#spindle stitches

[spindledreams]

It's amazing how much of a difference eye color can make in two basically identical dolls.

I've been working on sewing this week. I have two more of these to make but I'm pretty happy with this set!

The belt can double as a headband

I should have ironed the pieces before I sewed it. I'll do that with the next two but for this one I'll just have to do what I can with it and hope that crease in the center front will iron or steam out.

[spindledreams]

🖤🩵Simply meant to be🩵🖤

Also bonus Smudge the Nosy, who is the reason I decided taking photos on the porch was a bad idea

[spindledreams]

All done!

[spindledreams]

Finally all done! These dresses took me about three days each.

You've met Chenyu (left, silver eyes) and Chunlan (right). Center is their cousin, Paige.

I was ten when the American Girl of Today line was released. #4 and #6 drew my attention early on. #6 wasn't around long before she was changed to be blonde and green-eyed, so now 6.1 is very hard to find and very expensive when you do find her. (Though this last two weeks I have seen two of them in Facebook groups - for much more money than I wanted to spend.)

Paige is not an official 6.1. I made her using a 1995 Samantha as the base, and the wig and eyes from a pre-Mattel Pleasant Company #4. So she does have authentic parts, only instead of being assembled in a factory in 1995 she was assembled in my kitchen in 2025!

I always thought 4 and 6.1 looked enough alike to pass as siblings or cousins. When I was writing out their character backgrounds in my head, they fell into place for me on their own. (I don't intend to write any official stories. I just really wanted background to feel connected to them as characters in their own right, rather than just "dolls I liked as a kid.")

[spindledreams]

One more dress to finish the set so I can debut one more doll, but I seriously cannot get over how different they look when the *only difference* is their eye color!

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Another few repeats, I think.

I've only frogged and restitched this skirt six times trying to get the cables, the sizing, the spacing right...

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Bodice is stitched together. One sleeve is attached. It's 3am and I need to get to sleep. But significant progress was made today, so I'm optimistic about finishing the dress tomorrow.

[spindledreams]

Disney trip was fun! And also I'm glad to be home

Dolly mail came on Friday with a Niña for Youngest so she will stop stealing mine. She's in love with this little doll and has been carrying her around and playing with her since Saturday morning when she opened the box.

Today the mailman brought me Clara. Clara's seller made some questionable shipping choices:

But in spite of this the doll arrived intact.

Her face paint and nutcracker need touch ups and I don't think that's her original ribbon. She is a different face than the original Kurt Adler Clara doll so she isn't first edition, butthere are no AG or PC tags in her dress so I don't know her production years either.