Needle and Thread, but Not Exactly Sewing

 I did not start last year with the intention of making an average of ten posts to this blog per month, but, as the year got going, I realized that's what I was doing, so I eventually started making the effort to do just that.  And I did!

But.  To do that, I had to set dolls to the side for most of the year.  I did do some sporadic sewing, including getting a pattern ready to share, but I did very little customizing, and absolutely no rerooting.  Which is not exactly unusual, since I'm not generally in the mood for rerooting, but to achieve the unofficial sewing goals last year, I cast aside all thoughts of rerooting.

Since I'm not going to try to keep the sewing blog post average up this year, my mind is free to consider other projects...like, yes, rerooting.  I did three reroots in the last 10 days!

1980s Black Barbie head, rerooted with an unraveled commercial rib knit (this fabric--I've gotten a lot of use from it)

 

 A friend started repainting the face, and I finished it.

This head is from an anonymous Hong Kong clone baby doll, gift from another friend, and originally with terrible hair.  I rerooted it with aqua saran sent by yet another doll friend.  Group projects!

And the third is a Betty Teen head (a low quality clone-type doll with a bit of cult popularity) that, yes, a friend gave me, rerooted with some hair cut off of a Shadow High doll...and...yes...another friend gave me that hair.  I painted over the eyebrow and lip color, so they'd coordinate better with the hair.

I think the Reroot Mood has passed for now, so I'll get back to regular sewing...sometime...  But I still have a box of dolls who've been waiting for reroots for a very long time, and I'd like to get more of those done before another two years go by.

Fluffy Layer

 Someday I will make McCall's 5675 from 1977 in a way the pattern wants

 

 but this isn't quite it.

Floral Tank

 A much quicker project this time: a simple tank top made with New Look 6068 and the Most Precious thrifted chintz cotton interlock

Band Together

 I grabbed Simplicity 3628 from the craft thrift store

with all eyes on view D and its mock military-style band jacket look.

I decided on a gray velveteen from the friend's relative's destash. I did not let the fact that there was not as much fabric as the pattern envelope wanted stop me.

I did hesitate over the discolorations on the fabric, and hesitated to wash it, because, beyond the "will it survive the washing/drying process or not" nature of velveteen, I really did not relish the idea of pressing it.  I went ahead, with the thought that if it didn't survive being washed and dried, then that would make the decision about whether to use it or not, even if the discoloration did wash out.

It did not.

It did, however, come out of the dryer completely wrinkle-free, so I decided to go ahead and use it.

Check

 I got this fabric in July from the craft thrift store

and had the strong urge to make a boxy 1980s shirt from it.

I had gotten this pattern from the craft thrift store in October, and it is very much a boxy shirt pattern from 1983

 Did I have as much of that fabric as this pattern wanted?  I did not.  Did that stop me?  It did not.

 

Batty

 I have a list of projects I want to sew eventually, but didn't feel like working on any of them yet (although the list did include the previous jacket, so it has been worked on already.  Just a little.)  I still wanted to sew something, and decided to finally see how much of a shirt I could get out of the 3/4 yard of Halloween bat print interlock from Joann that's been in my stash for a few years.

Turns out I could get quite a bit of shirt out of it

Not Quite as Simple Sequins

Kwik Sew 3764 is a fairly easy pattern--not as easy as the previous shirt pattern, but still easy, even with the changes I made, like complicating the back and adding a lining and, of course, using a knit fabric covered with sequins