Crafting Creatively - Things I've Made: Addy's Blue Lace-trimmed Dress and Dorothy's Blue Dotted Dress

Let's show off some crafty stuff!

It's time for more Crafting Creatively, where not only do I give tips on doing stuff right, but examples on how to do it right, in my eyes. Since I tend to not babble too much about my crafting, I'll likely do these in bursts of twos and threes--not including going through my backlog of crafts, and even examples where I mucked it up. (There are quite a few things I have made and later ditched in my crafting life, not gonna lie to you.) I tend to lean towards expanding the historical wardrobe, especially because I have so many created ones. Modern stuff is a lot easier to find to expand a wardrobe.

Today, we will cover two historical outfits I've made recently: Addy's Blue Lace-Trimmed Dress and Dorothy's Blue Dotted Dress. Forgive some of my bad pic taking and Addy's hair being flyaway; I was a touch groggy.

Creating Original Historicals for Fun and Frivolity: Naming Tips

Edith May Anderson and Dorothy Gale McNeil. I researched hard.

So you've picked a time period to put your created historical in. Congrats! One of the hardest steps is done. You've picked the decade you want to set this all in. Now on to another hard step: naming your character. Names make the doll--and the character in this case. The name you pick can either cause you to crash and burn or soar and fly.

The main thing is that authenticity will get you. Every damn time. It is the major way people fuck up making a historical character and it's where I find myself face palming every time. If you want to name your character McKayla Piper Wallace, that's all well and good for your modern girl¹, but they didn't name girls that back in the 19th century, and it's really going to jar your authenticity to do that mess.

Let's stop you from naming historical your girl a name that makes us go "Eugh, that's...nice." and get you to to a name that makes us go "Oooo, that's nice!"