Young Ladies of Leisure

It's not very often we have a leisurely day around here.  But today Nellie and I spent a lovely morning in the parlor.  There was a breakfast buffet laid out on the sideboard, and new books in the window seat.  As is traditional for a proper breakfast, there was bread, pastries, fruit, sausages, bacon, and eggs.  None of that cold instant cereal.  We started breakfast off with a yogurt parfait, croissants, and cups of tea.

After breakfast, I worked on finishing some letters that I'd been putting off for too long.  Nellie, lucky duck, got to start reading novels.  (So Lord of the Rings didn't exist in 1906.  We took some liberties with time travel or whatnot.)

Card games are definitely ladylike.

And then we played Set.  If you've never played before, there's a deck of 81 cards.  Each card has four attributes: color, shape, shading, and number.  A 'set' is three cards where every attribute is the same or every attribute is different.  You deal out 12 cards, and cards get replaced as sets are found.  So in the first layout, the set (and I was the one called it) is '3 blank red diamonds, 3 shaded green squiggles, and 3 solid purple ovals'.  And you call a 'set' by yelling 'SET!' and grabbing for the cards as fast as you can before someone gets them.

Nellie: SET again!
Sam:  Scourge

Sam:  SET!
Nellie:  Scourge.

Sam:  Do you see a set?
Nellie:  No.  Do we need more cards?
Sam:  Wait, no.  SET!

Games get heated sometimes.  But we're technically young ladies, so we're civil.  Sort of.  It's way more fun when there's six or seven players.  It is also traditional to call the other players a scourge if they get any sets at all.

Interjection from Nellie:  'The human doesn't want to referee that...'

Sam:  OK, who won this time?
Nellie:  Scourge.

Nellie:  Yay!  I have more sets!
Sam:  Scourge.

If you want to play the game at home, here's the printables for a doll-sized SET deck of your very own.  It comes with box too so you don't have cards everywhere.  Just print it out double sided on cardstock.

SET deck

Our furry footman

And he didn't even knock anything over.

Fun with Chirimen Crepe (plus FREE jeans/pants pattern)

The human bought a small collection of Japanese chirimen crepe when she and Shepard were off at Seattle last year.  (Wow.  2015 is now 'last year.)  This would normally not result in clothing for us except that the human has also acquired a large stash of free patterns she hasn't tried before and some ever elusive free time.

And so I was pressed into service as a model for the latest batch of creations.  The ultra-bright colors looked best on me.

Each piece of chirimen was slightly bigger than a fat eighth (so about 11" x 19"), and the human had two each of 5 different prints.  The fun was trying to figure out just how to get a two full outfits from each print.

 First off:  a red drop waist dress and a peasant blouse with a pair of jeans.

The human has been playing with the free patterns offered by Phoebe&Egg, and the pattern for the peasant top and the dress came from there.  The top is about an inch too short to really look good, I think.  And chirimen drapes well, but does not gather well at all.

The pattern for the jeans came from a pattern the human modified.  We have yet to find a good free pattern for non-elastic pants, so the human finally lost her temper and made her own.  This was the first revision, and the legs were way too wide.

 Next up: the Oliver and S popover sundress, which only took half an hour to make up, and the 'Inspired by Zooey' dress by Matilda Jo patterns.  This is where the human learned just how slippery chirimen is, and how she can screw up the cutting if she didn't pin everything down first.  (There was, suffice to say, a large amount of 'language inappropriate for young ladies', but I was the thesis buddy, so I've heard much much worse.)  You can't see it in the picture, but part of the skirt is actually patched together to make up for the bad cutting.  The human managed to get the print to match perfectly, so you can't tell unless you're looking for it.

Finally, a retro pink dress (Phoebe&Egg) and a LJC bandeau top with white jeans.  The jeans are the second version the human made, and fit much better.  I'm not swimming in the legs, for instance.  It could probably be refined more for more styles, but I actually like plain straight-leg jeans.

 And now, for that elusive free pants pattern:

Pants Pattern Download

What this pattern has:  variations for both jeans (with pockets and a back yoke) and a plain pair of pants.  This was based off of the shorts pattern from the Lee and Pearl Paris pattern set.

Instructions:
(Follow the instructions from the Lee and Pearl Paris set if you have them.  I'm giving just the bare minimum to work with.)

1.  Sew front and back of each leg together.
2.  Finish seams and hem leg.
3.  Sew up inner leg seam of each pants leg.
4.  Place legs one inside the other, right sides facing.  Sew back seam and about 1/3 of the front seam.  Go from 1/4" seam to 3/8" in the front.
5.  Attach waistband and line.
6.  Zigzag stitch or serge front opening.
7.  Attach velcro in front.

New Year's Giveaway Winner and some Japanese Fairy Tales

NEW YEAR'S GIVEAWAY WINNER:Congratulations SummerLeigh!

Please contact me at jinjia.mixed.goods at gmail.com so I can send you your new book patterns!

And now back to your normally scheduled papercrafting.

Lily here.  I know someone mentioned wanting the books on Japanese legends by Lafcadio Hearn.  We don't have those yet, but we do have replicas of a set of Japanese fairy tales and stories from the late 1890s/early 1900s.  It's a set of 16 picture books total, each with 20ish pages of text and illustrations.

The print inside is large enough to read, and it has the most gorgeous illustrations in color.  I think my favorite is 'The Mouses' Wedding'.  Though I also like the story of Yamato-no-Oorochi and Momotaro.  I mean, you have to like the real classics, right?

The full collection will be for sale on the human's etsy store here, but I'm letting you have my favorite book as a New Year's present to everyone.

The Mouses' Wedding

Instructions

1960s Dresses and other projects

Wren*Feathers has been offering free 1960s dress patterns for AG dolls based on old Chatty Cathy outfits for the last few weeks, and if you make one or more outfits from those patterns before January 1, you can get two more free patterns.  So of course the human had to do this.  And so Sam and I are suffering through the latest bout of sewing.  Because you see, when the human tries out new patterns, she uses random remnants from the stash instead of the nice fabric that we know she has.

I'm wearing the Chatty Cathy smock dress (free pattern here) made in a lightweight turquoise corduroy.  The pattern came together really easily.  For the sleeve cuff, the human used the sleeve cuff from Samantha's Pleasant Company patterns.

 And Sam is wearing a pink cotton blouse (vintage Japanese cottons) and a floral stripe corduroy jumper (free pattern here).   think I got the better deal, honestly.

The human was busy doing other things instead of throwing us a Christmas party, but we got our fair share of loot.  Those are all the new books we got in the last week. 

From left to right:

• Jane Eyre
• Pride and Prejudice
• Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, Return of the King, The Hobbit
• A Little Princess, The Secret Garden
• A Girl of the Limberlost
• The Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Road to Oz, the Emerald City of Oz
• Peter and Wendy
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
• Robin Hood
• The Boxcar Children
• Little Women
• The Baby's Opera, The Baby's Own Aesop, The Baby's Bouquet (we got them for the wonderful illustrations by Walter Crane)
• A Floral Fantasy (another volume of Walter Crane illustrations that doubles as an herbal)

At this point I can safely say that we have every book that Pleasant Company/Mattel ever made for us historical girls.  And then some.  A good number of these books will show up on Etsy come the new year.

And R2-D2 is holding onto my new lunchbox for me.  I think he'll give it back.  Maybe.  Droids don't need food.

Shoujo Manga Extravaganza

The human may have gone overboard when I told her about the extreme lack of manga in our bookshelves.  After all, she has a manga collection, so why shouldn't we?

So I got to pick some, and my first choice was a set of Sailor Moon manga, all ten volumes, the latest 2014 edition.  The first volume is in English, but the rest are in Japanese.  It matters less for us than for humans, I think.  (Besides, the human reads Japanese anyways, and her good manga are all in Japanese, so it's only fair we get the same.)

And yes, it has actual images and text.  Each volume has about a chapter of manga.

But while I like the more modern (yes, yes, I know Sailor Moon is 90s manga.  But they're putting out the new anime still so it counts.) manga, I also wanted a few shoujo classics.  So I had the human track down some old Ikeda Ryoko manga from the 70s.  AND I'll be sharing those with everyone.  (The Sailor Moon manga are my personal property and no, I'm not sharing those.)

And these are the real classics that practically founded the shoujo genre.  We have 'The Rose of Versailles', which spawned at least 10 musicals, various translations, and one English movie 'Lady Oscar'.  It's the human's favorite.  Then we have 'Brother, Dear Brother'.  If 'Rose of Versailles' inspired the setting for Revolutionary Girl Utena (another 90s favorite), then 'Brother, Dear Brother' was responsible for the *ahem* drama *ahem* of the cast.  And finally, 'Claudine', which was super dramatic and super sad.

(Random interjection:  Did you know that Shirogane Naoto's persona designs (Persona4 and spinoffs) were heavily influenced by 'Rose of Versailles'?  That's how much of a cultural touchstone this is in Japan.)

As always, the human was kind enough to include real text and images in my manga.

So.  This is the one and only content warning I will give.  All of Ikeda-sensei's manga that I'm showing off here contain LGBT characters.  (In fact, all of the manga I have now contain LGBT characters.)  I hear some people don't like to be surprised by that or something.  So I'm telling you BEFORE you download it.  Oh right, additional content warnings include suicide (all of the above), and transphobia (Claudine only).  So, maybe not the right manga for someone under the age of 13.

We're dolls.  We're allowed to read anything we want.

And now, the manga you've been waiting for:

Manga

Instructions

Instructions Addendum:  The binding is going to be different for these.  There is no cover to cut out.  Instead you'll be using duct tape to bind these.  Follow the instructions until the part where you attach the cover.
1.  Cut out two small pieces of cardstock the same size as the pages.
2.  Glue the cardstock to the first and last pages.
3.  Spread white glue down the spine.
4.  Cut a piece of duct tape the same length as the book is tall and 1" wide (half the normal width of duct tape is fine)
5.  Place the book down the center of the duct tape (so treat the duct tape like the A/B piece in the instructions) and fold the duct tape to cover the spine.
6.  Fold the dust jacket over the book.

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

Also, we're holding a book pattern giveaway until 12/31/2015.  Leave a comment here with what book published before 1923 (aka 'in the public domain') you'd like to see made in doll size to enter.  The winner will get a full 18 patterns for a complete Hogwarts textbook collection.

Paper Puppet Stages

We've been lax about showing off mostly because the human has been insanely busy trying to graduate on time.  She should be done any day now (certainly before Christmas), so we'll have more time to do stuff.  She still owes us a gingerbread house and a holiday party.

But first, some of the new toys we got this fall:  paper puppet boxes!

Each little puppet stage has a handful of characters (they have different expressions and costumes on the back) and a handful of background scenes that you can swap out to tell the whole story.  The human sized versions were found here but the human shrinked these for us.  These were printed out on cardstock and glued with plain white glue and glue sticks.

We have 'Little Red Riding Hood', 'Cinderella', and 'Hansel and Gretel' boxes.  The real fun will come the week between Christmas and New Year's.

Get these boxes here:  (be warned, you'll want a pair of super sharp and super tiny scissors for some of the cuts)

Instructions

Cinderella

Hansel and Gretel

Little Red Riding Hood

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

Also, we're holding a book pattern giveaway until 12/31/2015.  Leave a comment here with what book published before 1923 (aka 'in the public domain') you'd like to see made in doll size to enter.  The winner will get a full 18 patterns for a complete Hogwarts textbook collection.

1950s Space Magazines for Dolls

This is Shepard, and welcome to your sporadic dose of space exploration history.  At some point, AG put that that Maryellen short video about AstroGirl, and astronomy and all that good stuff.  And during the video, Maryellen mentions something "I read that in Collier's." when talking about space travel with her friends.

Most people probably went 'Oh, that's just some random background thing AG put in there.'  It's not.  In 1952, Collier's Magazine put out a series of 8 articles (6 of which had cover art) on how "Man Will Conquer Space Soon".  It covered everything from basic space travel to astronaut selection to lunar bases and getting to Mars.  The articles were written by people like Fred Lawrence Whipple, Dr. Joseph Kaplan, Dr. Heinz Haber, and Wernher von Braun.  The concept art is absolutely stunning.

Obligatory Wikipedia link: Man Will Conquer Space Soon!

In 2012, for the 60th anniversary, the Houston Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics did a complete reprint of the series in their newletter.  You can read the original articles at http://www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter/.  Scroll down until you hit the 2012 newsletters.

Since there were only 6 covers but 8 articles, I've combined some of the issues.  For once, the print is really too small to read, but you and your local space cadet can still enjoy the gorgeous artwork

Collier's Magazines

Instructions

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

Also, we're holding a book pattern giveaway until 12/31/2015.  Leave a comment here with what book published before 1923 (aka 'in the public domain') you'd like to see made in doll size to enter.  The winner will get a full 18 patterns for a complete Hogwarts textbook collection.