American Girl Blog

Sylvie and I were in the American Girl Store in New York Friday, the 21st, and couldn’t help but notice all of the expensive prices on furniture and accessories. We were watching the hair stylists do the dolls’ hair, and saw that one braid was $20! Below is a chart of a lot of the hair styles you can give your doll, and their prices.

Do you think you could do a ponytail on your own for no money at all? At American Girl, to get a ponytail on your doll is $10!

This is the Doll Storage Cabinet. It costs $325! You could probably buy a trunk that size for only $30, or $40 at any other store. It doesn’t have a lot of space. It has only the space of the Dance Studio Trunk, which costs $75, which is still a lot, but less than this.

This is the dance studio trunk. It comes with three hangers, unlike the storage cabinet. With the storage cabinet, you have to pay $10 to get some hangers! My mom would never let me buy that, unless I use my own money! Do you think these items are worth it?

Photo courtesy of American Girl

As you know from one of Sylvie’s posts, Target also makes a version of American Girl Dolls and furniture. Except, their prices range from $20 to $40. American Girl’s prices range from $60 to $325. Big diffrence, right? In another one of Sylvie’s posts, her mom brought her broken items to the American Girl Store and the person at the counter said they weren’t well made. Why do you think they sell these items for that much money, then? Are they a little too greedy?

This Target version of an ice skater, rather like Mia, is $39.99. But, maybe, it’s a lot cheaper than American Girl because the dolls aren’t as well made. What do you think?

This is Mia, an ice skater just like the doll above. She is sold for $90, as most of you know. Which one looks like it’s better made, and which one looks like it’s more fun to play with?

A little while ago, I got a salon chair from Target for my birthday. It was a lot cheaper than American Girl’s salon chair, and works just the same.

This is the salon chair from Target. It comes with hair supplies, like a blow dryer, spray bottle, curlers, scissors, a brush, and the chair for only $19.99. I think it’s a great deal.

This is the salon chair from American Girl. It costs $49 for just the chair. If you want hair styling tips and tricks, you have to pay an extra $7.95. I know Target has the better deal, but which one do you think is better to do your doll’s hair in?

As you can see, the doll from Target looks a little cheap on the outside, but it’s pretty much the same as American Girl. Target has a much better deal, and you can do the same things with each item.

Last Christmas, I was hoping for Nicki’s Ski Wear and Outfit. My parents told me that day that it was backordered till a day in January. But, in January, American Girl said that it was sold out, and they would not be selling them anymore. I was really disappointed because I knew that I would never be able to get the outfit, unless I bought it on ebay, and my family isn’t a big fan of ebay. In my opinion, American Girl was wrong to do that, and should’ve sold the outfit for a week or two in 2008.

By Julia Jarvis

Photo courtesy of Ebay

Addy Frame Puzzles,   Felicity Frame Puzzles

Julie Frame Puzzles,    Samantha Frame Puzzles

Pictures from Millie’s Doll Closet

Here is a link to the frame puzzles.

American girl has made many new things this year…. another new thing that they now have is called frame puzzles.

Frame puzzles are puzzles that have three pictures of the same American girl and also have a backround to go with the puzzles.

So far American girl has made Addy, Felicity, Julie, and Samantha frame puzzles. Kirsten, Molly, Kit, Josefina, and Kaya frame puzzles are expected in June.

Even though it is only the beginning of the new year, 2008, American girl has already started planning for the girl of the year 2009! They just can’t seem to wait can they? Well anyway the good thing is… we get some very early news! It seems as though the author of the girl of the year 2009 will be Mary Casanova, who also wrote the Jess books (girl of the year 2006) for American girl. If any more information comes out we will be sure to let you know. This information was found at Doll Diaries. Not American girl: I found a website called Free Rice, where you try to define a word and if you get it right 20 grains of rice goes to people who need food, try it sometime.

Making an outfit is more than just sewing. The designers have to make a plan, or a sketch, of what the outfit is going to look like. Sit back, relax, and look at the different sketches for Julie’s outfits.

This looks like it became Julie’s pajamas.

This became Julie’s swimsuit, which you’ll see in Sylvie’s new post.

This was probably another sketch for her swimsuit, but it never became final.

Once again, all this information can apply to any book at all, but in Oprah’s show, they used the book, Good Luck, Ivy! American Girl puts a lot of work into a cover, even though we all know to never judge a book by its cover. First, American Girl hires girls to model out the book cover. They take loads of pictures, so it will be easier for the artist. The next step is when the artist produces a sketch. Finally, the artist makes an oil painting and that becomes the cover of the book. What hard work! Now we know why it takes a long time for a book to come out!

Hired Models

The Sketch of the Cover

Final Cover

Draft of the Story

Once again, these photos were taken by me from the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Making a doll takes a lot of work. You have to decide what clothes they wear, what hairstyle they will have and you have to decide on their life. In this post, you will learn the steps American Girl went through to make the latest doll, Julie. American Girl had many possibilities for Julie’s clothing, since she is from the 70’s. Before making the real clothing, experts draw out basic pieces that a real girl from the 70’s would wear. They sketch out several outfits that are almost the same using the same pattern, and see which one fits the doll the best. For the hairstyles, American girl, once again had many choices. They started out with a simple braid, one on each side, which you’ll see at the bottom of this page. Next, they tried her hair down, with two strands of hair pulled back, which became closer to the hairstyle that we see Julie in today. Finally, American Girl all decided Julie’s hair down with a little braid in the front. This is the hairstyle we all know and love. As you can see, making a doll is not easy, for those of you who thought it was. Keep in mind, American Girl has to make millions of these dolls, not just one. All of this information applies for any doll; every doll has lot of work put into it. 

Which one’s your favorite? In my opinion, I like the one they came out with.
I took all these pictures on my camera from the Oprah Winfrey Show.

 Before I thought that Julie would get more outfits in December, well I was off be two months… Julie has two more outfits and some accessories now and I like them a lot.

What do you think?

This is her 2-in-1 outfit that has a roller skating outfit and an outfit for the beach.

Here we have Julie’s birthday dress (it is my favorite.)

These are Julie’s birthday accessories.

Photos are from the American girl website.