Harriet's Journey: From Marie-Grace to a Custom Beauty

Sometimes a custom doll can fall together right away, but that doesn't always happen. In fact, I've had three dolls (Harriet, Eleanor and Zaida) who have had to go through multiple stages before they actually "arrived"! Of the three, Harriet is the only one who has had the same name and personality since before her arrival at our house . . . but several different looks.

 

Left: Harriet after cleaning, but before her wig was removed.

Right: Harriet as she is today with her CYO Red Curly wig.

Harriet arrived in the beginning of June this year, one of four TLC dolls that Mom got as a lot on Craigslist. She was certainly not the worst, as one doll was a completely wrecked Caroline (though turned into a fabulous rescue, now my Eleanor). But Harriet was a dirty Marie Grace with a very dry and wild wig, dirt all over and some small stains on several limbs --- not to mention some odd glue spots on her fabric body.

I had known that I wanted a Marie-Grace doll for customizing for several weeks. While her face mold doesn't usually appeal to me, it certainly looks like a portrait right out of 18th Century miniatures. Mom and I got this idea to make a pair of dolls (boy and girl) who could be modern children with a rack of historical costumes, in which they could dress and re-enact the lives of their ancestors. That way, I wouldn't need a million historical dolls -- each one in a particular period all the time. I knew right away that the girl needed to be Harriet and a customized red-haired MG doll, because she would look like one of my favorite adopted relatives!

These are the paintings that inspired me to customize Harriet.

Little girls in the Regency era (early 1800s Jane Austen styles) had very short hair, like "Boy" or "Pixie" cuts as we call them today. So, when Harriet arrived, I started cleaning her right away. Mom washed the fabric body, I oxy treated the stains on her limbs and removed her frizzy wig. Once she'd been cleaned with baking soda, Elizabeth re-stuffed her with brand-new stuffing and re-strung her with good elastic cord. She looked great . . . but now it was a matter of choosing a wig.

Knowing that I wanted red hair was easy, but you can't tell exact colours when ordering wigs online. I was really leaning towards to Monique "Bebe" wig in Carrot. But Elizabeth felt sure that the red hair would be too limiting when it came to dressing her in different shades. So, we ordered an Auburn Monique "Johnny" wig. This was really cute (though on the browner side in colour) and matched any clothes she'd want to wear --- and she wore this for a several weeks --- until I bought some other wigs and a Carrot Monique "Dutch Boy" wig arrived. I tried that on and loved the red colour! So cute!

Left: Harriet in the "Dutch Boy" wig -- her second look.

Right: Harriet in the "Johnny" wig -- her first look.

So, for a few weeks, Harriet walked around in the "Dutch Boy" wig and was very happy. It wasn't long though, before I decided to order the "Bebe" wig and try it on her, because there would be no loss, since Elizabeth is planning on customized a red-headed little boy doll. The "Bebe" wig arrived, and I really love that one. Even better than the "Dutch Boy", it had more hair and was quite full to look like a girl's cut. Harriet was really settling in here.

Left: Harriet in the "Bebe" wig -- her third look.

Right: Harriet in the CYO medium-length, curly red wig -- her final look.

By this point, I had decided that Harriet would not have her wig glued down, because I wanted to find a long-haired red wig for her to use occasionally with different costumes. And the coolest wig turned up on eBay: a medium-length red curly wig from the AG CYO line. Wow! I ordered it and couldn't wait for it to arrive. This would give Harriet something to wear with her 17th Century costumes! After what seemed like forever (but really wasn't too long at all), the wig arrived in the mail. I popped it on her head to have a look and both Mom and Elizabeth said she should never change. She was beautiful. Now, it's hard to so drastically change the look of a doll that you've already been interacting with and given a special personality. It took me three days to get used to it, even though I could see that she was completely gorgeous with her new hair! Of course, I can't imagine it being any different now!

This is the long journey that Harriet has taken on the road of customization. But I couldn't be happier with her, and we've all voted that she has to be one of the two or three most beautiful American Girl dolls in the house!

Doll-sized Letters for Dolly Pen Pals!

So, can you take doll pen pals too seriously? What do you like to do on a Sunday afternoon when you get to take it easy? Well, I decided that Harriet would write a letter to one of her dolly pen pals. This was particularly fun, because I have just gotten a really cool American Girl pen pal stationery set (see previous post). So, Harriet got in her comfy nightie, picked out a card and sat down to write. That was the easy part!

Last week, Elizabeth's doll (Connie) received a letter from her dolly pen pal, and it had the coolest thing in it! Not only was there the regular letter for Elizabeth to read and answer . . . but the pen pal had photographed that letter and printed it out in doll size! Why didn't I think of that?

So, I decided that Harriet would send a doll-sized matching letter to her pen pal today. Easily said, but she had written her letter on one of those cool fold-over cards that ties with a ribbon, filled five separate sheets of lined paper and included four photographs of herself . . . not to mention that all of this was put inside one of those full-color envelopes! Oh well, nothing is too difficult if you try your best --- right?!

Out came the camera, and I photographed each piece of the letter. Then, I took them all into Photoshop and sized them to Harriet's hand. Print those out, cut it all out and then --- time for the glue stick. An hour later, Harriet had a really adorable doll-sized version of her letter to mail! Here are some photos showing the full-sized letter beside the miniature version. I hope that Natalya doesn't see this, or she'll know what she's getting in the mail!

Full-sized and doll-sized pieces together.

Full-sized envelope and doll-sized envelope.

American Girl Pen Pal Pack Stationery Set

I just had to review this really cool eBay find! Mom actually found this, and we had to buy it right away! The box and papers are trademarked 2004, but I'm not sure whether you ordered this from AG directly or what. It is a "pen pal pack" that gives you everything you need to keep in touch. As my doll (Harriet) is pen pals with two other dolls, this seemed like just the thing "she" needed.

The set comes presented in this cute flat box, but it's absolutely useless after the shrink wrap is removed. Cute to see, though, but be ready to put your stationery in some other box.

This set features the first eight historical girls, being: Kaya, Felicity, Josefina, Kirsten, Addy, Samantha, Kit and Molly. You get some really fun stuff in here, so here's a breakdown of the pieces.

• A cute little "Tips" booklet that gives basic advice to young girls about the art of letter writing and keeping in touch.
• A small 3x5" notepad that features the picture of a different girl on each sheet.
• Four 3.75x5" sheets of six different stickers featuring all eight girls.
• Six 4x6" postcards featuring Kaya, Josefina, Kirsten, Samantha, Kit & Molly.
• Six 5.25x5.25" single-sided cards featuring Kaya, Felicity, Josefina, Kirsten, Addy & Samantha.
• Twelve fold-up cards (fold to 5.25x5.25") with punched holes and a ribbon to tie the card closed. These cards feature all eight girls and have multiple illustrations on inside and out.
• Twelve full-color printed 7.25x5.5" envelopes. These are the coolest part of the set! The bottom portion of each envelope is glued shut, making the empty space the size for the 5.25" cards. 

These were designed for young girls just getting into the swing of writing letters, so there's not a lot of writing space per card. Not bad, though, because you can always write a quick letter or add paper if you like to write long ones! The color on every card is amazing, and the stock used is a nice, thick quality. I would definitely give this an amazing thumbs up!

Now for the photographs of everything (just click to see full size) . . .

Notepad, Tips Booklet and Sticker Sheets

Single-side Card Fronts

Single-side Card Backs

Fold-over Cards

The following thumbnails (click to enlarge) show the fronts and backs of all the fold-over cards. These are on a really nice, heavy stock.

Postcards (fronts)

Postcards (backs)

Now for the last photos (click to enlarge), but the best part -- the envelopes! Each envelope is photographed front and back, in groups of four. Fronts are shown in the left-hand column photos, and the matching backs can be seen in the right-hand column photos.

I seem to have put the two Kit envelopes out of order, so the fronts go with the opposite backs shown in the two photos below.

 

Hope this helps anyone thinking of buying this pack. Too bad it's not in production anymore, but if you ever run across one and like to write letters . . . don't hesitate to pick it up!

Fashion Fun: Nanea in Maryellen's Play Outfit

Trudy here. By popular request (in other words, Nanea has been pestering me to start this), the Islandshire Gazette is now going to feature a regular column about fashion! Several of the little girls here like to change their clothes a lot (Nanea, in particular), so it might be helpful to other girls to see photos of the outfits when trying to decide if it will really suit their personality! Starting out today, we have Maryellen's Play Outfit, modeled by Nanea.

This is a classic summer ensemble with lightweight denim capris, a white cotton sleeveless blouse trimmed in red gingham, a red gingham hair tie, and shiny white pumps. The shirt and pumps are embroidered with cherries. Nanea opted not to tie the gingham hair tie in her hair, because she prefers tropical flowers . . . but it works great on pony tails, braids or a variety of styles.

The pants have an elastic waist band and no velcro. Two thumbs up on that one! They are not too tight on Nanea, but on the older, larger dolls, it might be a snug fit. The shirt closes with velcro down the front and is not tight on Nanea, so it would probably fit all but the very large dolls.