Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean that love and affection can’t be shown for the Blythes. So I looked at all the dolls that I have (Kenners and Neos – I do not have more clothes for my Middie or Petites, unfortunately) and decided that I would show a little love to the friends at I’ve made in this community by dressing up all of my dolls in clothes that have been made by some very talented people in this community.

Everything being worn was handmade by someone talented and someone that I’ve actually gotten the chance to meet, even briefly, in person. The items made by me have been made possible by encouragement of people that I’ve met in through this hobby and it’s been a great source of inspiration for me. Shoes and most tights do not apply to this though, and I’ve tried to include links to Etsy/Artfire/Facebook pages where possible.

Mollie is wearing a sweater knit by me and stock tights (Simply Sparkly Spark). Minnow is wearing a winter-seasonal sweater dress by me and cat tights by Endangered Sissy. Moxie is wearing a dress and bloomers by Luxie Lou. Click to read more of this entry.

The Blythe world has introduced me to a lot of things. Like sewing (more so than I knew before), and knitting or crocheting with much thinner yarn. Before Blythe I used worsted or bulky weight yarn. Now it’s all sock or lace weight yarn. Which then translated to me knitting socks for me and not the dolls, but that’s really a story for another time and another place.

I knew nothing about sewing for dolls prior to Blythe. Nothing, absolutely nothing. My simple attempts at sewing doll clothes were for my old Barbie doll where things were sewn by trial-and-error because I was a kid and I used little pieces of chalk (like for a chalkboard) to trace around the doll in hopes it would fit when I was done. I learned to adjust to knitting with smaller needles, and started off with figuring out how to make tops and whatnot. It’s been a trial-and-error way of me making things for my dolls, and I’ve learned a lot about knitting (and crocheting, and sewing) along the way. So learning new things withing realizing I was adding to my knowledge of crafts has been very fun, but there’s always room to learn more things – and to create more for the greedy, selfish dolls.

How has Blythe helped you learn about new things?

I thought I’d show Kindred, my woefully neglected Velvet Minuet, some love for this lovely Valentine’s Day.

To spoil her a bit, Kindred got to wear a new dress first (even before Sophie!) and I fashioned her a little headband out of some ribbon that came as packaging from a gift I received. I love little details like that. Who doesn’t need a Valentine’s Day headband that says “I Love You” all over it?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A little something to all those knitters out there in the Blythe community – a pullring dishcloth. But you don’t need to use it as a dishcloth. You could knit many of them and make a blanket, or knit a few and make cushion cover, or just knit a set for yourself because – why not? Or even just the one would make a nice little doll blanket. Who wouldn’t want to snuggle with a blanket that has a pullring on it?

Needed knitting skills: casting on, knitting, purling, casting off and being able to read a chart.

Click here to download the free knitted pullring dishcloth pattern.

With years of collecting dolls and the items that come with them (shoes, clothes, shoes…), there comes a time when it just seems like I have too much of everything. Hence my need to purge by going through what I do have and figuring what I no longer need. I like to make piles when I do this.

One pile for things I love/must keep.
One pile for things I’m not entirely sure if I want to part with yet.
One pile for things I don’t recall buying and would totally be okay with parting with.
And one pile for things that I’m not sure why I kept to begin with.

Stock clothes are always keepers!

It’s a lot of piles, but it works. The last two piles are automatically separated from the rest and I come up with prices and bag them up to go into my sundries bag to be brought to the next local dolly meet. Then I go to pile #2, where I’m not entirely sure if I want to keep or not. I tend to keep things if I a) spent “quite a bit” on it, or b) it looks fantastic on most of my dolls. I love pieces that look great on many dolls because it means that I can put in into the general circulation and not be concerned about it not being regularly used. With this system, I’ve actually managed to pull some items out that I no longer need (or want). If only it worked as well on the dolly shoe closet. I have a thing for tiny shoes and it makes it hard to part with things!

How good are you at purging the dolly closet?