wrong color, and had no raisins!
I made my own out of FIMO, and added raisins on some.
(We always have a few without every year,
for those who don't care for them.) The rest of the set is original."

Your Kirsten doll is certainly well-supplied with
special handmade goods LinneaAnne!
Thank you for sharing your pictures and your talent with us!
Everything is just so wonderful and fun to look at!
Makes me want to pull out some FIMO and
start "baking" up some dolly goodies for myself. ;)

Stay tuned for more Wednesday posts featuring the outfits and crafts of LinneaAnne in the future. For our AGFMB Special Feature next Wednesday we will do an introduction to "Numberonekitty" - How great is that username?

And this coming Friday we will post about a Keepers Dolly Duds dress that we have given to Connie Bonacorsi, our 1950s teen.

Sayonara for now and have a great night everybody!

Today's Extra Post of New Things!- Eared Hats from Lavenderlore!

What did the UPS and the USPS men bring to Badger's Wood today?

The new #40 to replace the old #40!
And new custom hats from Etsy seller Lavenderlore!

You'll see these new custom eared hats paired with outfits in later posts, but we were so excited to receive them today at the same time we got our new #40 that we took some pictures. The new doll appears naked in the pictures and slideshow below so you can tell the #40s apart from each other.

The new doll will be our Sabrina M. Dove. No, her eyes are not perfect- but they are better than the last #40 and we'll accept her with her flaws. For some reason the Jess mold eyes are just not the same size on these dolls. But at least with this Sabrina they are mostly looking in the same direction. ;)

We are seriously considering doing an eye swap for Sabrina, and maybe a wig switcheroo. But we aren't sure what the plan is yet. We'll keep you posted. :)

So what's the story with these new hats?

Penny asked Christine over at Lavenderlore if she could create some eared knit hats for us modern dolls to enhance our cuteness factor. Christine happily accepted this custom commission last week, and POOF!-- the hats are already here!

We got four-- in brown, dark purple, dark green and a panda version-- perfect colors to go with our fall and winter outfits. We like them all so much, but are maybe leaning toward the panda one as our fave.

Which hat is your favorite?

UPDATE: Christine is now offering these hats for everyone else! Click here to see the listing and order one for yourself! You can get any of the four types you see below- panda, purple, green, or brown- or any other color(s) you'd like! How exciting!!!

Liberty Jane "Breakout Performance"

Welcome to the first installment of our
"Liberty Jane Mondays" at The Doll Wardrobe!

Every Monday's post will feature a new Liberty Jane Clothing outfit, from now until we run out of new LJ outfits to show you. :)

You guys seemed to like the mix and match game idea. So next Monday we will start doing that: on September 28th we will show you a different Liberty Jane outfit and then add on a piece of clothing from the "Breakout Performance" to this new outfit. That way you see something a little different than what you see in the Liberty Jane photo shoots.

So for today we start with Sundari modeling the "Breakout Performance" outfit that is based off of the duds you see on the Hannah Montana picture card in the slideshow below. Liberty Jane Clothing included the card with the purchase, so you can see where the idea came from. How cool is that?

So what is included with the outfit?
1) The sequined red shiny tank top that was nearly impossible to get a good picture of because of its sparkly quality :P
2) The hand-painted suede-like jacket with the semi-poof sleeves in a cropped style
3) The versatile light blue jeans with all sorts of detailing, including rivets on the front pockets

The light blue metallic flats Sundari is wearing were also purchased from Liberty Jane Clothing, but did not come with the outfit. Sundari really likes her new duds- so many neat pieces to mix and match with the rest of the modern clothing we have here in Badger's Wood and everything fits so perfectly. Thank you Liberty Jane!

On Wednesday we'll continue the AGFMB Special Feature: our introduction to LinneaAnne with a post on some of her handmade doll clothing and crafts.

Have a great day everyone!

Outfits of the Week- Individual Website Highlights

Today's "Outfits of the Week" post will feature three outfits from website shops selling handmade AG-sized doll clothing. The pictures you see below are the property of the sellers, and if anyone wants me to remove them- please feel free to say "Don't show my pic you blogging fiend!"

But in the interest of highlighting these sellers' wares,
I hope nobody minds. :)

First we have a brown paisley dress inspired by
Kid's GAP fashions and created by Damsels-in-Dress.
There are currently two left in the shop.
Such a pretty dress!
Yay for the new Damsels-in-Dress website!!!


The second outfit for today is a 1940s era dress for
Molly or Emily created by The Dollies' Dressmaker.
It is their newest design and would be perfect
for those upcoming holiday parties at school or with friends
in this wonderful festive red color.


Our last outfit for today is the special Liberty Jane Clothing
"Hello New York" celebrity style outfit
based on real humans duds worn by Hannah Montana.
So much is included with this outfit and it looks so chic.
Again, yay for the new Liberty Jane Clothing website!!!

Since we have recently been returning to the Liberty Jane theme again and again, we should probably show you some complete outfits that we have purchased from LJC this year. ;)

So for Monday Sundari will be modeling the "Breakout Performance" celebrity style outfit for y'all. Then the following Monday (September 28th) we are going to play a little mix and match game. We will show you our next LJC outfit in two different ways. First we will show you the outfit as is, then we will take something from the "Breakout Performance" outfit and add it to the second outfit. And so on, and so forth. So in the end, you'll be able to see many LJC outfits mixed and matched and essentially Mondays will be our Liberty Jane day until we run out of outfits.....

Does this sound like fun?

I hope so...... it took me awhile to come up with the idea and I'm kind of proud of it. :)

Extra Post: Some of the New 2009 JLY outfits from AG

Are you wondering what some of the new 2009 JLY outfits look like in real life photos? Well here is a slideshow of some of our pics. They aren't fantastic...but hopefully they are slightly informative.... :)

I am modeling the Fancy Flower outfit in some pictures and the Yoga Gear in others. Our new #44 is wearing the Dancing Star outfit and Ramona is sporting the Frosty Fun outfit. So you get to see some more photos of the new dolls below. Ramona is wearing the black and white Liberty Jane skirt again. And last but not least, our Ruthie/Jess is modeling the Wilderness outfit. These are some of the new JLY outfits we got this year. We grabbed the holiday dresses as early as possible before anything sells out. :)

We can do other slideshows like this if you guys are interested in them. Though they aren't really showcasing handmade doll clothing, we can occasionally show the AG outfits. :)

p.s. FYI -- The little shiny pieces on the Dancing Star outfit are just glued on and tend to fall off around the house. They make your carpets twinkly. ;)

SewQt School Outfit and Ramona J. Dove

Ramona just started at a new school as a freshman this year. She attends the same private high school that Stella and Sundari go to, and because Stella and Sundari just moved to Badger's Wood all three girls are "new" students. So even though Ramona is a year younger, the three girls have a lot in common.

Ramona and her younger sister Sabrina live a couple blocks away from our house and Derek picks them up on his way to drop Stella and the rest of us off at the school. Sabrina goes to school with Ellie and I, but she is in a higher grade. We don't have school buses here in Badger's Wood; it's more of an "every man for himself" type of town. So Derek gets the privilege of hauling all of us to school every weekday morning. ;)

But I'm getting off topic now.... back to handmade doll clothing! So in the pictures below you will see Ramona modeling her new school uniform from Etsy seller SewQT. We received the off-white long-sleeve turtleneck shirt which is so soft and comfy, as well as the chic plaid skirt and matching bag. The boots are from Liberty Jane Clothing.

As you can see, Ramona looks awfully cute in her new duds!
Thanks SewQT for this wonderful outfit!

So where's Sabrina?

Some of you may be wondering what happened with the wonky-eyed #40 we received that was destined to be Sabrina M. Dove. Well, she will be returned to AG (sorry Quinlyn- *wink*) and a new #40 is now on her way to Badger's Wood.

Can everybody cross their fingers for us so this new #40 doesn't have any issues?

Penny has been plotting and planning ways to make Sabrina look different than our Jess doll. And she has come up with some pretty interesting ideas: a possible eye swap and maybe a re-wigging. Or maybe just a wig we can put over her current wig. Or maybe......well, you get the idea. Many plans, but of course we need a satisfactory doll to start off with.

So stay tuned for tomorrow's post on "Outfits of the Week"- when we will bring your attention to high-quality handmade doll clothing that you can't find on Ebay nor on Etsy.... oooooo, mysterious! Okay, not that mysterious, but still completely awesome. :)

Special Post: Charity Auction! Woohoo!

We aren't going to tell this story very well, because it isn't really ours to tell.... but here is the general idea....

Terri of Etsy shop Terristouch does charity work for a children's advocacy center through an organization called "Dolly Mamas"- a subgroup of her quilting guild. Here is a link to the guild's homepage.

They are hosting a live auction at a quilting show on Saturday, September 19th in order to help support their charity work. Here is the link to more information on the quilting guild's auctions for this event.

If you'd like more information about the auction, or children's advocacy centers-- please feel free to convo Terri via the Etsy shop site where it says "contact terristouch" on the right side menu. :)

How does The Doll Wardrobe fit into all of this?

Well over here in Badger's Wood we wanted to help out the guild's charitable activities and so we sent off a Chrissa doll for the big auction to accompany all of the handmade clothing the Dolly Mamas created. Look below to see a slideshow of all the clothing and accessories that will come with the Chrissa doll! Aren't they just fantastic!?! We were so impressed we all of the hard work that was put into this auction. You will see school clothing, sports uniforms, fancy dresses and so much more. There are even tee shirts for each month of the year!

Thank you Terri for sharing with us these pictures
of all this amazing doll clothing!
You and the rest of the Dolly Mamas should be
very proud of all your hard work and creativity!

Update! The guild's quilting show has made it into the newspaper! Click here to read the article!

AGFMB Member Special Feature- Heritage4 Intro

So your first question may be.... what is AGFMB?

American Girl Fans Message Board!

Your second question may be.... who is Heritage4?
A member of the AGF message board and a fantastic seamstress!

Heritage4 is this seamstress's username at AGFMB and at American Girl Playthings Message Board. Talented at photography as well as sewing, Heritage4 is very willing to sew for others. If you'd like to contact her for a commission please message her on either of the boards or email her at heritage863@yahoo.com. As an interesting note, Heritage4 just graduated high school- such impressive achievements already!

So here is the first post in what will hopefully be a long line of AGFMB Member Special Features. As you can see, we will tell you which skilled seamstress and/or crafter we are featuring- one per week- and also explain whether or not she is willing/able to sew/create for others. Not everyone we feature has the ability to take on commissions.

And most importantly, the objects you see in the photos are not for sale. In addition, all photographs in these posts have been taken by these featured seamstresses/crafters and are their property. We have received special permission to post them here.

Any questions about this new feature? Please feel free to let us know!

To begin with, pictured below are two versions of a "Bluebell Dress" being modeled by Kit. The first two pictures are of the first version. This dress was inspired by a 1940's pattern Heritage4 saw while scanning through old pattern books. She explains that her version "...deviated a lot from the original idea as I added my own touches to it."

The picture below is version 2.0 of the "Bluebell Dress."
(Heehee... 2.0... I'm so funny...)
Heritage4 told us that "it has a different style for the main fabric than the first version has, but uses the exact same pattern."
They are both so pretty!

And the last photo for today's post shows her replica of Samantha's Play Outfit from American Girl. We own the original AG version over here in Badger's Wood, and we think Heritage4's version looks even better!
Just look at all those lovely ruffles on that pinafore!

Thank you Heritage4 for allowing us to share some of
your sewing work and photography!
And thank you to Dollduds/Caroline at AGFMB for this super-wonderful
idea and all of the hard work she is putting in
to make this idea a reality!

To our readers- stay tuned for more of these Special Features, including more dolly duds from Heritage4. This is just the tip of the iceberg people! Yippee!

Next Wednesday we will highlight some outfits created by AGFMB Member LinneaAnne! And coming up next from my little vinyl fingers, on Friday I will show you our new Ramona J. Dove (fka Ivy) in her school uniform courtesy of Etsy seller SewQT.

Donna Cotterman Dress and Intro to Elinor Dashwood

Whoa...sorry for the delay everybody! I thought I'd have time to prepare this post in the morning before school....or maybe after school... but time has flown by and here it is nighttime already!

In this post we show you the Felicity that had an eye swap with our revised #16. So Connie Bonacorsi, our 1950s doll, got green decal eyes and Felicity received the dark brown eyes. She was named Elinor Dashwood after the character from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. Hence she mostly wears Regency period clothing (roughly 1795 to 1837 in England). Although she has been asking to try on some modern clothing as well.... maybe she has a split personality or she is a time traveler?

So here is our first up-close photo of Elinor with her brown eyes, in a mystery dress which we will show you in a later post. (Some of you can probably identify the dress....heehee.) This eye swap service was completed by the TLC Doll Hospital in Colorado.


In the pictures below, our Elinor is modeling a dress, hat, and shawl from Etsy seller Donna Cotterman. The outfit also came with the little yellow roses that Elinor is holding. Thank you so much for the fantastic dress and accessories Donna!

Luckily for us, Donna recently started up an Etsy shop so we were able to purchase this lovely ensemble. We are quite happy with everything but Elinor says her favorite part of this outfit is the hat. Not many people create Regency period historical hats and bonnets for AG-sized dolls because, of course, there are not any true Regency AG historical characters. So it is nice to finally have this type of accessory. :)

Please enjoy our plentiful photos below of brown-eyed Elinor and her beautiful new dress.....and keep your eyes peeled for future posts on Elinor's wardrobe (we have many more Regency dresses to show you).

Coming up on this Wednesday we begin something new!

Caroline, over at American Girl Fans Message Board, gave us the idea to feature seamstresses who sew for themselves (or maybe sometimes on commission) and are AGFMB members. Of course these are very talented and creative people with fantastic outfits to share with us, so we thought it would be a great idea!

Every Wednesday we will do a post on some outfits created by one of these members. This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase new doll clothing (not owned by the two authors of this blog) and share with you some very beautiful photographs.

So come back to see what we are up to for yourself. And of course, I'll explain this new idea a little more clearly on Wednesday when we feature three dresses created by AGFMB member Heritage4.

See you soon everybody!

Outfits of the Week- Etsy Highlights

Hello again everyone! Sorry this post appeared a bit slowly, but today was a bit busy and we wanted to leave the Halloween Costume Giveaway at the top of the page for as long as possible. :)

Since we featured four outfits from Ebay last week, we thought we'd switch it up and feature four outfits from Etsy today. All photos you see below are the property of the sellers listed- we are stealing them in order to showcase them. ;)

First we have a 1914 dress for Rebecca from MyOwnLittleWorldToo.
These sell out quickly, so it could be gone by the time I post this.

Next we show you a pink 1930s 0r 1940s dress from agseamstress.
The stripes and the buttons are just wonderful!


Something for the fall and winter, and useful for many possible time periods- a cape, hat and purse set from Lavenderlore.
Light pink crocheted perfection!

And last but not least.... a modern outfit from AM-PM Creations with a floral top and jeans.
Can you tell I seem to have a red and pink theme today?

As reminders, on Monday we will be doing the BIG introduction of our Elinor Dashwood doll and of course don't forget to check out the Halloween Costume Giveaway post from September 12th. It runs until October 12th- so be sure to get your comments in soon. :)

Halloween Costume Giveaway

The air is turning cooler, leaves are falling, school has started and Halloween is right around the corner. What Halloween? Already? Yes and we love our readers so much we decided to do another giveaway. Many costumes were mulled over until this adorable one was found. It was made by ebay seamstress Material Mommy. Every time I look at it, I giggle.

It is a one piece suit with velcro up the back, a face mask, grey slippers, and a pumpkin
The mask is wonderfully fun

Love the tail.

To enter simply leave a comment about your worst or favorite Halloween costume. If you are under 18 please ask a parent/guardian permission before entering. These comments will be available for everyone to read so please don't include too much personal info, just enough for us to say who won. The giveaway ends on Oct 12th, Columbus day, so you can get your costume in time for Halloween. Good luck!