It’s less than a week to Halloween and this is usually the time of year that I’m thinking about the fact that a Halloween-themed Blythe meet is coming up and I don’t have any new costumes to dress my dolls in. It’s nice to be able to come up with new things to dress the dolls in, because it’s fun to be creative in coming up with unique and silly costumes!

One year I dressed up Belarus, my Love Mission, as a squid:

Another year, my Kenners all went to a Halloween meet as Dorothy (Emmalynn), Cinderella (Lillian), and Medusa (Primrose):

I still haven’t decided what I want to dress my dolls up as this year though – just in terms of what costume ideas and how I will make it happen, but I will figure it out!

What Halloween costumes are you dressing your dolls up in this year?

Sometimes I put together an outfit for one of my Blythes that I just love. And this isn’t me bragging or being boastful, I just really like some of the outfits that I put together sometimes because they just fit the doll. This isn’t to say that there’s anything wrong about saying that you think your dolls look good in an outfit that you’ve put together. You should think it looks good because it’s your doll, your doll clothes, and you put the whole shebang together! That and nobody is going to walk around saying “Gosh, I put my Blythe in the most horrific outfit today. Want to see the photo I posted of it on Instagram?” – because that just makes it sound like you’re fishing for compliments.

Well, my current favourite outfit that I put on one of my Blythes is this:

The dress is by ericaduh, the boots are Jackie Ramone (Middie) stock, and I cannot remember where I got the glasses from. But it’s a pretty awesome outfit – if I do say so myself.

What is your current favourite outfit? Share a link to a photo of your favourite doll outfit below!

I have many collections that came to be because of Blythe. The shoes, the ribbons, the miniatures. I’m sure if I really thought about it, I could even connect washi tape to Blythe (I originally created an Instagram account due to Blythe friends, and some Blythe friends post photos of their washi tape collections and planner addictions, which led to my washi tape collection – that was a very easy connect-the-dots for me, actually!). And then there are the doll clothing patterns.

Let us forget that I rarely, rarely sew for Blythe, and how I’m kind of bad at sewing in straight lines, and the necessarily supplies add up when it comes to considering prices (the thread and the notions and the fabric, oh my!) – and then there are the patterns.

I’m not even entirely sure how this collection came to be, I’m sure it started off innocently enough and eventually just ballooned out of proportions with my sewing capabilities. But ballooned it did and now I have way too many Doll Coordinate Recipe books for someone who has a sewing machine that is gathering dust more often than not. I am, without a doubt, a collector of doll clothing pattern books – a curator of my own sewing pattern bookshelf (or part of a bookshelf). I do love flipping through them though, and gathering inspiration of what I would one day like to accomplish and create. These books have beautiful photography of what the pattern should look like. Should being the operative word as when I have attempted some patterns in the past, they have not turned out quite like I wanted them to…

Do you buy clothing patterns for Blythe? (Or Middie, or Petites?)

It’s a bit of an odd question, isn’t it? Especially when you consider the fact that if Kenner Blythe dolls were never in existence, then the Blythe dolls that we know and love that were produced by Ashton-Drake Galleries and are still being produced today by Takara would not be around. But there are some people in the Blythe community who do not like Kenners. I am, obviously, not one of those people.

Kenners can be a bit of an acquired taste. There can be so many issues with them – cracks, missing hair plugs, cloudy eye chips, missing pull strings/pull rings/eyelashes, chewed fingers or toes, knees that won’t hold position, or legs that fall out. I can understand when people think out loud “Why would I spend $800 on a doll with so many issues?”. That’s a good question – $800USD can buy you a lot of other nicer, mintier, dolls, if you’re inclined to look for a new-in-box, or a translucent, or a customized Blythe with an amazing alpaca or mohair reroot.

But there’s something amazing about Kenners – but I am a little bit biased though.

Do you like Kenners? Do you own any? (If no, do you have any plans on getting a Kenner Blythe in the future?)

With the autumn weather, comes the need to wear more layers and with that comes socks and tights. With my Blythe doll, Sophie, she came with a pair of tights. I went through the trouble of putting them on – pulling and tugging and scrunching them up some doll legs. I honestly thought at that point that tights were a complete waste of time and the most difficult item to put on a doll ever.

I still think that most days.

However, for my dolls that do wear tights all the time, I find everything goes onto their legs easier because at that point it’s fabric sliding over fabric, not fabric being tugged on over rubbery legs. Tights and socks can really make or break an outfit, but they can be such a pain to put on! Some shoes, especially boots, go on a lot easier when a doll is wearing tights as well – a great bonus to the struggles of putting on tights that will then never be taken off.

I’ve been a fan of the Cool Cat tights for a while (especially the nude coloured ones as they allow for other tights to be pulled on easily) and these kitty leggings from Endangered Sissy because cats are never a bad thing around here.

Do you put socks or tights on your dolls? Which are your favourite brands/makers?