A Struggle with Clothes

Tennis shoes are just... just evil. I've got some MSD sized ones and they are just the biggest PAIN to tie. I basically traded them to my friend for a pair of little slip on ones.

 

Just one word: Dollheart.

Two of my boys have been in Dollheart outfits since I got them two years ago. I think I might actually have to cut them out of them. My god... the buttons!

 

Zero, my Soom Namu, is wearing a Ringdoll outfit. Its shirt doesn't stretch & it doesn't include any opening down the back.... so I had to remove his arm to get it on him. I think he's been in that outfit for 2 years now. But he's fabulous in it, looks so perfect-- and he still looks happy in it-- so it's all good.


PS. Solution for those ittybitty DollHeart buttons: They used to drive me mad too, until I discovered that the job can be tamed by using a button-hook. The only thing I've found small enough for DollHeart buttons is one of those teensy crochet hooks that comes with a hair-frosting kit! Or, I suppose if you're a lacemaker & have an xxx-small crochet hook in the house, that'd work too. Either way, do make the investment-- it will change your whole attitude towards tiny buttons. And then your dolls can look effortlessly DollHearty fabulous, and then, finally, you can look upon them without thinking the word "bloodshed".

 

omg that Ringdoll outfit...I have it too, the only way I can get it on is to dislocate both arms (the doll's, not mine) and balance the shoulder balls on top the shoulders having him hold his arms straight up. Then the shirt can be tugged on without actually removing any parts. Except his headback. And he has a tiny head!!! BIGGEST PAIN EVER.

I continue to use it though! So it must not be too bad XD

 

I have had my share of problems with dressing and undressing dolls, and yes, usually with Dollheart outfits. I'm willing to take off hands to put clothes on, since I realize my F-15's hands are wider than the standard hands. I will take off heads if I have to, but I don't like to.

I found that using tweezers helps with the tiny buttons, but it is still tedious. I may have to try the crochet hook idea.

 

Srsly - you have to really want it. If you want it bad enough, you make it fly. ;;^^ And that particular outfit is a great one!! But I think it's so bizarre to have a shirt made of a non-stretchy fabric which offers no openings at all. Even Ringdoll Teens must have to take their bodies apart to get in there. I usually take all my dolls' heads off for dressing anyway, so headlessness is no problem, and I don't even mind taking the hands off... but I expect to be able to dress the doll while leaving all his major extremities on!

Am currently tackling an Iplehouse SID sweater that won't go on SID torsos without shoulder-removal, either. They swear it can be done, but I call shenanigans. Iplehouse clothes look great once you get them on, but they do often make me tear my hair with rage, and would it kill them to make SID shoes that actually fit SID feet?

 

Yes! Clothes are almost always a struggle. I have a lot of Dollheart outfits, and those tiny buttons drive me insane. I tend to leave my dolls in the same outfit for a long time, partly because changing them is a hassle and partly to save money. My worst struggle ever was getting the default pants on my Crobidoll Cinderella Tei. His feet were a bit too big for the pants leg to go through easily, but I finally got them on. The sad thing is that I plan to leave those pants on him forever. When I changed his outfit, I stuck the new pants over his old ones.

 

Wow, I'd never really realized clothing could be so difficult! I sew almost all of my own BJD's clothing, so I generally make it with dressing and undressing considerations for the specific doll I'm sewing for right off the bat.

That said, the most difficult clothing that I own for my dolls is the Iplehouse Tokyo Stories kimono set for my Asa. I like to have it look as close as possible to a real kimono...but the obi was not really designed with folds of fabric in mind...either way, it takes me literally about two hours to dress Nightingale up. Since it is a company fullset, lined in black, delicate fabric however, I rarely leave her dressed in it for more than a few hours. I wouldn't want it to stain her, and I don't want to wash it either. >_>

 

Ooh, good shout on the crochet hook/hair dyeing device for the weeny buttons. Usually I just use my teeth and end up almost dislocating my jaw.

I think, on reflection, the hardest thing I've had to put on were these insane high-heeled shoes. They don't have zips or anything: they're just a long tube of PVC hellishness. I actually had to mod my boy's feet to get them on, and can only do it when I'm simultaneously watching TV so my subconscious can patiently work on them and allow my conscious mind to not go completely round the bend. It takes about half an hour to get just one shoe on. And even longer to get them off. The first time I succeeded quite quickly in wrenching the shoe off, only to discover I had left his foot inside it. *sigh*

 

Hehe, I think I just ordered those same boots (Mint on card?)! They look superfoxy, but with a tight PVC upper & no zipper, I expect a struggle. And possibly a Xanax refill.

(Buttonhook = Slip hook through buttonhole first. Catch the hook underneath the button on other side. Use a kind of twisting motion, rather than a straight pulling motion, to sorta 'scoop' the button through the hole, one edge at a time. Pulling too hard on the threads that attach the button is not good. Patience still required. ^^)

 

Wow, I can't imagine tying a doll-sized tie! I've tried sewing my girls things with tiny buttons, but ended up throwing them out from frustration (plus I didn't hem them and they were a general mess.)

I guess my worst experience with pre-made clothes was trying to put a Liv-doll sweater on my Fdoll Amber. Everything else fits nicely, but the long-sleeve sweater is meant for dolls with much tinier hands, and I didn't want to take her hands off because I'm not sure how to do it without the arms completely un-stringing

 

When my Marc had hooves, I ended up just drafting a pattern to make pants with slits. Removing those hooves was actually a hassle. I ended up selling the hooves, but not because they were a hassle. I didn't have funds to blush them.

I recently had a swap partner whose dolly had hooves. So I dug out the pattern, and voila, no hoof removal required. XD

I find it's a real pain having to remove heads to dress a doll. Only because I never use the latchhook tool I have...when I should, and then it's never out and close by when I need it. xD

My SD body should be home before Xmas...so I will find out then how it is to dress, make clothes for, and find clothes for a souldoll double jointed body. XD Oh joy~! *sarcasm, of course*

 

You are all making want those boots =_=
not sure they'd fit my boys 8+cm foot though.

I actually bought that outfit from someone with a Ringdoll who said it didn't even fit her boy XD
I guess they do need parts removed!
It should come with the warning "some dis-assembly required"...

 

I have to improvise dressing tools or I'd never change my kids' clothes. They're lucky I figured out that I can use a mini popsicle stick as a shoehorn, a rug latch hook for buttons and tweezers for tiny hooks. Pretty sad that I keep a *toolbox* in the dolls' closet because I'm so inept!

 

Any job requires the right toolbox-- for the expert as well as we inept! Especially any job that involves tiny objects and tiny fasteners. I keep a latch-hook for pulling shirt-cuffs through tight sleeves, too... and that micro-crochet-hook for buttons... tweezers, for everything... needlenose pliers, for everything else... and for a shoe-horn, the little plastic head-remover tool that comes with my electric toothbrush... xD And the usual hooks & pullers that make doll dismemberment easy. It's just like in the kitchen: if there's a single-use gadget that will make my life easier & reduce the amount of swearing, I am all for it.

 

My Victorica is a pain in the ass xD I even ruined her lashes to get her in her dress...

 

The original, white resin incarnation of Gaia (my Elf Lishe-) stayed in her eggshell-colored Fer dress and jacket for a good month after I got it, because I had such a heck of a time with all those tiny buttons.

Miss Snow (my regular, human Lishe-) has been in her furisode for even longer. It took me over an hour to get that outfit on her properly and I'm in no hurry to remove it. Tsung-li's formal Chinese costume was almost as bad, but I ended up taking that one off of him and repacking it almost immediately because some of the bits are fragile enough to make me paranoid about damage.

 

Elwing's corset kills me every time i put it on my girl.... it's so well made and it is put on like the human one, but my girl is made of resin lol
spent like half an hour to loose the lace, put my girl in, and spent like half an hour again to tighten and adjust it! so exhausted *dead*

 

People all these stories are reason why regardless of if it falls off of her half the time or not my Sanya is wearing American girl jackets for her hunting clothes in photographs....

And also the reason why my favorite fabric type to use is sock fabric....Socks are forgiving...Socks have a natural give...Socks when made into pants go onto my boys arse and STAYS on his arse. (His school uniform shirt is gonna go any day now if I undo the snaps and take it off of him. His pants somehow decided to be nice and be the right size for his keister....)

I swear my girls behave like angels clothes wise. Things go on, look adorable but my guys?

They've been going commando for almost a year now and I don't think that's gonna change any time soon.

Why?

Somehow their butts either magically shrink somehow or magically become too big for whatever I made...Even after spending an hour trying it on and off through out the sewing process.

Sewing machine is not far away...That's the saving grace...I will be barely hand sewing anything.

If I hand sew it it better damn well fit because I made it no company to blame! (I barely buy my dolls ANYTHING anymore....If I want it I make it...Shoes, eyes, wig that's it the rest I'm on my own when it comes to a new dollieh.)

 

This thread is so entertaining.

My dolls are almost always in kimono/Oriental outfits, so I have the opposite problem, dealing with very flowing, slippery clothes. Especially when the outfit was sized to a chubbier doll. I sure don't appreciate spending half my time posing the doll, and the other half practically re-dressing it because everything has come loose or fallen off!

And I do get annoyed with unfinished kimono sleeves: I seem to be always fishing for a hand that has gotten lost in the billowy sleeve.