Monday, November 30, 2015

Slik, Velvet, and Leather


Once upon a time, I bought a piece of lovely glove weight royal blue leather and had no idea what to do with it.  And then I found a piece of dark blue silk velvet in a store in Beijing.  So after torturing some of the dolls with holiday fug, I decided to see if I could make some gorgeous outfits as well.  I think I succeeded.

The whole outfit collection has:
1 long sleeved peasant blouse made of vintage Japanese kimono silk with machine embroidery on the sleeves and hem
1 short sleeved peasant blouse made of the same, but plain
1 leather vest lined with vintage silk
1 reversible leather/gold brocade corset
1 blue velvet skirt
1 blue velvet jacket with vintage mother of pearl button accents
1 pair of blue leather pants


Here's Cauthrien in the long sleeved blouse, the leather vest, and the leather pants. 


And here's Nora in the skirt, jacket, and the corset with the brocade side out.


Nora again, showing off the short sleeve blouse and the leather side of the corset.


And then we switched things up a bit to see how well the pieces coordinated.  The jacket and corset just make everything look so formal, and the blouse and vest dresses it down.


Cauthrien looks so very military in the jacket and corset


Nora looks old fashioned and all renfaire/SCA ready in the blouse, vest, and skirt.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Ugly holiday sweaters and not-so-ugly holiday books


And this week, in 'the human has too much time and not enough to do' category, we introduce our new collection of ugly holiday sweaters.  Made from ugly holiday socks.  The human is no longer allowed out on Black Friday.  (Not shown are the new hats that were formerly jar toppers from the Yankee Candle Company.  Those are for the party in December.)



But, there is some small consolation, as we are now back on track with our papercrafting projects after a break last week.  This week, to go with our holiday sweaters, we have some new kitschy vintage holiday books.


We have a book of Christmas Carols (courtesy of the John Hancock Insurance Company, 1950) and three vintage Christmas Little Golden Books from the 1950s:  Christmas in the Country, Jingle Bells, and The Christmas Mice.  These are the right period for Maryellen, and would be adorable little stocking stuffers.





Instruction addendum for Little Golden Books:  Glue pages of book together.  Do not follow instructions for making cover.  Run a line of white glue down the spine of the block of pages.  Wait to dry.  Fold cover at lines.  Match first and last pages of the block of pages to the inside of the cover.  Glue.

If you liked these, please visit our etsy shop at JinjiaMixedGoods for more printable books for dolls.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Papercraft-a-long Week 5: Classic Nancy Drew Mysteries


Welcome to week 5 of our Papercraft-a-long.  This time we're getting into some fancy papercrafting with doll-sized versions of the original Nancy Drew books.  We have the first three books:  'The Secret of the Old Clock', 'The Bungalow Mystery' and 'The Hidden Staircase'.  First published in 1930, these books have been updated over the years and are still incredibly popular.  These would be great for any girl, but be particularly accurate for Kit, Molly, and Maryellen.

Next week we're taking a break from bookbinding and switching to making games and toys out of paper for the inevitable winter gift giving holidays.  (Over here we celebrate the secular version of Christmas for giftgiving.  Your mileage may vary.)


We have the first edition dust jackets for our books.  Each book is not quite 2 inches tall, and has around 20 pages of text and illustrations.  Keep in mind that these are still under copyright in the US, so make them for your personal use only.


Addendum:  Trace out parts C, D, E, and F onto index cards or cardstock.  
Fold dust jacket around book as the final step.

If you liked these, please visit our etsy shop at JinjiaMixedGoods for more printable books for dolls.



Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Sneak preview of projects to come


Sam here.  The human is taking a break from her regularly scheduled thesis to bring you a sneak preview of some more papercrafting projects in the pipeline.  We don't have time for a full photoshoot of everything right now, but we promise they'll be up in the future.


First off, a pop-up alphabet set for the classroom.  Just a warning right now that this is a 20 hour minimum crafting project, and involves very small pieces of paper.  But the results are super cute.


Next, paper puppet storybook playsets.  This one is for Cinderella.  We also have sets for Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood.  There's actually even more, but the human hasn't made them yet.


Finally, what everyone loves best:  even more mini books!  There's a set of old fashioned (think 1890s) Japanese fairy tales.  Sixteen books, all complete with text and illustrations as a matter of fact, and Kana has them all.  The human was getting a little grumpy towards the end of trying to make all of them.  (Kana has, for the record, ran of out space in her room for the books.)  And for something festive, vintage Christmas Little Golden Books.  The print quality isn't so good this time because the human used her home printer instead of the one at work.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Papercraft-a-long Week 4: Activity Books


Welcome to Week 4 of our first ever Papercraft-a-long.  This time I'll be showing off a set of little activity books inspired by the original Historical collections from American Girl.  These were made from the activity sheets that American Girl used to offer, and have some of the original illustrations before the big change.  The original human-sized activity sheets used to be on the American Girl website, but the website revamps removed all of them.

Each little booklet is about 3.5" x 2.5" with at least 4 activities inside and has text big enough to read.

The human actually made these last December, and just never actually took pictures of them.  There's a book for every girl in the old Historical lineup, even the retired ones.  (Sorry, no Maryellen.)  These would make great little extras for presents for dolls or girls.  There's a dozen booklets in all.







Enjoy!

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Papercraft-a-long Week 3: Retro Little Golden Books


Welcome to week 3 of our Papercraft-a-long.  This week we're going retro (again) with a collection of Little Golden Books from the 1950s and 1960s.  Each little book has a dozen pages of text and images inside.  There are two fairy tales, one book on the circus, and one on girl scouts.



Instruction addendum:  Glue pages of book together.  Do not follow instructions for making cover.  Run a line of white glue down the spine of the block of pages.  Wait to dry.  Fold cover at lines.  Match first and last pages of the block of pages to the inside of the cover.  Glue.

If you liked these, please visit our etsy shop at JinjiaMixedGoods for more printable books for dolls.