Mood:  happy

Get this - when we couldn't find Cars for the Wii for Dearest Son locally, we ordered it from Amazon.com. On Saturday. I found it today - and Amazon left a message for me, they'd ship it Thursday at the earliest. Monday at the latest. Then it'd be five to nine working days shipping. I could expect it the first or second week of October. Oh, forget it ! Cancelled the Amazon order, and went back to get the game. Same price.

Got the second pattern scanned, then went to run errands. For once, I got the DVD rentals returned on time, and hit the thrift next to it. Scored a cute little Barbie house - it folds up into what looks like a quilted gift package, complete with big bright bow. Inside, it has a narrow cabinet that opens, and a bench that folds out to a canopy bed, with a nightstand next to it. The bench opens up for storage, but instead of sheets or a thin mattress, I found a pair of Barbie Capri pants inside. The rest is a sink that folds up and a bathtub with stairs leading to it. In case a doll wants to bathe in the sunlight afforded by the four windows surrounding it. Barbie, you exhibitionist ! A nice find for a mere $4.

I'd post photos, but I didn't finish cleaning it, and it's currently the super-secret base of a splinter group of Hot Wheels -sized Transformers. Dearest Son fell in love with it, too. He was so pleased to find the folding bed that he ran to me, exclaiming, "The bed transforms !" ! So I let him play with it for most of the evening. I can probably have it back now that he has the new game.

Also found some small photo frames at the Dollar General in the same strip. Two of ‘em for 50c. Their slight curve made me think ‘Plasma TV set for dolls !'. Found a silver set and made one for Elphie. It's a bit small for her, but I hung it up in her ‘living room' anyway. It's the latest image on her Photo Album page. It'll probably look better for Barbie sized dolls, so it's a good thing there were two in the pack.

Got the third and final pattern cut out while Son bathed. He still prefers baths - heck, so would I, if I had time ! - and I don't wanna leave him alone in there, especially since the seizure. So I save some tasks for the bathroom at 7:30 every night. Hope to iron it tonight and scan it tomorrow. It was completely uncut, but very wrinkled, hence the ironing. Ironing paper on a low setting is a specialty of mine !  

It's for Barbie and Jem sized dolls, so it has (are you ready ?) 50 pieces ! But actually, that's fine, all the pieces are quite small. The one I scanned today had a veil pattern that was 22' x 25" . They can't possibly just say ‘cut a rectangle x inches long and y inches wide'. Nope, there has to be an actual paper rectangle, and I'm stupid enough to scan it. Guess I should count my blessings - the Brooke Shields pattern had a veil 18" x 15" - but it was to be placed on a fold, was curved, and required gathering in two places.

Why does an 11.5-inch doll need a veil three times her height and about ten times her width ?

Posted by dorriebelle at 8:50 PM CDT

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Mood:  a-ok

While looking for that ‘September 2007 Release' Enchanted Robert Phillips doll - one day, he'll be there ! - I got a good look at the Island Princess doll line. I've been skipping over it mostly because the titular Barbie is so...vividly colored. She's wearing a pretty dress, but that shade of blue hurts my eyes. And if she's on an island, why would she be wearing a full-length beglittered ball gown ? I mean, even yer biggest clotheshorse is gonna reach for the too-big sweatpants and a battered pajama top every so often.

Anyway, after my eyes glazed over Barbie, I noticed ‘Prince Antonio' for the first time. He's probably been there for weeks, I just couldn't see past the electric turquoise peacock tail. I figured he was ‘Beach Glam Ken' in a prince suit, but he isn't. I've been wanting a new head mold Ken for a while, but all the ones I've seen have been blonde, with a sort of sneer expression, and I like dark hair on my nice male dolls ! Comparing Antonio to Ken, there's quite a difference beyond hair. While Keeping Ken's author, Jef Beck, (http://www.manbehindthedoll.com/ ) seems to believe Tony's just a molded-hair modification of New Ken, I think it's more than that.

Tony's nose is quite sharp, and seems a bit longer than Ken's. His eyebrows are a vast improvement, gentle and feathery, and his eyes are just a tiny bit rounder. It may be just a trick of the paint, but he seems to have a gentle sort of smile instead of a one-side smirk. I really tried to get photos to show this, but the flash sort of flattens Tony's face, so the sharp, thin angle of his nose is hard to see. He sort of resembles a paler older brother of Stars and Stripes Ken, a rarely used mold. That's probably just me - placed side-by-side, they don't resemble each other much.

I'd have done a debox article on him, but it was too simple. A soft plastic strip around his neck and two of those thingies most stores use to attach price tags to clothes, that was it. His costume, aside from his neat crown (more later) and tunic top, is just about useless. What's any male doll gonna do with knee-length purple shorts elasticized at the knee ? Even Leia doesn't want ‘em, and I don't know if I can talk Jem and Synergy into ‘em or not.

His shoes look like something Prince Eric (Little Mermaid) wore - knee-high foldovers. But these are a dark blue, split in the back from the heel to about a quarter-inch before the tops, to aid in putting on and taking off. It was still fairly difficult to get ‘em off anyway. Can't imagine another doll wearing ‘em, or even "Tony" wearing ‘em again. Maybe if they were black, I could pass them off as a pirate costume, but navy blue ? ARrrr. Nothin' says ‘hot sexy pirate, yow !' like blue knee boots and purple clam-diggers. Maybe if I made Leia a hot dark blue pleather bodysuit, she'll wear the boots... Han would probably insist !

Tunic is nice, but I have no idea why the fleur-de-lis pattern on the sleeves is upside down. Same way with every doll in the store. The small, tasteful goldtone crown is flexible plastic, and stays put well, no matter if you want it high up in front or peeking up from the back. Other dolls can wear it, too. It's quite nice.

His body is a mixed bag, too. His rigidly straight PTR (palms to rear) arms go straight up and down, not out to the sides even one millimeter. Sad when the $5. swimsuit doll has more articulation than the $10. character one. A bonus surprise -  he has ‘the bump' ! Not molded-on briefs ! I couldn't believe it. I haven't seen ‘the bump' since Malibu Ken. I thought that mold was burned or broken or something, since Mattel seems very interested in keeping their characters innocent and kids' sometimes hyper-sensitive parents placated. Color me strange, but that made up for his unfortunate arms, in my book at least.

Legs have the usual barely defined toes and two-click knees you're used to in Mattel Males, and Tony has no twist waist. Face paint is nice, and he has great eyes. I even like his molded hairstyle. On the whole, well worth $10., but I still think Mattel could have at least sprung for full-length pants for the poor guy.

Speaking of Mattel, here's a neat link if you haven't already seen it - from a Japanese doll collector dinner event, some of the 2008 catalog made brief appearances. I finally got to see a blurry photo of the Speed Racer set, and I was pleased to see a Midge and Allan gift set. Too bad I already have a vintage Midge and Alan, and even the Swingin' Easy dress she's wearing. Made my own clone versions too, using a pattern that wasn't designed for my alterations !

http://dollattic.com/hotgossip.htm  -> Entry's dated Sept. 13^th.  Enjoy !

Posted by dorriebelle at 6:56 PM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:07 AM CDT

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Mood:  silly

Well, I didn't get to sew today, but I wanted to. That's a good sign. Maybe my stupid two-day foray into deep self-pity has passed. Thank Everything ! I took one of my favorite creations' photo (Elphie's Blue Romance swing image - a perfect blend of yard sale, thrift store, and my imagination) and stamped 'FAIL' over it in PaintShopPro, in various fonts, colors, and languages. It made me laugh, and then it was all over. It's hard to feel down when you're laughing so hard, you can barely see.

It was odd that I let things like skill jealousy bug me - I thought I outgrew that when I skated, ‘cause there's *always* someone better than you ! - but there it was, ugly and encompassing. Either I needed a good wallow and that's done, or there was something to be learned from it, and hopefully I have. I don't want to repeat that weekend from Hades !

DF&MIL dropped off some bags fulla goodies. One of DMIL's aunts is considering moving from their country home to a place closer in town - her husband is quite ill - so she went through the least-used of her three closets and dropped off a literal truckload of clothes to them. I got four bags of it today, and if there's something more fun than digging through bagloads of high-quality free clothes that probably fit, I'm not sure what it is ! Ended up with fourteen new blouses, a pair of pants, two jackets, an apron, and five house-robes. Not Mal-Wart stuff, either. More like Dillards and Belk-Hudson. Aunt is blessed with good taste and a fat checkbook ! Beloved found three pairs of khakis and two shirts - I was kind of hoping he wouldn't go for those 100% linen slacks, but he did, and they'll look better on him than my crafts. You know me, if a cupcake's loose on the table, I'll pounce ! But I wanna make sure no one else is goin' hungry first.

Can't complain  - there were three pair of men's dress slacks that won't fit Beloved, so I kept ‘em for the Chez Insanity guys. DMIL asked me to drop off what we can't use at GoodWill, so once I add Dearest Son's latest round of outgrowns, that's what I'll do. There were a few items that just weren't worth donating, so we got a few rags and five matched buttons for the jar. Happy !

Got the least-liked of the three new patterns scanned. You'd think I'd go for the favorite (i.e., the reason I bought the lot) first, but I knew that if I didn't scan that Brooke Shields doll pattern set first, I'd probably never do it. Gosh, I still remember the ads for that doll. I was more-or-less Anti-Brooke when I was younger - she's only a year older than me - but the way she was presented, Miss Perfect Everything, just turned me right off. The Calvin Klein jeans ad didn't help. And I didn't like the doll's look, either. So there. I'd probably like her if I met her as a person, though. Pattern's not bad, but nothing spectacular either. Can still hear ‘from LJN !' in my mind, and I even remember their rainbow logo. I can barely remember my cell phone number, but I could draw LJN's logo for ya, no problem !

LJN, sadly, isn't making toys anymore...or even videogames. After going through  numerous purchases and splits, it went to the great toybox in the sky in 1994. However, LJN's founder has gone on to create Jakks Pacific and THQ. Amazingly enough, according to Wikipedia, MCA, the company who brought you three-thousand permutations (or just mutations) of Bratz, purchased LJN in 1986, and got them started in video game production. Acclaim bought LJN from MCA, and cut all but the video game division. This was a dodge Acclaim used to get around Nintendo's quality restrictions - each company was only allowed to create so many games a year. With two companies, themselves and LJN, they could make much more. It's also believed that the stuff not good enough for the flagship label went on the LJN one - and with all of Acclaim's well-known problems, that's really saying something. Acclaim went belly-up in '04, after publishing numerous badly-received and semi-p*rn games that barely worked, but what did them in was bad financial decisions and a market decline in arcade games. They probably could have muddled through one, but not both at the same time.

Their name and game rights catalog were bought out as part of bankruptcy proceedings, but what made them Acclaim is otherwise gone.  And now, the founder of LJN has a fairly well-respected toy company - they make the Hannah Montana and Cheetah Girls dolls now on Mal-Wart shelves, and most of the Disney Store-only Princess playline dolls (yep - in 2004, Jakks Pacific bought PlayAlong toys !) - and a separate video game company, THQ. His original company is a memory for many of us, but the way LJN whimperingly went out, I'm glad he got out when he did. Or we wouldn't have Jakks Pacific !

Here's the kicker, we just ordered Cars for Dearest Son - and it's made by THQ ! Wanna know something even funnier ? They also made the Bratz series of games ! And folks wonder how I can find such fascination with the business of toys !  

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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Mood:  down

Did I say I'd rather be sewing today ? Well, I rank at that, too. I'm all proud of the simple crap I make, and wonder why nobody cares. Then someone shows off their stuff, and while he/she says it's merely a trifle he/she tossed off while watching Scrubs or The Girls Next Door, it's still about 20000% better than anything I've done. And the accolades flow. Not for me. Not mine. Not that I blame anybody.

I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe it's a Boogie carryover, it just seems as though I haven't found a niche where I really excel. Which tanks when ya realize how old I am. It just ranks when I've been sewing for about five years now, and Person Over Here pulled a rusty antique treadle Singer sewing machine out of a ditch Tuesday and yesterday began creating professional-level miniature garments from silk and taffeta that puts Fashion Royalty to shame, while I can't follow a &^%$ Simplicity pattern that was designed for an eight-year-old to use. I wonder why I keep trying.

I even have three new-to-me patterns, created during the fashion-as-fun 80s, complete and waiting to be scanned, and I paid not much more than a buck each for ‘em. The ironing board is up and waiting, but I just can't bring me to be interested.

If anyone has a three-days-dead wet trout handy, could you PLEEEZZE clout me over the head with it ? Maybe that'll trigger a reset switch in my two-volt brain so I can get out of this ridiculous self-pity mode.  I'm annoying even myself, and that's pretty darn bad.

Well, there's my whaaaaambulance. I gotta go. I hope they brought that jacket with the really long sleeves, it's very slenderizing.

Posted by dorriebelle at 6:06 PM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:07 AM CDT

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Mood:  don't ask

Didn't get jack-all done today. I mean, nothin'. We got a second controller set and Boogie for the Wii. It's a dance and karaoke game. How sad is it that Beloved Hubby leaves me in the dust on both ? (sigh) I thought I did well singing Simply Red's Stars, but the next song - Brick House - he barely mumbled and doubled my score.  And I'm not gonna get into how much better he was at the dancing portion of the thing.

I'm trying to not let that blunt my video game enjoyment, but that's precisely why I don't play the things in the first place. Even when scores aren't contingent on working multiple fiddly buttons and switches, I still rank at ‘em. I thought Wii would at least be easy enough for me to control and do fairly well at, but even that's seemingly beyond me.

Normally, I wouldn't let it bother me that someone else's score is better, but darn it, they shove the numbers in your face while you're playing. I just wanna jump around and enjoy the *&^5ing game. Not have to figure and plot and plan, and worry about floating score pads.

Maybe one day I'll find a darn video game I'm good at. And maybe RC Cola is free in fountains on that planet, too. And going out without thinking of scoring used stuff for dolls is unheard of. But I'd probably somehow be a misfit there, too !

Aaah, don't mind me. I'm having a fit of self-pity because I rank at a stupid game. Somebody call the Whaaaaambulance. I am waaaay too old for this. And there's stuff I'd much rather be doing, but I'm tired, I wanna play with Beloved, and my wrist is starting to hurt. It's just not been the positive experience I was hoping for.  

On the whole, I'd rather be sewing...

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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Mood:  party time!

Today was interesting. Beloved Hubby got a bonus, so we did a bit of shopping. Ended up at Best Buy - and the doors were festooned with copy-paper posters in at least nine different colors, trumpeting the fact that Nintendo Wii systems were now in stock. Eeek.

We'd been thinking of getting one, both to help Dearest Son learn sharing, following directions, and cooperative play and to get me off my big butt. The Wii is the one with the controller you have to move around to use, and there's a disc of sport games included, plus lots of additional physical games sold separately. The graphics are sub-par compared to PS3 and Xbox, but we weren't too concerned about that. Both Beloved and I are too old for games that need the player to coordinate twelve buttons, a joystick, a trackball, and a rocking lever switch all at once. A simple, fun to use system would go a lot farther in Chez Insanity than the latest and greatest tech. I still like Pac-Man !

We'd done the research and weighed the benefits and minuses - namely $250. and the possibility of a game-addicted Son, plus the fact that no one's had any systems in the two weeks we've been pondering. Odd when you think about that, the system's been out for nearly a year. Looked up games and add-ons, and the included features, read scores of reviews and articles about autism and video games. And we still hadn't decided when these Skittles-colored signs confronted us.

Amazingly, they were on the sales floor, albeit in the back, but we just strolled up, muttered about how this was probably a bad idea, and took one off the pyramid pile and to the register line. I figured they'd be under lock and key, or these'd be dummy boxes redeemable for the real thing once payment was tendered. But Beloved and I both knew, as soon as we saw the signs, that we were leaving with one. Decided to use what came with for a while, then later get additional controllers and rent a few games before buying.

Only took about 20 minutes to install, and when you consider all the other stuff we have connected to the TV already, this isn't bad at all. I actually stressed my right arm a bit during one of several boxing matches, and I rank in digital bowling about as badly as I do with the real thing. But it certainly was fun. The nice young lady who cashiered our purchase beamed and said we'd love it. I even let her talk me into a free Rewards card, since we'd get $5. for each $250. purchase - and we'd just made that. And I think she's right. I've already enjoyed it quite a bit, and I worked up a real sweat during Boxing.

Son wiped the floor with both of us in Bowling. And he fell asleep in about ten minutes tonight. I think he wiped himself out, too. We're all gonna make a personal icon - called a Mii - to represent ourselves in the games tomorrow.

In doll news, I decided to keep just the latest ten images from the Challenge - dress every Barbie-size doll in something I've made using patterns I've never used - on the Home page. Moved the rest to the Barbie page, reducing some of the images a bit to save on space. I'll probably edit the information later, Tripod was doin' something wonky with the text interface today. Having only ten pictures up on the home page is plenty, and it makes it easier to scroll through.

I try to update the site at least three times a month, but I'd prefer ten updates, even if it's just ten new doll dress images.  That way the '10 most recent updates' near the bottom of Home all have the same month in ‘em ! I hate it when a site is great and fantastic - and it hasn't been updated or even touched since 2004.

Spending a lot of time on the site lately. Probably because I'm spending less time online reading bad webcomics (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comes to mind, author's either 17 or a serious misogynist), smirking at images of kittens using pidgin English, and reading jokey news sites and misery maven havens - I just don't have the endless hours anymore.

While I was on the Barbie page, I updated that a bit, too. I had this empty space at the top, and I thought, ‘Wouldn't it be cute if I could find a Barbie font, and put my name there ?'. Well, thought = action, and I found the font in seconds. Too bad Windows Vista didn't want to let me install it ! Ended up copying the True Text files into Clipboard, storing them in a file, then opening Fonts and selecting ‘Add new Fonts'. Not sure why that worked when a simple ‘Extract to' didn't, but that's Vista for ya. From there, I made up a few signs in PaintShopPro, and pasted them to the Barbie page as photos. Tripod is a nice webhost company, but they only give me four fonts for my freebie pages.

If you'd like the same font, it's free, and available here ->

http://www.newfonts.net/index.php?pa=show_font&id=308  

And that was my day. Housework in the morning, website in the afternoon, Wii and Taco Bell tonight. No time to sew something new, but a really nice day today. At least the snaps for ‘Ice Night' are sewn on - Son's busdriver will be gone for a few days, so he has a substitute learning the route. While Mr. George has Son home about ten minutes after school lets out, the subby takes a bit longer. And yes, that means the photo was taken with Malibu Barbie wearing the dress pinned on. I'm always so excited about a new outfit's completion, I wanna post it as soon as possible, which normally means pins in the back.

I keep telling people I'm evil and lazy, but they never believe me !

Posted by dorriebelle at 10:03 PM CDT

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Mood:  celebratory

I am up waaaay too late tonight. But once I got started updating some seriously ancient pages on the main site, I just couldn't stop ! I'm pushing the limits of my free Tripod site, mostly due to my photo-happy nature, so I've been pruning them. I'm too blasted cheap to pay for the site - while I don't mind rambling on and on, I don't wanna pay for it, and I sure don't expect anyone else to. The ads are a cheap trade off, goss knows I never see ‘em.

Deleted six that were stored but not used on the site, and that scaled my memory usage back a whole .4 MB. From there, I updated the ‘Sewing Tips and Tricks' and the ‘Home Page Histories' a bit, mostly getting rid of dead photo links and enlarging the font. At least both look a little better now, even if both are mostly nonsensical ramblings.

Home page got updated, too -  new image ! When I went to pick up ‘scripts, I had a small grocery list, and included was a quarter-yard of the ‘flame' fabric in blue. Had the bolt resting on the cart, waiting for the clerk to cut it when I remembered to root through the remnants. Score ! Exact same fabric, already cut to a quarter-yard, with a 20% discount. Yeah, so it's 20c - but that's where dollars come from !

Once home, it went into the laundry. While that spun around, I put away all the clean clothes that've been sitting around. After two loads were dry and done, I had my fabric - and two more loads of laundry to put away. When that was done, it was time for me to play !

Since the PJ ‘Hot Tropics' dress was so fluffy, I wanted something close-fitting for the ‘ice' fabric. Went with an Aileen's Petite Fashions pattern, #023, a replica of the classic Pak fashion ‘Sheath Dress'. Fit was pretty good, but I got the straps too high up, and the waist too low. Doesn't show much in the photo, though. Waist, hem, and bodice match perfectly in the back.  Always the mark of a good pattern. It now officially takes longer for FrayCheck to dry than it does to apply. Once it's on, I have to kill five or ten minutes before I can sew anything. Fire hazard, ya know.

Left off the pockets and the bead buttons, so it looks a bit bare, but I hate those pockets and the beads would have looked a bit odd on that print. I like how it turned out. Enjoy one last look at Malibu Barbie - yup, she and PJ are the same ones I got at the flea market last month - as a blonde. Soon as the weather turns to Autumn, I'm gonna scalp and reroot her. It's a long process involving hair and sitting for hours, something I just can't do in Summer.

Oh, and I'm also happy, ‘cause Mal-Wart had boys' sweatpants ! $5.28, though. Oh, well. Got the classic black pair, and I'll probably pick up one each of the other four colors each time I get groceries, and that should take Dearest Son through to his next growth spurt. Had to cull two pairs of pants as too short while I was sorting laundry.

I also did a spot-check of some patterns, just to see if more were glitching. Nope. Updated the organization, though, so now when I'm on the computer, seeing the pattern envelopes is easier. Still love to leaf through the catalog, though.

See why I'm up too late ? By all accounts, I should be darn tired - and I am ! Dearest Son had a great day, and Beloved Hubby got so much done, it makes my day look like a long nap. It's bedtime. But I wanted to get this done, too. Sleep well, friends and family !

Posted by dorriebelle at 11:08 PM CDT

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Mood:  lazy

Busy day. While looking on the computer for a pattern to try out, I found one that'd somehow encoded incorrectly. It was just one page, three pattern pieces, but it was really messed up. Somehow, it cut off one edge of the scan, reprinted it on the other side, knocking the rest of the pattern askew. It also colored half the page solid black with white lettering. The rest was white with black lettering, as it should be. So, I fixed it. Printed it out, reassembled it, scanned it, removed all the black, and saved it again. Took over an hour.

Then I realized - that page was probably OK in my backup files. D'oh ! It was. Oh, well. Practice with digital manipulation's never a waste !

Printed out a Ken-size tank top pattern, from my old pattern exchange group. No directions, but it looked fairly simple. Used the flame fabric again - do you believe there's still more of it to use ? Turned out much too tight and it didn't hang well. So tomorrow, I'm gonna sew up a simple black sheath dress, and use it as a Barbie vest. Then retake the photo with PJ and Malibu. While she's still a blonde.

It probably didn't fit because it was supposed to be sewn as a knit, not a woven cotton. Occasionally, not having directions or a photograph of the finished item bites me in the butt. Not a total waste, though, because the black dress and flame vest is gonna look great together !

Trying the ill-fated tank top on Ken dolls was a challenge. Both Allan (Happy Family, first edition) and Malibu Ken (thrift store, 25c ‘cause he was filthy, but he cleaned up great) had cotton t-shirts on, and I have no idea how. They were so tight, I ripped one removing it. Both shirts were Mattel, and neither had any sort of back opening. So I fixed that. And the tear. At least next time I need a male doll for fitting, I won't nearly break a doll's arm !

Sewed the snaps on the ‘Hot Tropics' dress while waiting for Dearest Son's bus to bring him home. He ended up nearly an hour late ! Not sure if it's ‘yellow flu' (i.e., a strike) or what, but they had so many drivers call in sick today, his afternoon driver did her normal route, then went back to drive the route Son's on ! If they'd have called, I'd have picked him up, but they didn't. His morning driver was also late, but not that much. I hope Mr. George, his usual driver, is back to health soon !

And that was today. Tomorrow, I'm at Mal-Wart, pickin' up prescriptions and doing laundry. So I'd best get some sleep ! Hope your day was good !

Posted by dorriebelle at 10:45 PM CDT

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Mood:  hungry

Finally got the dishes done ! And I wanted to show the material I used to patch Dearest Son's pants with, so I made a Barbie dress out of it. Now I just have to post it on the main site - but here's a sneak preview of ‘Hot Tropics'. I won't have time to post it tonight, and I don't think posting a ‘flame' print dress is a good idea on 9/11. Maybe I'm being hypersensitive, but I think adding it to the main site can wait a day or three.

I actually still have some of this fabric left, maybe enough to make a simple shirt for one of the guy dolls. I only bought a quarter yard, 1) because I thought the print was too big to use for doll clothes 2) since that'd be about all I'd need and 3) because ¼ a yard = $1. Turns out, yeah, it is big, but it looks OK on a doll. There's also a blue version of the fabric, so I'm beginning to wonder how it would look on a doll...

The pattern is Simplicity 4422, View 1. Looks a lot like Mari Dewitt's ‘Basic Dress', goss knows I've made a few dozen of those. The original pattern calls for lace at the sleeve and skirt hems, but I didn't have anything to really go with the fabric. I certainly didn't wanna go out and buy more lace - it took me 20 minutes to go through what I had to decide I didn't wanna use any of it. So I used black ribbon. You can hardly see it on the sleeves, I probably could have skipped it there. But I think it adds a touch of the unexpected at the hem. It also keeps the skirt poofed out a bit, being a bit more rigid than the cotton fabric.

Not sure if the clear plastic presser foot on the sewing machine is helping or not. Sewing Son's patches and today's neckline was easier, but I don't know if that's due to the foot, or I'm simply used to it now. But, hey, whatever makes any aspect of creativity easier is OK in my book ! Especially when it didn't cost nothin'. !

This is PJ, one of the dolls I got last month at the flea market for  a buck. I'm going to leave her hair as-is, although she can really use a reroot. It's too thin at the front, something I could probably hide if I put her original ponytails back up. But I don't want to. While I'll occasionally get silly when I have longer hair and pull mine up like that, I think it's kind of silly-looking for anyone over 30 to have twin side ponytails as an everyday hairstyle. No offense to anyone who does - it's just my worthless opinion ! I'm really over-conscious of that ‘mutton dressed as lamb' thing.

Hit GoodWill today, nothin'. They did have a Berenguer baby doll with a neck ! Sorry, it's kind of a joke with me, since most of their dolls seem to be manifestations of 'No Neck Monsters' (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) and it bugs me. She was well made, with an expressive face and joltingly realistic ears, but her hair was torn up so badly, I'd have to reroot. And I already have three dolls sitting around waiting for their turn for hair. Found a never-worn coat for Son - and it was half off ! Score ! Dollar Tree yielded big carpet squares, so I finally have some green carpet I really like ! As well as a multicolored square you'll be seeing soon, possibly as Friend Ship airplane carpeting.

Not sure what's next - other than laundry ! I may print out a simple tank-top type shirt pattern and use up some more ‘flame'. And post it on the 12^th. Or the 13^th, just for teasing.

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:06 AM CDT

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Mood:  a-ok

A quiet, lazy Sunday. Despite my best efforts - yeah, right ! - I somehow never got around to doing dishes today. Aw, nuts.

Instead, I repaired the last of Dearest Son's pants. Five holes on three pairs. He's really tough on the left knee of his clothes. They're just sweatpants, and I doubt I paid more than $3. a pair for them. We have the money to buy new - but new sweatpants aren't out around here yet. I haven't seen a single pair of 'em anywhere. So I bought a quarter yard of ‘flame' fabric in orange, yellow, and red on black, for just a buck, and that's fixed three of the five total pairs I've done. Leaving about ¾ of the material to make some racy doll clothes ! Not bad !

While I'm proud of the job I did - when he wears them, it looks like he's made of fire, and the ‘flames' are peeking through ! - I doubt they'll last long. Luckily they won't have to. The Halloween costumes have been out for a week or three, so Autumn Apparel should begin to appear soon. Plus, he's already outgrown one pair that I fixed last month, and these don't have much room for him to grow. At least I got ‘em fixed cheap for a few more wearings. And I know to buy the next size up when they are available again.

I'm gonna sew doll clothes tomorrow - but I have to do dishes first ! I can use the mental down time while scrubbing silverware to puzzle on what to make next. I honestly have no idea what I want to make. A dress ? A cute blouse and skirt ? Some slacks with a Robotech logo t-shirt ? Maybe a low-backed blouse for C. D. (Chat Diva Teresa) to wear ?  The possibilities are endless...but so is my lack of direction !

Posted by dorriebelle at 10:45 PM CDT

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