#josefina's collection

[desertdollranch]

Patrick pulled a small brass telescope out of his coat pocket. As Josefina watched, he focused the telescope on a point to the southeast. "Look through there," he said as he handed her the telescope. Josefina focused the telescope for herself. "I see San Miguel Chapel," she said. She recognized the church easily even though it was far away. It came clearly into view through the telescope, as if someone had painted a perfect picture of it in a tiny round frame.

[thestuffinginside]

First round of doll collection portraits! From left to right:

Row one — Josefina, Meredydd (Journey Girls), Lanie

Row two — Felicity, Elizabeth

Row three — Karsen (Truly Me 21), Cécile, Ivy

Row four — Samantha, Kaya'aton'my'

[nerdylibertarian928]

RIP the March sisters y'all would have loved the American Girl series

[haveamagicalday]

Duel of the American Girl Dolls: Josefina (Round 2)

This is a poll in the Duel of the American Girl Dolls. Other polls can be found here

[singamajig]

celebrating AG's rebrand a couple months after getting my sweet kirsten! ❤️

[enyoalkis]

Finally got a doll stand for Ivy so here’s my entire current American Girl doll collection!

[alittlebitbethany]

Hello everybody for day 16 of A Very Dolly Christmas Countdown we have the lovely Josefina dressed up for Christmas. Josefina is admiring a lantern with my name on it. I have trouble finding stuff with my name on it so this was a delightful surprise. Josefina’s dress was made by Angela W Doll Clothes. Image Description: a photo of an American Girl doll wearing a brown regency dress with a floral pattern on it, holding a lit golden lantern with an image of Father Christmas on it and the name Bethany. There is a Christmas backdrop.

[spindledreams]

When I was a kid, I spent HOURS poring over American Girl catalogs. My parents could never justify the cost of American Girl dolls, with three daughters, so I never owned one myself, until last month when I came across an early 1990s Kirsten at a local vintage market.

Kirsten was my first introduction to the American Girl stories. I had all of her books and pastime sets, and I always wanted a Kirsten of my own. So when I found her for $40, I scooped her up and brought her home. She wasn't wearing her original clothes, though, so I went looking online for her Meet outfit. I found a mostly-complete set - only missing the necklace and handkerchief. I can make the handkerchief, and I can find a replica of the necklace on Etsy. Kirsten does have the first hint of silver on the very edges of one eye, but unless you're looking very closely you can barely see it so I'm not going to do anything about it right now.

Well, this led me down two different paths: collecting all six of the original Historical Girls that I grew up with, and finding my sisters' favorites to surprise them with, because when I told them about Kirsten they started reminiscing about their own childhood favorites.

To that end, I have spent Way Too Much Money on pre-Mattel Pleasant Company dolls in the last week. Because I bought all of the other five I was missing, plus yesterday I found a first edition Josefina in nearly-full Meet for an absolute steal for one sister. I'm out of available funds for Molly for the other sister but I'm keeping my eye out for good deals on her too.

The ones I bought for myself all need some work to return to their former glory. They were all sold sans clothes, so for now they'll get homemade or generic things until I can find their Meet outfits. I'm not planning to play with them so I don't need their full collections but I do want to eventually get some of their other clothes. And I will be making them things too; in fact that's part of why I wanted the collection, so I can use them as models for the crochet doll clothes I make and sell!

I also plan to get all the books for the six dolls I bought, plus the craft and cookbooks.

As the dolls arrive, I'll get new posts written for each of them. Mostly to log what they look like upon arrival and what kind of work I will have to put in to restoring them. Felicity arrived yesterday afternoon, but I was too busy to do anything with her. It's 2am where I am right now and I can't get to where she is without waking someone up, so her intro will wait till morning. I'm expecting Addy and Samantha tomorrow, and hopefully by early next week my Molly and both Josefinas - mine and sister's. Both are first edition, so I'll give her whichever is in better shape and keep the project doll to work on as I have time.

And with that, I have to go to bed. Today may be Friday but it's still a school day for the kids and a work day for me.

[timetravelingcourtney]

Google Sheets to Catalog Collections

Hey friends, over on Reddit I got a request to upload my sheets for cataloging my collection. Thought I would share it out here. I think I have every item for each doll. There's a check box and then a drop down menu for AG/PC/Rerelease etc. Feel free to make your own copies!

[raychleadele]

It’s my last day of winter break before heading back to school and it’s been a busy doll time!

I acquired Kaya yesterday! She appears to be a very early edition and is in stunning shape. I found her along with her entire series of 6 books for an absolute steal on Facebook yesterday. Kaya was the last historical character to be released before I lost interest in dolls as a child, and she’s the first whose books I didn’t read so I’m thrilled to get her books along with her! I’ve thought about adding her to my collection for a while, and I think it’s a tragedy she’s the only Native American doll they’ve ever produced. I’m happy to have her and excited to get to know her!

I have been on the lookout for Josefina’s original real leather moccasins since she joined my collection over a year ago, and this week I finally found them! I had to replace the laces but I don’t mind because they’re in great shape and the price was reasonable. They just arrived this afternoon and I changed Josefina from her Navidad dress to a cozy outfit to go with her new shoes.

This afternoon I finished making a new dress for Kirsten! I bought the shirt this fabric was taken from at a Goodwill months ago and have had the pieces cut out for nearly a year. I’m so glad I finally got a chance to put it together! I think the pattern of the fabric is lovely - it’s a blue, brown, and cream plaid with the occasional blue chevron stripe. I think it will pair well with some of the aprons and shawls I already have for her, so I’m excited to style her!

I’m expecting a couple more accessories for two other dolls to arrive over the next couple days, so the doll excitement isn’t over yet!

[maelwife]

I’m sorry it’ll never not be funny when American Girl collectors complain about the price

[desertdollranch]

Josefina and Tía Dolores are wearing their new skirts that I made for them, using historical reproduction print fabrics by @in-pleasant-company​‘s Spoonflower Shop. Josefina’s yellow skirt is based on the one seen in this picture:

I fell in love with this beautiful floral print when I first saw it. I love how well it integrates into the rest of her wardrobe. And it matches the embroidered camisa from her Festival Outfit

Tía Dolores’s skirt is based on not only a similar depiction of a real skirt, but it also makes in appearance in Josefina’s book illustrations!

(I realized too late that the flower print on my doll’s skirt is upside down. Oops.)

Please do check out her Spoonflower shop, because these are only two of 47 different historically accurate fabrics! 

I also recently found a piece of Josefina’s retired collection at a thrift store.

It’s her adobe horno (oven)! It was hiding in the housewares section, on a shelf with a bunch of old picture frames. 

I made a reproduction of this a few years ago for Josefina, but in most cases I do prefer having the real thing, and I like this more than my version. It didn’t come with any of its accessories, but I’ve already crafted my own. 

You can see the hot coals inside when Josefina puts bread into the oven.

Here are some of the other things I’ve made or bought for Josefina’s cocina collection. I’ve got a copper skillet, an iron olla (the black pot), a basket of red chiles, a mano y metate, a clay bowl, a gourd dipper, and a clay tray of tamales that I made with real cornhusks. 

[alliluyevas]

☕️ american girl historicals hehe

trying to format an opinion that i haven't already shared on here. okay I'm going to talk a little bit about Claudie who I think is the most intriguing of the recently released historicals to me.

First off: I think Claudie's doll is adorable, I love her curls and I think her new face mold looks very sweet and friendly. I know the new dolls with painted-on eyelashes are controversial and I have mixed feelings overall but I think it looks cute on Claudie. I also think her meet outfit is cute, especially the dress, and it's not as Aggressively Modern as some of the Beforever and current meet outfits on the other girls.

I'm also a big fan of Claudie's PJ set (love the bunny slippers) and her jazz dress. I think they're very cute and fun and while I'm not an expert on 1920s fashion or the Harlem Renaissance they don't feel like...glaringly obviously not period like, for instance, all of Sam's Beforever collection. At this point, I am quite pleased with Claudie's outfits.

(Although, one thing I'd like to point out that is sort of a semi-critique. These feel quite flattering and glamorous to me, not quite enough to stretch credulity for a nine-year-old character, and the meet dress is def simpler, and since Claudie is interested in performing it makes sense for her to be drawn towards glitzy stuff, but I would like to see her have maybe like a simpler and more childish set available, like a play dress or something.)

My final critique is reserved for the Harlem's Fashion Row outfits. Positives: these are very beautiful and I like that AG did a collab with modern African-American high fashion designers. That being said, as a historical doll purist, these are DEFINITELY not what a nine year old girl in 1922 Harlem would have been wearing. Claudie is a fourth grader, not a showgirl, and while these are beautiful I do wish that there were more options for dressed-down or believably everyday choices.

I also wish Claudie had more lower price point accessories, she has the bakery set but it's huge and more than 200 dollars. I wish they started making the lunchboxes that used to go with the girls' school sets again, I love miniature food but again the bakery set is so wildly expensive.

I also would have to examine the clothing more closely in person to determine construction quality, which I feel like has been more of an issue in more recent AG collections, and I'm not a huge fan of switching to largely synthetic fabrics, so I think I'd like to take a look at these sets in person. However, aside from my previously mentioned complaint that Claudie's collection is very glam and not as historical/everyday, I overall really like her/her collection. If I was to purchase one of the historical dolls they currently produce, it would probably be her (though I also quite like Rebecca).

I also think they undermarketed Claudie--they didn't even release an AG catalogue with her on the cover, which I think is pretty standard for new released historicals, and I worry about her getting overshadowed by the 90s twin dolls. I hope they keep marketing her and release some more accessories and more everyday clothing!

[cassiopeialake]

falling back into ag obsession...help...

[haveamagicalday]

Duel of the American Girl Dolls: Best of the Historical Outfits (Final Round)

This is a poll in the Duel of the American Girl Dolls. Other polls can be found here

[enyoalkis]

I gave into the temptation. Josefina is so beautiful!

Originally had said I didn’t have space for another doll but I was so tempted to get a brand-new, re-released Josefina from the AG store. Decided to get a 1998 Pleasant Company version instead after I found a way to give her space in my doll section!

Her wig is so long and thick. Makes me miss having my long hair (that I’m still growing back!)