My second childhood?

I've been having a blast making American Girl doll clothes! They're just such a nice size to sew, bigger than Barbie size or even baby doll size. And the patterns/tutorials available are just too adorable. You saw the coat, hat and bag I made for Courtney's doll here.

The only problem I had was getting good photos of the clothes being modeled, and what's a cute outfit if you can't see it being worn, right? It doesn't work for Courtney to bring her doll along when she comes here on Tuesdays, because she's coming from school, and it's not so convenient for Mommy or Daddy to bring it along when they come to pick Courtney up, plus it'd be too rushed. And although it's not that far, it doesn't seem like a good solution to try and take the pics at their house every time I make a new outfit, either, even though Courtney is an ever-so-helpful assistant. ;)

Soooo.... what to do. I looked on Craig's List and eBay to see if I could find an AG doll at a reasonable price. Gosh, they were nearly as expensive there as the dolls are to buy them new. I got to looking at the new dolls on the American Girl website. Then I thought, "Hmm... I still have some Christmas money waiting for something special to spend it on." Should I ???

I consulted Jess and a couple of friends. They all more or less said, "Go for it."

I did. 

So meet my lovely new model, Kit:

She arrived last week, in that outfit. Isn't she just precious? I chose her because she reminds me of myself when I was a kid. :)  I even at some point wore my hair quite like that, and it was close to that color. I also chose her because of all the dolls, she was the only one with short hair. Since you have to be so careful with brushing their hair, I thought hers would be the easiest to take care of during a modeling session... you know, changing clothes can wreak havoc on one's hair.

I guess you can say I "hired" a model... for a one-time fee. Now I need to really put her to work to get my money's worth out of her. (At least I don't have to feed her.)

Here's the first outfit she modeled. It's an Easter dress for Courtney's doll, and she wore it yesterday. It's actually made out of Courtney's great-grandma's fabric which she gave to me awhile back, and we were at her house yesterday, so that was kinda neat for her to see.

The dress is made from the pattern in the Little Things to Sew book by Liesl Gibson. I'd made one previously when I did the LTTS sew-along. You can see it here.

So here's my little Kit doing her very first modeling job:

Pretty good at it, isn't she?

I can't wait for Courtney to meet her. She doesn't have school today, so she'll be spending the whole day with me, and she's bringing her doll, Marie Grace, along. And there just might be a surprise of more new clothes, too! ;)  Do come back and see!