Out of the Blue

Meredith's Blue Our Generation Dress

Busy, busy.  Our Generation has a few Deluxe Outfits that were released in April.  The Deluxe line usually has a few more accessories and is often times a little fancier.  Such is the case with the outfit that is getting reviewed today; “Out of the Blue”.  The outfit comes with a tricolored blue cotton dress, a small coral colored cardigan, cloth shoes, a beaded bracelet, a blue purse with a blue striped bow, and a matching striped hair bow.

The dress is a heavy cotton fabric with a white lining underneath it.  It has clovers in two different shades patterned all over the dress.  There is a white “school girl” collar around the neckline.  It doesn’t stay flat around the whole neck…it might need a little ironing.  The sleeves are short, just covering the shoulders. Meredith swims in this outfit.  It fits, but is big around the chest and waist.  The dress makes her look much bigger than she is.  Since it is made for American Girl sized dolls it makes sense that it would be bigger on Meredith.  Because of the design of the dress it kind of flairs out around the waist, which also makes it look bigger than it is.

The little cardigan is a pretty coral color.  It has short sleeves, above the elbow.  The cardigan is small enough that it can not close in the front.  It goes just to above Meredith’s waist.  It is a cute cardigan, but there is really no need for it with this dress.  Still it is nice to have it included with this outfit.

The shoes are a shimmery coral color that kind of matches the cardigan.  These shoes are better than a lot of the other Our Generation shoes.  They are thinner, which makes them fit better, and are made out of a material more like a real shoe.  There is a strap across the top that Velcro’s on the other side.  It would be wonderful if they had a solid sole, made out of plastic, rubber, or something like that.

All of the accessories that come with this outfit are nice.  The purse is cute, with little ruffles along the front, and a blue and white striped bow.  The inside of the purse has the same striped fabric around the top.  It’s a wrist purse, rather than one that can go on the shoulder.  The hair bow, which matches the bow on the purse, is on a bobby pin.  The bracelet is made with three colored round beads; blue, white, and orange.  The clasp is a metal circle that you push a T-bar through to keep it together.  It is a little bit of a challenge to get this to work.

Rating

All ratings are out of 10

Value 9 – This is a high quality dress.  The fabric is very nice and well made.  The only thing that isn’t awesome about this outfit is the shoes.  Even the cardigan has a lining like the dress. 

Fitment 9 – The dress is big on Meredith, but it looks bigger because of the way that it is designed.  The sweater fits well as do the shoes.

Versatility 7 – Because the outfit is a dress, there is a limit to its versatility.  The sweater and shoes can go with many other outfits.  The purse can go with most any outfit.  And the bracelet is a great accessory for any outfit.

Cuteness 9 – A beautiful dress.  With or without the sweater this is a beautiful outfit.  With the accessories it make a very cute outfit.  It looks amazing on a blue-eyed doll like Meredith.


Overall 9 – A wonderful outfit from Our Generation!  The craftsmanship is on par with The Queen’s Treasures or even American Girl.  The shoes are the weak link in the outfit, but you can always steal shoes from another outfit.  Deluxe outfits like this one run about $17.99.  This outfit is a great deal at that cost, when it goes on sale it’s even a better deal.

Sweet Summer

Kyla is Ready for Summer in her New Our Generation Outfit

The last of the recently released outfits from Our Generation is called “Sweet Summer”.  It is a wonderful summer outfit with some of the best sandals in a set at this price.   The outfit comes with some pink Capris with blue flowers printed on them, a white lace top with a ruffled bottom, blue sunglasses, a pink beaded bracelet, and pink plastic sandals with a bow on the heel.

Our Generation did a great job of pairing a very plain (but pretty) top with some wild print Capris.  The pants are a nice think material with printed blue and white roses on them.  They have an elastic waist which makes it so they fit Kyla perfectly. 

The top has two layers so that the laces holes don’t go all the way through.  This is a bigger, simpler lace pattern with the holes making a simple circle pattern.  There are two thinner ruffles that run down the middle of the top.  The bottom of the top flairs out and is ruffled also.  The top goes below Kyla’s waist, so it’s almost like a dress.

Glasses are hit or miss with Our Generation.  Some of them fit fine, some of them are huge, and some of them are small.  These seem to be a little small on Kyla’s face.  Just by a small fraction.  They still look okay.  The bracelet is nice; nothing fancy, but it’s nice.  It stretches to fit on Kyla's wrist.  It's made of pink plastic beads in a scattered pattern, rather than straight rows.  It could be used in her hair also.

These sandals are very different than other Our Generation sandals.  Sure they are plastic…but they have two different colors!  The upper part of the shoe is pink plastic, while the sole of the shoe is tan.  The design is also unique.  It looks like a flat dress shoe at first, but the back is open with a strap across the heal, and a bow in the middle of the strap.  A very cute shoe…especially with a non deluxe outfit.

Rating
All ratings are out of 10

Value 8– The pants are made really well.  The top is made well; there are a few loose ends on the stitching, but nothing horrible.  The new sandals are awesome.  And it’s nice that the outfit comes with a couple accessories.

Fitment 9– The outfit itself fits wonderfully.  The shoes, like all Our Generation shoes, are big.  And as mentioned before, the glasses are a little small.  Overall a great outfit though.

Versatility 8– The accessories go with everything.  The top is very versatile and with a nice sweater could be used in the spring and fall.  The pants are definitely for summer, but there are a decent amount of other tops that could go with these pants.

Cuteness 9 – Another nice casual summer outfit.  It is nice to see Our Generation making a variety of dresses and non dresses for the dolls.  This is a very cute active outfit.  Kyla looks gorgeous in it!


Overall 9 – Another 9!  Close to perfect, just not quite.  This is a wonderful outfit for the price.  It has good versatility, will look cute on all of the Journey Girls, fits well, and adds some nice accessories to your collection.  Pick it up when you see it at Target!

Jumping for Joy

Callie Models a New Our Generation Outfit

Another outfit that was released by Our Generation recently is called “Jumping for Joy”.  It comes with a flowered jumper with a square, laced neckline, a red loose knit sweater, a brown striped scarf, and plastic red flats.  The outfit retails for about $14.99, but keep your eyes out and you can get it for less.

The jumper is very cute.  The bottom shorts part fits really well.  It has some elastic at the waist that helps keep it from being loose on the Callie.  The top part is a different story.  Where the lace is in front it is loose.  It kind of puffs out in front.  The shoulder straps are also a little too wide, but not bad.  The lace accent on the neckline is really nice.

The red sweater helps hide the looseness of the jumper.  It fits well and makes sense with this sort of outfit.  It’s nice that it is a lighter looking sweater.  Some of the Our Generation items transfer color if the get damp.  With that in mind, soaking the sweater is a good idea before a special doll wears it.

The scarf is simple, but makes the outfit.  It has two pieces of Velcro in the back.  This way the scarf can be folded over to give it more volume and texture.  The Velcro makes it easy to get on without messing up your dolls hairstyle.  The outfit looks complete with the scarf on.

The shoes are shoes.  They are the wide, flat, plastic shoes that come with a lot of the Our Generation outfits.  They are functional, but are not super cute.  Plus they are really wide, so they fall off easily.  If you are taking your doll out any where these are not the shoes to have on her, as they will probably fall off and get lost.

Rating
All ratings are out of 10


Value 8– A nice outfit for a good price.  It could come with better shoes.  The top could fit better, but since this is designed for a larger torso doll it’s expectable.

Fitment 8– The top of the jumper is big, but not horrible.  Just loose.  The shoes are big, which should be expected.  Both Our Generation dolls and American Girl dolls have wider feet.  Since this outfit is made for them it makes sense that the shoes are wide on Callie.  The rest of the outfit fits great.

Versatility 9– This is another great everyday outfit.  It’s very cute and could be for play or for hanging out.  The scarf can go with anything as well as the sweater.  The shoes can also go with a lot of other outfits (but really should not).

Cuteness 9 – Very cute!  A great outfit for spring or fall.  Take off the sweater and scarf and it is a summer outfit.  The jumper looks really cute on Callie because of her vinyl breastplate.

Overall 9 – Great outfit for so many things.  It’s nice that it is not pink or purple.  The red is nice.  The neutral scarf is a great accessory for other outfits.  The big complaint is the plastic shoes.  It’s to be expected at this price point though.  If this was a deluxe outfit it could be expected that there would be better shoes.  Get this outfit…especially if it goes on sale.

Kelsey "Play's it Cool"

Journey Girl Kelsey in an Our Generation Outfit

“Play it Cool” is the name of a new casual outfit from Our Generation.  It retails for $14.99 at Target and fits most 18” dolls.  The outfit comes with a pair of striped shorts, a light fabric, sleeveless blouse, a green spring/fall jacket, a coral headband bow, and pinkish/coral plastic shoes.

The shorts are made of a stiff cotton material.  They are thigh length shorts with thin blue stripes  that are reminiscent of baseball pants.   The shorts are have an elastic waist band that fits great on Kelsey

With a flowered print, the light airy blouse is a perfect spring top.  It is semi transparent (which for a doll doesn’t really matter, but if your doll is modest you could add a tank top underneath), but really can’t be seen through because of the print.

Wow! Is this jacket green!  It is a thick, beautiful Kelly green, textured material.  It has darker green ribbed knit cuffs.  I real zipper goes up the front to keep Kelsey nice and warm when needed.  The jacket sits back on Kelsey’s shoulders and can’t be pulled forward because of how it is sewn.  It is also short (right above the belly button) probably to show off the blouse.  The zipper can be a bit stubborn to get started, but zips up wonderfully once it is started.

The headband has Velcro on the bottom so it can tighten around the dolls head.  The bow is a simple flat bow. Cute and functional.

Shoes are one of the downfalls of most of the “regular” Our Generation outfits.  That is the case with this outfit.  These shoes are so plain and boring.  They are slip on with a strap across the top.  They are huge on Kelsey, mostly because they are made for a doll with much wider feet.  Even on the Our Generation dolls these shoes are big though.  So you may want to switch the shoes out with some other cute ones you have in your collection.

Rating

All ratings are out of 10

Value 8– Good quality on everything included with the outfit.  The zipper can be hard to get to get started, but I don’t know that it is because of poor quality.  There are some loose ends inside the shorts, but nothing that wasn’t easily snipped with a scissors.  Only the shoes are a disappointment.

Fitment 8– The shorts are big on Kelsey, but can easily be fixed with some stick on Velcro.  The shoes are huge…and not so pretty.  The jacket fits, but seems to far back for some reason.  Maybe that is the way it was designed.

Versatility 9– Everything can be used for other things.  The outfit looks great without the jacket (although that green is so pretty on Kelsey…who would want to keep it off).  The shorts are a great addition to your dolls wardrobe.  The blouse is pretty and can be a spring or summer top.  And the headband and shoes can be used with a lot of outfits to add a splash of color.

Cuteness 9 – What a great casual outfit!!!  Our Generation has done great lately with giving us livable outfits.  Outfits t hat are cute, but are also useful in an everyday setting.  This is a cute outfit.

Overall 9 – Awesome outfit.  It looks great on all of the Journey Girls.  It has no major flaws.  It has good versatility.  At $14.99 this is a great outfit. At $8.99 it is a wonderful outfit (Target puts the Our Generation outfits on sale for 30% off, plus another 10% for using Cartwheel).  Great deal for a very cute outfit!