A Struggle with Clothes

The only consolation to clothing-struggles is a big one, though. If you spend half your playtime struggling to get the doll dressed, and then you spend half your photography-time fixing clothes that have gone awry.... but then you look at the photo results, and they make you go "Oo~oooh! ".... Then you know it has all been worth it!

I would rather spend that time struggling to get the teeny buttons all done up perfectly & have my doll look Fabulous, than resort to an easier-to-wear garment that looks like doll-clothes. Thus, the Eternal Struggle will continue. ^^

 

;-; clothes are the friggen hardest to find for long legged 1/3 boys my iplehouse boy always has his ass crack showing! i always have to pull his shirt down and i can only afford the cheapest of dolls clothes because my father is strict.... also have you ever found yourself cringing? i did when i almost pulled and twisted his whole arm off trying to get his arm in the damn shirt! just because its not a shirt that opens up to easily dress them.

 

this is why you learn to sew in this hobby Although...pants are a pain to make.

 

yeah.... i tried sowing in year 8 (seems like centuries ago now) and i sucked at it.... also where i live there is no good material and no patterns unless you have some advice for me?

 

I've always made my own patterns because I'm too cheap to buy them. For pants, the easiest thing to do is get a hold of stretchy materials. (Apparently many people go to thrift stores for fabric supplies )

 

well my aunty and i were planning to make clothes myself but then when i bought some cheap dolls clothes that dad did let me buy she was blown away by the detail and craftsmanship of the clothes she gave up on the spot.... =w=; and im a noob at sowing and technical jargon of patterns and stuff.... =w=;; seriously this crap town i live in has nothing. :I

 

You're absolutely right, it IS worth all that effort in the end to see the doll looking fabulous. I guess that's why we're all still complaining about it! (I suppose that's why some folks bother to get dressed and primped up to the sixes and nines despite the hassle -- it's all about the immortal photos, isn't it? )

 

That perfectly describes the town I live in, except I can order online (although I have a real aversion to buying fabric online) The only fabric store I have is a quilting store run by old ladies that I feel so awkward going into because I'm about 50 yrs younger then anyone else (and I'm almost 30)

 

hahaha i have a spotlight where i am but they dont have what im looking for in fabrics :/ and if i went there to that place id feel weird too since im only 21 xD;

 

Most of my girls wear fairly simple dresses so there isn't too much of an issue. I've left my dolls in the same clothes for months, because once I start changing one, I change most of them, and that takes a lot of time. If I know it won't stain, I don't worry about it too much.

 

It took both me and my wife to dress my Ringdoll Frankenstein in his default outfit. We had to rip the lace leggings to get them on, and there was no way for the armlets to go on his forearms like they were shown in the picture. Kind of disappointing. But he's got weird body parts (bolts and things) so it's not like he will ever need to be undressed or redressed, so I guess it's okay. And the armlets sucked anyway.

 

Yeah, well, since I hardly ever take pics of my dolls - I'm not a huge pic-taker or photo-story-maker - I also hardly ever change my dolls' clothes. It'll happen when they get new ones and those, they'll wear for months to come (until they either get more new clothes or I tire of their look). It's just such a hassle, especially with the big boys, to get them into clothes ... and don't get me started on those tiny lace-up boots I got for my Lumedoll Lucas. Of course, you have to un-lace them to get them off. And the holes and the laces are both in-scale ... So since I rarely ever take pics, I just feel I got better things to do with my time than change my dolls' clothes a lot.

 

The fantasy outfits are the worst... I swear, some of the clothing designers have never actually tried to put these clothes on the dolls they're made for.

 

You don't HAVE to take pictures of your doll to get that same feeling of "Oo~ooh " when that doll looks so fabulous because you finally got every hair and button in place. You never even have to show another human being. It's its own reward.

And you don't ever have to CHANGE your doll's clothing to get that feeling, either-- if you've just spent 45 minutes with a buttonhook or removed an arm, chances are that doll is gonna be wearing that outfit for a good damn long time. My Namu has been wearing that impossible Ringdoll outfit for almost 2 years now, and every time I walk past his shelf, I still say "Zero, you look so effing cool".

(Laceup boots particularly seem to be their own reward, for some reason. They're not rocket science to do, they just take tweezers and a little patience, but they have big effect. When people stop to admire your doll's shoes, & they notice that there is no zipper and the laces are in scale, even total strangers go "Oo~ooh ")

 

I regularly change the outfits on my dolls, just because I get bored easily (and also because they are dressed in real-people-clothes and I think it is just weird if they would wear the same outfit in every pic I take). There was a certain MSD-outfit that I wanted to try on Evelyn, but the jacket sleeves were so damn snug I had to remove her hands and practically dislocate her shoulders and elbows and I still couldn't quite get it on. It took me over an hour just to get that part on and this was one of those outfits that have many many parts, lol. When I was done I didn't even like the look of it, but I wasn't going to take it off again straight away... I gave it two days, until I saw her sitting there, barefoot (none of my shoes turned out to match) and looking utterly miserable. She wears jeans and a furry hoodie now and we are both much, much happier!

 

I have clothing issues, but no company to blame them on (mostly). I sew, so I make most of my own clothes, but my DF guy has a pair of DZ pants that once they're ON look fantastic and fit fine... Its getting them there that's such a hassle, because he has really big thighs and bum and it takes some effort to worm the waist up over them. Other than that and the fact that I have issues with pants making (lets not talk about waists not sitting properly, there is a reason I never photograph them from the back unless they wear a jacket or long shirt...) and fasteners. I don't use buttons or zippers because I can't get them in the clothes! I can't do button-holes, I never learned. Snaps and velcro and wide neck or V-neck shirts are my friends.

 

And that's what it's al about isn't it. That slim hoodie that I need to remove my doll's arms for to get on properly looks incredible on her. It's near-perfectly in-scale. It makes her look like a miniature human, as if she could start breathing any moment.
That's why I love the high quality clothes so much, because while I love my dolls dearly it is often the clothes that give that finishing touch. The more in-scale the clothes, the more realistic the doll itself looks.
If I need to remove arms and head and hands to get that effect, then so be it.

 

I bought an outfit off of someone at a doll meet-up for Gwyn (Resinsoul Yao). The outfit is from Fairyland and it fits well. But in order to get it on/off you have to remove her hands... I'm not very familiar with stringing dolls so I had someone at the meet-up put it on her for me. She'll probably never leave that outfit, lol! But I'm fine with that because I love that outfit on her so much. I don't believe I could find anything I like better on her.

 

I have a pair of knee high lace up boots for a doll's cosplay outfit. The boots are perfect for the outfit, but they literally only lace up- no zipper. So while they are more accurate that way, they take about 45 mins to put on. They never get worn aside from with that cosplay outfit for that reason

 

I’ll admit it—I have trouble getting their clothes on period. I’m always being super gentle because I am afraid of hurting them and sometimes you really have to fight to get their clothes on—I noticed the hardest to get on are pants and sometimes dresses—I have two dolls that it is a real struggle to snap the back of their dress shut.