I finished my first full doll outfit this weekend.  Sadly it was raining and I didn’t get pictures outside.  My younger niece will be 9 and has an awesome obsession with volcanoes!  Without going all out and making a silver bunny suit for collecting fresh lava samples or making a seismograph, we have a volcano adventurer…

• Glasses and T-shirt from Joanns, Springfield Collection.  Shirt came with some wide legged jeans I’ll have to find a use for.  I found some volcano line art I liked and traced it on the shirt with disappearing marker and did outline stitch on the lines and added beads.
• Soil and ash samples made from dollar store glitter shakers.  The tops are super glued down.  The little scoops are bead scoops from the beading aisle at Joann’s.  I couldn’t find metal ones, I know I’ve seen them before!  They’d probably stand up better to abuse.   We have one vial left that will be filled with Mt. St. Helens ash.
• Cargo pants from this Heritage Doll Fashions pattern: Cropped Cargo Pants for AG Dolls.  I had issues with the pocket flaps and left them off.  I also changed the waist band by cutting it on the bias and attaching it with the elastic inside.  I think I then pressed the seam allowance down and top stitched.  Fabric is 100% cotton twill from Joann’s.  Pockets were a breeze to stitch down using double sided sew through basting tape!
• Backpack is a Sew Urban pattern: The Urban Backpack for AG Dolls.  I added extra interfacing to the flap and made a button hole.  I had issues with easing in the sides of the backpack around the corners.  I ended up cutting them one inch longer, then sewing around the same direction on both sides and cutting off the excess (about 1/4″).  The red lava-like fabric is from my stash.
• Hat and boots from Bea’s Doll Boutique.  Both were a teensy bit small for American Girl doll.  Hat could be a little bigger.  It sits high on the head.  The boots are almost impossible to get on with socks (which are also probably a little thicker than manufactured doll socks)
• Hiking socks made from dollar store kids socks.  Super fast and easy!  Here’s a tutorial.  Pin around doll, draw line, stretch stitch on line, trim, done!

Socks in progress:

So glad it’s done!  Between this and pattern drafting class, I haven’t done much else in my spare time.

I entered the 2012 New Years Design Contest at Liberty Jane last month and created two videos.   Drawing was much easier than trying to create a video!

It was hard coming up with something a child might like more than what I’d like.   I now have a notebook full of  designs!

This entry placed in the top 85 (out of several thousand, I think).  I think I’ll have to make it some day.

These designs were created on my iPad with the Brushes app and a stylus. (I just got a Bamboo Tablet for my computer but there’s a steep learning curve)

Video was created with Powerpoint 2010 and YouTube’s video editor.

Here’s a “Behind the Scene” video of me drawing.  With the Brushes app on an iPad, it lets you play back your drawing stroke by stroke. I then exported it and used the Brushes Viewer (Mac only) to save a video. Music added through the YouTube video editor in a web browser.

While I attempt to get this blog theme chaos under control, please enjoy some pictures of Las Vegas from August 2010. We popped down and got married in the Valley of Fire State Park. I need to find the other half of my pictures…

Please excuse the broken mess!

Lots of rearranging and coding going here!

Hope to get it nailed down soon so I can post stuff.