Ellowyne Wilde: Biyu

I found my Biyu. She'll need a black wig (or rather, a few black wigs), but that's an easy-do as her hair is interchangeable. I'm super excited to meet her- though I'm leaving on a trip next week and likely won't be around when she comes... I'll have to trust DH to watch out for her.

I just hope her slightly-red eyebrows will look okay with the black wig...

But seriously... I can't wait to make her clothes.


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Instagram

Thanks to a lovely lady I met while scouring the internet for a possible doll to customize I've recently discovered the wonderful AG community on Instagram. I of course have known of Instagram for a long time but the slightly-snooty graphic designer part of me had so far ignored it... mostly because I had no desire to take pictures of my desert and apply stock filters to them before sharing them with the world. Call me crazy.

Anyways, I've joined. I cheated and put up some pictures I had already taken... and did the editing on the computer. Unfortunately, my phone camera isn't up to par so in the future I'll probably stick to shots taken with the nicer camera then cheat them onto Instagram as I please.

View my account by clicking here!

A Brief Dolly History Through Photos

I've always loved dolls 

Little Brother & I for Halloween

Me, Water Baby, and Little Sister.

Lots of Dolls! All three sisters & my first American Girl - Felicity!

Me, Felicity, and Little Sister.

Five siblings and a load of monkeys all made by my mom!

Me with Felicity, Kirsten, Josefina, Samantha, Addy, and Molly.

Years Later - All the Girls and my Baby Boy at three weeks.

The Queen's Treasures - Cupcake Set

The other day I added these adorable cupcakes to my order on Amazon. They're by The Queen's Treasures and hardly cost anything at all. Most doll food other than AG's is terrible, but these were great and definitely worth it - I just wish they made food other than cupcakes and cookies!

They came with a cute little box that was easy to fold up. I'm certain I'll be buying again from them in the future.

Garage Sale Samantha and More!

Today my dolls got themselves two foster sisters picked up at a local garage sale I found on Craigslist.

The dolls are a bit dirty, but otherwise in pretty good condition. I'm looking forward to cleaning them up and giving them the love they deserve before letting them go. In addition to the dolls, I also bought Felicity's horse, Penny.

Again, not perfect. She's missing a stir-up and the blue blanket but still... she's pretty nice. I had never been into the AG horse thing but I may keep her simply because Felicity has always been my favorite and now she gets to finally meet her horse again.

The lot also came with clothes.

As a kid, I had always liked the princess costume. I'm also a fan of the purple brocade dress. I think I'll be holding on to those two. I laughed at the mini grin pins over the red vinyl outfit. My little sister had the same outfit for her doll and I'm pretty sure she put grin pins on hers too. There's also a random sock that I'll have to investigate to figure out what its from.

At the bottom of the bag was this earring. I think its probably for dolls... though neither doll had her ears pierced so I'm honestly not sure. Does anyone know if its an AG earring?


All and all I'm quite happy. The lot was a surprisingly low cost for what came with it so... yay! I should be able to turn a profit for cleaning them up.

Medium Skin, Blue Eyes AG Doll

I've known for some time that I was wrong about there being no medium skinned, blue-eyed American Girl doll. I saw a used one on AGPlaythings a while back, but it was long after I had switched Meredith and Kyla's eyes. Alas, had I known this I would have bought this doll for Sakari instead.

Though honestly, I think the Journey Girls doll looks more like her. So its not a total loss. And I still would of had to get a different wig. Idealy, I would have also bought Kanani and switched wigs with her. Kanani would become Siku (Another RP character of mine... medium skin, grey eyes, black hair) and #67 Would be Sakari.

Part of me is still all like... its not too late. But I'd have to modify Sakari's tunic so the snap was sewn elsewhere (harder than it sounds, as part of it is hidden in the bias tape) and I'd have to bite the bullet and actually pay $150+ for a used Kanani, only to cut her hair to a reasonable length. Also, like I said, the JG facemold fit her better.

I've been looking at other eyes on the interwebs, hoping to be able to find something to replace the JG eyes with so I can better customize them. I have so many character ideas, and these dolls are much less expensive than AG.

By the way, I'll just put this out there- if anyone is interested in me making them a doll using a Journey Girl as a base, please let me know! They have 4 basic doll types: Black, Medium Skin, Light Skin, Light Skin/Asian. I could switch any of their eyes out for you and make their clothes. I'm fairly certain I can rewig as well though I've yet to do so for my own doll. Still waiting for a medium brown wig with a side part to come up on the marketplace. So if you have one of those for sale too... please tell me!

Food & Pants

When I found Molly's Tea Set at the flea market I immediately wanted to get a hold of the silverware and birthday cake that once came with the set. The cost on eBay for the silverware was ridiculous, so I turned straight to calling American Girl to order replacement parts. From them, I managed to buy all the silverware, napkins, birthday cake candles, and a new set of glasses for Molly. (Though something tells me I could find those when I next raid my parent's attic in an attempt to find my doll stuff mixed in with my sister's.) The birthday cake I bought from a member of the AG Playthings board.

Molly's Birthday Cake

I've had all these pieces sitting around for a while, but I wanted a red tablecloth to display them on before I took and uploaded pictures. So today I finally ironed out a fat quarter of red fabric and hemmed the edges. Then I started taking more pictures...

Kit's Birthday Cake

Pictures of things such as my most recent eBay purchase, Kit's delicious-looking cake. It won't be long now before I buy the depression glassware set for her to complete the set-up.

My display of doll food and knickknacks on top of my bookshelf. Aurora has been dutifully guarding the curio cabinet for some time now.

Where both Molly & Felicity's tea sets reside on my dresser. You may notice Appa resting on my pillow in the mirror. I sure did...

 

So I decided that Sakari & Appa needed to meet.

By the way, I made Sakari's black pants to go under the tunic. It took two tries, as my first attempt to alter a pattern to fit  Journey Girl dolls made for some awkward-looking pants. I may embroider the hem to match Sakari's sleeves, but not today.

Meet Sakari

Since the great Eye Swap, Kyla has been standing around, doing her upmost to look like the character she was meant to be. That is, my Avatar roleplay character, Sakari.

Sakari - Age 13

Kyla with Blue Eyes

I did some research and found a pattern to help me figure out how to construct Sakari's tunic. I chose It's A Wrap, an Ardently Admire pattern sold on Liberty Jane's Patterns. In the end, it was heavily altered for my dress, but I'm glad I had something to give me a start.

When I got the chance, I went to the fabric store to scout out what I'd need. I came home with a pile of supplies.

First, I opened up the colored wire and twisted together Sakari's bracelets. This was a pretty easy, mindless job, and by far the easiest part of the project.

I altered and cut out the pieces, embroidered the sleeves, then began my first ever attempt to make (and use) bias tape. It did not go well. While the pattern guide was helpful overall, its instructions for making bias tape went way over my head. Instead, I youtubed instructions. They were helpful, but my fabric strips were still rough and I couldn't iron straight. Giving up, I returned to the fabric store to buy the pre-made kind.

Then I sat down to sew.

The thread broke.

I tried again. It broke again. This went on for... every single time I tried. Re-threading didn't help, messing with the tension dial didn't help. I eventually gave up and did this:

Now all of facebook knows my sewing machine's shame.

The next day, though, I figured out I had the stupid needle in backwards. After that my machine sort of worked, but still jammed. I took yet another trip to the store to buy some new needles, some specifically for knit fabric, and voila!

Two days of sewing later, I finished Sakari's tunic. By explaining all its many faults away by saying the original was sewn by an emotionally distraught eleven-year-old girl with no mother figure and I feel a little better.

Sakari Waterbending

Embroidery

Bracelets

There's still more to do, including finding the perfect wig, but for now I'm done!