I was looking through sundries listings the other day (a very dangerous thing to do) and I was looking at the costs of a Blythe dress. I went through and counted up the prices of 50 different dresses from all types of makers and types and the average price that it came out to be? $10. I did not count stock clothing or other more mass-produced brands (eg. Moxie clothing, vintage Skipper and Francie, Sugar Mag).

$10.

Now these dressed that I was looking at were all hand-crafted by people in the doll community. Some dresses had snaps, others had velcro. Some were very intricate, others were a bit more plain. Puffed sleeves, short sleeves, long sleeves or no sleeves. There were collars, and collar-less varieties.

But the average price, after counting 50 different dresses, was $10.

I think that one that really stuck with me the most was a handknitted dress that was being sold for $3. I’m a knitter, so I know roughly how much time (or at least a range) that a knitted item in that thickness of yarn can take to do. And $3 is a pittance for what it is worth, in my eyes. But I also know that pricing has to be for what the market will handle. You could figure out hourly wages, costs of supplies and overhead and then come up with a price for your item – but if nobody buys it, is it really worth it?

And then I considered what it’s like when I make something. So I decided to consider my costs and steps when I sew a doll dress.

A lot of my fabrics that I use are discounted, roll-ends or ‘sample swatches’ from the fabric store and then the other half of my fabric stash is from old clothes or thrifted things like sheets or pillow cases. So let’s say that the cost of my fabric per dress is between $0.25-$1. And that’s overestimating it. But let’s give it a cost of $1

Then comes the cost of thread. I spend maybe $1 on a spool of white thread. But it also gets used for other projects as well, but for sake of argument, I’ll consider the cost of buying a new spool of thread, so $1.

And then time. From cutting, fray-checking, sewing, ironing, and finishing (sewing on snaps, hah), I’m going to estimate (and I’m probably underestimating because I’m probably slower than I really am) that I take approximately 1.5-2 hours per dress. Thank goodness I don’t sew dolly frocks for a living. But let’s say it’s 2 hours. Minimum wage here has been going up, so it’s about $10/hour.

And then there’s costs of packaging – I don’t sell dresses that I make, but I’ll guesstimate a cost of approximately $1 per dress to go into packaging and shipping materials (but not including shipping itself).

So there’s $1 + $1 + ($10/hr * 2hr) + 1 = $23.00. And I’m using inexpensive fabric too – no super cute prints and assuming that I need to buy the fabric new, without using existing fabrics in my stash.

$23.

Now I realize that those selling sundries usually aren’t selling things that they’ve  made – that’s what online shops are for. But it really makes you wonder, considering doll dresses on Etsy, Artfire and eBay generally aren’t averaging $23, they’re much closer to my original estimate of $10.

What do you consider to be a “fair price” for doll clothing?

What do you expect to be able to get for $10 when shopping for your doll’s clothing?

What styles of dresses (not caring about designers here) would you consider ‘worthy’ of a $23 (or higher!) price tag?

I was contacted by Coco (a.k.a. cocochoo) back in March to do this interview and I was so excited! I always love getting to ‘meet’ people online that I hadn’t gotten a chance to interact with and Coco was very fun to interview! Some of her answers have been slightly edited for clarity at her request (English is not her first language), but I’ve done my best to maintain the integrity of her answers.

Hi Coco! What can you tell us about yourself and how you discovered Blythe?
I am a portrait photographer in Hong Kong; vintage collage and bisque doll enthusiast, a self-taught doll sculptor… and a Blythe addict!

I studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London during 2005-2007. I thought I would be a graphic designer but now I am running a sole studio and do photography (wedding / pet portraits mainly) for a living. Besides that, I am a “zoophilist”, I do free projects for animals, for stray and abandoned animals only.

I love all kinds of dolls since I was a little girl, but I “found” and fell in love with ball jointed doll since 2005 and although I knew about “Blythe” all that time, I was not too much into these big eyes dolly, and I almost can say that I began to pay attention on them while I was seeking outfits for my bjd and I always found amazing clothes in Blythe size only, I was encouraged by my friends to get my first Blythe, and yes I really did, I totally felt in love with “custom Blythe” after I have hours searching on Flickr.

I decided to have a try on making a special one for myself. By then it was November 2010 and I got into this amazing world.  I’d love to collect other Blythe customizers’ work and I also felt in love with stock Blythes too, I also got my first Kenner last month. I have to admit that even though I was not in love with Blythe at first sight, I totally love them more and more day by day now. they have power.

How did you get started with customizing Blythe dolls?
I am a doll sculptor before I falling in love with Blythes. At first, some custom Blythe are very pricey for me especially the one I love, that’s why I have decided I have to make one for myself that I really love. I practice and practice and tried to find a way of customizing a “coco style” one. my works are still not prefect nowadays but I think I at least did them better and better.

What has been your most memorable customized doll so far? What made it memorable for you?
My #22 one, named “Kir”, she is the first one that I thought I finally found a unique way to have “my style” – with two tiny visible teeth girl. Although I will still create new type customs, but this one means so much to me because she is loved by many people.

What have you learned about yourself since you started customizing Blythe?
I think I am very lucky. I wouldn’t stop doing this as long as there is one person in this world loves my work. I am not a successful photographer and I am not successful in anything else, but I love myself better when I have finished a new girl and she receives some compliments. I have never imagine that one day I would had such a special “part time job”; becoming a Blythe customizer is the most enjoyable part of my life.

Has having a background in doll sculpting helped you (or even hindered you) in Blythe customizing?
Basically they don’t have directly interactions, but I do think they are in a similar or same area, just like I learned graphic design but I also do photography, most of the time there is interpretation.

What kind of routine do you have when you start customizing a doll?
I have to put some dolls in front of me (or the dolls’ portraits), they are either a sculpture or a bjd. Most of time it is another custom of mine, but I always not able to carve and paint a certain look. The “models” are just part of the inspiration, they usually come out to be different faces.

How does it make you feel when you see other people photographing your work?
Well I feel very happy about it, I enjoy seeing my custom girls go to everywhere of the world and have totally different lives. I am very thankful to whom offered a new home for them.

There’s a lot of customizers out there, if you had to tell someone why they should buy your work, what would you say?
Bring them home if they make you happy and if you love to see them everyday. I know that dolls might not have real lives but we give them life. This is why I’d love to collect other customizers’ works.

What has been the most challenging thing for you so far when it comes to customizing Blythe?
The most challenging and “dangerous” thing is that there is no take two. 😛 When I sculpt a doll, I can redo any part but this cannot happened when customizing a Blythe.

I know that there are some people who collect both your custom Blythe work and your ball-jointed dolls. What can you tell us about your bjd work?
Yes I am very happy that they love all kinds of my work. I decided to create a bjd after I found and joined a local forum, which was about self-made ball jointed dolls. I met many great artists there and many of them are college students. I was encouraged by then.

What can we expect from you in the future with your customizing work? Will you be branching out to other dolls, like Middie?
I’d like to create some new more style customs, yes I love trying all kinds of new stuffs, like Middie (tried only one before), Dal and Pullip.

Thank you so much for doing this interview with me, Coco! What kind of advice do you have for someone who’s new to Blythe?
Thank you! I am very happy and thankful to be interviewed. it’s indeed a wonderful world, but never too late to be find Blythe. 🙂

You can find out more about cocochoo at her website (cocochoo.net) and on Flickr! Also check out her Flickr group for photos of her bjd and custom dolls.

Faceplates Giveaway!

Coco has graciously decided to give away a set of RBL faceplates that she has customized! It is the front and back faceplates only (does not include the eye mechanism or hair).

You can get up to eight (8) entries for this giveaway draw and you can enter until Saturday April 28th at 11:59pm PDT. The draw will be held on Sunday April 29th 2012 and the winner will be announced on BlytheLife.com. Remember to use a valid email address for all comments. If you win, your email will be forwarded to Coco so she can get in contact with you about the faceplates!

Please only use one email address per person, those using multiple email addresses for more entries will be disqualified.

Mandatory Entry: Comment below about this interview and include any additional questions you have for Coco!

Bonus Entry #1: Tweet about the contest! Please retweet the following once per day from your public Twitter account! (If you look below, there is a box for you to include your Twitter username, if you do, I can easily verify your bonus entry!) Each tweet is 1 entry into the giveaway for a maximum of 2 entries into the giveaway. Please comment below to tell me that you’ve been tweeting (1 comment per tweet!)

Check out the @blythelifecom interview with cocochoo & also the giveaway! http://bit.ly/IUnN87

Bonus Entry #2: Blog about the contest! Be sure to include some details about the contest and include links to BlytheLife.com, this interview/giveaway page and to Coco’s Flickr photostream or website! For 1 blog entry, this is worth 5 entries into the giveaway! You must comment below with the URL to your blog post.

I’ve done a series on blogging, and also another post on dolly blogging, but I thought I’d take another crack at it by looking at blogging for those who have no money to spend or a little money to spend. Blogging is a great way to get your information out there for others to read. A lot of crafters who sell things in the Blythe community have their blogs so they can show off new designs, progress of crafting for conventions or new shop updates. Blogs are also great for showing off customization progress, experimentation, photo stories or just your life in general – doesn’t even need to be doll related.

—

For those who are looking for free options for blogging, the ones that I like are WordPress, Blogger and Livejournal. All of them are free options for blogging and have their own pros and cons to deal with.

WordPress

I’m a fan of WordPress (WP), so I may be a touched biased. You are limited when you have a free WP account though. You can write pages and posts, but no additional plugins (which can be very useful, if you know your way around WP). WP also has it written into it’s terms and conditions/terms of service that you cannot advertise/sell on their sites. However, if you know someone who’s willing to host you, or if you can self-host your own WP, you can sell and install as much stuff as you want onto your WP. So if you decide to go from the free WP hosting to your own domain, it can be pretty easy to export all of your content and them export it into the new site. Comments can be left by anyone by default, which is pretty nice, and WP has a fantastic anti-spam plugin already with your blog when you start an account (it’s called Akismet).

Blogger

If you have a Google account, it’s super easy to set up your Blogger account as it’s the same log-in details as your Google account. One thing that’s great about Blogger is that there are a lot of free themes out there. I haven’t gone through the TOS of Blogger, but a lot of people set it up for ‘sponsors’ and paid-ads, so it would appear that it’s okay to make money while having a blog site with Blogger. One thing to watch out for is that you should set it so that comments are open to anyone to leave – not just people logged into some kind of account. If you don’t, it’s very easy for people to get turned off from leaving comments. Blogger also has the capabilities to easily use your own domain name with their server, which you can technically do with WP and LJ as well

Livejournal

Livejournal has been around for a long, long time. A lot of people still use it, although it’s not as popular as it once was. It is posts only, no separate static pages. You can also join LJ groups that are related and cross-post easily into various groups. For example, you can cross-post in various crafting and doll groups without leaving the site at all. LJ allows for commenting from other LJ users and I have seen ‘anonymous’ posting allowed, so those without accounts aren’t left out (provided you don’t have private posts).

—

And now, onto the paid options. That would be a domain name, being hosted on someone else’s domain (it’s usually free), or paying for your own hosting.

Domain Names

If you’re serious about having some kind of business or have a business name in mind, I would recommend getting it. I wouldn’t risk someone else buying it out from under you and then just squatting on it while you’re forced to use something else that is not the same as your existing Etsy/Artfire shop or screen name. Buy it now and save yourself the hassle of having to add various descriptive words later. Most domain names are under $10 per year and you do need to renew annually if you don’t purchase it for multiple years at a time. You should be able to find a registrar for a .com/.net/.org domain name for $10USD or less. Some extensions (.nu, for example) are more expensive, but they’re not as commonly used.

Also, getting a .com is always highly recommended. Most people think to write .com first before thinking of .net, .org or .co.uk. It’s just the way the world works. Domain names can be fairly inexpensive. I personally use Namecheap¹ for buying all of my domain names. They have monthly promo codes and the month of April 2012 is RACETO3MM for all new registrations and transfers for com/net/org/biz/de extensions.

Sub-Domain Hosting

This is generally free, as you’ll be using someone else’s space (but also part of someone else’s name!). Your URL will look like www.friend’sdomain.com/yourname. On one hand, it’s great if their site’s name is related to yours or makes it easier for people to remember. On the other hand, you do run into the problem that you will inadvertantly run traffic to their site as well, and if you decide to move to your own domain later on (yourname.com), it can be difficult to have people get used to a new site URL or to even get them to change their links.

Paid Hosting

Please, please, please, please, please don’t use a site that tells you that you get “unlimited” everything for $1 a month. Many sites that offer super low costs for a lot of features are often hosting sites that end up going under. Definitely try to find a website that has established users and ones that have 24/7 support available. I have nothing against newer hosting companies, but I would highly suggesting reading testimonials and reviews on sites like Web Hosting Talk, where people talk about various hosting companies and leave public reviews. You should find a reputable host that offers what you need, but also has a good reputation for having a good support team and decent up time. A lot of hosts boast having 99.9% up time, but it’s always a good idea to check in reviews if this is true and to see the quality of their support team. You should be able to find inexpensive hosting that meets your needs (with support, up time and decent size of bandwidth and space) for $5 a month or less (unless you plan on hosting a lot of photos and videos).

Be realistic about what you need in terms of space and bandwidth. BlytheLife.com has quite a bit of pages and posts for the time it’s been up and running on the internet, but when I look at how much space it takes up on my hosting account, it is not very much (with the posts and all the other files, including photos, it’s less than 150mb). As for bandwidth, which does fluctuate, the site uses approximately 6-7gb per month. It’s fairly low compared to a lot of other sites because it is primarily text based and I don’t host videos. Unless you’re planning on uploading high res photos or large videos, you probably won’t need as much space or bandwidth as you think that you will.

BlytheLife.com is hosted on Surpass Hosting² and I’ve used them exclusively since 2006. I’m on a plan that is no longer listed on their website because they’ve restructured their plans after they established servers in the UK as well as in the US. Their support team has always been fantastic though and I always get replies fairly quickly (plus, when one of my sites got hacked, they fixed it up good as new within 3 hours of when I emailed them about it!).

—

¹² If you use the link to Namecheap or Surpass Hosting from this post, it includes my affiliate codes. Any funds earned go towards the costs of keeping BlytheLife.com up and running.

People are always talking about the most that they’ve spent on a doll, I want to know what is the lowest amount that you’ve spent on a doll that you bought. Gifted Blythes (if you’re lucky!) do not count as you didn’t buy those. So what I’m interested in is how much you’ve spent on a doll that you’ve bought for yourself. Petites can count, but you should also include the price of a Neo in there as well!

My ‘cheapest’ Blythe so far has been my Love Mission, at the time I believe I spent ~$150USD on her, not including shipping. She was also NRFB and came quite speedy via EMS! She had arrived in under a week and I still have her today. Of course, writing this just makes me realize that I have a rather pricey collection… Oh dear.

What is the lowest amount you have spent on a Blythe?

A couple of days ago, my sister saw me organizing doll clothes – one of the many things that I do when procrastinating from studying… and she noticed that I had several dresses that I had made for my dolls lacked snaps and then she pointed this out to me.

“If you had the time to cut out the fabric and sew all these things up, why didn’t you add snaps?”

Umm… Because I was lazy? Because the dress stays on (for the most part) without a snap? Because snaps were designed by the devil? Did I say any of these things? Of course not.

“Oh, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ve been busy.”

Yes, because lack of time totally prevents me from sewing on tiny metal snaps. Although, to be fair, the snaps do kind of “complete” the clothing item. But I still believe that they were designed by the devil, or that little elves should help me with the sewing of snaps because I don’t like doing that part. But my sister took this to be the truth, until she found one of the Blythe dresses that I had made that I sewn on half of the snap and just never sewed the other half of the snap.

“What about this one?”

“That one? I was just lazy.”

Who else here hates (or at least dislikes) sewing on metal snaps? *both hands up for me*