Photo by irulethegalaxy.

With so many Blythes with varying hair colours, part lines and cuts, it’s not difficult to find a doll that looks close to you. Eye chips can be changed to match your own ‘chips’, clothes can be altered and sewn to match your own sense of style. But the hair… Pretty much all natural hair shades are represented with Blythe, and even some unnatural hair shades.

What I would like to know this week is:

Who’s your Blythe mini-me? Do the two of you dress alike (if you own her)?

My mini-me is Love Mission, I haven’t had the courage yet to give her brown chips to match mine. We don’t really dress alike, but that’s because she lacks shyness and I don’t.

Photo by irulethegalaxy.

The first time I ever took a Blythe out for photographs was at school, in the very early morning hours when there was hardly anyone there. I picked mostly secluded areas with decent lighting. I was a big chicken about being out and about with my dolly photography. I felt shy about it because, well, there I was holding a doll in one hand and a camera in the other. While at school. (Let’s not forget that I go to a huge school with more people than I could probably care to count [or even care about].) Maybe I just didn’t feel like being the girl that someone would go home and write a Facebook status about?

Saw a crazy girl at school today. She was holding onto a doll. She looked like she was about 12?

I have gotten better, but not as comfortable as I would like to be. I did take one of my dolls to the aquarium and got some fun shots there (poor lighting indoors, but still – it was fun!). There’s a lot to be said about how much more fun it is when you’re not feeling embarrassed about taking photos of dolls out in the open. When I was at the aquarium with my sister and Kindred, I was far more shy about public dolly photography than my sister was. Of course, she may have been tired of hearing me go “But there’s people around!” all the time.

I still feel a little uncomfortable when taking a doll out for photos. I suppose it’s just one of those things that I need to work on. I do hope that being around a whole bunch of fellow doll fans will help with my shyness of taking photos of dolls in public over the next couple of days though!

Were you shy about taking photos of your dolls at first? When did you get over this shyness (if you have)?

Supplies Needed

• 3mm knitting needles
• Sock/fingering weight yarn (under 10g required [under 42m or 45.9yd])
• Yarn/darning needle
• Snaps
• Sewing needle and thread (matching colour to yarn)
• Ruler
• Decorations (buttons, ribbons, appliques) – optional

Gauge:
3 st per 1 cm

Notes
The yarn used in the dress shown is Regia Jacquard Color 4-ply by Schachenmayr nomotta in colour #5176 (50g per 210m or 230 yards)
Total number of stitches per row mentioned in brackets [#] at end of the row.
Casting off is also known as binding off.

Directions
Cast on 54 (leave a long enough tail at beginning for sewing up the back of the dress; I use the long-tail cast-on)
Knit 3 rows (garter) [54]
Alternate knit and purl rows (stockinette) until total length is 7cm [54]
(On knit side, decrease row): *k1, k2tog* [34]
Knit 6 rows even [34]
Knit 7, cast-off 3, knit 14, cast-off 3, knit 7 [28]
Knit 7, cast-on 4, knit 14, cast-on 4, knit 7 [36]
Knit 2 rows even [36]
Cast-off

Use yarn needle to sew up the back (up to the decrease row).

Sew a snap at the top of the back of the dress, add decorations as desired.

Notes on Pattern Use
This pattern may be used for personal or commercial use provided that full credit is given to BlytheLife.com/Michelle for the pattern (please include a link to the website or pattern page in your sales description). This pattern is not for mass-production manufacturing. You may not sell or claim the pattern as your own. If you have any questions regarding these terms, please email Michelle at michelle@blythelife.com.

BlytheLife is getting a little saucy this week with a question about your doll’s underthings.

Older (but not vintage) releases of Blythes came with matching undies and bra sets, some of them were even very impressive and resembled lingerie (Rouge Noir, I’m looking at you!). Most dolls now come with plain white undies that are simple, let very boring. So this week’s question is…

What do your dolls wear? Do you have them wear stock undies? Or perhaps you buy up the older release undies for them? Or perhaps they go commando?

All of my dolls wear stock undies except for Belarus (Love Mission). Her stock ones were red and were original on her over protective plastic (her entire box outfit was red, red, red) and because I don’t feel like having her semi-permanently stained with a reddish rash, she goes without.

In just a few weeks, BlytheLife.com will be turning one year old! I’m very excited that the site has managed to survive for so long as well as all the lovely visitors that come back to check out the new content on a daily basis. As BlytheLife.com heads into year 2 of existence, I’d like to ask for your help! And here’s a handy-dandy little survey for you to answer for me:

1. What kind of articles have you liked reading in the past? What kind of articles do you want to see in the future?
2. Was the doll blogging series useful to you? Would you like to see more articles on creating your own doll site/blog?
3. What kind of D.I.Y. tutorials do you want to see? (Keep in mind that I have limited mental capacity for sewing intricate things…)
4. Did you like reading my interviews with customizers and crafters in our dolly community? Who would you like to see me ask to do an interview with me next?
5. What methods of giveaway entries did you like? What other methods of entering giveaways would you like to see used on BlytheLife.com?
6. What do you want to see more of in the future, in general, here on BlytheLife.com?