What have I been doing on December 7th since 2014?

I thought it might be fun to see what I was doing on each December 7th since I started writing my blog!
You won’t even have to click any links… I copied and pasted EVERYTHING! :o)

Let’s see what I was doing back on:
December 7th, 2014,
Spotlight on “Julie”… AKA Elizabeth

I don’t know exactly why but I’ve been obsessing over Julie, the stick straight blonde headed doll, representing the 1970’s, from American Girl. I graduated in the mid 70’s so maybe that’s part of the reason I am obsessing… or maybe I just like her braid? Maybe I like her dark brown eyes? Who knows but whatever it is, I sometimes find myself looking on Ebay for extending periods of time, scouring over every listing of anything with “Julie” in the title. I haven’t put in a bid on any dolls yet, but it may be coming… In the meantime, I thought I’d show you some of my creations modeled by my “stand in” doll, Elizabeth. With her hair braided or in long pigtails, maybe she’s just as good as Julie… How many of you have Julie dolls out there? Do you love her? Is her hair hard to style? I do like to play with my dolls hair and some people have said hers is so stick straight it’s impossible to do anything with except that tiny braid down one side.

Instead of going on anymore about Julie, let’s get to some pictures I found in my archives of some 1970’s outfits that I made for Julie.

So, did Elizabeth pass the “Julie” test, or is Julie the only “real thing?”

See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne

December 7th, 2015
This Velvet dress is “Just for You!”… and you know who you are…

One of my readers LOVES this dress…she has for years and seems to enjoy it every time I post a picture of it. It’s not a new dress, in fact, it was made and listed on Ebay on November 14, 2009! But she still loves this dress…

It’s made from the same windowpane velvet that Lian’s dress was made from. My pictures aren’t the greatest…I had a pretty crummy camera back then… so try to focus on the dress and not so much on my photography. :o)

The sleeves and the ruffle around the neck and hem are made from a pretty white shimmery organza like fabric.

Her thigh highs were made from that silvery stretchy fabric that I used for Patsy Tonner’s Christmas dress.

I copied the dress from my 1974 pattern book and used Elizabeth as my “Julie Stand In” to model it.

Well….YOU…out there…I hope you enjoyed seeing this dress again! Thanks for liking it so much!

I also wanted to let you know I have Felicity’s dress set almost ready to list on Ebay and I’m hoping to get that done today… Boy, these Colonial dresses take a lot of time when you add all the pieces they need for their dresses to look right…
I’d love to tease you with a few pictures, but I think I’ll save them for the final reveal… sorry…

See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne

December 7th, 2016
How Christmas Elegance was fixed… Part two

Day before yesterday I showed you Part One in this story about a doll who became stained because of a black lined bodice on a dress I made. You can see that post HERE.

When I left you then, I told you I had talked to Dianna Effner, the artist who sculpts the Little Darling dolls. She recommended I buy this cream called Remove-Zit. You can bet I did. I ordered the cream and the Formula 911 and sent it to the dress owner and she wanted to try it herself. (So I actually have never used the cream myself) I’ll just be telling you the story from the owner’s perspective. Do you really want to know how hard I was praying??? You actually use a cream and apply it to the stained area on the doll and let it set for a day or two. It apparently becomes hardened, something I’m guessing like maybe fingernail polish. As it hardens the stain comes up in the cream, drawing it away from the doll’s vinyl. Then you have to use the Formula 911 to get the hardened cream off.

Here is the website of the Twin Pines Remove-Zit and the Formula 911. Both products are on the top row…far right and far left.

Twin Pines of Maine

After using the Remove-Zit 4 or 5 times, the stains were gone… Can I hear an AMEN? The owner said it worked but it was a few days process and as much as she was grateful to me for sending her the product, I was 20 times more grateful that it worked and the woman was such a nice and sweet person to have worked with. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how awful this could have turned out. I was astounded at just how patient and kind this woman was and I will NEVER forget her sweet spirit though this whole thing.
I don’t have pictures of the “unstained” doll… so just imagine… an unstained doll! :o)

Okay, so in the meantime, this woman decided she wanted me to try as best I could and fix the dress… I wondered what I should do… give her her money back, replace the dress with a new one, replace the bodice or the lining, make the bodice out of a different fabric… she didn’t want her money back she just wanted the dress fixed because she loved her doll in the dress. (I did tell her I would like to make her another dress to make up for this mishap and she said she loved pretty florals that were old fashioned looking. Guess what she’s getting?)

She decided to send the doll dress back to me and try to fix it somehow… but this is what happened…I procrastinated and procrastinated…I just kept thinking I’ll do it tomorrow, but didn’t know how I was going to do it…I was very bad…very bad! Finally last week, I gave myself a talking to and said, “JUST DO IT! FIX HER DRESS!”

First I took out all the black stitching along the edge of the dress… Then decided to use some really fine, almost headscarf-like fabric and just cut a square of it big enough to fit over the whole bodice area in there… I hand manipulated it and took teeny tiny snips of fabric away until I had it almost an exact fit except for the over hanging edges. I then basted it about 1/4″ along the edges, maneuvering it as best I could…turning under about 1/8″ of the fabric and with tiny stitches I whip stitched it as close to the edge as possible without the white showing. I filled in the whole bodice this way.

I realized there was stitching on the inside that needed to be covered up…side seams, armhole stitching…so I used some flexible lace to cover the sleeve seams and tacked it in place so threads wouldn’t rub on her dolls vinyl.

I had to come up with a solution for the sleeves next. There was stitching along the edge where the elastic was encased. How could I cover up that seam? The only thing I could think of was to add a little bit of lace extended into the sleeve, stretched over my fingers as taut as I could hold it, stitched over the seam, and then restitched close to the edge so it wouldn’t roll back to the inside so it looked sort of ruffly like.

So that’s how Christmas Elegance was made and “re-made!” I wouldn’t recommend it… just use a white lining to begin with. I debated in the beginning about making a whole new bodice, but thought I’d give putting a lining in it first. It wasn’t necessarily hard, but it did take some time… probably about 5-6 hours… all by hand stitching and finger shaping.

The lining was sheer enough that it didn’t compromise the design of the dress…I am happy with the way it looks and will get it shipped off to the winner for a second time! (White linings from now on from me!)

Thanks everyone…

See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne

P.S. The very last thing I want for my blog to turn into is a “Poor Jeanne and George, going through this cancer journey…and have post after post about what’s going on.” I have decided to occasionally tell you what is going on, but for the most part, I want to keep this lighthearted and about dolls and sewing.

So let me just tell you… today was day one of the Chemotherapy and my hubby did just fine. In fact when we were walking though the doors of the Cancer Institute, he took my hand and said, “we’ll just think of this as a day at the spa!” :o) That’s why I love him! They even served us a box lunch at the place… so I guess we could call it a date! :o)
He’s sleeping right now, which they said he probably wouldn’t do this first night, with the 5 1/2 hours of drugs he was given…so already he’s “going against the grain!”

December 7th, 2017
Follow me along as I make 11 Christmas gifts…

Once again, I’m sorry I didn’t get to to your comments… I read them but didn’t have a spare moment today to answer them. It seems my life is going full throttle right now…and I’m about ready to put on the brakes. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy doing things, and when I’m in the midst of things, I don’t think about it, but when I get to the close of the day, and I see how much I didn’t get done, sometimes it bugs me. Today was one of those days… want to follow along with me as I made gifts for our Staff Christmas party?

I’ve shown how to make these “Brownies in a Jar” before, and I’ll give the link to that post at the bottom, but I knew there wasn’t going to be ANY time for sewing today, so I decided I’d bring you along as I was “making a mess” in my kitchen… And BOY, did I ever make a mess…

I could have gone and bought something for my gifts, but I much prefer homemade ones… I looked in my closet and I had enough glass jars to make 11 gifts… exactly what I needed!

Here’s a quick overview of what was happening in my kitchen, but as I said, I’ll put the tutorial link at the bottom.

Nuts in first, then chocolate chips, brown sugar and white sugar…

I told you it was messy…

It’s pretty hard to be neat when you’re working with flour and cocoa.

I cut out my fabric tops from some Christmas fabrics…

I will be using some rubber bands, jute (string) and some decorations to tie on. Usually I hand draw little designs on the card stock with the directions, but today I had to go for quick and simple…

I took the fabric circles and placed them on top of the jars and held them in place with the rubber bands. Even them out so the gathers are nicely distributed.

I took the jute and tied it around the jars where the rubber band was… get it just below the screw on lid…

I printed out the directions of how to make the brownies and used a pair of decorative scissors to cut them out… then I punched a hole in them to run my jute through.

I picked a decoration and tied it onto the jute in a bow, adding just a drop or so of clear glue to hold my bow in place…

I got into my stash of Christmas bags and put one jar in each… I didn’t use tissue paper around them, but just on top…

I passed them out at the Staff Christmas party tonight and everyone seemed pleased… YAY!

Now, if you’d like to see the actual tutorial on how to make the Brownies in a Jar, step by step, you can click HERE…

I know this is supposed to be a doll and sewing blog, but sometimes it’s just not!!!

See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne

December 7th, 2018
Are you ready to see more dolls in festive Christmas dresses?

I have MORE Christmas dresses I can show you… if you want to stick around and drink another cup of coffee or tea! Are you ready to see them? We’ll start with Addy today and some of my very favorite Christmas dresses!

Again, these are from the archives and not the greatest sometimes… If you click on most of them, they will enlarge.

But here are the girls who modeled Christmas Joy, Christmas Hope and Christmas Peace…

Well, that’s it for Christmas dresses… I’m still hoping to get more made, but I’m not sure if I have time… maybe????

You’ll want to check in tomorrow for pictures to a funny story…

See you then,
Blessings, Jeanne

December 7th, 2019
It’s “Curtains for me!” My Saturday sewing project…

The NEW current bid on the Vintage Velvet dress is now up to $150. A great BIG Thanks to everyone who is bidding and to those who have given money toward this wonderful cause.

If you haven’t been reading my blog the last few days, you might want to read these 2 posts to see what is going on…

A VERY SPECIAL AUCTION

~ Vintage Velvet is ready for bidders ~

The auction ends Sunday evening so I’ll probably have a post so I can keep you informed of any new bids that may come in. Remember it ends midnight my time (Illinois Central Time Zone.) When the clock on my computer hits 12:00 midnight, I will stop the bids and the highest bidder just before it strikes midnight will be the winner.

Okay, now onto to today’s post… I did some sewing today even though I had a gazillion other things that were probably more important with my company coming. Guess what I made today? New curtains for my bedroom. I’ve been stuck in my room knowing what to do, so I decided it was time to just do “something.”

The color of my paint in the bedroom is called Brick Dust and my hubby picked it out. My pictures ALWAYS make it look brighter than it really is… One of these days I’d like to paint my bedroom a more neutral color… and make my pieces in the room be the pop of color, NOT the walls POP!

This is what has been up at my window for about 8 or 10 years… I know, pathetic isn’t it? It’s just a thick lace panel slid onto a café rod and I had it hooked on 2 nails just outside the window area. See? Pathetic!!

A few times I tried to change things up just a bit, but that lace panel was always there…

Even when I made the piano headboard and added it to my bedframe, I STILL had that silly lace panel up there still resting on 2 nails at the side. If you want to read a really fun post, to see how I turned an antique piano into my headboard, click HERE.

I must have always envisioned this fabric as my curtains because you can see it in the picture…when I was playing around one time…It was just draped over my rod. The fabric looks great with the print in my pillow shams.

Well, I already had an oil rubbed bronze curtain rod with pretty knobs on the ends that I had bought probably 5 or 6 years ago. It’s been leaning against my chest of drawers all this time… still in the package… just waiting for today! See, I told you… Pathetic was the right word!

Since we have 8 1/2′ walls, I decided to extend my rod up as high as I could and make the room seem even taller! :o) I had some fabric left over from the curtains I made in the living room and wanted to use it because it’s so sheer and lightweight and it hangs wonderfully. I bought it at Walmart several years ago, and paid $1.00 a yard for it. I bought all they had and was so glad. I made two 45″ wide panels; one for each side. I don’t plan on opening and closing them as I have blinds. They’ll just hang at the sides.

I enlisted my hubby’s help just to put the brackets up and then he helped me hang them…

I’m thrilled with them. I did call Cindy to see just how high I should go, and she said it was just up to me… hang them wherever I liked. There is a little piece of trim that goes all the way around out room that stands out… it’s actually covering the edges where the 8″ pieces of paneling stop and then there’s that little 6″ section at the top. I decided to put my brackets on the top of that piece of trim. My hubby also painted a piece of trim to go across the top of my blinds just to finish things off. We didn’t have trim up at the windows (yet!).

Oh, and do you want to know a dirty little secret? They aren’t hemmed yet.. I just tied them in loose knots and let them hang behind my headboard. (No, we don’t have flooring in our bedroom yet… still walking on plywood in there!) I didn’t have time to hem them but will one of these days… when I’m not having company. I’m going to have to get up early to get everything else done… I played a little bit “too much” today in my bedroom, but it was worth it. I love my new curtains.

See you tomorrow, (don’t forget I’ll have a post Sunday to keep you up to date on the bidding for the auction !)
Blessings, Jeanne

December 7th, 2020
A Merry little Christmas Giveaway!

Don’t forget…
Tonight Bailey will have to get undressed and give up her Christmas dress. She’s a little disappointed but I bribed her with some cookies and I think she’ll be fine…so go ahead and bid on her dress…if you are so inclined!!

If you want to see the auction on Ebay, click on her picture at the right side bar or you can click HERE!

I thought we’d have a Giveaway for Christmas!! Do you like that idea?

Remember a while back when I was on a pleating kick? I made this first skirt but decided to make another one that had Velcro in the back.

This skirt has elastic in the back and isn’t as easy to slide up your dolls legs but I figured someone might like it so that’s part of the Giveaway…

You’ll have to find a white blouse or a black sweater…or something to go with it..

Now, remember that purse I just gave the tutorial on?

It’s included too! I’m sure someone’s American Girl doll would love these two pieces…

But wait…that’s not all…there was “some” talk on here about dolls needing a purse that opened up so it could hold their money, credit cards and lipstick!!!

Well, how’s this? Just a few little extras to make this a little more fun.

I had fun finding some images on the internet and making these…

If you are interested in your name being put in the drawing, (either in the comments below or it the Contact Me tab at the top) tell me what you would most like to find in your Christmas stocking!

That’s how your name will be entered in the drawing…I’ll pick out a name at midnight, Monday, Central Time… and let the winner know tomorrow.

Okay, let’s see what everyone is wishing for… :o)

See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne

December 7th, 2021
One more doll dress…

I decided why waste that bodice I had started for Navi when it could be turned into something useful and ANOTHER piece to the set I already have listed on Ebay… (you can see it HERE) or click on the side bar at the right…

I added a peplum to the bottom of the bodice and viola… look at it on Navi.

Now she can be “dressy” or “casual” if she needs to…

…and one last look at the dress, pantalettes, new top, shoes and hairbow.

I also “tamed” her hair just a bit with some water…can you tell? This was yesterday…

And now… for the last dress of the year, Emmie gets it. Someone mentioned they’d like to see a dress for the Little Darlings and that pushed me over the edge. (I think it may have been Melody?) Anyway, Emmie was pleased as punch and told me she wanted something blue…
I had this very pretty blue and silver snowflake fabric and that was all it took. Emmie didn’t want to look at anything else. My lighting wasn’t good when I took her pictures, but you can at least see where I’m heading with it…

I sewed some little silver toned glass beads to the front, actually 2 together, but they aren’t showing up too well in my pictures. I might have to see if I can find something more silvery in my bead stash.

I’m sure you’re wondering what might be going with this…

You’ll have to wait and see… :o)

Gotta get to bed again…
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne

December 7th, 2022
Anyone LOVE vintage lace as much as I do?

You might say I have a crush on vintage laces. I think I really do… I received a big package in the mail the day I got home from my eye surgery! YAY! I opened it up, but was kind of at a disadvantage as my “close-up” eye was the one I had surgery on, so I had a patch over it. Sure I opened the package up and tried to see them, but it wasn’t until today that I actually laid them all out and really took a good look at them.

Where did they come from? One of the Sofa Sisters sent them to me… our very dear, Kathie, was the sweetheart who did this. Apparently, she went to an auction or a sale of this lady who had a doll collection and these were some of the laces she used. Kathie sent me a VERY NICE share of the ones she got… Thank you again, Kathie!

So, I asked Kathie if it would be alright if I shared them with everyone…and she said it was fine.

There were too many pieces to show in one shot, so I will show a big grouping… then 4 closer shots of that lot, then another big group and 4 close up shots of that one… etc… Oh, and don’t forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them… you HAVE to see these close up to really see how intricate and delicate and wonderful they really are!

Next group…

Next group…

Now, I bet you were wondering if I had any favorites? Yes, I sure did… but there were quite a few…

When I thanked Kathie, I told I would pick up a piece and instantly think of a doll that might be seen wearing that lace… I have lots of ideas going round and round in my head…

Hope you enjoyed them… they are wonderful!

See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne

And December 7th, 2023
You just read what I am doing for today’s post!

A very happy December 7th to you all!
Blessings, Jeanne