One aspect of this 365 challenge that I stumbled on a few times for the month of October was the actual act of not just taking a photo (100% of the time on my phone) but the act of uploading the photo. This was a tricky part for me for a myriad of reasons, but most likely due to equal parts: poor WiFi connection, laziness, an inability to come up with a somewhat witty caption, and being easily distracted. You can see all of my shenanigans so far with Eden Mouse up on my Flickr account, I made an album just for the 365 images.

In the month of October, I picked up knitting again (after a long break of not knitting since July!), went on a beautiful hike, donated blood for the first time, voted in Canada’s federal election, watched a lot of Netflix, started a new job (not pictured), and attended a Whitecaps game. What will November have in store for us?

Middie Monday is a feature that is published on the first Monday of each month! A guaranteed monthly post on Blythe’s little sister – Middie! If you have any suggestions for a future Middie Monday post, please send me an email or use my Suggestions form!

Happy November! My November has started off amazingly well, what with a local Halloween-ish Blythe meet yesterday on November 1st. November is often one of my favourite months for a myriad of reasons – this year is no exception with the annual occurence of my birthday and the beginnings of a new career/job/work-thing. Being an adult (do adults call themselves this?) has never been equal parts terrifying and exciting, all at the same time.

That say, the meet! It was delightfully Halloween-themed with great decorations, lights, spider (!) cupcakes, and the host’s beautiful Middies. It’s just really fun to see Middies that I don’t own because it’s nice to see dolls in person as opposed to seeing them in photographs. While there are some amazing photographs of dolls out there, I find seeing them in person is always a lot nicer and gives me a better idea of what they truly look like. You never know if someone’s edited the photo (case in point, I definitely used an Instagram filter on this image):

Unfortunately, I didn’t bring any Middies to the meet with me (which gave me the great opportunity to fawn over those that were there!), I brought a haunted little girl and a squid. Reusing customs is a good thing.

It’s been a little while since I mentioned that I wanted to challenge myself to sew for my Middie dolls. I made the unfortunate challenge to myself that I would craft Kitty Brighton’s outfit by myself and that challenge didn’t go away when Lydia Melbourne joined the dolly family. I haven’t made a lot – unemployment and job searching takes a lot of time and effort, which really took away from my general crafting energy. However, I’ve found my crafting mojo and I put my sights on creating this for my dolls:

It seemed simple enough and I could figure out the steps by looking at the diagrams. If you’re stuck on directions, one great thing about the Google Translate app is that you can take a photo and then select the text to have it translated. You do have to keep in mind that Google Translate will translate text very directly and literally, so the translation might not make complete sense. But if you just need a general hint or push in the right direction, it might work out for you! It works better on printed text than handwritten text in terms of recognizing words.

Some things I noted – the body of the coat is a bit tight when Lydia is wearing a knit dress (it may be due to the thickness) and the sleeves are just a touch too long. The pattern gives fairly generous seam allowances and I did them a bit smaller than the pattern called for, and any little bit extra in length is obvious when it comes to tiny doll clothing. But still, it is fairly cute! I still need to add button holes and beads for buttons, but I’m really pleased with it!

I hand sewed this felt coat. From start to finish (start being tracing the pattern onto a separate piece of paper), it took approximately 2 episodes of Gilmore Girls (approximately 85 minutes). I’m definitely going to make the Blythe-sized version of this, I think it’d be cute as a winter ‘wool’ peacoat!

The pattern book I’m using is often referred to, in English, as the Hand-Sewn Doll Coordinate Recipe. I used the Google Translate photo option and it translated the text as “Hand-Stitched”, which is fairly close to Hand-Sewn – you’ll get more search results with Hand-Sewn over Hand-Stitched if you want to get your hands on the same book! The Hand-Sewn DCR has seven basic patterns for each doll size (Middies are the 20cm size, Blythe wear the 22cm size): dress, top, pants/shorts, skirt, romper, coat, and cape. There are photograph tutorials on pattern usage, it’s quite handy and easy to understand with just the photographs. It is very beginner-friendly! There are also some accessories patterns like head kerchiefs, hats, eye masks, bags, and socks.

Lydia Melbourne’s wearing: knit dress (chelleshocks), coat (chelleshocks).

What an amazing year it’s been for Blythe enthusiasts! There’s been events all over the world: Brazil, USA, UK, France, Spain, Australia, and Canada – just to name a few. Next year is shaping up to be an amazing whirlwind of Blythe related excitement as well with events already scheduled for 2016 in the lovely countries of USA, UK, Germany, Australia, and Japan.

For those who are new to Blythe or haven’t attended a Blythe convention, the general types of activities that may occur include outfit and/or photo contests, workshops related to sewing or customization are typically held, there’s almost always some sort of vendor marketplace, and some drawings or raffles might take place as well. It’s a great way to get to meet the people that you have been talking to online, and to meet new-to-you people that you might not have interacted with previously. For me, my first Blythe meet ever was the pre-meet for BlytheCon Seattle in 2011 where I met someone who lived in the same general area and from there met many more local Blythe hobbyists!

In a way, attending BlytheCon and then the subsequent Blythe meets really brought Blythe to life for me. Sure, I had dolls and clothes and shoes before BlytheCon, but I didn’t have anyone in person that I could gush about dolls with. I didn’t have anyone to talk to in person about what doll I was thinking about saving up for or had my eye on, the in-person sounding board was missing, and it’s kind of lonely to take photos of dolls on my own! Plus, my ability to be shy in public about pulling a doll out knows no boundaries.

As I’ve begun my Real Adult Job™ recently, I’m getting my budgeting in order (for real, not just budgeting some money for dolls and such), and thinking about saving for going to events outside of North America. I think going to Japan would be amazing, same with Australia.

Are you thinking about attending any Blythe conventions/events in 2016? Which ones are you considering attending? (And which ones do you wish you could afford to attend?)

I remember when I was new to Blythe and I found all the information very overwhelming. I couldn’t tell the difference between an SBL and an RBL, I had no clue what “boggling” or “gaze lifting/gaze correction” was. Here’s a round up of some of my beginner friendly articles on Blythe:

A Beginner’s Guide to Blythe is an irregularly published series geared towards people who are new to Blythe or people who just want to get some information about their favourite dolls. The series began with an overview of the different types of dolls (all the full-sized dolls [Kenners, Neos, ADGs], the Middies, and the Petites).

If you’re new to Blythe, you might be confused about the various words that the members of the Blythe community use. What is a FBL? How is that different from an SBL? What part of the doll is a T-bar and do all dolls need a gaze lift? If any of those terms confused you, head on over to Blythe 102: Commonly Used Abbreviations and Words (recently updated to include RBL+).

Dolls can melt. It’s a crazy thing that can happen and you might not realize that it was even possible! Check out my article entitled The Cause of Doll “Melt” – I include the common reasons for why the plastic of dolls can melt and deform.

I have a very tongue-in-cheek flow chart that goes through the thought process of answering the question of “Should you get a new Blythe?” – just something for a giggle and to put a smile on your face.

For many people, Blythe is a personal and very internet-based hobby. Check out some of my suggestions for Protecting Yourself Online. Doll people may be amazing, but it doesn’t hurt to take measures to protect yourself online by not putting too much of yourself out there!