HI everyone,
Thanks so much for your kind words about Noel’s Christmas bonnet… There is a LOT of activity on the views and the watchers on her set! :o)
Now, I have a question for you:
I have this set I made quite a while ago for James, my only boy Ruby Red Fashion Friend doll. I must have “BOY BLOCK”… because I can’t seem to get this finished.
I have a sweet blue plaid shirt, a pair of jeans with a belt, and a pair of black dress shoes, but I WANT to make it Christmasy some how.
Any ideas how I can do that and still use these pieces?
I was making a prototype for a Fedora hat and that might work… or even a newsboy cap… I thought about a sweater, but I don’t knit… Could I make a red sweater out of something that LOOKS like sweater fabric?
I found this soft and a good weight for his size, blue lightweight fleece fabric in my stash. Maybe a vest or a hoodie?
And that’s as far as my ideas went… HELP! I am having second thoughts about having a boy doll… my ideas are all too girlie! I am really stumped and want to get this finished up and sold. (Maybe I should just list this as it is and tell the winner I hope they have a red sweater!)
Thanks for any ideas!
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Hi Jeanne,
What a cute outfit! My first thought was a scarf (like square dancing men wear with their western shirts–I can take a picture of one of Ron’s if you’d like to give you an idea of shape and size) made of red fabric (maybe a Glittery red fabric?!). A red vest would also work (and you could do both, too, you know). I would suggest solid colors, even though you might be tempted to use a Christmas print–mixing prints/plaids is more a girly thing.
Yes, indeed, you can make him a red sweater out of sweater fabric! It’s a little fussier to sew than wovens, but not difficult. I’ve made several sweaters out of sweater yardage. Just use a slightly longer stitch length when straight-stitching seams (as with any knit, stretch the seams slightly as you sew), and, particularly if it’s a loosely knit fabric, be prepared to clean-finish the seam allowances (serger works fine). (Always test seam finishes, etc. on scraps.) If sweater yardage is hard to come by, you can always check in the thrift store for suitable garments to cut up. Another option is to get a t-shirt knit/jersey, and make the sweater out of that.
Hope those ideas help jump-start your boy-sewing mojo!!
Boy dolls are not my hting, but I did have one as a little girl. He had short, curly hair, and wore a cute little red sunsuit. He never did have a change of clothes, and I didn’t do much with him, since the girls had all the “fun” outfits. So I have no boy dolls and will probalby never get one. RRFF dos have some cute ones, and Russell is one!
I think a little red vest would help make it more Christmasy.
James looks fantastic! He looks older with straight hair. I immediately imagined a white sweater vest, maybe out of felt or sweatshirt fabric. But then I thought of a red or blue vest with a felt snowman applique on the front (beads for eyes, etc.). Or a red vest could have a Christmas tree (gold beads for ornaments), a blue vest could have a large snowflake (probably harder to cut out on such a small scale, though).
Oops! Another blooper! I meant “thing”, but my fingers twisted it up once again! I also wanted to mention, that maybe some little felt holly leaves could be added with red beads for the berries on the vest……somewhere! A white or green shirt would be good, too.
Charlotte has excellent suggestions and I’m all for a red vest, maybe of plush fabric.
I have boy dolls and they’d love one. A scarf 🧣 would be perfect too. Great job on the fit of the jeans, belt and shirt.
I’m going to pass on another RRFF doll because it’s Giving Tuesday, so I’m buying one goat, two ducks, three rabbits and four chickens on the worldvision.org website instead, which costs exactly what a new doll would. Also $50 for $800 worth of necessities for a child in this country.
I forgot to add the items are from the Gift Catalog on the website. Lots of options in case you’re interested.
It’s a great way to help. I have a few I support as well.
Good for you helping out on Giving Tuesday! It’s what the world needs more of!
That’s great, Susette. We did that in lieu of Christmas gifts a few years. Also a lot with Faith Mission as it’s connected to out church’s synod.
Jeanne, Charlotte has got it down right. Also, how about a knitted scarf and matching hat with a pompom, you could make from a Good will or thrift shop sweater?
As for the bonnet yesterday, soooooo adorable, the whole outfit is!
How about a Sherpa fleece vest, with maybe a puffy back, and a hat and scarf. You could make a long fun stocking hat like elves wear? I think a pair of Christmas socks from the dollar store? Stripes? And mittens?
I meant to look at Christmas socks at dollar stores to use for the stocking cap or even vest or pockets on a vest or shirt etc.
Red vest with gold buttons, a muffler, and a newsboy cap in some slightly textured fabric or a subtle black and gray stripe or a tweed. He could also use a bookbag, maybe with something Christmas-like on one side.
So glad to see James. I think the outfit extras you decide on depend whether you want him to look cool or dorky. There have been some great ideas by everyone. I think I’d take a look at all of the boy RRFF kids in the archive and see what has been offered for ideas. As for my opinion, I think the current outfit might work, if you removed the cinched belt and pulled the pants down lower so they weren’t so crotchy and maybe shortened the length to compensate. The way the outfit is now, reminds me of what other person around here might wear. 🙂 The red hat does nothing for me with this outfit. However, adding a crocheted winter scarf and Santa hat, easy to make, to the shirt/jeans would be fun and trendy. And a fun plain puffer vest to keep warm would be fun. A pair of brown boots would be perfect for this outfit as well. 🙂
So, the other day, we went to a hardware store, locally owned, and I actually found what I thought was the right size shower door gasket. I’d looked several places and no one had it. I had the measurement, but you know how that goes. Anyway, today, I decided to replace the gasket on the door bottom. I had done it previously, because the one that came with the door, which has to be 40 years old, was too wide so I had to trim it to fit. That was a piece of cake. However, it had hardened over the years and wasn’t keeping the water in the shower base. So, I yanked out the old one and it was icky. Almost impossible to clean under there and so much corrosion. We have hard water. Wiped up the gunk. My position was kneeling on the little bath rug, but not enough leverage, so ended up sitting cross legged. Finally was able to feed/start the new one into the tiny groove out of sight under the lip of the door. But, because of the corrosion, it wouldn’t side. I yanked, I pulled, and finally crawled up and went to the kitchen drawer for my plyers. Came back. Back down into my new position, stretched out prone half way in the shower and part way out. Yank, feed from the other end as it kept falling off of the tiny little invisible track, and pull. Inch by inch it crawled along. When I was nearing the end just outside side the shower pan, it was stuck. Horrors. Yanked the whole thing back out and found a piece of soap. Rubbed it all along the track where I could reach it and the top of the plastic gasket too. Tried again. My strength and patience failing, with my head in the shower body laid out on the floor of the bathroom again, I managed to yank it along the track without it falling off at the beginning. Yay! Success! Cut off the ends to fit and then tried to get up. Ouch! Wasn’t easy and nothing like when I fixed it what 40 years ago? Age is taking its toll. Should this purportedly simply task come your way. Call a handyperson. 🙂
And all the time I was totally admiring your ability to even get down on the floor and get up. I know you are about my age and wondered what you’ve been doing to remain so spry. I feel better now knowing that you only fared a little better than I would have. These days I have to have Sean crawl under my repositioned dining table to plug in the lights for my Christmas village. The last time I tried it, and that was about four years ago, I got stuck under the table and couldn’t figure out how to turn around and crawl out. The old body was having none of anything I tried. I love getting older but this getting “old” thing is very tiresome. I have yoga exercises for cool downs on my rowing machine site but I choose the rowing cool downs instead. I can’t get down on the floor to do the yoga. At least not with the hope of not looking like a fool trying to get up.
He is a sweetie and Joy hit it on the head with adjusting the jeans. They do need to ride lower. Old guys wear them up at the waist. A vest out of quilted nylon or poly would be what guys seem to like if you can find some with small enough quilting..or you could add stitching to some already quilted fabric or part of an old coat or vest. Charlottes idea of a sweater is good too. And the idea of boots. A hat from a stocking from the dollar store is a good idea and a scarf to match? An additional Santa hat would be fun too. Wonder if there are miniature Match Box cars?
Keep all these ideas …you have a myriad of ideas here for boy stuff😍
Joy you can always make me laugh with your descriptions. Just getting up off the floor is a project around here🫣
That’s precisely why I don’t have a boy doll. There’s a member on the doll board with with a fantastic multi-era historical wardrobe for her AG boy and that’s what I would have needed for him to fit in with my girls, so I do have two boys in imagination who are the brothers of two of my girls.
James needs a red vest, a newsboy cap, and a warm plaid scarf in red, green, and blue. Also a pair of boots. You need to find a tiny ax as he is heading out to the woods to select and cut the Family Christmas tree.
I just love James’ adorable outfit. I think I would go with a sweater vest of some kind with a Christmas theme and maybe a scarf and cap. It would be like getting two outfits in one since the shirt and jeans are great.
Wonderful contributions Susette. We’ve done things like that in the past. We have a Hydrow rowing machine and when I reach goals on that I get to choose a gift. I choose to donate money to fresh water projects. On Giving Tuesday we usually gave to the non-profit our daughter headed up in the past, but since she moved to Maine she is no longer doing that so we’re not giving on giving Tuesday this year but instead I just spent the cost of a doll supporting our church’s Christmas giving program. We pick a different need each year and this year it’s the West Houston Pregnancy Center. The way it was done was pretty nifty. We had two trees at church with tags on them with a code to scan for a wish list. I don’t purchase things using my phone but it was Amazon so I put the items in my cart and then went to my computer to finalize the purchase (mostly because I can see better there). I had to put the brakes on because I love giving things to help mothers and babies and I was just buying and buying and then decided to take a look at my shopping cart. It was more than I thought but it was a worthy cause so I bought everything in my cart. I love Samaritan’s purse and I got a catalog from them the other day to purchase animals so I will see if maybe we can do something there. Next year it may be more difficult to do as much.
We got our notices from Social Security yesterday telling us how much we would receive monthly next year. We both took a hefty pay cut for 2024. First time that’s happened. Thankfully my car will be paid off in March because the cut was the equivalent of my car payment.
Beautiful day here today. I plan on walking this afternoon. I walk halfway around the park and then sit for a while in the sun and then walk the rest of the way. Since everything I do is indoors, I usually don’t get enough sun so this works well for me but there is so little of the year here I can do it.
Shame I didn’t know earlier Jeanne, I could have given you a doll sweater but no time to post now. Christmas socks can work. One sock for the front and back and one for the two sleeves. I am sure the Dollar Store will have something that may fit James.
Busy time of the year here. When I first came I was overwhelmed with how much happens just before Christmas. Yes I know it is busy for everyone but here in the Southern Hemisphere we also have the end of the school year, summer holidays, etc. Think of having Christmas in June in your part of the world and add Christmas to all the other things that happen at that time! Not to mention Christmas baking in early summer heat. It was 27C yesterday and it isn’t summer yet.
Have a great day everyone.
I suggest a quilted vest made out of felt with a holiday button or small embroidered Christmas motif sewn on such as: holly & ivy, snowman, reindeer, tree, gingerbread boy. The felt will give the feeling of a wool vest. If you have thin fleece like in a sock lining you can use that as a vest lining. I liked the other suggestions also. A knit cap/hat or Santa hat could top it off. An elf hat might be perfect also matching his vest. A thin faux suede quilted vest may also make a cute.
Dear Jeanne, I agree with Nanette, I could see an elf hat on him. I could see a button or sash that says “Elf In Training.” I could see a clipboard with a paper with the heading “Nice List” It could be that he is helping Santa prepare gifts for children. I could see a Santa-like brown cloth bag with Christmas boxes inside.
The outfit itself is cute and can be used in various other seasons. The shirt can be replaced with a tee shirt in the Summer. The jeans can be replaced with white pants in the Spring. A rust colored Fall jacket could be added to the outfit. You really have all of the season covered!