new babies

Am not having one. Now that's out of the way.

I might be the slowest person to admit it, but I'm pretty girly. See most of my wardrobe is pink, I can bake better than Betty Crocker - from scratch, no less - and I love dolls. And doll houses. And all the silly little tinsy tiny things you put in them. So when I saw an American -->  Girl of Today at a church sale, I couldn't pass her up. Even missing her shoes. And especially at - no, I can't tell you how much I paid for her. It was highway robbery. 

How many of these girls do I have, you ask? She makes number six, after Kailey, Molly, Felicity, Kirsten and Samantha. I got started young, what can I say. What could be better?Well, her clothes, for one thing. Mattel, seriously.

Her pants fall off when she is sitting, and that tee shirt covers nothing. Okay, so some things could be better.

Haha.

And then, to make things even better, an awesome woman I know told me about this website, where another wonderful woman (I am guessing) scanned for what must have been days to make available these wonderful and out of print patterns for the historic American Girl characters, who seem to be dropping like flies. So I did what any other self respecting and thrifty seamstress would do... I downloaded those as fast as I could and made a dress and pinafore for my new girl.

(Worst picture in the world, I know. Camera is fussy). You can't tell from the photo, but the dress is a white background with little violet buds surrounded by even smaller violet polka dots. In case you were wondering, this is Kirsten's birthday dress* and pinafore, which I will be remaking in the appropriate pink check, as soon as I find it.

My new doll, like my car, is nameless. She doesn't have the looks to be Lizzy Bennett or Jane Eyre. Maybe Lexie [Alexandria] MacDonald. Perhaps Meg Murry. In which case, this little girl will need a pair of tortoise shell glasses. In any case, she serves as the perfect model for the clothes I'm making from the aforementioned patterns.

Oh, I forgot Bitty Baby. When the camera isn't acting out.

*If you're interested in making these dresses, and never have before, watch out for the back closures. My grandmother made a trousseau for Samantha, and had to make the first dress she attempted twice, because the dress wouldn't close in the back, it didn't come close. I had to make a placket for the back of this dress because it too would not close in the back, even when I followed the Velcro placement directions.