Would you like a doll and the patterns to sew for her? Vintage My Twinn Denver and more!

I'm cleaning out my guest room where I store my dolls. I just need a little more room for my grandson's visit soon so I've listed three beautiful dolls (2 My Twinn dolls and 1 BFC Ink large doll Kaitlin--all separate auctions) and the sewing patterns with tutorials that I have made especially for them. One is an early My Twinn, Denver era.  Here are the listings if you're interested. The auctions are on Ebay.com and end Sunday.

Vintage My Twinn ( Kelsey? ) comes with 3 patterns

Modern My Twinn like new 2005  comes with 3 patterns

BFC Ink Large doll Kaitlin (2009) comes with 9 patterns

Check my Feedback. Click the Feedback tab at the top of the page. Be sure to see the feedback from my Etsy shop there too.
Addendum: November 14, 2013. All these dolls in this post were sold. Check back. I will have others.

Make a Doll Swim Suit from Socks; Easy tutorial

BeachBabyDoll's Sock Swim Suit Edition

 Need a quick swim suit for your dolls? Grab some children's socks and make your own! Requires only imagination and a few stitches:

BFC Ink 18 in dolls

Vintage Tiffany Taylor 18 in doll

A Quick tutorial:

1. Choose your socks carefully.  For these slim body 18 inch dolls, I found cute socks at my dollar store. I chose children's size 6 - 8.You may need a larger or smaller size sock depending on the size of your doll. Take the doll to the store with you to help size it out.  I used the sport sock type. They were 3 pairs for $1, really easy on my wallet. The packs contained co-ordinating designs so easy to mix and match. See Tiffany above. Tools needed are only: scissors, needle and thread.

sports style socks

2.  Next I looked at my doll and decided where here bulges were and where the bulges in the socks were (the heels!). Take a look at Tiffany. She has large breasts and hips so I could use a heel portion over the breast area and the hips. However, I chose to use the heel portion over the hips of all three dolls so that I could use the band as a waist band. For the girls I cut a cute area for the tube top  There are several ways you can cut the socks to make a cute suit.  For Tiffany I could have made a one piece tube tank style suit because she is slightly smaller. For the boy doll I was careful to choose some masculine looking stripes to make him a sort of Speedo suit. Below is how I cut a bottom and top out of two socks.

You just sort of "eye ball" the sock, holding it up next to your doll to see how long to cut the piece. Consider the design on the sock when you cut. Make the piece too long at first. You can always cut more off. 

3.  Try on your doll. I tried the pants portion on inside out so I could see where to sew up the crotch. The second picture below looks a little gross, sorry dolly, but I just show you that I pinched the suit together at the crotch. I actually sewed the crotch while the suit was still on my dolls. Pinching the right sides of the bottom of the suit together, I used sort of an overcast or whip stitch to secure the crotch.  I chose not to finish the edges of the pants legs because they are knit and weren't unraveling. If you desire to make it finished, you can just make a small hem with a running stitch. See my free hand sewing handout:   For the pink suit's top, I turned under the edges and stitched with a running stitch.

4. Optional: To help hold the top in place: you can tack a piece of  skinny ribbon at the center front of the tube top. Tie behind her neck. You could also make little straps out of ribbon and attach to the back. I was on vacation and had no ribbon so for my BFC Ink doll I just used some thread.

This is a great little project to do on vacation with your children and grandchildren. If you try it out, I would love to see what you made. If you would like to send me a photo, you can find my contact info on my main web site at BeachBabyDoll.com

 I hope you and your dolls are ready for a great summer. Just a word of caution: My dolls love to pose in the sun but never swim as they could get mold inside. They do not like to stay outside too long either 'cause their hair could turn pinkish!

Small Business Saturday: Last minute, easy doll clothes patterns

Shop with us on Small Business Saturday. Visit BeachBabyDoll.com for easy doll clothes patterns that you can make even if you hardly sew.
Patterns to fit Best Friends Club Ink large Dolls, American Girl and similar style 18 inch dolls, 13-14 inch dolls like Hearts for Hearts Girls, Groovy Girls, and Les Cheries and My Twinn 23 inch dolls. All Value Priced.
 Surprise that little (or big) girl in your life with your own creations for pennies! Do the world a favor even and re-cycle your old clothes into stylish doll clothes with BeachBabyDoll's easy patterns and tutorials. Bond with a girl and help her to learn to sew. The e-book tutorial sewing guides will help you  and her each step of the way. All the patterns  come with complete guides are currently under $3.00 at BeachBabyDoll.com and $3.49 at the etsy store:beachbabydoll.etsy.com. Most can be made by hand as well as machine and/or serger. BeachBabyDoll.com is a very small business that delights in helping children with the pattern proceeds.  See "About me".

Alligator Lies, an adventure story for children, free e-book

A free copy of Alligator Lies , my new children's e-book is now available for you to read on-line and/or download. Just click on the link. My husband Fred did most of the wild-life and landscape photography, a real treat for viewers. I think it's a very exciting story which both boys and girls will like and has an encouraging Christian theme. I used my BFC Ink Large dolls to represent the main characters: Rachel and Ryan who are brother and sister. It was filmed on location in several different wild areas of Florida. The human heroes in the story are represented by these two mystery guys, Christian fishermen, who just happened to allow me to take their picture on the pier at Sebastian inlet. "Anything for Jesus!" they said. See how the Lord helped me use them in the story!

Enjoy!  I would love to hear what you think.  Sylvia

BFC Ink Dolls Discontinued!

My Yuko, Kaitlin and Aleisha in tears at the news!

What? We're Discontinued!
 Sorry, my sweet dollies, but it's true.  I just received a confirmation from MGA Entertainment.  The BFC Ink line has been discontinued! I had a good suspicion when I could not get onto their website and the BFC Ink logo had disappeared from the MGA Entertainment site. What a bummer! The BFC Ink dolls are no longer being made. I can't believe it! However, there still seem to be a bunch for sale here and there. I had just purchased two. Well, girls, hold on to your BFC Ink dolls because they are collectors items now! And, I for one, will still sew for them! And I never made my video yet!

Korean Hanbok jeogori (Jacket) and skirt (chima)

Spotlight on Korea!

My doll Diette (BFC: Yuko) dressed Hanbok style

For many years I have admired the Korean women's traditional dress style called Hanbok. I have such a sweet new Korean friend who showed me her beautiful outfit: her Jeogori (top jacket) and chima (empire style skirt). She also had under slip similar to the outer chima.  The real hanbok clothing is so beautiful. As I learned more about it through exploring the web, I learned so much about Korea.

Special Message! Do you know what this Korean writing says? Click on writing below to enlarge.

This is Korean for John 3: 16-17

(You can read how much Jesus loves us in English and many other languages by clicking http://www.beachbabydoll.com/JesusLovesYou.html. Maybe you could even share another language for these verses with us.)

There are many Christians in South Korea. South Koreans send many missionaries around the world. Even as their bright Hanbok traditional clothing is so beautiful, they express the beauty of Christ. They have such a desire to unite with their relatives in North Korea and to be able to really share with them their freedom in Christ.

 Currently, North Korea is a dark place. Please pray for their freedom and especially their freedom in Christ! I believe the Lord led me to read a book recently entitled: Escape from Camp 14  by Blaine Harden. It is not for young readers. This is a true story of a man born in a political prison camp in North Korea. (Whole families are sent to prison if someone says or does something against their dictator so it's not uncommon for children to be raised in the prison camps.). His name is Shin Donghyuk. Through only the Grace of God he made it to freedom in the West.You may want to read this book, but if you are a minor, talk to your parents first. Maybe they would like to read it with you. It really impressed upon me that the condition in the camps in North Korea for 150,000- 200,000 political prisoners including children is very similar to the Jewish holocaust in Europe during Hitler's dictatorship. Indeed worse, because many of the children there have never known any hope or love, and it has lasted 12 times longer! Unknown thousands have died from cruelty or starvation.
In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence-he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival. (review from Amazon.com)

These sweet ornmental socks were a gift from my friend.

As I was sewing the hanbok dress for my doll, I had an opportunity to pray for North Koreans. In upcoming blogs, I am plan to share more about making these lovely Korean dresses. It is my hope that you will like to join me in prayer for North and South Koreans to be united in Christ as well as nationally as we learn more about these  beautiful, courageous people. Thanks, Sylvia

Target has a BFC Ink large doll sale.

Hi, BFC Ink Doll fans, Target.com has a great sale on Britt, one of the "pen pals" for $13.98 plus shipping.  That's about as low as I've seen them.  She is fully poseable eventhough you can't tell by this picture, according to the review I read. I'm not sure how long the sale is, might end today. No, I do not have stock in Target or MGA Entertainment who makes these dolls. I really like them so much due to poeseability. Carmen and some others were on sale but for $19.99.

I've almost finished my Korean Hanbok dress and jacket that I made for my Yuko doll.  Stay tuned!

To all Moms: Happy Mother's Day!!

Moms, everywhere, my little Aleisha doll (new gift to me from hub for Mother's Day) is bringing us all a basket of posies. She's so cute. I've used her to launch a new value pattern for BFC Ink large dolls: a simple pants pattern. It's good for scrub pants, athletic pants, jammie pants, scouting pants, costume pants, karate pants, and you-name-it pants. Make a bunch. Easy sew.The great photo guide takes you every step of the way. Can even do it by hand. One pattern piece, no side seams to keep straight!  The pattern's only $1.79 
Click here for pattern.

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Best Friends Club Ink Nurse Scrubs for Nurses Week! Happy Week, Nurses!

Happy Nurse's week starting May 6 to any of my followers who are nurses or will be or have been! I made a scrubs uniform to fit the Best Friends Club Ink Large doll. It's for sale and I hope to get the pattern out soon.  You can find the sale at http://www.beachbabydoll.com/BFC_INK_Clothes.html.  I wrote a little e-book to go along with the theme of thinking about being a nurse and discussing it with God. You can read it for free on my web site at http://www.beachbabydoll.com/E-book.html. The stethescope is made of pink pipe cleaners and a big button with a shank on one side. I curled it around the doll's built-in earrings and it stayed on her ears fairly well. Hee!

Cool at the Pool in a new swimsuit!

Hey, Cyberworld, are you hot out there?  Even my dolls are roasting. Kaitlin, one of my Best Friends Club dolls, was just ecstatic when I made her a new swimsuit. The pattern was FREE (from www.libertyjanepatterns.com). What was fun about it was using a new material: fold over elastic. So great for projects with elasticized arm holes, etc. I got some of it very reasonably at a great etsy shop (The Trimming). I did have to adapt this pattern  with skinny back velcro as the suit was just too tight for little hands to get it on a BFC doll. I also straightened out the chest piece a bit.  I don't believe these adaptations would be necessary for the American Girl size. Now I better get back to sewing. No way, I'm jumping in the pool! Let's go swimmin all ye women!