We all have different preferences. I fell in love with Blythe primarily because of all those fantasy coloured hairs (red, yellow, blue, green) and yet the only fantasy haired dolls that I have are Simply Peppermint and Cappuccino Chat. So it turns out that my preferences actually go towards the not-so-fantastical (or maybe this just means that I need to expand my doll collection…?). This week question is all about hair:

What were your doll hair preferences like prior to you starting to collect Blythe? And what colour(s) dominate your Blythe collection now?

And for those that also happen to have customized Blythes…

Do you have a preference for mohair over alpaca? Or how about saran over nylon?

Thank you so much to Nikki for sponsoring a great giveaway here on BlytheLife.com and many thank you’s to everyone who entered into the giveaway as well! It always makes me happy with multi-entry giveaways go well! You all gave some wonderful feedback and a lot of you liked some of the clothes in the Luxie Lou shop that I liked as well!

And the winner of this super-cute Luxie Lou dress set is…

Click to read more of this entry.

It’s almost Mother’s Day here in Canada and the USA (I know it may fall on different days for other countries, but many do celebrate it on the second Sunday of May) and there is a lot that many of us can be thankful for towards our mothers.

My mom, while she thinks I lack sense over money when it comes to expensive dolls, does enjoy Blythe (aside from the eye changing business), but she’s not a part of the hobby as she does find it strange for her adult daughter to play with dolls. But I love her anyways. She gifted to me Simply Peppermint, who was my third Blythe doll and was later named Tertiary Jane. There’s a lot to be said from that – she doesn’t really “approve” of money being spent on the dolls (or their clothes…) but has no problems with buying a doll for me while she’s on vacation. Quite a woman, my mom is.

How does your mother (or grandmother or whoever was the maternal figure in your life!) like Blythe? Do you share the hobby with her? Does she support your Blythe obsession hobby?

There is a lot to be said for bought doll clothing. It’s generally fast, you don’t need to know how to sew or buy your own supplies. Let’s face it: the cost of various colours of thread, different types of fabric and then some kind of fabric to line it so that the darker colours won’t stain your doll? It takes money to make those clothes, but also energy and time. I’ve talked a lot in the past about where to find fabrics or small prints, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, unless we’re all ready to dabble in pattern design – we need to know where to go to find size-appropriate designs for our Blythes.

One great website is PuchiCollective.com, a lot of people recommend this site for newbies because it has a lot of sewing patterns (many adapted from old Skipper patterns) along with some great tutorials on changing eye-chips, how to do the lock-loop method for rerooting dolly hair and tutorials on how to take scalps off of the doll’s head.

Some other great sites to check out are:

• Orriettacat’s sewing patterns
• xoxo, Blythe
• Simplicity #2353 (not free, but a good resource if you can find it on sale!)

For non-sewing patterns, but these patterns will still aid you in expanding your doll’s wardrobe, check out:

• knitty.com – knitting patterns
• Shershegirl – knitting pattern (plain onesie)
• Shershegirl – knitting pattern (poofy pantie onesie)
• Stitch Journal – knitting patterns (links on side menu)

Dress made with the Blythe Empire Dress pattern from puchicollective.com

When in doubt, you can always do a quick search on Google for “free Blythe patterns” or “free Skipper patterns” (or another similarly sized doll). There’s a lot of resources that are available online, you can also find sewing tutorials (for machine and hand sewing). There are a lot of Japanese books available (although not inexpensive at all factoring in cost of the item and shipping!) like Dolly Dolly or similar books (these generally have patterns for Blythe as well as other dolls that are popular in Japan).

Please remember to read the terms and conditions outlined on each individual pattern. Many of them are free for personal use only (not for commercial use) and be sure to respect the wishes of the designers.

A lot of people like custom Blythes. A lot of people are tired by the very similar releases that have come from the people who create our beloved Blythes. So this week’s question is…

If someone from Takara approached you and asked you to design a Blythe and whatever you came up with would be made into a regular release Blythe, what would your design look like? What would her name be? Hair colour? Chips? Clothes?

Mine would be a dark, dark, dark purple haired girl with grey, light blue, brown and clear chips. I think her overall theme would be punk-rock (at least, more punk-rock than Punkaholic People ever was) with torn jeans, black band shirt, piercings, maybe even a factory-done nose piercing… Would be interesting. I’m not sure what her name would be though, but at least she wouldn’t be half-blonde half-brunette (nothing wrong with dolls having dirty-blonde hair, it’s just that it seems that there is a large proportion of blonde-brunette dolls coming out lately).