~~~SEWING my way to POFQ ~ American Girl outfits & Custom Park Bags! ~~~

[clairemolly]

Just popping over from the Disbou thread! POFQ is my favorite resort!!!

 

[DMGeurts]

more cuteness....at this rate you will be ahead of schedule in no time!

Thank you. That's the plan... because then I have to find a way to come up with tip/souvinier $$. LOL Probably going to involve sewing too.

btw....I use my plastic bags for trash cans...extra packing material when I ship stuff too

Just popping over from the Disbou thread! POFQ is my favorite resort!!!

Welcome!!! Soooo, it looks like you've stayed at POFQ a few times... any tips for this never been there person???

D~

 

[lovesdumbo]

So, here it is... Outfit #51...

Front:

Wow! Love the gray on black fabric in the ruffle.

 

[skylilly]

Let me just say. WOW! What a talent... I love all the great dresses.

My daughter is now 21years old and we have 6 American Girl dolls put up for someday. Wish her doll would have had one of these outfits on for her trip to disney.

 

[ireland_nicole]

I made it- just redid the kids bathroom, so sent a lot of time at 4 diff targets yesterday because the Mickey set I finally decided to break down and buy had gnu n clearance- love it though

Anyhoo... I am freakishly in love with #51- any chance of a dress being replicated or are we talking al. Designer originals?

Looking forward to reading more,

 

[mommy2mrb]

Yah - Cheryl seems to follow mei everywhere. That's OK - she's really nice in person... although I think she likes Rod much more than she lets on. :lovestru

isn't there a word for that......hmmm "stalker"

It's only the best sub shop in the world. A and I were eating there this afternoon, and we were dreaming out loud that we hoped there was a JJ at WDW, because then we'd order some of the freaky fast subs and have them delivered to POFQ for $.35 each... Must have really been a dream. That would be awesome though.

we have a JJ's here too....it is good, but I rather have honey mustard on my sammies and they don't have it




Thanks... I am buying them while I can, because once Corp. finds out, they will probably ban our discount from all gift card purchases. Funny thing is, we don't' get our discount on Target GCs. LOL

that's a great perk!

Off to make dinner (fattening) chicken alfredo - from a jar, of course. No time to make a real meal tonight - must sew.

just keep sewing, just keep sewing.....

D~

 

[DMGeurts]

Wow! Love the gray on black fabric in the ruffle.

Thanks... That's either Ellen's or Anita's fav fabric (I always confuse them... ) - so I stole the idea from one of them. It is a great fabric and one of my favs too.

Let me just say. WOW! What a talent... I love all the great dresses.

My daughter is now 21years old and we have 6 American Girl dolls put up for someday. Wish her doll would have had one of these outfits on for her trip to disney.

Thank you. I hope you are able to bring her dolls out soon.

I made it- just redid the kids bathroom, so sent a lot of time at 4 diff targets yesterday because the Mickey set I finally decided to break down and buy had gnu n clearance- love it though

Anyhoo... I am freakishly in love with #51- any chance of a dress being replicated or are we talking al. Designer originals?

Looking forward to reading more,

Oooh - I would love to see pics of the finished bathroom!

I can't guarantee that every outfit I make will be an original... I like to think that everything I make is original though.

I know, I know... I need to get back up there and face that applique. If I put my mind to it - I can have #50 done by tomorrow evening (considering I work all day tomorrow).

D~

 

[karebear23]

I'm joining in! Yeah! Saw your post in disboutique.

I sew American doll dresses & matching little girl dresses.
I love your stuff!

Your appliques rock! I loved the splash mountain one!

 

[ivey_family]

Wow, you're already up to five pages on your ptr and (almost) done with three outfits! Way to go! I LOVE #51!!

Regards,
C.

 

[TwinkieMama]

This is amazing!

I have been considering learning to sew because it bothers me to spend more on the AG doll clothes than my daughters' clothes. Plus like you said, the dolls won't grow out of the fashions.

I am going to enjoy this wild ride and all your great creations.

 

[DMGeurts]

I'm joining in! Yeah! Saw your post in disboutique.

I sew American doll dresses & matching little girl dresses.
I love your stuff!

Your appliques rock! I loved the splash mountain one!

Welcome! Fun that you sew for AGs and Girls too. And thank you for your compliments.

Wow, you're already up to five pages on your ptr and (almost) done with three outfits! Way to go! I LOVE #51!!

Regards,
C.

Thank you! I've been busy - LOL. I probably wouldn't have as much done, if it wasn't for Lisa - every time she catches me on The Dis, she sends me back to my sewing room.

This is amazing!

I have been considering learning to sew because it bothers me to spend more on the AG doll clothes than my daughters' clothes. Plus like you said, the dolls won't grow out of the fashions.

I am going to enjoy this wild ride and all your great creations.

Welcome! You should learn to sew... It has been such a rewarding experience for me, and a major creative outlet. I know, AG clothes are expensive - and the ones purchased at the store are no longer the quality you'd expect (or have come to expect) from AG - prices keep going up and quality continues to go down. Besides, if you make your own clothes - the possabilities are endless.

Well, I finished that applique last night - I really didn't think I would. I just have a few details to add by hand, then I will sew it up - I probably won't be able to show pics until tomorrow though, since I do actually have to work today. Although, I do have an extra day off this week - so I plan to rock out an extra outfit.

I might have to take over the girls' hair accessory gig that I was so generous to give them - it seems to have taken a back burner to their friends and ICarly.

D~

 

[DMGeurts]

So, I thought I'd do a quick intro of Miss. Patience.

I have a friend on another board that has this amazing vintage Singer machine - and the beautiful outfits she creates with it are just simply amazing. Not frilly boutique beautiful, but classic 40's style beautiful. And I really admired these items, and how she sewed all of them with just her hand crank machine. I just loved how you could look at her garments - and with the simplicity of them - just see the quality of workmanship. Sometimes I think that quality can be hidden behind all the ruffles and frills - so going back to a basic item, once in a while, makes you concentrate more on quality than beauty. Does that make any sense?

The stitches that came off of her machine were some of the most beautiful sitches I had ever seen - so straight and precise. I always hated, with my brothers, how I could be sewing straight as an arrow, yet my stitching was wobbly and looked horrible. It made all of my outfits look like they were made by a toddler.

I talked to this friend about this, and she highly recommended that I get a vintage machine. All these machines do is a straight stitch, because of that, there is no wobble.

Some of the oldest machines are treadles (and a lot of people still treadle), next came the hand crank, then the potted motor with either a knee bar, foot pedal or both. Even reverse wasn't added until the 40s.

The amazing thing, to me, is that some of these machines were incredibly mistreated over the years - replaced by computerized machines - so the owners would put them in musty basements, garages, barns - you name it, all places that a sewing machine really shouldn't go. Yet, after all of this mistreatment, these vintage machines - after a bit of TLC - still sew like they were new. I really wanted a machine like that - one that was indestructible, dependable and sewed a beautiful straight stitch.

So, then, I began my search. We have a few antique stores in town, and I looked there - I found one that was over priced and siezed up - which was a little more work than this beginner wanted to tackle.

I looked on Craigslist every day for weeks - seeing lots of possibilities, but I knew what I wanted. I was looking for a specific machine. I knew I didn't want a treadle, or a hand crank (although - this does appeal to me) - I wanted a potted motor and reverse, which put me in the late 40's early 50's model bracket.

One day, I hopped on CL in the afternoon - and there she was. A 1952 Singer 15-91. Only about 30 miles from me, priced at $65 for the machine, cabinet and all the feet... When dh got home, I begged him to take me there in his truck to look at her - and hopefully, if she passed my inspection - take her home with me.

So, we get to this woman's house, and I look over this machine... Looking for cracked wires (she had replaced the foot pedal and main wires), making sure the machine worked at wasn't siezed up - she passed all my inspections - so I paid the woman her $65, dh loaded her up and we brought her home.

Her cabinet:

Feet:

And buttonholer (which I still haven't learned to use):

Then came the hours and hours of reading, learning how to take her apart, what to clean her with, and the hardest part - putting her back together.

I took everything apart that I could get apart... and opened everything I could get open.

She had to soak in a kerosene bath for almost a full day - and I took a tooth brush to all of her inner parts to get all the old gummed up grease off. And lots of other chemicals used to clean various parts. It was kind of expensive to buy all these chemicals (mostly basic cleaners and car stuff) because it was basic stuff I didn't have around the house. You have to be very careful what you clean these machines with, because you can very easily wreck the decals - which you can never get back.

I even took the motor apart, and cleaned the inside of the motor.

Once I was done with all the cleaning and had her mostly put together, DH rewired her light and the inside of her motor... Whatta man!

Here's a few of her resoration pictures:
Tension before I took it apart - all rust ridden and disgusting.

Tension as I was dissecting it - this was the mangled tension spring!

Tension apart and off - finally, and behind her face plate.

Once dh got her completely rewired, and I got her totally cleaned and put back together - the true test was to see if she worked. So I put oil where she needed oil and sewing machine grease where she needed it, plugged her in and pressed the pedal.

The sound she made was (and is) just amazing! I have never heard a machine make such a beautiful sound - she "whiiiiirs". Not like my Brothers that clunk, clunk along - no, this girl is all girl and beautiful at that.

I was so excited to move her into my sewing room and get started on her first project - a sewing machine cover - to protect her from dust. She ruffled every ruffle with her ruffler foot - and hemmed each ruffle with her narrow hem foot. To be honest, she rarely uses it, because I am constantly using her.

Next, I had to come up with a name. Several Disboutiquers helped me out with that, and she ended up with the name Patience - which suits her just fine. However, I think it's her that needs patience with me - since she seems to know exactly what she is doing - and it's me that needs to do all the learning.

Paticence's debut:

Close-up of her gorgeous clean face plate and tension:

The one thing I have to add... In restoring Patience, I learned several things that I was really clueless about, concerning sewing machines. First off, how the innards actually worked. Then, how the tension actually works. The best part about Patience, is I will never have to bring her in to be fixed. I took her down to nothing, and I know how every single part works together - if anything ever goes wrong (which it shouldn't), I am confident that I can fix it. There is nothing more freeing, than knowing that you can care for your own machine. After all, these machines were made specifically for the end user to do all the maintenance. Not like todays machines, where the company still wants to make $$ on basic maintenance - so they void your warranty if you even touch a screw.

The thing that amazes me most about Patience's restoration... One year ago - the only thing holding me back from sewing, was my fear of figuring out tension adjustments and how to thread the machine/bobbin. All these years - that's what I was most afraid of. Now, here I was 9 months after digging the Brother out of the closet, and I had completely dissected a machine, cleaned it and put it back together - and it worked. Huge accomplishment for me.

I hope you enjoyed Patience's restoration. If you are ever interested in restoring a vintage machine, I'd be happy to pass along several links I used in restoring Patience.

 

[DMGeurts]

ADRs

A planned these all herself! I think the planner in me has transferred to her. She knows what we like.

Boma, Tusker House, Cape May Cafe and Chef Mickey's will all be new restaurants for us.

D~

 

[VBAndrea]

This is true... Andrea, as long as you didn't pay cash - Target can look up anything you purchased using any cc or check or even gift card, if you still have it (I never give mine back to the cashiers for this reason)... You just give them your card, they swipe it, then they scan the item, if it's on there, you get the exact price you paid (even if it's taken further markdowns since you purchased it) - it is exactly like having a receipt. I don't work much in guest service, but I believe the return policy period is still 90 days, so as long as it was purchased with in that time frame, you should be good.


D~

Cash? What's that? I used my red card so now I can quit looking for that dang receipt! I bought the items in July so I'm still in my 90 day window. I even looked in my car yesterday for the receipt. I will give dh's car a quick look today, but if it's not there I'll just haul my items back without the receipt now.

So, here it is... Outfit #51...

Front:

Back:

Close-up:

(I just realized I forgot to remove my basting stitiches - better go do that).

And no pictures of the new tu-tu (you can kind of see it peeking out the bottom if you really concentrate), but it was fun to make and really makes a difference in the flow of the dress - FUN! I will be getting a lot of use out of it.

D~

Ohhhh! Ahhhh! Gorgeous! (Though I think Target bags popping out from under the skirt would have looked better with the Minnie dot!).

more cuteness....at this rate you will be ahead of schedule in no time!

btw....I use my plastic bags for trash cans...extra packing material when I ship stuff too

I generally use Walmart bags for shipping -- I hoard my Target bags for myself (greedy, I know). Though our Target now has a food section so sometimes I don't need to stop at Walmart. I am in such a better state of mind at Target. If only they would start carrying fabric!

 

[RubberDuckyRanch]

Wonderful !!!!!! Loving Patience too. I should take pictures of my moms machine that was my Granny's.

 

[NOLA_Tink]

I really enjoyed reading your trip report! I hope you achieve the goals that you've set! Have an amazing trip!!!

 

[mommy2mrb]

Thank you! I've been busy - LOL. I probably wouldn't have as much done, if it wasn't for Lisa - every time she catches me on The Dis, she sends me back to my sewing room.

D~

Yup that's me, official whip cracker

I generally use Walmart bags for shipping -- I hoard my Target bags for myself (greedy, I know). Though our Target now has a food section so sometimes I don't need to stop at Walmart. I am in such a better state of mind at Target. If only they would start carrying fabric!

I don't do Wal-mart....just walking into the store make me tense...they always seem so crowded and messy to me
our Target's are getting the reno done right now, so excited to see how it looks when done!


D~ your ADR's look great! you'll love visiting AKL, make sure you go outside its pretty at night....we had Boma one night at 9pm it was good for a buffet, lots of different flavors to try, but some more "americanized" flavors/items too....I just tried a little bit of everything but the REALLY spicy stuff.

 

[VBAndrea]

I don't do Wal-mart....just walking into the store make me tense...they always seem so crowded and messy to me
our Target's are getting the reno done right now, so excited to see how it looks when done!

If you sewed you'd go into Walmarts. The Walmart in my neighborhood is newer and nice and generally the neighborhoods surrounding it are upscale, so the clientele is pretty good.

The Walmart that carries fabric just remodeled, but I hate checking out there. There were two people in front of me last time. One's credit or debit card wouldn't go through and then she called her bank or whoever and then the whole thing had to be voided. Once that was done I breathed a sigh of relief. Then the next person had the SAME issue -- she just kept having the cashier take stuff off until the card cleared. Why do people buy things knowing they don't have the money to pay for them???????? This is also the store where a man set his baby (wearing just a t-shirt and diapers which were definitely FULL) on the conveyor belt. Ewwwww!!!!

So I don't understand -- why is it that Walmart stresses you out?

Our Targets just remodeled but in one of them they cut the shoe dept down to about the third of the size it was which really irked me. Had I known D worked there I would have filed a complaint with her!

All righty -- must get back to work on my ds's BTS t- just came down to the computer to check something on the design so why I'm now on D's trip report baffles me!

 

[dianemom2]

If you sewed you'd go into Walmarts. The Walmart in my neighborhood is newer and nice and generally the neighborhoods surrounding it are upscale, so the clientele is pretty good.

The Walmart that carries fabric just remodeled, but I hate checking out there. There were two people in front of me last time. One's credit or debit card wouldn't go through and then she called her bank or whoever and then the whole thing had to be voided. Once that was done I breathed a sigh of relief. Then the next person had the SAME issue -- she just kept having the cashier take stuff off until the card cleared. Why do people buy things knowing they don't have the money to pay for them???????? This is also the store where a man set his baby (wearing just a t-shirt and diapers which were definitely FULL) on the conveyor belt. Ewwwww!!!!
!

I really hate our Walmart where I live. It is always crowded and dirty. But it is the only Walmart in the entire county so it is over utilized. There are several things that I have to go there to buy from time to time but I do dread going there. I wish that we had a Walmart like my inlaws have down in Florida. They are clean and have the food department and not overcrowded. If I have several errands to do, I sometimes drive to the Walmart in Frederick, which is about 45 or 50 minutes away. It is much nicer than our Walmart. They also have a nice Costco and a decent Ross in the same shopping center so if I can combine errands, then I can justify the extra gas expense to go there.

Of course none of this has anything to do with D's trip report!

 

[mommy2mrb]

well since I don't sew, no wally world for me....I've never been in a nice, clean, organized one! I'll stick to Targets and our local store Fred Meyer's which has everything, one stop shopping!