Lottie reviews (link)

In case you're curious about the new 2015 Lottie dolls, Confessions of a Doll Collector's Daughter is reviewing one each day of this week (or something like that). Finn still looks like a troll, but there's an adorable '50s inspired Lottie I hadn't seen before, so go check'em out!

New fabric store and a shirt for Lottie

Good news: I found a fabric store that sells thin cotton fabric with cute prints by the decimeter! Not only that, but they had the exact red-and-black striped fabric I've been looking for for years. I don't know anything about the fabric business, but it's a pretty generic striped fabric so maybe it's just been continuously in production for decades? I only had a tiny square, probably from one of those discount scrap bags, and thought it would make a good Ken shirt, but I messed up when I cut it and didn't have enough for a second attempt. Well, now I know where to find it. For now I just got some cheap white cotton fabric, the thinnest I could find. It really makes a lot of difference when sewing in 1/6 scale.

While I was out and about, I took the chance to go look at the newest Lottie dolls in the flesh plastic. I'm afraid I have to report that Finn looks even more like a troll IRL, and the shoes in his fishing accessory set don't look as good as in the photos. Oh well. The Lottie doll I was mostly interested in is School Days Lottie, who comes with big black glasses and - surprise! - some kind of school uniform. The outfit looks a bit cheap unfortunately, although the backpack with the cat on it is really cute. The doll itself looks pretty much identical to the one I already have (Pandora's Box Lottie, dark brown hair and brown eyes) so I think I'll go with the Robot Girl instead if I get another one.

(Also, there's a hair care set for Lottie now. I don't know what they were thinking, since the brush has what looks like thick bunches of bristles set really far apart - it doesn't look like it would be at all suitable for doll hair. Just give the kid a comb instead!)

When I got home, I decided to take some inspiration from the less-than-inspired Lottie school uniform and use my new fabric to make a simple shirt for Lottie. I was too lazy to make a proper pattern, so it took a few failed attempts, and I never got the collar quite right. Most of the mistakes are cleverly hidden in the back though, so it's all good. The skirt is just a scrap held on with pins, and a decorative safety pin like on the dress I had when I was a kid.

Cheating with pins!

Also, here's the Dora the Explorer kitchen section from last week! The clear plastic in the oven was missing, so I just cut a replacement piece from some packaging material. Like I mentioned, the ...burners? light up when you press them, but they require those weird AAA batteries so I don't know if they're working or not. (Come to think of it, isn't it kind of weird to have a toy that actively encourages children to touch a hot stove top?)

NOOO Lottie don't touch that

10 002 hits later, Darren finally gets his sweater

Blogger tells me I've reached 10 000 pageviews - 10 002 to be exact. To be fair, a good third of those are probably just me checking that the html isn't borked, but I stilI feel this is occasion to celebrate - with a few more blurry photos! Hooray!!

I made Lottie a pair of pants while I was at it. She fit right in with the IKEA furniture. And of course the surplus dye gave her a few faint pink stains, not too bad but still annoying. 

So I made her a pair of white socks instead. No proper hem at the top yet because I'm lazy. I'm amazed they fit in the shoes (they're from same cheap white t-shirt I used for her top). 

You'd be frowning too if you were wearing that. 

Remember Darren, the Triad Omega guy? Remember his sweater that I started about, oh, 18 months ago? Well, yesterday I was on a roll and decided to finally finish it. Still not entirely happy with how the v-neck turned out, and I'm not sure why I made it quite so big. I must have learned something from all the doll clothes I've sewn since, though: those final seems were a lot easier than I remember the rest of it was! Progress: hard to see, but probably happening anyway. 

V-neck: a bit lumpy, but finished. 

Also, the Momoko boots I ordered arrived yesterday. They're not the legendary Doc Martens, but still a really nice pair of doll shoes. I read somewhere Momoko dolls have big feet, so I thought the shoes might fit the Simba Super Model girls. A pair of heels might have been trickier, but the boots fit perfectly. 

left: Jun Shibuki (uses a SAJ body by Takara) wearing those blue OHC boots, right: Super Model Miri wearing the Momoko boots. 

I like the realistic design of these boots, and I'd like to get more for the "bigfoot girls" if I can find them at a good price (these were used from Mandarake.co.jp). 

One thing I'm a bit worried about is the split in the back doesn't end in a round punched hole like it should, it's just sort of printed in the plastic. I should do something about that, but I'm not sure I could make a perfect circle with a hobby knife. A heated needle, maybe? 

Sewing for Lottie, OHC sale

What I usually do at the beginning of each month is, a: stock up on toilet paper and rice, and b: go through my dollieh wish list and check if anything's on sale, or about to be discontinued, or if maybe something I've wanted for a long time just happens to be on ebay that week. While my wishlist is practically endless my funds aren't, but having to choose between buying Cool Thing A or Cool Thing B is hardly the worst problem you could have in this world. :)

There's finally a sale on Only Hearts Club at one of the few shops that still carry them. Still not super cheap, but the alternative is paying ridiculous money for shipping, so... I got two clothes sets, the pink party dress and one of the riding outfits. 

Unfortunately the shoes didn't fit the dolls I had in mind: the rubbery pink party slippers do fit obitsu, but they're rather wide and clumsy-looking. The low riding boots (shoes? I'm unfamiliar with the terminology here) look really nice but were really tight even after I'd extended the slit in the back all the way up. 

The most annoying thing is they were sewn to the packaging, so there are two holes in on one side, and of course one had to be placed just where the wider doll feet put extra stress on the material... Since I don't want the plastic to split the Super Model girls and their notoriously wide feet will have to do without riding boots. I might go back and get one of the sets with sneakers, we'll see. 

On the other hand, the pants from the riding set fit Fashionista and Super Model really well (although a bit shorter of course), and the pink party tights were aaaalmost the right size for Howleen (a bit too short, but you can't tell under the skirt). My dolls hardly have any tights, and I haven't had the courage to try and sew any, so that's a plus in my book at least.

There should have been pictures but I got lazy, sorry! Here's what I've been working on instead today: 

Lottie's new clothes!

I found a bunch of fabric samples I forgot I had, and those little strips were just big enough for a skirt for Lottie. Not big enough for a pleated skirt, but I wanted to try something simple (and there's always the big sample bit if I decide to make something more complicated later). 

I thought I'd make something similar to those Licca clone clothing sets by Daiso I've seen. Out of curiosity I ordered a couple from a place that sells them at a reasonable price (www.foundinjapan.com) but they haven't arrived yet and Lottie was getting cold, so I decided to make my own school uniform inspired outfit.

(Dollar store doll clothes are actually great for sewing inspiration: they can be low quality, lopsided with wonky seams, but still look pretty good as a whole. For someone prone to perfectionism it's a much needed reminder not to get too caught up in details.)

Not so sure about that snap, but I didn't have anything smaller. 

I didn't have any plain white cotton fabric that was thin enough for a shirt, so Lottie gets some kind of t-shirt/blouse thing instead (made from a human sized dollar store t-shirt). Something I'm really proud of here is how the sleeves came out, even though it took a couple of tries to get them to cooperate. 

To make it more school uniform-like I thought of adding a collar and some kind of decoration (bowtie?) but I'm not sure if the fabric is too bulky for that. We'll see. 

What I'm not so proud of is the skirt, partiularly the waistline. That's what happens when you just wing it. But hey, I have fabric to make a different skirt for each day of the week, sooner or later I'll get it right. In the meantime, the top covers the mistakes. :)

Lottie's only shoes are the beige and pink gumboots she came with, but I found that these Obitsu mary janes will work in a pinch. 

Random sewing and wig buying

And now for something completely different: 

After I put that headband that came with the mini BabyBorn clothes on Lottie, I realized she needed a white dress to go with it. Super simple model, made from a cheap white t-shirt. I quite like how it came out, although I still need to close it in the back. 

Currently looking at shoes for her (she came with gumboots/wellies). The accessory packs get a bit expensive with shipping, but there is a set with a little robot (to go with Robot Girl Lottie) that comes with two pairs of shoes that I think are supposed to fit the dolls too, but I haven't been able to unambiguously confirm it.

ETA re Lottie shoes: 

The robot set comes with the robot wearing a pair of pink shoes, but the promo pics shows it wearing the second green pair as well. This reviewer apparently managed to change the robot's shoes: http://pleasegivepeasachance.blogspot.se/2013/11/lottie-dolls-review-and-giveaway.html 

This reviewer on the other hand says she couldn't get the first pair off the robot's feet, although she mentions the second pair fits Lottie: https://rebeccahains.wordpress.com/tag/lottie/