Why Kindred Thread? Or: A Long Time Ago, In An Internet Far Far Away...

I first got to know Meg (a.k.a. Norasroom) the way a lot of people on American Girl Playthings did: through her Project Christmas 2010 thread. Meg was making two or more Thirties style dresses a month for her daughter Nora's Christmas present all year and she shared photos with all of us. (If you aren't a Plaything member you can also see Meg's sweet photos here.) And like anyone with reasonably good eyesight I was absolutely blown away by the cuteness. We started discussing doll sewing and patterns and the superiority of vintage rick-rack, and a little bit later on the subject of literature came up - it turns out Meg and I have the same favorite book, which is a blog post for another day, because there is definitely A Story there.

So anyway, Meg and I totally bonded over doll clothes and books and in December, two days before my birthday, we actually got to meet. Meg lives in North Carolina and I am a transplanted Hoosier, but she and her wee Nora were visiting relatives in Indiana so we got to spend the day together. My then-seven-year old, Betsy, snapped this photo of us:

Don't we look like we're having fun? We totally did. And we went fabric shopping, even.

In the meantime, I had set up an Etsy shop in early 2010 to sell handmade doll clothes for American Girls, mainly as a way of funding (and justifying) my fabric habit. Meg has been a longtime seller of custom children's clothing under the label 'Nora's Room' and she started adding dolly things to her shop as well - it's really hard to stop sewing wee dresses once you've started. Then in January Meg had the BEST IDEA EVER (I know that typing in all caps = shouting. That was intentional) which is to say, Why deal with Etsy at all? Why don't we sell our handmade dolly creations from our very own website? Needless to say I was all over this one and we put our heads together (metaphorically, since she's still in NC and I'm still in Indiana) and started brainstorming ideas.

I think the name itself was actually the trickiest part: it took us something like a week and a half. I don't remember which one of us came up with 'Kindred Thread' but we both knew we had a winner right away. Not only do we both sew (thread), but we're both obsessed with doll clothes (threads), and we met via an internet message board thread. Ooh, you see what I did there? We are also both big time fans of LMM's 'Anne of Green Gables' and I think we are very much kindred spirits, much like Anne and Diana.

So, why are we doing this? Meg and I both share the goal of creating beautiful, well-constructed, historically accurate clothes and underthings for American Girl dolls. We are excited to have a venue with greater creative control than either Etsy or eBay can provide (and Meg's husband, the man in the monkey hat, is totally doing our website design for us) and we are super excited to bring to life some ideas that have only been fantasy for so long. Also (please refer to the photo above) most importantly, we are here to have FUN. We hope you will have fun along with us!