Shoe Making

 I'm going to be taking St. Christopher with me to our local ren faire for my birthday this year, and I've been working on an outfit for her. I shall post pictures of the finalized outfit soon enough, but I decided I needed to make her some simple shoes.Initially I wanted to make them to be tall boots (hence the first two pictures), but decided I really liked them as booties instead.

And the finished product! They're very simple, but I like that. I used the lace that is present in other parts of the outfit, and the brown felt will work well with the theme (Sort of wood elf/fairy). I do need to make some additional tweaks to the outfit and perhaps make her some wings, but I'm undecided on that yet.

A sneak preview!

So...I did a thing.

A good thing really. Just not something I was planning to do quite yet.

I decided earlier this week to switch my RS layaway to a Mi with a face up instead of blank, as I'm not sure I have the space/time to paint her right away. As I did that, they also asked if I wanted to pay her off and well...I did.

Before doing so I did a little poking around in terms of her zodiac sign/"birth date" which may seem a little silly, but it's important to me character-wise. I had originally planned for her to be a Libra, simply because that's what I am and I thought it would be fun. In truth though, being a Virgo actually suits her character so much better, and fits in with a lot of what I'd planned out already. So I decided I would pay her off and have her arrive in the Virgo time period. Which is why I'm currently refreshing (and refreshing!) my tracking page as she will arrive today.

It feels kind of crazy for four months of planning to suddenly come to fruition, but I'm really excited. Of course today I have a million other things to do, including a Halloween party and some errands to run. But I will be able to open her at the part if I so desire, which is nice. Now I just need to relax for a bit (year right) and pack her bag. So barring any strange and unfortunately occurrences, my next post should be a box opening!

Future Plans

As the summer makes its way towards fall, I've been starting to plan ahead for a few different arrivals, events, and other things that will hopefully be coming to fruition in the near future. I thought I'd share some of these plans to mock up a sort of schedule and keep things on track.

• Doll clothes- There are still quite a few projects that I've been working on slowly over the last few weeks due to illness and of course the wedding. I'm hoping to ramp those projects up a bit to finish them before Mi arrives. Still on the docket are a skirt, a dress based on one from Practical Magic, and at least one pair of pants.
• Resinsoun Mi arrival- This should be at the very end of the month as my layaway ends around the 20th. I was going to pay her off earlier, however, if I wait and pay her off then her arrival will fall into the Libra time range. I'm also a Libra and my birthday is at the end of this month, and I thought it would be fun to have her come in around the same time.
• Renaissance fair- The fair I go to every year just started this week, and I'm hoping to get out there for my birthday again. I went with a whole pack of friends last year and it was quite epic! I would like to bring Mi and dress up, probably in some elf-themed outfits.
• Weekly October posts- I'm still planning to keep the same schedule up for October of M/W/F,
  
  however, I  am hoping to make the Friday posts special. I had previously done the Haunted Vessel posts before which were fun, and I think I've got some new ideas to carry on that legacy for the impending spooky holiday.
• Salm, Ma. trip- Speaking of, I think my friends and I may make one more trip to Salem before the holiday craziness completely gums up the works. If so, I'd like to bring Mi and do some photos.
• Build a Bear Workshop- I'm hoping that BaBW will re-release their Halloween bears as they have in past years as I'd really love to get the werewolf (I've been eyeing him forever) and possibly the bat. 

That's the short list for now, but hopefully I'll be able to cross most of these things off and have some great content to show for it.

Dolly Haul

A quick dolly haul to round out the week! I'm headed off to a weekend wedding for one of my best friends, so I may be a little delayed in posting on Monday depending upon how busy things get. I should be taking a small "field trip" tomorrow that should provide some blog-worthy fun, but we'll just have to wait and see how everything goes.

Today's haul involves the pretty wood-patterned dress from Anekochan'sdollies (paired with my handmade belt piece and the lace leggings) and a pretty plaid shirt and scarf combo I purchased off DoA.

Dolly Sewing/Dolly Haul: Forest Style

I haven't had a chance to sew much as of late since I've been quite sick, but I'm finally starting to feel a bit better so I managed to get some sewing in!

Some of the new doll's style is greatly influenced by the forest, primarily due to some elements in the story that relate to it. So I've been keeping en eye out for foresty pieces of clothing and accessories. I stumbled upon this dress by anekochansdollies and realized it was perfect. It is shown here in her photo, on a mannequin of sorts as it is custom for the new Resinsoul body. It's fairly simple, which is actually nice as it can easily be accessorized.









To go with this dress, I wanted to find some accessories that were more in the realm of green. I found this pair of lace leggings on DoA, and hemmed and hawed over them for a bit before finally going back and purchasing them. They arrived this week and are quite lovely all around Well made, and they have a distinct "fairy tale" sort of feeling to them. The item pictured on top is what I worked on today to go as a sort of waist clincher/faux corset. Again I wanted something green, with a bit of a whimsical feel. The nice thing is I have plenty of both the plain green and patterned green fabrics left to make some more items with. I think they would actually make a pretty nice dress as well together.

A small detail shot of it!

Inexpensive Dolly Finds: Hair Bows

The items found in this post were inspired by this video by Swandzz/Pintsizedpalace:

I went to my local dollar store and managed to find the same "tie" as she did, along with some similarly styled bows. They were just a dollar each, and very cute. I won't use all that were in the packages as some are not really the style I'm looking for (at least not right now), but they're certainly worth the price.

All of ones I'll be using (sans two that didn't really fit any color schemes). The "white" one in the corner is actually more of a creamy color, which will look nice with some of the clothes I already have.

Poor Nick Wilde got roped into doing some modeling for me since he was already close by. This is to show what the style itself looks like for the "tie" ones.

A style shot for the bows as well. 

Starshine Designs Review

I received my package from Starshine Designs on Etsy this week, and I'm very pleased with the results! Starshine makes a lot of fun MSD (mostly) and SD clothing items including shirts, outfits, and of course some amazing leggings. I like them in particular because they're not just your run of the mill leggings, they're sparkly, shiny, and even patterned. The prices are also extremely reasonable, which I can appreciate. I purchased a pair of the Halloween print leggings for the incoming doll, and the package arrived this week. I thought I'd do a little review as well to showcase my experience and the leggings themselves.






The leggings were shipped out within the proposed timeline (roughly 2-3 weeks), and arrived wrapped nicely in both outer and inner packaging. They were placed in a sealed plastic sleeve along with a piece of pink paper (which matched the order slip as well). I also noticed that they had included a free gift as well, which was in its own sleeve.

The gift was actually a set of cute little handmade "notebooks" that had covers made out of various colored paper. The books are stapled together, and the insides are blank. These are a lovely little touch, and a nice surprise addition to the package. They are in scale, so I will certainly be using them for some photos in the future.

 On to the main event! The leggings are the "Halloween Ghost Town" leggings in SD size. They retail
for $9.50 plus shipping. The pattern features a number of Haloween-themed images, from ghosts and pumpkins, to cats and candy. Very cute overall. I took these photos of the leggings by themselves, but I did also try them on one of my SD dolls to get a sense for the fit. They fit well, and do not come up short on the legs as I find can sometimes be a problem. The fabric stretches, but the designs themselves don't fade out when on, which I think is attributed to careful fabric placement.

Here is another shot of the full leggings.

Review time!

Pros:

• manufacture time is accurate (and maybe even quicker than stated)
• the items are shipped quickly and packaged nicely (tracking is also included)
• the leggings are well made, and fit the size accurately
• The design doesn't warp or disappear when it is stretched over the doll's body

Cons:

• I really only have one con, which is more tied to my own personal preference rather than anything else. Starshine Designs does state in the listing that the pattern placement can and will differ with each pair which makes sense. Myself, I found these leggings to be *very* different than the ones in the sales image. So much so that I actually did quite a bit of comparing to make sure I'd even got the same pattern. I did, it is just a very different part of the pattern shown here. Since this is stated in the listing and can often happen, I'm not going to leave bad feedback by any means. I do however think it's very important for people to realize this when they purchase, in case you're looking to get something very similar to what is listed. That may be possible, but you would probably have to ask for it specifically.

Overall I would buy from Starshine Designs again, though I will probably reach out in advance before ordering if it is a similarly patterned pair. I don't think that some of the other types of leggings would have this same problem since the patterns are more even overall. That one con notwithstanding, I had a great experience with the company, and am happy with the quality of their work.

Dolly Sewing: Crop Top, Plaid Shirt, and Harness

The new girl does tend to wear a lot of dresses, both due to her personal style and my own wish to put her in them. However, she also needs some more laid back elements to her wardrobe both for alternatives and due to story elements. One such item is her plaid shirt, which according to her story she "borrows" from her father. Initially I looked to purchase a shirt, but I couldn't quite find the right one. Most had silver threads or strange designs, which wouldn't do. So I decided to craft my own instead. This was a bit intimidating as I wanted it to be fairly accurate to real plaid shirts (with the various overlaid fabric pieces, cuffs, and working buttons. This is the finished product, which I'm particularly happy with!

The plaid shirt here is shown over the other two items I'v recently made: a white crop top and an elastic harness. I love how harnesses look and feel (I own a few myself!), and I thought it would work well for my girl's style. It's hard to show this without having it on the doll, but this gives you the gist. Once she arrives I will take some photos of her in it as well.