Part of the challenge with dressing my Middies is knowing that I challenged myself to develop their wardrobe myself. This means no buying Middie-sized clothes. If I happen to buy a bag of doll clothes at a thrift store and something happens to fit Middies, that’s a little different (because I was likely aiming for something to fit the Neos), or if I receive a Middie-sized gift – that’s okay too! I don’t have to craft shoes by hand (thank goodness!), but anything clothing wise needs to be made by me for the most part.

Sometimes I kick myself for issuing myself this challenge. But the other day I was looking through one of my Japanese doll clothing pattern books and I pulled this one off the shelf:

I bought it when I was in Hong Kong in 2012 because I went searching for a craft store that carried Japanese pattern books (score!). It does have Middie-sized patterns, as well as Neo-sized items (and some even patterns for an even taller doll, but let’s pretend those don’t exist). Felt is relatively inexpensive, and I could learn how to hand sew a touch better (straighter!), so I decided that I would make the Middie-sized items from this book to start off with.

Fingers crossed I don’t end up poking my fingers too much with the needle!

The great thing about attending a BlytheCon is the ability to admire other peoples’ dolls, their amazing work with doll clothing, and just get to meet new people in general! I met so many people, it was really fun! Of course, this also led me to considering my ‘goals’ for my life involving dolls.

I would (still) really love to add a BL to my doll family in the future. I’m partial the ones who are naturally more boggled and wouldn’t mind Parco, Mondrian, Goldie, or Kozy… I saw a lot of Goldies in Vancouver, that was a lot of fun!

I would very much love to start creating 1/6th scale furniture. There was some amazing work in that beautiful room box at one of the vendor tables! While I cannot afford the beautiful pieces (right now…), it would be fun to dabble in creating my own play scale furniture! It’d be a lesson in futility, I’m sure, as well as a potential lesson of “leaving such ventures to the professionals”…

Just once, I’d love to attend a BlytheCon with maybe more than a hundred dollars for spending. Oh yes, Blythe On A Budget is real when it comes to me and attending BlytheCon (this was true for Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver). I am very much looking forward to a day when I can afford to buy some more pricey doll items, not because they’re expensive and because I could – but because I really admire the craftsmanship behind details like tiny pin tucks and hand-embroidered designs. That and I really do think that Prim would look darling in most anything. I’d also love to attend a Blythe event outside of North America at least once, I think it’d be a really good experience and, plus, I love to travel and it’d be a great excuse to experience another country, soak in some culture and try some local cuisine. I love having new experiences, and travelling is an excellent way to do that.

What are your Blythe goals?

Thank you so much to Dolly Cupcake for agreeing to giveaway a dress! If you’re curious about what will be won, I am too! The winner gets to choose their favourite colour and Dolly Cupcake will make the dress in that colour! Too awesome!

And if you didn’t win, you can still buy yourself something at the Dolly Cupcake Etsy shop with the coupon code BLYTHELIFELOVE for 10% off your purchase (valid until September 14, 2015).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations! Your email will be forwarded to Kirin, who will be in touch with you about your prize!

This time on Tiny Shoe Love, I wanted to show case some shoes that aren’t quite big enough for the feet of Neo or Kenner Blythe. I do have two Middies in my home that love shoes too (much to my wallet’s disapproval). When I got my first Middie, I was suddenly face with the fact that I had this doll that came with a pair of boots that fit better on Neos than her own feet – what was I going to do? She can’t go without shoes forever… or could she?

Luckily, eBay came to my rescue in the form of Kelly shoes lots! I read online that Kelly shoes can usually fit Middies well enough so I gave it a go. Thankfully, the shoes worked out okay! I got a few more pairs of Kelly shoes recently from a friend as a gift, so there’s even more Middie-sized shoes to go around! I always feel lucky to have made such wonderful friends in the doll community!

My favourites right now are these super cute flats that have a bow detail on them. I think they’re great! I have them in blue and red only for now. I really like them though because they’re simple enough that they don’t distract from the outfits, but they also have a cute detail that I really like. I own flats for my own feet with bows, so I may be a little biased! At this time I only have a tiny amount of shoes just for the Middie girls, just six pairs for two sets feet! Hopefully that changes in the future – I’d love to get them shoes in white, black, and brown (my usual go-to shoe colours for their bigger counterparts).

Tiny Shoe Love is a feature on BlytheLife.com to showcase and share doll shoes that grace Michelle’s picky dolls’ feet. We love tiny shoes in this house, and we hope you do too!

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

Dear Santa,

I am very pleased to be writing to you because Christmas has come early this year! Not only did I not have to get up at 5am to help set-up for BlytheCon (because I really think that beauty sleep is more important than a party), I also got some dresses! Michelle says that she bought them with me in mind – and I fully intend to keep it that way. (Michelle: Please, nobody tell her that one of the dresses came from my goodie bag!)

Not only that, I didn’t get a new sister! I’m so excited that you really listened to me. (Michelle: Please, nobody tell her that I actually did bring a new dolly home – the custom Petite Blythe by I.G. Sirenita from the raffle! Apologies for the photo taken in poor light!)

However, I would still very much appreciate it if you, Rudolph, and the rest of your reindeer gang could be very kind in sending me some sort of ice floe. I’d still like to send Eden and Prim out into open waters on one.

Sophie is a mostly stock Cappuccino Chat that came to live with me in June 2009. She loves shoes, new clothes, playing with her hair, fashion, magazines full of fluff and shopping. She aspires to be a model and would like to model for some of the ‘great’ dolly fashion houses one day.

Sophie’s wearing: dress/Dollies Love Dresses, tights/Cool Cat.