BlytheLife.com opened in July 2010 and is a blog and resource hub for all things Blythe!
Blythe On A Budget: Making New Outfit Combinations
Written on January 22, 2014 at 12:00 pm by MichelleFiled under: Article with tags: blythe on a budget
I find that one of the best ways to avoid shopping on forums (and Etsy shops, and eBay) for new dolly clothes is to start shopping – in what I already have! Sometimes dresses can get tucked away under other dresses and be ‘lost’. When you unearth them it’s a little like finding something new again. That and making new outfit combinations with a handful of items means more mixing-and-matching (gotta love separates!) and less spending money.
Tights are fantastic and can add a great *pop* of colour to an outfit. Using existing items – like stock from dolls that you don’t use often, can be mixed and matched with newer items to make them ‘fresh’ again. Like that fur coat that came with Cappuccino Chat? Bam, new again. And why not? It’s a well made piece of stock that goes quite under-appreciated. Like most doll collectors, I own a fair bit of doll clothes. And like quite a few Blythe collectors, I keep the stock items that my dolls come with. Sometimes I even seek out items that come with other dolls. Knowing that I’m bad about letting dolls go, it would be a very expensive option to go ahead and buy all the doll that are released with great stock just to get a hold of their outfits on the idea that I would be able to resell the dolls afterwards (most likely, they would become permanent members of the household).
What I’d like challenge you all to do is to consider what’s the least worn item, and try to build an outfit around that. For me, it would probably be the Love Mission police outfit. I rarely use any of the pieces, so I decided to utilize the pants and the shirt-and-tie. Pairing them up with a different pair of shoes (remember, LM came with both heels and loafers!) and a different jacket, it’s possible to put together new combinations all the time and it makes for a fun exercise for making something ‘new’ from the old.
I have to say that I love stock outfits. It seems like people immediately take them off and store them away or sell them. I’ve gotten lots of use from the different pieces of my Punkaholic People stock. And, being an old hippy and confirmed Swedophile, I absolutely love my Pleasant Peasant dress. And how adorable is the Little Lilly Brown pink dress (that stands on its own, I might add) and the adorable faux fur pieces that come with it. Being on an extreme budget, I have to restrain myself from buying all the stock pieces I see on the ‘bay, especially fairy-tale like dresses.
I love what you’ve done with the LM outfit. I have to agree with SonjeB, I love stock outfits. As a more recent collector, I have bought many of my dolls nude, or with partial stock (usually no shoes!), but I have started buying bits of more reasonably priced Blythe stock. As you say, not only is it really versatile, it’s really well-made. One of my girls loves her UC boots.
I like to have basics but still find I have so many patterned prices so I can use those alone or mix and match to make new outfits. Using long tops for short dresses is one if my faves