Doll Stuff, part 1

First post of the year! It's been a minute since I've posted on here, and for that I apologize but also life is life-ing and I haven't really had much time to devote to sewing projects. That being said, I actually do have some fun things to share regarding doll collecting and also custom dolls.

 For starters, I just wanted to say - I am not trying to brag.  I've been someone who's always wanted to have expensive dolls but didn't grow up being able to afford them, so I know what it's like to not be envious of people who did have these dolls.  And now as an adult, I've been able to save up and eventually buy some of those things that I'd been wanting so badly as a kid (as well as sometimes make financially irresponsible and impulsive decisions), which brings me to the first part of this post: American Girl Dolls.

In 2019, I was able to find a really good deal on Elizabeth Cole on ebay.  Elizabeth was one of my two dream dolls as a kid, the other being Molly McIntire.  The doll came in used condition, which was to be expected.  Her hair was not perfect, she didn't really have any of her original items, and one of her pin-curls was cut off.  I was able to find most of her outfit and accessories as well, except for her socks, but I didn't really mind.  All that mattered was that she made me really happy, and she was mine.

Back in the mid 2000s, we would often get American Girl catalogs sent to us in the mail, and they would advertise the American Girl Doll Hospital, where you could send in your dolls for a fee and they'd fix your doll, and could even fix your doll's hair!  I learned later that the way they did that was by swapping out the whole head rather than swap the wig, and then that made me freak out and decide to not ever send my doll to the hospital, however I realized after a while that it's not a big deal unless you send in like an OG Pleasant Company doll, then maybe swapping the original Vintage head isn't a good idea.

Over time, especially after I decided to impulsively buy Molly McIntire again in 2022 and I got to experience opening my very own, brand new American Girl with smooth, shiny hair, I realized I wasn't really satisfied with Elizabeth's used condition anymore.  Don't get me wrong, I love my OG Pleasant Company Molly, but the new one really brought me so much joy that I wished my younger, child self could have experienced, and I decided I wanted to feel that joy with my Elizabeth doll as well. 

So fast forward to my birthday this year, and for that occasion, I decided it was time to send Elizabeth to the American Girl Doll Care Center.  Honestly the experience of sending my beloved doll off was quite terrifying haha, but after roughly a month (and btw, Amercian Girl customer service were really nice when I got super antsy and emailed them asking for an update), Elizabeth was officially discharged from the doll hospital, and I got to open her up last night, and words cannot describe the joy that comes with opening up an American Girl doll box and getting to take out your doll.  She came dressed in a hospital gown and socks which I find to be quite funny, and she had the most springy pin curls and perfectly styled hair, and it was everything I could have asked for.  She even came with a bow in her hair and a new pair of her actual earrings, which is great because my pre-existing ones have broke and been glued back together again multiple times.  

And here she is in all her beautiful, restored glory. 

And for reference, this is what my doll looked like before sending her in: 

I am just so happy to finally have Elizabeth in her fully-restored glory, and I think my younger self would be really happy to know that she ended up with an almost perfect Elizabeth Doll.  (I also did get her a pair of socks so her shoes finally stay on haha.)  

The cost of sending in a doll to the Care Center with the intention of getting a head transplant is $50, which is definitely pricey but not the worst price. Maybe someday when I can afford it, I'll send in my older sister's Nicki Fleming doll that I may or may not have contributed to damaging as a kid, or the Goodwill Isabelle doll we have, and they can look all shiny and new again.

Now I'm not necessarily advocating for all dolls needing to bought new or be fully restored to be enjoyed.  I am a huge advocate for finding used American Girl dolls for fair prices and good deals, getting to bring new life to a well-loved doll.  Which is why my sister and I will often peruse Ebay and look for good deals.

For some context, as a lover of the first three American Girl movies (Felicity, Molly, and Samantha), in 2009, when Chrissa Maxwell was the girl of the year and they announced that they were making a movie for her, I would often watch the trailer over and over again, and find myself watching the behind the scenes footage for the film that they had on the film website.  The first time I watched the film was probably in 2010 when someone first uploaded it to YouTube, and that movie is like a comfort film.  I've watched it countless of times, and at this point certain phrases from the film have become a part of my sister's and my vocabulary, often saying to each other, "Is it true? About the skin disease. Because if it is, i'm not swimming in that water." or "Oops, now you really look like a homeless person." (I'm sorry if you haven't watched the film, these probably sound so weird out of context, but for reference, the film is about bullying and these lines are said by the bully Tara, and she is iconic hahhaha.)  It's safe to say that Chrissa is among our favorite American Girl characters.

So recently, when we were perusing Ebay, we came across a listing for Chrissa and a lot of her outfits, for a very reasonable price.  I think there are a couple of outfits from her collection not included, but all of the outfits that appeared in the movie are there, so that's all that matters to us.  And if I ever get the sewing bug again, I'm thinking it would be fun to make some of Chrissa's outfits that only appeared in the movie. The seller was super friendly, and doll arrived packaged up really well and securely, in her original box even!  And here she is with all of her outfits and some image of those same outifts (or some of the pieces) as they appear in the move.

I am very happy to have Elizabeth back home and being able to welcome Chrissa to my doll collection. :) Also I love that they both have the same face mold haha.

 I do have a bunch of barbie-related custom doll stuff to share as well, but this post is getting ridiculously long so I'm going to pause here and make another post about that later.