You might have guessed that my other hobby -- besides dollmaking -- is collecting and costuming American Girl dolls. But it's actually a little more than that. My daughter and I are creating a doll household based on Felicity's family -- the Merrimans, who lived in Colonial Williamsburg in 1775. As you can see, we have the traditional Felicity and Elizabeth dolls. Putting together the rest of the family was a bit more challenging. I chose My Twinn dolls to portray Mr. Edward Merriman and Mrs. Martha Merriman, Felicity's parents. Mr. Merriman was a "special friend" being sold as a girl named Kelly on MyTwinn.com. Kelly got a queue, a waistcoat and a pair of breeches. Now she's Mr. Merriman. Mrs. Merriman was an Ebay purchase. She has long reddish hair and beautiful blue eyes. She's one of the prettiest dolls I've ever seen. She came in a t-shirt and skirt with no shoes. Now she's fully outfitted with a shift (made from a vintage piece of linen), petticoat, and two caracos in beautiful colonial-era prints (I made her the second one yesterday).

I searched far and wide for dolls that could pass as Felicity's younger sibs -- Nan, 6, and William, 2. Both are Vanilla-scented Carolle dolls with soft cloth bodies and vinyl heads and limbs. William started life as a girl. Nan looks a lot like the girl who played Nan in The Felicity Movie (did you know she is the real-life daughter of Marcia Gay Harden, who plays Mrs. Merriman in the film?). Of course you did.

Ben, Mr. Merriman's apprentice, also was tricky. I finally settled on Benjamin, a Faithful Friends Doll by Heidi Ott. Ben is blond, but could be rewigged. He got a queue, a new pair of breeches and a signal whistle. He still needs a waistcoat. Ben wears Felicity's black colonial shoes and Felicity wears a pair I bought from another maker on Ebay. The Ebay shoes fit Felicity, but not Ben. Felicity's shoes fit Ben. You do the math.

Since my daughter and I have many more American Girls than just Felicity and Elizabeth, we had to create rolls within the Merriman household for all of them. So, Samantha became Annabelle, Elizabeth's snooty older sister. Addy and Nellie are the kitchen maids. Kirsten and Jordan (my daughter's Look Like Me doll) are the nanny's for Nan, William and Polly (played by herself in the cradle from AG).

Now for the piece d'resistance! My husband is building us a house for the Merriman family in the basement playroom (our basement is primarily hobby space -- it houses my art studio, my husband's wood shop and what was previously a playroom for my daughter). In reality, the playroom was a chaotic heap of forgotten toys! The dollhouse is a much better use of the space.

So far, we've planned and built the house room by room. There are six bedrooms, a parlor and a kitchen. The horses reside nearby in a slightly enhanced AG stable.

I have seen a few American Girl dollhouses (all custom made by avid hobbyists) online. In fact, I was inspired to do my Merriman Family house by the work of the three sisters at Our Dolls and by an exhibit of antique dollhouses (A Child's Eye View) at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum at Colonial Williamsburg (plus my own semi-latent love of dolls and dollhouses). I intend to furnish the house impeccably in the Colonial Williamsburg style (and you wouldn't doubt it if you knew me--although I have to make allowances for what's available)! We're building fireplaces this week!

More later, plus pictures of the dolls and the house in progress to come!