Interview with AG Seamstress!

We interviewed Marilyn of the AG Seamstress Etsy shop awhile back and we are finally getting around to posting it here. We are slow!

(And also, Photobucket has been a pain in the butt. :-( )

Check out Marilyn's shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/agseamstress

She currently has four things for sale and periodically adds more.
(She also does custom orders, particularly of her previous designs, fyi.)

We have interspersed pics of her items, some available, others already sold, in amongst the questions and answers.

Thank you for doing this interview Marilyn!!!

When did you start making clothing for American Girl dolls? Why did they interest you?

I started making AG doll clothing about 12 or 13 years ago.  The dolls interested me, because I'd always loved dolls, and I was drawn to the historical aspect of AG.

Did you/do you make clothing for other types of dolls? 

I started out making my own doll clothes when I was about 7 or 8 years old, from scrap fabric that my mother gave me.  I made all kinds of doll clothes for my two younger sisters, and my two cousins.  My daughter had "My Friend Mandy" and Cabbage Patch dolls that I sewed for.

When I started selling on Ebay, about 11 years ago, I made clothing for Chatty Cathy, Ann Estelle, and several other dolls.

What kinds of dolls do you own?

Right now, I only own AG, and one bride doll from my childhood.  A few years ago, I decided to sew exclusively for AG, and sold all my other models.

I have all the AG Historicals and their friends, and a few other AG's.

What time period do you prefer to sew for - historical or modern? If historical, do you have a favorite historical time period?

The historicals are definitely my favorite time period to sew for, especially the 30's and 40's.

Where do you get your design ideas from?

Ideas come from everywhere!  There are times I stay up late looking at vintage pattern websites of children's clothing just for ideas. Sometimes a magazine, or a catalog will give me an idea, and sometimes design ideas come from my husband, who is my biggest supporter!  A lot of my ideas actually come from fabric. I might be looking through my fabric for one thing, see a piece of fabric, and come up with another idea!

Do you have a difficult time finding appropriate fabrics for your projects?

You're kidding.........right????  I have such a large fabric stash right now, that I just need to go downstairs, and start opening plastic bins!  I kid you not!  I've been cleaning out some of my fabric, since my husband is retired now, and we'd like to downsize.  Right now, the count is 20.....18 gallon totes, plus multiple drawers and cabinets. I still look at fabric online all the time, and do buy at least one or two pieces every week.

Do you take custom orders? If someone wants an item that you have made before, can they ask for another one? Also, if someone has their own idea for a custom object - do you take those types of orders? 

Some things I've made, can't be duplicated for one reason or another, usually it's because the fabric isn't available anymore, but I try to do as many custom orders as I can. If someone has an idea for an item, I'll consider it, time permitting, but only if it's an item I'm interested in making.  I don't have much interest in making copies of items from a lot of the current movies, so things like that I probably wouldn't do.

What types of challenges have you encountered with creating the clothing and selling it?

As for challenges, there's been a few, but nothing major.  The biggest challenge is establishing a reputation, as a skilled seamstress, and the sales seem to follow.

Do you use bought patterns from other designers or do you draft your own patterns?

I use many patterns from other designers, and draft some of my own. I was trained in patternmaking many years ago, so if there's a certain part of a garment I don't have a pattern for, or if I want to change something, I'm capable of doing that.

Do have any new ideas or plans around the corner for your doll clothing and/or for your business?

My future plans revolve around sewing exclusively for AG.  I used to make clothing, home decor, bridal gowns, and do alterations for others.  That was how I spent most of my sewing time.  Doll clothes were just a sideline.  Now my focus is entirely on doll clothes, since I'm getting older, and dolls are certainly more fun to sew for than people!

Thank you for visiting us today!

And again, thanks for doing this interview AG Seamstress!

Spring 2012 Clothing Giveaways!

Hola!

Have you been longing for doll clothing giveaways?

Well, we've pooled our items: some store exclusives from AGPLA, some from our two newest dolls (yep, new dolls!), some from AG Seamstress, and some from Doll Tag Clothing. There's a lot to offer you!

Four different prize packages are part of our 

Spring 2012 Clothing Giveaways:

1) AG Seamstress's Molly McIntire camel coat with a special hat from Stassy Dodge

2) Doll Tag Clothing blue pajamas set - the same set seen on the cover of their "Sweet Dreams PJs Pattern Bundle" -- http://www.libertyjanepatterns.com/2012/01/sweet-dreams-pjs-pattern-bundle.html

3) A complete MyAG meet outfit, with an Innerstar U code, and charm keeper necklace - along with a hot pink AGPLA store exclusive hoodie, and a Doll Tag Clothing black and pink crocheted hat

4) A complete MyAG meet outfit, with an Innerstar U code, and charm keeper necklace - along with a a red AGPLA store exclusive tee shirt, and black AGPLA store exclusive cap

A big Thank You goes to AG seamstress and Doll Tag Clothing 

for donating items for these giveaways!

We will run this giveaway until Wednesday April 4th.  

And we will announce the winners soon after that time.

You must be 18 years old or older to enter this giveaway. If you are younger than that please have someone 18 years old or older, like a parent or guardian, enter herself/himself.

One entry per person please, but you can have other family members enter as well.

To enter, please write your full name and your email address as a comment to this post. It will not be published and only Penny will be able to see it.

In your entry - please tell us which prize package(s) you are interested in.

Four winners will be drawn out of a hat, i.e. randomly picked.

Only entries with a full name and an email address will be put into the hat. If you win, Penny will email that address to notify you and ask for your shipping address.

See the photos below, featuring our new MyAG #47 Needa, CeCe, and our new MyAG #57 Nichelle!

Thanks for visiting us today!

Be sure to leave a comment with your entry!

More 1940s Outfits!

Hello again! We are continuing with our 1940s theme -- and hopefully this serves as a reminder to vote in our Time Warp Photo Contest... hint, hint. Today is the last day for voting. ;-)

http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2011/10/time-warp-photo-contest-entries-vote.html

Today we have three of the '40s girls showcasing handmade outfits. Linda is wearing a sweater (we think we've shown you before) from Dynamite Threads, and a skirt from Terri's Touch. Molly's fantastic blue wool hooded coat and tam are from AG Seamstress. They are based on the 1986 "Molly's Surprise" illustrations. Check out this link to compare ye olde illustrations with ye new illustrations to see her two different winter "looks"-- http://e.joz3d.net/pages/MollyBooks3.html. Molly's red plaid jumper is from Doll Clothes by Evie. Meanwhile Emily is wearing a green striped tee and shorts set from Terri's Touch.

Here they are looking adorable...

Slideshow...

And for today's fun 1940s fashion facts from the "Molly's World" book...

1) Saddle shoes were popular in the 1920s as golf shoes. By the '40s, girls and boys wore them for both work and play. Classic story of sportswear being brought into the everyday fashion world.

2) Before the war, Girl Scout uniforms had long zippers down the front. Since metal was needed for the war effort, the uniform was redesigned with buttons. So we rarely see zippers in 1940s fashion, for uniforms or coats or jackets or dresses -- it was buttons all the way!

3) Notice that some skirts are short and others are longer? Hems were let down as many times as possible for skirts and dresses in order to lengthen their "lifetime" of use. A law was actually passed to limit the amount of fabric that could be used in sleeves and hems. Eventually skirts just got shorter in order to conserve fabric!

4) Not that these shorts are pants... but they'll do for us to work in this factoid: Women started wearing pants at their factory jobs during the war. Soon they became acceptable fashion outside of work, and even glamorous everyday wear. Actresses started wearing high-waisted, wide-legged "sailor" pants in movies and this helped popularize them.

Thanks for visiting us!

Please be sure to vote in our Photo Contest today!

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. :)

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!

agseamstress Spring Dress from Etsy

It feels good to be productive, even at such a late hour....

You may remember that we bought an Addy-style Civil War era dress from agseamstress's Etsy shop awhile back for our friend Cassie. It is a lovely item and ever since then we have been waiting for new agseamstress items.

In the fall/winter there were a couple new items released, but we missed purchasing them before they ran out of stock on Etsy. Too many holiday cookies and slices of pie slowed down Penny's shopping reaction time, heehee. After the recent introduction of the agseamstress spring line of dresses, Penny managed to grab one that she thought would look great on our new friend Emily.

The agseamstress spring line was not really designed as "historical" dresses, but I have determined that this lovely yellow, white and blue dress will do fine in the 1940s. No one seemed to argue with my decision. The layered effect, the skirt length, the peter pan collar, and the slightly poofy sleeves seem to say "works for the 1940s" to me!

So here is our beautiful and charming Emily, with Muddiford at her feet, saying "Thank you agseamstress for my new dress!"


Next time in The Doll Wardrobe... look for a list of relevant Ebay sellers and a posting on Kit's new Dollies' Dressmaker dress! In the meantime, remember, Dollies' Dressmaker has their own website and blog with a "What's New" category- http://www.dolliesblog.com/category/whats-new/

Okay, finally time for bed. Now I can fall asleep knowing I accomplished something today!

Dress for Addy, given to Cassie

So Etsy seller agseamstress created this gorgeous dress for the Addy American Girl doll. But Cassie really wanted it so we bought it for her. She doesn't have that many outfits yet, so we are trying to build up her wardrobe. The dress is wonderfully constructed and the white sleeves are separate, so you can wear the dress with or without them. We are looking forward to getting more dresses from agseamstress.