Drive-by post: Selling some AG

Holy socks, two posts in a row! I know, right?

Thanks to the limitations of both space and funds, I am downsizing my AG collection a bit. Sunny (#4) and Merrill (#21) are in need of a new home, along with some odds and ends. You can see the thread on AGPT here. 

To keep this post from being completely shameless shilling, here's a picture of my latest cosplay achievement:

Yes, Pieface is getting her plush Jiji to go with that Kiki costume. A full post detailing how I made Jiji will be forthcoming once Pie's birthday is over (and Jiji is no longer in hiding in a cupboard!).

Thanks for looking!

COSPLAY UPDATE

Popping in for a brief update!

There’s not a whole lot that’s been going on here – my job’s health insurance is all kinds of terrible and I now have back payments cutting into my paychecks, so my fun budget is being reallocated to meet, y’know, actual obligations. Anna and Elsa only made their way here because I was purposely holding back funds for them, and any other new dolls are entirely out of the question at the moment.

I’ve been doing bits and pieces of cosplay work – only bits and pieces, sadly. Like my money, my time is being eaten up as well – I’m in the process of searching for a new new job (my issues with the health insurance are only the tip of the iceberg here) and if I’m not actively working on that, I’m facedown asleep by 9:00 from the stress of it all.

But you don’t come here to hear me whine, you come for amusement!

I’ve been working on two costumes simultaneously – a Fem!Doctor Who and Elsa’s Coronation gown. I do have a post in the works about my Doctor Who costume, so I’m going to talk about Elsa today!

Some Random Craftiness

Playing catch-up and catch-all in this post!

For Christmas, Pieface’s generation has finally grown to the point where we started implementing a gift exchange (she has seven cousins on her dad’s side, with #8 on the way  arrived on the 6th!). Pieface was paired with her youngest cousin, G. Now, a few years back, one of my sisters-in-law had made craft aprons for all the nieces and nephews, but little G wasn’t born at that point. So her mom asked me for an apron, and, when asked about colors/patterns, she said “Well, she likes red…and my nickname for her is Piglet.”

Bickety-bam, inspiration.

The apron is fully reversible, with a pocket on each side, and ties made of double-folded bias tape. 

The striped fabric is Graphix Stripes in pink and burgundy, from Fabric.com; the pink is solid broadcloth from JoAnn. 

I used measurements and the pattern from Aesthetic Nest (found via Google searching) – it turned out way too big for an 18-month-old, but at least there’s room to grow!

I also made a little Calcifer for my Taeyang Howl:

Calcifer, Howl's fire demon sidekick/servant/friend, is made of Translucent Sculpey (with a hint of orange mixed in). He's bowl-shaped - his inside is hollow - and I bought a pack of mini LED lights from Michael's to put in his innards.

I painted on some flame accents and his face with acrylics. If I were being completely book-faithful, Cal should be mostly blue-green in color, but he just wasn't reading as "fire" when I made a version in blue-green. (The final Cal was version #4 or #5...I went through a lot of unsuccessful prototypes.)

He sits quite nicely in Howl's hands, if I do say so myself!

I have quite a bit of crafty catchup to do - hopefully I can get pictures edited and posts up soon!

Cosplay ALREADY!

Queen Elsa is FINALLY starting to loosen her icy grip on Cincinnati (Elsa, honey, you got your Oscar. You can stop letting it go now) but my thoughts have already turned to summer, and summer means Gen Con, and Gen Con means cosplay!

And I totally didn’t mean to do this, but I may have finished one costume already. Okay, granted, it’s Pie’s cosplay, and it’s a pretty simple one, at least compared to last year. But still. It was the second day of March, and I had one out of three costumes pretty much done.

Racing the Clock to GenCon!

So, I was going to post all about my trip to AG Easton last Friday. BUT, I wrote out the post and edited the photos during breaks at work, and I keep forgetting to throw the files onto Google Drive so I can access them at home.

With that, you lot get a costume update instead, because there are only 20 - 20! - days to go!

Behold, the Elinor dress:

Gratuitous Squee Post: Rapunzel Edition

Who's got two thumbs and is really really for true a princess now?

THIS GIRL.

fweeeee this dress is awesome.

VICTORY SCREECH!

We interrupt your Friday evening to request a VICTORY SCREECH!




(I love that I have a family where I can run out of the Dollcave into the hallway, yell "VICTORY SCREECH!", and everyone else in this house will throw their hands in the air and yell OLOLOLOLOLOLOLO.

Yes, I am in fact 12 years old, and always will be.)

Anyway. IT IS FINISHED.

Sorry for the awkward photo - the back of the Cave door is literally the only clean place in the room.

Costumes, Costumes, Costumes!

My poor dolls! They’re feeling so lonely and neglected nowadays. Why? Because summer is coming, the warm weather is here, and that means CONVENTION SEASON is nigh.

And THAT means that all my creative energy is going into costuming.

The Pieface’s Merida dress is finished!:

This Week's Photo Digest

Howdy, all!

I'm just coming in here to dump some of my favorite photos from this week. For the complete funtimes, do drop by my Doll-A-Day set on Flickr. Doing pretty well with my aim - there are some days I upload multiple  photos!



Robin called shenanigans on the bit where she's stuck with a 1/3-scale coffee cup, so she stole mine.

Costume Time!

October = Halloween, and Halloween = COSTUMES!

 Look, I'm 30, or as close to as makes no difference. The only times I can wear pretty froofy costumes are a) at a convention (see previous entry) and b) Halloween, so I live it up with I get the chance.

 But before I had fun, there were others who needed costumes!

Secret Snarkster !

Once again, I have put off updating, and now I have a backlog of stuff to work through. Gah.

Picking up where I left off, I did try some sewing for my Pullip, who also informed me that her name is Penny and she is a Plucky Girl Reporter. I may or may not have been slightly influenced by seeing "Tintin" at the movies right after she arrived.

Halloween!

It's Halloween time, and various members of Casa Nachos are ready for fun!



Lucy has a deep and secret love for Disney and princesses and pretty dresses, and adores this Cinderella dress! It came from Nethilia/kittikattie in the AG>18 Costume Swap.



The blue fabric has lots of sparklies, and is such a perfect match with Lucy's eyes!



"Um, Robin...I don't think that's quite the right footwear for this story."


Robin decided to do a rather different animated-movie-inspired costume:



She's Astrid, from "How To Train Your Dragon"! This was a costume I'd been planning since June, and I was pleased that it came together in just a couple weeks.

The top is a simple sleeveless bodice pattern - the same pattern I used for the underbodice of the Rapunzel dress. I spent ages looking for the perfect fabric, and picked up a dark blue stripe fat quarter out of desperation. When I unfolded the fat quarter for pressing, I discovered that the wrong side of the fabric was exactly what I wanted!

Her skirt and headband are made from a vinyl piece I found in the remnant bin, with lots and lots of eyelets. The tiny skulls are all Sculpey, her armbands are simply hemp twine wrapped around her arms. The tights are from the Pleasant Company grey school jumper outfit, and the boots are from a Big Lots outfit.

The shoulder pads gave me the most trouble. They're silver cardstock strips, held together with brads, and fastened under her arms with clear beading line. I seriously made three of these before one worked!

(Sunny does not have a costume at the moment. When she asked if they weren't a little old for trick-or-treating, Robin gave her a Look and declared that when a person is too old for Free Candy Night, they are too old to live. Thanks, Rob.)

Clearing the Backlog: Costume Swap + Modern Goodies

Continuing to clear the backlog...

Every year, the AG Over 18 community on LiveJournal holds a Costume Swap for Halloween. This was the first year I've felt confident enough to enter, and I was thrilled when I found out my recipient loves Disney movies - especially Tangled.

I had the fabric, I had the notions...and so Project Rapunzel 2011 expanded to include a doll-sized version of Rapunzel's dress.

I am alive, never fear

Oh, I am so happy it is October. Suffice to say that September was a bad month. I won't get into the details here, because you are reading for Happy Doll Funtimes and not Jen's Debbie Downer Times, but let's say that I have never been so happy to see the tail end of a month.

ANYWAY.

I haven't been online a lot because I have been super-busy with sewing, and I'm pretty stoked about what I'm working on:



This is The Pie's Halloween costume. As you might have noticed, she kinda likes Tangled.

Playing Catch-Up

So, uh, it's been a while, and things have happened.

First, a farewell: my Karito Kid, Eva, has gone to a new home! She's a lovely doll and I loved the character I gave her, but she was hard to sew for and I wanted to narrow my collection a bit. She's now with beast'sbelle over at Never Grow Up, and seems to have found a happy home there!

Second, some squee: The weekend before Ash Wednesday, I was browsing eBay before giving up doll spending for Lent...and sniped three auctions in two days.

Felicity's Birthday Gown

ARGH. Blogland, remind me that I hate sewing T-shirts. I hate it so much...but I can't justify spending $4-10 on doll shirts when I have free evenings, a sewing machine, and loads of worn-out knit shirts waiting to be recycled.

In happier news, here's Felicity's Birthday Gown:



It's not the most faithful reproduction ever (I had no idea how to go about doing the original dress's sleeve details, so I just did an extra ruffle), but it's pretty! (And, considering the fabric was a remnant-bin find, a damn sight cheaper than eBay.)

The pinner apron will be coming along later, after I use up the pink thread on this bobbin with T-shirt crafting. :D

Excuse Me While I Flail With Joy

So, ever since I got back into the whole American Girl thing, I have loved the purple Jumper and Boots set from 2008.

Of course, it was retired right before I started collecting again.

So I've spend the last year scouring eBay, Craigslist, and AGPT to see if I could snag it for a decent price. (Needless to say, I don't consider the $35/ $40/ $50+ BINs a decent price.)

I won it on eBay, Monday night, for $22.50. LESS THAN RETAIL, even with shipping. I nearly went incandescent with flaily squeeful joy.

It arrived today, so here's Robin wearing the shirt and jumper:



Robs took one look at the boots and declared that Heels Are For Chumps, so she's modeling it with the Singing Star boots (plus her favorite necklace and signature hat).

After the New Stuffapalooza which was January, I spent nearly all of February in a state of doll burnout (hence why it took me forever to post again!). My burnout was cured by this bit of cuteness:



The Kid took a shine to Addy - I got her down one day and let The Kid see her, and instantly it was off to her room for hugs and storytime:



So now burnout is over, and crafting has re-commenced:



After Addy arrived, I was aflail with New Dress Planning. Felicity said, in no uncertain terms, that she would cut me if New Girl got a dress before her long-delayed Birthday gown was made.

Felicity knows where I sleep, you guys.

I Have Been Naughty...

...but now I AM Santa, so I still get presents. Mwahaha, adulthood has its perks.

Anyway, I took advantage of AG's Cyber Monday sale to snag a half-price Photographer's Outfit, and added the Chocolate Glasses that I have been wanting for Lucy. (As I recall, I asked my husband, "hey, wanna get me a Christmas present? This thing I want is on sale, can I see your card?".) Now that the package has arrived, I couldn't resist sneaking the glasses out for a little pre-Christmas peek!



Doesn't she look great?

The Next Project, and More Small Doll Stuff

Okay. Okay. I have finally started it.

Not Felicity's birthday gown. Again. I keep thinking "I need to just do it already", but other things crop up and demand first dibs on the Sew Mini.

Nope, I'm talking about this:

Elizabeth's Yellow Gown

Lucy-as-Elizabeth has her finished yellow gown! I managed to sew the bodice and skirt together in a way that preserved the pointed waistline, and the pattern is vastly improved with fabric ruffles instead of lace trim. This gown had a secondary purpose - not only does my "not perfect but I don't need another doll" Elizabeth have a canon gown, I now have completed a test run of the alterations to 3627D and can confidently start Felicity's pink birthday gown.



The fabric was a golden-on-pale yellow vine print; I didn't have the time or money to be going off fabric-hunting, and I had two fat quarters in a bundle that weren't going to be used for anything else.



Next up, a quickie mob cap, because Felicity isn't too pleased about Elizabeth stealing her cap!