Project Project Runway - Challenge 1 - Getting it together

From the Just Crafty Enough blog:

The rules: You can use either the clothes your model is currently wearing OR a 10″ x 10″ square of fabric similar to your own pajamas. On top of that, you can use a handkerchief worth of white cotton or cotton-ploy blend fabric. The standard woman’s handkerchief is 10″ x 10″. You can manipulate the fabric anyway you want with dye, fabric paint, etc… You can also add things like buttons, velcro, and trims.

My changes: The organizers of the challenges use Barbie-sized models. My model is at least 3x bigger around than that, so I’ll be increasing what is allowed material wise. I am not going to go overboard, but a 10 x 10 square won’t even go halfway around my model. She is plus-sized. ;) Also, I will use my old camisole that I sometimes sleep in as my pj material. Here is what it looks like:

I won’t be using all of that white sheet, I just haven’t had a chance to cut it down yet. J

Meet my model:

She is an American Girl Just Like You #25. I’ve named her Angharad since she looks Welsh to me. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Since she is technically supposed to be a 9 or 10 year old, I had to make her some falsies to give her more of a figure. I might add some butt and hip pads later. To hold the falsies in, I took a pair of nylons and made her a three-layer body suit. I could probably use the control top part of the hose and reduce the number of layers, and I might do that later on, but this will work for now. Her measurements are 14--11--12.  So you can see a 10” x 10” handkerchief won’t even go around her waist.

The sketches:

I couldn't find my color markers and I am not sure what colors I'll end up with anyway. I'm also not sure which outfit I'll make...well, I have an idea, but I'll save the reveal for the runway. I plan on dying the sheet material—as soon as I get some dishes done and the sink is clear—and then trying to sew with the very thin netting of the camisole. I’ve never worked with material like that before and I know that it is stretchy, so we’ll see if I can pull an Anya and make it work.

Introducing: The Dolls

American Girl dolls are a fun collectors item. I've been focusing on getting the historical dolls, but I have a few Girl of the Year dolls. Since I've been collecting, these are the dolls I've gotten.

The dolls are: Rebecca, Kaya, Kit, Kirsten, Mia, Molly, Emily, Josefina, Nellie, Samantha, Ruthie, Felicity, Jess, Addy, and Julie. I do have a JLY 25 who isn't in the picture because I haven't gotten around to making her a Josefina-inspired outfit.

I've dressed them in Josefina's clothes, but she doesn't have enough in her collection to clothe everyone. Which got me sewing. If you are looking to start making American Girl Doll clothes for yourself or to sell, I'd recommend starting with Josefina. Her clothes are reasonably simple, easy to alter to create unique designs, and the instructions are very clear. You can buy the patterns on ebay or you can head over to AgPlaythings.com and download the .pdfs. You can print the patterns out on regular printer paper, but that does make them harder to use as they don't flex as well as a tissue paper. If you don't mind the lines, I'd recommend using lined school paper. It is a lighter weight of paper and will be a bit easier to work with.

The great thing about printing out the patterns instead of purchasing them is that if you want to make alterations to the designs, you don't have to worry about ruining the $30 pattern you purchased. Plus, you can print them as many times as you want when you've put a ton of holes in them with the pins. (That said, if they ever re-release the patterns, please stop using the scanned ones and purchase the official ones. It's a bit more legal. ;) )

Here are the dresses that are inspired by Josefina that I have made:

I'll do blog posts on each of them describing what patterns I used to make them, things I learned, etc.

Finally, I am a fan of Project Runway and there is a group of crafters doing a thing called "Project Project Runway." I plan on trying to "play along" with them though I don't know if I'll exactly follow the rules for each challenge as my AG dolls are a bit bigger than the Barbie-sized dolls the organizers are using.

Introduction: Welcome to my blog

Hi.

So I was pressured by a friend into starting a blog. Well, I used to use livejournal but this is slightly different. Please give me a bit of time to figure out the tone of the blog. Mostly, I intend to focus on making American Girl doll clothes and how to organize your American Girl collection. I might even try making a few YouTube videos about it.

A bit of background about me. I am not a professional sewer. The blog will probably focus on my errors more than the successes. Pro sewers will probably find fault with my methods, but those who are just starting out might find what I do useful. I'll try to focus on where I get my material, how I do the patterns, some of the sewing tricks I've picked up, and what not to do--things like that. So, I am not a seamstress, what am I? I am a mechanical engineer. I work for the military putting boxes in other boxes. Nothing especially relevant to the blog. I've had an American Girl doll for about 20 years--a Molly. I stopped collecting the dolls when I went off to college (and maybe before that in high school, I can't recall) but started up again this winter. My collection has gone from the one doll to 16 or so today. To keep myself away from the ebay as much, I started sewing dresses for my dolls. I am creative, but often have trouble finishing projects. Doll clothes are great because it honestly doesn't take that much time to make an outfit. I've done a Josefina dress in a day. Of course, I also did one that took nearly a week. It depends on what you decide to use to embellish the outfit.

Stay tuned for more posts.