I find pull charms really cute on dolls, especially when there’s a theme or it just goes well with the doll’s personality. If your Blythe has sleep eyes and you find that the lids are a little droopy, the main suggestion that you’ll find is to add a heavier charm to the string for sleep eyes. It needs a weight to keep the lid open after you’ve taken away the spring.

A lot of people like using beads. As someone who will dabble in designing jewellery, I like using beads too. Some beads can be really expensive (seeing as how you don’t need that many!), but there are a lot of inexpensive sources as well – especially if you can shop smart. You can find beads at a lot of different stores – dollar stores carry both plastic beads and nicer beads (one local dollar store had semi-precious stones and glass beads). If you’re opting for beads from a big box craft store, many have sales or regular 40 or 50% off coupons that you can use on regular priced strands beads. You can cater the doll’s charms to match their hair colour, the theme of their face-up or just whatever you like.

Other sources for charms for your doll’s pull strings are: beads or charms from jewellery [you can find inexpensive jewellery at thrift stores, dollar stores or clearance bins], make your own with polymer clay, vintage buttons or small plastic knick knacks. These are just some suggestions. I’ve also seen people use alphabet beads to spell out their doll’s names, plastic Kewpie charms or even Swarovski crystals (but that’s not really budget friendly!). Whatever you choose, it doesn’t need to break the bank and you can use a lot of things that you already have.

To attach charms, you can undo the knot of their pull string and add the charms on. After, you just retie the knot with or without the pull ring. For the sleep eye string, you want to make sure that the charms are heavy enough to keep the eyelids open so your Blythe doesn’t always look tired.

What sorts of charms do you have on your doll’s strings?