Happy supply chain crisis Christmas — the holiday that never ends!

(Read to the end of this newsletter for a sneak peek of our COMING VERY SOON Pattern 1055: Skating Dresses for 14 1/2" Dolls...)

Pearl woke up yesterday to the exciting news from a local Facebook group that the neighborhood Michaels craft store had just received their big Christmas shipment, which of course was going straight to clearance at 75% off.

Oof.

After our Cyber Week release of the 16 inch A Girl for All Time™ version of our Pattern 3001: A Medieval Lady's Wardrobe, we had a lot of requests for the source of the adorable doll-scale kitties peeking out from our girl's swirling silken skirts.

Those kitties are of course Christmas ornaments, which we got at Michaels or JoAnn or Hobby Lobby or Daiso in years past.

We can never resist these adorable little animals and have several boxes of similar cats, dogs, birds and itty-bitty woodland creature ornaments that we love to use in our doll model shoots.

So Pearl grabbed her keys and dashed out the door to see what she might find on the newly stocked "Christmas" shelves at Michaels.

Here's the thing, though — supply chain weirdness means that things show up in stores at strange times, but it doesn't mean that everything shows up together.

Your mileage may vary, but our Michaels was fully stocked with Christmas florals, wreaths, garlands, decor and craft items, metallic foil wrapping paper, bags of gift bows, and endless shelves of fabric ribbon — but had none of the other usual holiday items, like those little animal ornaments.

But even without ornaments, the Christmas aisles offer lots of fun, crafty objects for doll lovers.

These buffalo plaid flannel and faux fur ribbons quickly caught Pearl's eye. The buffalo plaid ribbon in particular looked ready-made for 18 inch doll scarves!

All Pearl had to do was cut a 28" strip of ribbon, pull out and discard the wire edges, turn the short ends under 1/2", whip stitch them in place, and voila —

Our custom boy doll Jack was ready for the cold snap yesterday, wearing his new flannel scarf with a Pattern 1008: Classic Ball Cap made of red cotton, a Pattern 1010: Army Uniform Jacket made of upcycled windbreaker nylon and Pattern 1004: "Boy Style" Pants made of upcycled twill.

Next, Pearl cut a strip of the faux fur ribbon to make a more glamorous winter scarf for our #55, Hazel.

The faux fur ribbon was stiffer than the buffalo plaid flannel, but it was a pleasure to use fur material with pre-finished edges. Our doll got this pretty accessory — set off with an antique pin from Pearl's jewel box — and we didn't have to clean up any fluffy mess on the work table after we were done!

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We promised a pattern sneak peek, and here it is:

Do you love skating? Are you as excited as we are about Corinne and Gwynn Tan — the first sister dolls from American Girl?

Check out this COMING VERY SOON 14 1/2" WellieWishers™ and similar dolls version of our Pattern 1055: Skating Dresses for 18" Dolls —

How cute is that?

Pearl is hard at work on this pattern adaptation, which will join the 18 inch version in our Etsy shop very soon. Stay tuned!

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See you next time!