August’s theme for the Blythe Swap Group was Kawaii, which was a really fun theme to work with. I had a wonderful partner, Susana, whose great taste made it super easy to create a package for her.
I started out with a dress in one of her favorite colors, purple. I used vintage frilly lace on the bodice, and some kawaii sparkly purple fabric for the skirt. I also made a hat I’m so, so pleased with – introducing the Minimalist Panda Hat!
I couldn’t do a kawaii package without something pink. I’m quite a fan of the combination of pink with green, orange, and purple, and I think it worked well in this dress.
And my favorite of the three dresses I made for this swap, the cupcake dress. I’ve been hanging on to this cupcake ribbon for awhile and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to use it. I’m also quite happy with the combination of the cupcake ribbon and the mini-bally-wally trim I used at the hem.
I also used that new sweater pattern I made up recently (for FeeBee, remember?) and did one in green and then embellished with a cute pink heart button. I just love that pink/green combo!
Here’s everything I sent, which includes some hair clippies, stickers, paper, and erasers in addition to the items I made.
And wrapped up:
Of course I was also anxiously awaiting the package that Susana sent to me, and it did not disappoint!
Check out these adorable kawaii stamps on the shipping label! That frog with the “hi” flag is just so cute it’s killing me.
Lovely wrapping inside:
I just adore this mushroom stationery. It’s so, so cute.
And inside the package, a TON of great stuff! Two dresses, a bag, a bow, fabric, ribbon, snaps, rick-rack, barrettes, brads, and a Moshi Monster!
All three of these fabrics are so cute! I haven’t seen any of them before ever, and I’m so excited to make lovely things with them.
Check out these SO NEAT personalized brads that spell my name! I would never have expected them and I love them!
Here are Ash and Dahlia modeling. Ash is wearing a dress Susana made from the gnome fabric that I so adore as well as the awesome black and white striped hair bow. Dahlia is sporting a super kawaii dress, the skull bag, and a few of the barrettes as well. So kawaii!
Big thanks again to Susana for being such a great swap partner!
A friend of mine from the Blythe Swap group, Greta, recently asked if we could do a trade, and I jumped at the opportunity! She is a talented seamstress and she let me know that she’d just gotten some Gorey-inspired fabrics – there’s no way I could resist!
I made her her one of my custom super-long-sleeved stripey sweaters in black and sterling grey. Here it is modeled by Dahlia before I shipped it off:
And here it is on Greta’s Reva:
(Those frames are spectacular, are they not?) (And how about that rat-bow! I am infatuated.)
Here are the dresses, worn by Willow and Ash:
I love them both but this one is my fave. The skirt fabric is so Gorey and I adore the combination of blacks and greys that Greta put together here. You can see what I mean in this close-up:
It’s so perfect!
I’m so pleased with this swap! Thanks again for being awesome, Greta!
When we returned from our trip, I had a lovely little surprise package waiting for me! Recently the lovely Feebee asked if anyone could make a cardigan to her specifications, and I thought I could. I made up a new pattern to fit her wishes and the end result turned out pretty well, I think!
I’ll definitely be making some more sweaters using this pattern.
But back to the surprise package!
How cute! A tote bag for Blythe!
And with such cute embellishments!
In the interest of catching up on things I haven’t managed to post about this summer, here is a look back at the Cool Britannia swap I did in June.
This theme was really easy to work with! London and the UK are iconic and places that many people like to travel, and with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee happening just before this swap, I had a lot of material and inspiration to work with.
I found this Corgi cross stitch pattern online and decided it would be perfect for this swap. I shrank it quite a bit, using very small cross stitch fabric, and then sewed it into a Blythe-size stuffed animal.
I created a Union flag mini-dress, which turned out a little big (the prototype I made turned out a little small – next time I make it, it’ll be just right):
As well as a skirt and sweater set:
Here are all the items I sent. I made a Cool Britannia wallpaper wrapped box, and included a variety of items including stickers, a notebook, Keep Calm ribbon, charms, and a knitted Dalek finger puppet that I made.
Wrapped and ready to be sent:
And Liz sent me a great package, too!
A totally neat card:
And a ton of goodies!
Is this not the most adorable tea cup ever? Handmade and so cute! With commemorative Jubilee tea, no less.
And a gown fit for royalty, modeled here by Ash.
As ever, I’m so pleased and feel so lucky to be part of this great Blythe swap community.
Our July theme for the Blythe Swap group was Slumber Party. It was a bit of a challenging theme for me, since it’s been many years since I attended one, and there are so many possibilities that no one thing really screams the theme.
My partner ended up being the perfect person to make things for. Each of her five Blythes have a distinct personality, as well as favorite colors, animals, and other helpful things. I found a paperboard suitcase at The Lob and embellished it with scrapbook paper and good ol’ Mod Podge.
I made individual packages for each of Kate’s five girls.
I made up a pattern for some pajamas (now I know how to make shorts!), and one for an overnight bag. I also made some stuffed animals to go with each set.
For Cherry Kim, who likes red and dogs:
For Lizzie Jane, who likes brown and pale yellow and nature:
For Charlotte, who likes pale blue and green:
For James, who likes bright colors:
I couldn’t resist embellishing her pajama top with a googly eye:
And for Annie Mesmer, who likes black and ravens:
I had so much fun putting this package together. And it was also really fun to see what Kate had put together for me!
She used some super neat wrapping paper and included a hilarious and awesome frog card:
So many goodies!
I just adore this fabric. I can’t wait to figure out what I’ll make with it:
This outfit seemed perfect for Dahlia, and it suits her so well:
All in all, a perfect slumber party!
May’s theme for the Blythe Swap Group I co-mod was Tea Party. It was really fun to put together things that aren’t my personal taste but fit the theme.
I decoupaged this small hatbox with decorative paper, images, and stickers that I thought seemed tea party-ish.
This is a sweater and skirt set I made in tea party colors. I decided to do the ruffle on the skirt hem at the last minute but it turned out really well! The skirt also has pink around the waistband.
Then I made this hat/fascinator. I didn’t think to take any photos of the underside, but underneath I attached the hat to a hair clip so it would be easy to get it to stay on Blythe’s head (not always the case with Blythe head-wear). I was inspired by Carrie Anne’s DIY fascinator tutorial and I have to say, it was just as easy to do as she said it would be! I used a tube of glue that we happened to have around since I was too lazy to get the hot glue gun, but it worked just as well.
I glued the feathers, and then used this button on top to give it a finished look. I removed the shank first with some nippers.
I also made a dress to go with the hat. I tried to use similar colors to the feathers I’d purchased and I think that it turned out well. It all goes together without being exactly matchy.
Maryanne really liked the package, too! Here are some of her photos:
You can see the dimensional stickers I used on the box in this photo. It was fun to have an excuse to buy a bunch of scrapbooking stuff that I would normally not have a good use for.
Here’s the package being unwrapped.
And all the goodies inside!
Unwrapped.
Here is Maryanne’s Zoey modeling. I think these colors suit her very well!
A tea party picnic on the patio! Sounds like a good time to me.
Maryanne’s package for me was totally awesome!
She decorated the box with cute illustrations.
And filled the box with a load of goodies! She paid attention to the fact that purple is one of my favorite colors.
So much neat stuff!
Including a lovely tea party hat (I’m so happy she included one, too!) and coordinating frock, modeled here by Dahlia.
One of my favorite things she sent is something tangentially tea-party-related, but again, she clearly paid attention to my likes list: just look at this vintage Boston Terrier tea card! Apparently a tea company named Hornimans included these cards in their tea, and you could pick up an album at your local shop to collect them. It’s so cute and cool!
I’m so pleased with how this swap went. I received a terrific package from my partner and I had a lot of fun making the things for the package I sent. This next month’s theme is Cool Britannia and I am mega-geeked about that one.
Okay, not really. More like gone AWESOME!
The most recent Blythe Swap theme was fairytales, and my partner and I both chose LRRH as our theme for our packages.
I created a dress, underskirt, cape, and basket LRRH outfit for Lauren. Here’s Ash modeling before I packed them up:
You can’t see it too well here, but the cape is lined with the same fabric that the dress is made from. I also used a fancy stitch on my sewing machine to do a leaf/vine embellishment on the cape.
I also made a mini-album, inspired by the awesome one Heather sent to me for the Vintage Valentine Swap!
This mini-album is about two inches square. I used a couple of stickers, but most of the things in here I cut out by hand. Which was a lot more tedious than I expected, but since I was only doing a few things it wasn’t that bad.
For the cover, I used a toilet paper roll! Gotta reuse things around the house when you can, right?
For the interior pages, I sewed them together at the spine. It’s really not difficult when you only have a few pages. I did two sheets of pages (so that’s four pages total) this time, since I wasn’t sure how much content I had to fill it up. Next time I do a mini-album, I’ll definitely add more pages, though, since I probably could have filled another few in this one.
Awhile back I purchased a big notebook of scrapbooking paper to use for whatever, and I was so pleased that, among the random options included there, I found perfect choices for this project.
I also used a scrap of old cloth book-binding tape that I had lying around (hoarding scraps from the library garbage bin isn’t so crazy after all, right?) to hold the book together.
Because I couldn’t resist making a few things that fit Lauren’s other likes for color and style, I also made her a couple of skirts.
Here’s the package contents I sent to Lauren:
And unwrapped:
And here’s her Enid playing LRRH:
I’m so pleased with how this swap package came together!
And now on to the awesomeness that Lauren sent to me!
Wow! What a great lot of goodies! Peppermint Ghirardelli, English tea, an original piece of LRRH artwork, a capelet, puppets, and bucket, and a classic vintage edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales!
Check out the LRRH illustration from inside:
I love it!
And here’s the capelet Lauren knit. I love that it can be worn with the arms through or underneath – so flexible!
And did you see those puppets?! I cannot overstate how much I adore them. They’re so cute, and so perfect!
I feel like I made out like a bandit on this swap! Thanks, Lauren!
I just got my swap package for the Vintage Valentine Swap and it is AWESOME! Seriously, my swap partner did an amazing job of finding things that are just perfect for me, and the things she made, even more so! Check it out.
Such sweet wrapping! And so many goodies!
Wows!!
Check out the best valentine card ever:
and the inside:
And a mini Adipose! He will live happily in my office with my Who minifigs.
And HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS! It’s a handmade Blythe scrapbook featuring my dolls! Personalized and SO AWESOME!
There are a bunch more photos over at my flickr. I am just SO impressed with the detail and how awesome this is!! Thank you super mucho mega, Heather!!
I added a new Blythe to my collection in the not too distant past, a custom girl I’ve christened Ash. She’s got a mohair reroot and I spent a little time this weekend giving her a hair treatment.
I started out by carefully combing out her hair with a wide tooth comb.
Which of course made it HUGE. Buckwheat would be proud.
Then I gently massaged conditioner into the hair, making sure to reach all the hair, even the stuff on the inside (surrounded by other hair).
Then I set the timer for 30 minutes and waited.
The next step was to rinse very carefully. You don’t want to agitate mohair while it’s wet, so rinsing thick hair is a somewhat tedious process. You also want lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold. This took awhile.
Then I hung her out to dry.
And voila! Lovely curls!
I love this girl’s bangs.
Thanks to Elke for CC licensing this photo.
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