For some of my dolls, they came out of the box that they arrived in and poof, they had a personality. Some of them took a little bit longer than others, but for the most part they eventually came into their personalities and let me know who they were.

Case in point, my first Blythe was a Cappuccino Chat. I named her Sophie, I wasn’t really expecting to get a Cappuccino Chat as my first Blythe. I’d read horror stories about her hair being super thin and thinly rooted. And yet, I walked into a store one day and came out after spending an absurd amount of money on a doll. I spent the entire car right home trying to think of the right now. I wasn’t going for something original, I wasn’t thinking “Oh, what if someone else has a Blythe with the same name?” because that wasn’t part of my ‘moment’ that I was having. I had a Blythe doll. A pretty, silver-haired doll with special dark purple-red chips that needed a name. And somehow, Sophie just somehow fit.

Her personality didn’t come out for a little bit. She was docile, she let me keep her in her stock outfit for a few weeks while I struggled with the idea that I had just spent so much money on a doll. And once I was over that, she came out as a fashionista who wanted to know why I just kept her in the same outfit day in and day out. At first, due to lack of funds (and lack of fabric), she got to wear what I had available. Which wasn’t a whole lot, but I crocheted her a hat and knitted and sweater that came out too big. This was fine for a while, but it slowly become evident that I just needed more.

I honestly thought that silver hair would look good with a lot of colours. And it did (and still does), but due to the length and just by how I perceived her personality, it was obvious that nothing I had made so far was going to cut it.

There were a few things that I thought were going to keep true when I got my first Blythe:

• I would only have/want/need one Blythe
• I would  sew all of her clothes
• I would only need to buy shoes

But it didn’t take me particularly long to realize that this wasn’t the case…