Sometimes I feel like a bad Middie owner because I’m still determined to craft most of their wardrobe by myself, despite the fact that I have been very busy since the arrival of my first Middie (Kitty Brighton – Jackie Ramone) and I’ve made them a small handful of items. And the ones that I have made aren’t even very good.

As most of my belongings are currently packed away, Kitty Brighton and Lydia Melbourne are both miffed and tucked away, waiting to be moved to the new BlytheLife HQ – I thought I would share some photos of my Middies! New photos will be coming soon – after the move!

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!

Thirteen months of Middie Monday! Kitty Brighton and Lydia Melbourne are both super pleased that you like Middies (or at least haven’t complained loudly about this feature). What they are not pleased about is the fact that I’ve been eyeing one of the recent Middie releases (Rampion of the Valley). I’m a huge fan of the Disney movie Tangled and Rampion of the Valley reminds me a lot of Rapunzel. From the long (long!) golden hair, to the dress, and the flowers. All she needs is a frying pan and she’d be exactly like Rapunzel from Tangled. Poor Kitty and Lydia.

Chances are really good that I won’t be adding a third Middie to the doll family though, seeing as I struggle as it is to clothe and provide shoes for the two that I have. This is ultimately a First World Middie Problem because I could just start buying clothes for them *ahem*, but that would defeat the purpose of my goal of creating the bulk of their wardrobe. Speaking of which, I really ought to craft some more for them… Maybe tomorrow? Or the day after?

Heart of my Middie hearts. They haven’t gotten a change in clothes in ages.

We’ll see. They’re really not happy with the fact that I knit for them. Apparently it’s ~*~summer~*~ and therefore they should dress accordingly. I keep reminding them that they don’t actually feel temperature changes and they got a little huffy with me…

What Middie is currently tickling your fancy? Do you think Rampion of the Valley looks like Rapunzel from Tangled too?

Kitty Brighton’s wearing: dress/made by me (chelleshocks).
Lydia Melbourne’s wearing: dress/Endangered Sissy.

I was chatting with a doll friend recently (who asked to remain anonymous) and we were talking about Middies, and then she said this gem:

I don’t really get the point of them.

The point? The point is that they’re cute! They’re adorable and pocket-sized! They have even tinier feet that demands a tiny shoe collection all to themselves! But I don’t throw all of these points at her, instead I simply go “What do you mean?” – the response I got wasn’t surprising, but was a good point.

“I’m worth every penny!”

On a good day, a Middie costs roughly the same as a Neo Blythe – but she doesn’t have the same characteristics as a Blythe. For instance, a Middie doesn’t have the famed changing eyes that a Blythe has, instead she has a dial and can just move her eyes from side to side (much like a Pullip). The functionality isn’t the same as one doll has one set of eyes, the other has four.

Isn’t the whole point of Blythe is to have the oversized head and the changing eyes?

I thought about this – and I thought it was a yes and no type of answer to that question. Yes, the classic (vintage) Blythe was well known (and feared by children?) for having the changing eye colours. That’s also one of the features that drew me to her when I first discovered Blythe on the internet because it was quirky, weird, and cute. But I tend to consider Middie to be a different doll altogether. Sure, she shares a lot of similar qualities with Blythe (large head to body radio, similar facial features), but she’s not a smaller version of her big sister.

Middie is her own doll-self (so to speak). After all, nobody looks at Petites and go “Ugh, she doesn’t have changing eyes like Blythe does!”.

It’s the eleventh month of Middie Monday, which means May will be the one year mark since I started this in an attempt to draw more attention (and to pay more attention) to Middies. I’m not sure if I’m going to do anything special for Middie Monday #12 – let me know below in the comments if you think it should be something special!

In the mean time, I’ve been loving the idea of adding a third Middie to the family. I think the maximum number of Middies I would have/want would be five. Five is not an arbitrary number, if you think about it. Kitty Brighton and Lydia Melbourne take their first names from the sisters in Pride and Prejudice. As one might recall, there are five Bennet sisters, which means there are still three more names to be used (Elizabeth, Jane, and Mary). Before I started this naming scheme for the Middies, I already have a Bennett (Margaret Meets Ladybug, EBL) and a Tertiary Jane (Simply Peppermint, RBL) so I’m not sure if I’d used Jane for a Middie. Which means I have room for two more Middies.

But I recently made a big purchase that was not doll related (a big shocker, I know!), which means that acquiring a new Middie will have to wait a while. This post is a bit of a ramble about Middies, but I do love them quite a bit. I wish I didn’t though, since it can be hard to find nice clothes for them as a lot of Etsy/Artfire sellers don’t make clothes for Middies when they do for the Blythes.

A few questions for you all:

1. How did you come up with the names for your Middies? And…
2. What do you think I should do for Middie Monday #12? (And no, I will not be doing a giveaway for a Middie doll!)

Sometimes I look at my Middies and wonder what on earth I was thinking when I decided that introducing a new size of doll into my doll family was a great idea. This is mostly because it’s hard to dress them sometimes. On occasion I wind up making them sometime, but it’s almost never anything sewn because I’m bad enough at attempting to sew in straight lines for the full-sized Blythes – it’s hardly going to happen for the Middies (or… the Petites). But I am always wrong with the idea that Middies aren’t a great idea, because they are – they’re here and they’re here to stay.

Middies have a lot of positive points going for them, if you’re thinking of getting your own Middie:

• They are adorable and pocket/purse friendly. Not as pocket/purse friendly as a Petite, but they’re big enough that you’re not likely to lose them.
• They have small feet – this means that you can justify shopping for even more doll shoes because the ones that feet Blythe or Licca feet will not feel Middie-sized feet.
• They have small bodies. If you knit or sew, it doesn’t take that much yarn or fabric to craft something for them.
• The head tilt. Super adorable, super cute, reminds me of a little kitten or puppy tilting their head while watching you eat with that “Are you sure you’re going to finish that?” look.
• You can dress them up as twins with their ‘big’ sisters. (I should never be allowed to dress real children for photo shoots, it’d be matching outfits all the time.)

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!