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!

I have two Middies, a Jackie Ramone (Kitty Brighton) and a Yellow Marshmallow (Lydia Melbourne), and I may play favourites with them.

Jackie Ramone was one of the first dolls that I ever truly did grabby-hands towards my computer screen when I first saw her stock photo. Plus she was set up to be Punkaholic People’s little sister and I have a Punkaholic People Blythe doll – so it just meant to be (and a necessary doll purchase). At the time that I got her, I was watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube so I named her after a Bennet sister from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and a city that I have never been to before in my life.

When I got Yellow Marshmallow, it was the first time that I carried on with a naming theme as I named her after another Bennet sister from Pride and Prejudice and another city that I have never been before in my life. Lydia also happens to be one of my favourite sisters from the Lizzie Bennet Diaries (even though I’m not particularly fond of her in the original novel).

Having Middies is a bit of a challenge. As someone who had previously only had Blythe dolls and had amassed a fair bit of clothing and shoes for them, clothing Middies is a challenge. And finding shoes! I’m sure by now everyone knows how much I adore tiny shoes – this goes for Middie-sized foot wear as well and it can be hard to find things that fit well and look cute. I’ve taken to making my dolls be more well-dressed for doll meets now, complete with (potentially) tights or socks and shoes. In the past, I’ve just swapped out dresses and popped dolls into carry bags. I’ve also just taken dolls off the shelf in whatever outfit they’d been wearing for six plus months and hoped that nobody notices (and if anyone does, they are very kind not to comment on it).

While Middies may not get as much love as Kenners or Neos do, I feel that sometimes it’s just because there’s not as many options for clothing and shoes as their bigger sisters. The pint-sized darlings are just the same level as cute, but more concentrated. I may not be the biggest Middie fan in the world (because, lets face it, being able to change eye colours is just that much more awesome), but I do appreciate them and their pocket-sized cuteness!

Eden’s wearing: helmet/chelleshocks, romper/unknown
Kitty Brighton’s wearing: romper/chelleshocks, dress/chelleshocks
Lydia Melbourne’s wearing: dress/chelleshocks

The troubles with Middies is that I got really used to the Neo/Kenner Blythe size. Because all of my dolls are on either stock or Licca bodies, there isn’t that much of a need to have a secondary wardrobe for a different body shape. This may be different if I found myself needing to dress for a Pure Neemo body or a Mimi Bobeck body.

Unfortunately for Middie Blythes, they are naturally smaller than Blythe. Their bodies are a lot shorter and slimmer. Every single one of their features makes them just smaller than Neo Blythe in general – which they should be because they are a “little” sister – but it just makes for trouble with clothing them or keeping them in shoes because there is only so much one can do with trying to put Neo-sized tops as a Middie-sized dress, which isn’t to say that I don’t try to do that on a regular basis (because I totally do).

Now the real question is: do I want to carry around a Middie at BlytheCon? On one hand, I may be tempted to buy things for my Middie dolls and that wouldn’t be a very good thing due to my personal challenge of crafting my Middies’ wardrobe (why do I issue out these challenges to myself?!). On the other hand, if anyone is selling shoes that could possibly fit Middie, I will have a model right there to try them on. Or perhaps I could just ask people to slap my hands if they see me reaching for a Middie sized dress (or shirt, or pants, or skirt…)? I’m not entirely sure how well that will work for me though – it’s always tempting to buy things at any BlytheCon (in my experience of attending two). Luckily, I will be limiting myself based on the amount of cash I have on hand. I won’t be buying any dolls, but I will be able to buy a few little treasures here and there!

But if you were to choose a Middie to bring along – would you bring a Jackie Ramone or a Yellow Marshmallow?

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!

Kitty Brighton’s wearing: top/chelleshocks, capris/unknown.
Lydia Melbourne’s wearing: dress/chelleshocks.

I don’t sew very often because, let’s face it, my forte is not in sewing. Sewing in a straight line is my current sewing related goal. It may seem like small potatoes to some of you, but it’s a goal for me. As much as I’d love to claim that I meant to do that when my seams aren’t straight and the lines are crooked, nobody means to sew that poorly ever. Which is where I come in – sewing badly all the time. But I can sew, on occasion and intentionally.

After sewing a dress that was sized for Neos, I eyed the fabric I had left over and decided that I really wanted to make a dress for Middie as well. While I hemmed and hawed over the design, I remembered being charmed by the big-little outfits I made previously, so I just had to do it again. Nothing says I love Middies like dressing them like the (bigger) Blythes! Making twin outfits is definitely my wheelhouse. What do you think? I’m definitely thinking of making more dresses like the BlytheCon Vancouver ones. It helps me combine something I love and am fairly decent at (knitting) with something I’m not-so-good at (sewing) and they actually fit and look okay!

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!

Kitty Brighton’s wearing: top/chelleshocks (me!), capris/unknown.
Lydia Melbourne’s wearing: dress/chelleshocks (me!)
Moxie’s wearing: dress/chelleshocks (me!)
Primrose’s wearing: top/chelleshocks (me!), capris/Fruit Punch stock

To give my Middies a bit more love, I’ve decided that the first Monday of every month from now on will be Middie Monday!  Middie Monday will be posts about Middies – either new releases, things I’ve done with or created for my Middies recently, and I may even feature some favourite Middie crafters/sellers! The sky’s the limit, as long as it’s Middie related.

For the first Middie Monday, I wanted to share some photos of Miss Lydia Melbourne. I love that Blythes have been made with two-toned hair, especially with hugely contrasting colours like white and hot pink. It’s brighter than the pink of Cameo’s hair (she has stock Ichigo Heaven hair), which is a nice treat.

“I just thought you should know that today is going to be a bad day.”
“Why?”

I think new colour combinations of hair would be fun and exciting! I’m all for natural coloured hairs as well, but I do love it when they come out with something new as well. While Lydia is not the first Blythe that I’ve had with fantasy coloured hairs, she is the latest and the most interesting because of the two colours. Aside from her hair, I’m still learning about Lydia’s personality. I think it doesn’t really help that my self-induced challenge is to hand craft my Middies’ wardrobe, poor things. But overall she’s very sweet, I think – I just haven’t spent enough time with either of my Middies to figure out who they are yet (Blythe people will understand this, I hope). My hope that as Middie Monday progresses, I’ll figure out their personalities a little bit more.

“They got my drink wrong. Again.”
“…”
“2% milk instead of skim. Pretty sure one less espresso shot.”
“You’re too young for coffee.”
“That’s what you think.”

If you have any suggestions for a future Middie Monday post, please send me an email or use my Suggestions form!