Dolly Rehab: Kanani

I recently found a Kanani (the 2011 AG Girl of the Year) on Ebay for a price that didn't make me cry. She was in need of 'doll whispering' (to use Neth of American Girl Outsider's phrase), but she wasn't completely trashed. She'd been up for a few days and I was surprised she was still available by the time I decided to get her, considering that every other Kanani in similar condition was much more expensive.

Here's how she looked when she was listed on Ebay (photo taken from the Ebay listing):

As you can see, Kanani's got a lot of lipstick marks and shines on her face from the person who'd had her last. Friendly reminder not to put human makeup on dolls - it never looks good and it will end up being difficult to take off down the line. Her hair's also a bit dry. 

Here's how she looks after some scrubbing (and putting some clothes on!): 

Still not perfect, but definitely an improvement. The shines are still there and I'll get rid of those with a Magic Eraser in a few days, but most of the heavier makeup stains are much less visible with some soap and water. I've also put some shine back in her hair with some braid spray, though I may need to do a few more applications over the next few days to get it back to something closer to its original lustre. 

Some more photos: 

Kanani managing to out-Grace Grace in some of her clothes. 

Back to School with the Interdimensional Crew (by Saila)

Hey guys! This is my first time writing here and I just wanted to show you some of the back-to-school fashions we've put together.

First, here's all of us together! I'll describe the individual outfits as I go along.

Addy's wearing her blue school dress. She looks really good in blue and the dress is super-fancy (at least to me! She says it's normal for kids of her time though). Emily's got on a mint-green dress and a brown shrug, and she's borrowing Mary Ellen's shoes.

Grace is wearing the outfit she wore to AGP Boston - a slouchy brown sweatshirt, colourful geometric leggings and a pair of stompy black boots. She also has her wheelchair now, which will help with her mobility issues. Josefina's wearing a ruffly white camisa and a red striped skirt - that outfit looks super comfy! 

I lent Caroline my blue cardigan - I thought it'd match the colour of her eyes. She's wearing Grace's meet shirt underneath (covering up that stupid tacky print), a pair of jeggings and a pair of grey polka-dot flats that Grace and Emily picked up from AGP last weekend. She's from 1812 but she'll wear modern stuff anyways because she's a time traveller. Mary Ellen is wearing her poodle skirt outfit - so 50s!

And finally... Alice and me! Alice is wearing a cool punk-inspired outfit that she got on Etsy, accessorized with her 'Queer Nerd' button. I'm pulling a Claudia Kishi from the Baby-Sitters Club with my outfit. I threw on a pink sweatshirt with studs, a floaty white skirt that I borrowed from Grace, and some black leggings, and put my hair in a side ponytail. (The BSC books are some of my favourite books, even though they're really retro now. I bet my mom read them when she was a kid. No cellphones or internet? I think modern technology would make their jobs a lot easier. Like, Claudia wouldn't stand out for having her ~*own phone line*~ - gasp!)

-Saila

Emily and I go to the American Girl Place in Boston - and visit the Jinjia Mixed Goods gang (by Grace)

Emily and I (and our Big Person, of course) went to the American Girl Place in Boston (well, not technically Boston, but close enough!) on 27th September. We went with Kasey of Kasey Reviews Stuff and Windstar of Jinjia Mixed Goods - and Windstar's Kana, who Emily spent time with at the Museum of Science back in May. I was really excited to go as my dad's parents are from Boston and I visit them in Cambridge sometimes.

Before we actually got to the AGP we saw a Maryellen behind some glass, seeming to do some sort of self-portrait. She looks just like the one I know! The display was advertising some sort of painting activity. Maybe I should tell Saila about it; I think she'd enjoy that sort of thing.

When we got inside the AGP I went up to a display case with 'my' pâtisserie! There was another 'me' there and it was a bit awkward (though I think I look better - my outfit was much trendier and I think my eyes are a bit less wonky). Also I'm from Leeds (well, Otley technically) and I'm only half American - my dad's from Boston and moved to the UK before I was born. The pâtisserie looks different to the ones I've seen in France as well, though it is cute and I sort of wish our Big Person would get it for me. He swears up and down we haven't got room though. *sighs* 

I also pulled out my laptop to start blogging (one of my favourite things - it's hard to pull me away from my computer once you've got it in front of me). xD 

I popped in to Maryellen's diner to look at the food - those milkshakes looked delicious. Omnomnom! Though I wish my shirt didn't start falling off my shoulder as soon as I sat down. >>, 

Here are a load of modern girls who look as though they're in a fish tank! I'd hate to be cramped in like that, especially in that horrible excuse for an outfit. :-O If I ended up with that dress in my collection I'd have it burnt straightaway because it's one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. (Oh wait! Maybe I'd wear it for a Hallowe'en costume and get some alien antennae. TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER, SO I CAN TELL THEM OFF FOR BEING SUCH A SHIT FASHION DESIGNER. I COME FROM THE FUTURE AND IT'S APPARENTLY POORLY ACCESSORISED.) 

Our Big People got lunch at the bistro! I sat down with Emily and one of the other Graces - I think this was Kasey's Grace (both of the other Big People ended up getting Graces. It was a bit weird hanging out with two of me!). She was probably thinking, 'I can't wait to get out of the shop so I can take off this horrible meet outfit and put on something better'. (I can sympathise - I felt the same way, but I don't think I had that outfit on more than a few minutes. Alice took it and for some reason she looked less ridiculous in it than I did.) 

As we were eating one of the employees spotted me with my computer out and said 'She's the smart one, isn't she?' That's right. :P (I'm also borrowing Kana's glasses here. I had to give them back but I did end up getting my own pair later!) 

Later we went round Kana's place and met the rest of the gang! I visited Lily and looked at all her potions and Hogwarts textbooks (Advanced Potion-Making happened to be there!). I wish I could actually do proper spells - the Harry Potter books are some of my favourites. My copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is worn-out from me reading it over and over again. You'll see that I've got my own glasses now as well, though they didn't stay yellow for long. They're now a nice dark purple colour. :) 

I went to look at Caroline's Parlour (Caroline not included). It was really nice though it's not really my personal style. Other!Grace was there and so was Nora, though Nora is cut off. 

Here's a close-up of me in the parlour: 

Emily decided to come out after being massively shy all day, and went to look at some of the books. As you can see she changed into Kit's dress which she ended up getting that day. 

Emily and Kana posed together as well. 

Emily and I had a great time - we'd really like to go back to AGP and spend more time with more of our fellow miniature people. :D 

Grace xx

Attempts at sewing.

Here are various attempts at making or altering doll clothes as a relative novice at sewing (I've done it for years... but awkwardly, and not in a while, so I still see this as novice-quality): 

Josefina's skirt is made of teal fabric with a floral pattern that I thought might work for her time period and personal style. The waistband is elastic, but you can't see it underneath her belt (which is actually a headband from an Our Generation outfit, since I can't seem to find her original!). 

Emily is wearing a simple blue skirt with an elastic waistband, made with a white and blue floral pattern that wouldn't seem too out of place in the 40s. She's paired it with a white shirt whose sleeves I cut off to shorten. The stitches could be better, but that's hand-sewing and somewhat awkward hand-eye coordination for you. :P 

Caroline's tunic shirt was originally an Our Generation playsuit, but I thought it would be more versatile as a shirt that could be worn over jeans or leggings, so I snipped the leg openings of the playsuit, folded the extra bits of fabric inwards and sewed them together to make it a shirt instead. Caroline is modelling it over Saige's denim leggings. 

Grace is wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and skirt; I experimented with the shirt by making it have slightly bow-shaped velcro straps. Not sure how it worked, but it was a try, wasn't it? 

I made Alice a knitted black t-shirt and skirt, which she's wearing with the top of Felicity's Riding Habit. Unfortunately it's a bit more difficult to see than the others' because of the habit, but I think it's a good combination (though not very seasonally appropriate right now - it's a good thing she's a doll, or I think she'd overheat). 

Dolly Rehab: Caroline - the introduction

For some reason this appeared as a complete post before it was actually meant to be posted. I withdrew the post and turned it into a draft, but it appears as though it was up for a while. Sorry!

Anyway, I recently acquired a Caroline from Ebay. She came with her full meet outfit and accessories, though she was in played-with condition, with tangled hair, traces of lipstick on her lips, some random stains on her vinyl, and drawings on her torso. (This is why you don't give AGs to 5-year-olds - no wonder the kid's parents were selling the doll after they drew all over her!) She was obviously salvageable, but this project did take some work. I started off by getting rid of the lipstick and the stains on the vinyl, just using a wet paper towel to get rid of everything. This took about twenty minutes or so. I got a bottle of braid spray afterwards and got to work on her extremely tangly, but salvageable, hair. I put quite a bit on, brushed it in, let it sit for a few hours and then brushed it again. It's much shinier than it was when she got to me, and her hair is no longer tangled, though the hair is still more wavy than curly if you don't finger-style it.

The next step is to remove those obnoxious drawings on her torso. She's just wearing clothes that cover the marks for now, but I'd eventually like to get them off. The problem is that that step may require unstuffing and having her dry out for a few days, which will be kind of annoying. If I can find a way to get rid of them that doesn't require going through that, I'll try it. If I have to though, it'll be fine; it's not the first time I've unstuffed dolls to repair them. I had a Felicity here about a year ago whose joints were loose and I had to tighten the strings.

This is what she currently looks like:

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of what she looked like before starting the Dolly Rehab process.  

For Science!

On 23rd May our Big Person took Addy and me to the Museum of Science in Boston. We went along with Shepard, Kana and their Big Person, of Jinjia Mixed Goods.



One of my favourite exhibits was Mathematica, which is a massive collection of displays about maths. The most interesting ones were the ones about topology - that’s about spatial relations and things. I don’t know very much about it yet, but if I go to university I’d like to read mathematics and perhaps learn more about it. As you can see here Shepard and Kana’s Big Person is holding me in front of the exhibit so I can pose properly. Can you see the Möbius strip behind me?







We tried putting together a gripping claw in the engineering section but there were far too many people (bit overloading, really) there so our Big People decided that it might be a good idea to go elsewhere.



We saw a lightning show as well, where we watched somebody use Van de Graaf generators to create lightning right inside the room. The biggest one was given to the museum by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 50s, I believe, and it’s massive. Sorry there’s no photo of the actual lightning - it was too loud for us to try and get a picture and have our ears covered at the same time.



Here I am in front of a dinosaur skeleton.



It’s a Triceratops skeleton. This time my Big Person had to hold me - sorry about him getting in the photo!

 

I’m sitting in an aeroplane engine. It’s probably a good thing it’s outside the ’plane - and not switched on!





Addy, Kana, Shepard and I wanted to go inside a space capsule but there were too many people waiting. We decided to take a photo in front of the other one instead.











Addy and I did a bit of climbing and investigating near the geological exhibits. Addy says this was her favourite bit - looking at how the world has changed and become what it is now. I’ll put that down to her interest in history.

 

Aren’t chambered nautiluses very pretty?

Our trip was fun and I learnt loads of fascinating things about maths and science. Perhaps I’ll bring Alice with me next time. ~Emily