There are many Etsy sellers who cater towards those who like to dress their dolls for the holidays. There are plenty of fantastic red-and-green-and-white dresses that will make your doll look like an elf in December, and many spooky spider-covered dresses for the month of October, and let’s not forget the pastel bunny options for spring. While I tend to just dress my dolls in whatever (I’m a horrible doll owner – I should have my ownership license revoked!) there are many who do dress their dolls for the holidays. In the best way that I can, this was the best I could come up with for spring (please don’t laugh too hard):

Do you dress your dolls for the holidays?

I received this darling Middie-sized dress from Pamela of Endangered Sissy, who had noted that my Middies suffer in the clothing department. Now the problem is, this meant competition between the two Middies who live here of who owns the dress (the answer is Michelle, but let’s ignore that logic for a moment), so there was a fashion smackdown in regards to who ‘owns’ the dress – which resulted in an impromptu fashion show with two dolls, one dress. You, the readers, get to decide who wore it better.

Top photo: Kitty Brighton [Jackie Ramone]; Bottom photo: Lydia Melbourne [Yellow Marshmallow]

Who wore it better, Kitty Brighton or Lydia Melbourne?

With nearly monthly releases of Blythe dolls, there comes a time when there’s some releases that become overly popular for…. whatever reason. Usually it’s because the doll is translucent and that often has a lot of people clamouring over the doll, and sometimes it’s because the doll just happens to be the first of its kind with a particular hair colour or it’s the first time since an anniversary doll that the hair colour has come back (Alexis Emerald, I’m talking about you with your Princess a la Mode hair colour!). Regardless of what reason, there’s always a doll that you think is overrated.

While I think translucent dolls photograph really nicely in photos, I just don’t like them as much in person. There’s often something ‘off’ about them to me, but that may be because I’m used to the non-translucent plastic of my own dolls… To me, the most overrated doll is Miss Sally Rice (she is also one of the most overpriced, in my opinion, of the modern releases created by Takara). Mildly inflammatory, I know, but with every Miss Sally Rice that gets customized, the bigger the price tag a stock Miss Sally Rice goes for. And while she’s quite pretty in photos, I just do not get the allure of her in person.

Who do you think is the most overrated Blythe doll?

Dolly mail is exciting. Blythe-sized shoes or clothes arriving in fun coloured packages, checking and rechecking the tracking number on an incoming doll. I currently have a few things incoming, after many months of not buying dolly things online – there’s a couple dresses coming my way, along with pairs of pants, capris, and shorts. Having new doll clothes is always fun, and since there’s been a bit of a ‘dry spell’ when it comes to my dolly spending, having it rain is fun. Even if I have to buy all the items coming my way, it is still fun to get things in the mail!

Do you have any incoming dolly mail?

It’s an age-old question when it comes to vintage dolls, such as Kenners. Do you restore the doll or do you leave her as-is in the manner that you found her in? If you ask me, the answer depends.

For one of my dolls, I definitely restored her as much as I could. Meet Lillian Rose (or Lily, for short). She got a fancy set of Takara legs (along with a pelvis) and her hair was restored as much as possible. I took her scalp off, secured any loose plugs, and had a trusted friend help me out with those blonde locks – now she looks fantastic! (She’s actually sporting a pretty nasty crack in her torso that she endured from BlytheCon Vancouver – no photos of that because she needs to preserve some dignity, I’m in the planning process of getting her a new modified body so I won’t be fearful of taking her out and about in the future.)

And then there’s Primrose a.k.a. Prim. She came to me with zero legs and got a replacement set (also Takara) pretty quickly and I did not touch her hair at all. One of the things that I loved about her upon first seeing a photo of her was her fantastic and epic hair – who wouldn’t fall in love with that? Since then, her hair makes somewhat regular appearances both here and on my Instagram because Prim has very quickly become one of my favourites since I got her a few years ago, initially because her fantastic hair and also because of her charming face.

I’m a fan of Kenners that don’t look “perfect” because (truth be told) the perfect Kenners are actually a bit intimidating! I’d feel worse about if I had a Kenner with perfect make-up that got scratched or hair frizzed up versus a doll that already has make-up partially worn off or hair already a bit frizzy.

If you have a Kenner, do you restore her (either yourself or have someone else do it) or leave her as-is?