Doll meet ideas ? Some cool ideas for some extra fun & mix it up!

I have actually been looking into planning a crafting event for my local community one of these days, so here's some of the brainstorming I've been doing so far.

Many people are not comfortable attending a meet-up in someone else's home, especially if they've never actually met the host. A lot of neighborhoods here have clubhouses that you can rent out for parties. That ended up being one venue option, especially since it turns out the cost is low or sometimes nothing but reserving it in advance. I guess that's where all of those HOA fees went!

Another option is having the craft meet at a local cafe. One cafe around me has a knitting club meeting there with all of their supplies once a week! Check with cafes before you decide to have the event there to make sure that they'll be able to handle the larger than average group.

15 or more people and a clubhouse would be the proper venue. With anything less than that, most cafes (at least around here) should be able to support the party with a proper notice. If it's just a regular meet, I would say cafe or restaurant- hands down. I think the largest doll meets are still 20-30 people max, and I've been to birthday parties with more attendees.

Supplies were the easiest part of all of this. I have yards and yards of untouched fabric and sewing notions, lots of pattern paper, and quite a few doll sewing books. Naturally, I use none of these things and just make eyes and wigs hahaha whoops. One big thing was putting together some simple project ideas and buying extra materials for that, so even if you've never crafted in your life, you'd still be able to have fun.

I love the raffle idea! Perhaps you could do something like multiple wigs in various sizes. That might be a little easier than something like a corset sewn for this one specific doll that has zero measurements in common with any other sculpts. Attendees can just ask to swap x with y amongst each other if they win a prize they can't use.

 

On the subject of not attending meets at people's homes, one for me, that really makes it near impossible is because of pet allergies. I have asthma and am allergic to cats AND dogs, so I can't be around either of them. So if a meet is held in a home with animals, I can't attend. I get really freaking sick, even with allergy meds and my inhaler on hand. So I always prefer meet ups that are held in public spaces.

Some of the meets I attended, like the super big ones, had photo walls and various props which were very fun to take pictures at and the large meets had a separate area where it was almost like a mall of just BJD props, clothing and accessories. Even a freebie table where people put items they didn't wanna hold onto anymore, for anyone to take. I found some very cute and well made yo-sd shoes on such a table.

 

These always go horribly wrong for someone. I have been waiting since June for the person I swapped with (in my local comm!) to get back to me. I've reminded them multiple times and have given up on this point. I refuse to do any crafting swaps now unless it's with close friends.

A similar but less risky idea might be to just have a swap meet with an emphasis on handmade items. This way, people who might not be the best crafters can still participate, no one ends up making something just to get nothing at all, and you don't have to deal with the awkwardness of people not liking what their swap partner made them.

 

I once helped organizing a meet for the participants of a secret santa that happened in my local community, and we wanted to have some games. A trivia game worked especially well - the hosts prepared a set of questions about the collections and characters of people who attended. It can be done with minimal research, very straightfoward questions if people don't know each other that well (like who owns a specific model and what is its name, for example), and more in-depth questions if people know each other well.

To add to the fun, we had prizes. We asked people to bring a small item as a donation to the meeting. It could be literally anything, since it could be used for dolls: cute hairclips, small props (one guy made tarot cards in scale!), handmade acessories (necklaces, bracelets, headwear, scarves, you name it). We gathered the itens on a table - people who got the answers right went to the table and got an item of their choice. Some people donated more than one item, so we had to prepare more questions to our trivia and even improvise on more games!

 

I've been attending meets for probably close to ten years now, here are a few ideas.

Locations:
-private homes (be sure to list any pets, smokers, perfume, incense or other possible allergens first)
-coffee shops
-library private rooms (often free or low cost, but usually require some sort of lesson/workshop and open to the public)
-parks
-restaurants (best if you can get a private party room with enough tables to leave dolls on one, and eat at another)
-tea house

Activities:
-photo shoots
-crafting
-sewing
-costumes
-workshops
-faceups
-lunch/potluck
-tea
-doll spa (stringing, cleaning, etc)
-swap meets/sales/trades
-holiday themes

I think the most important things to remember are cost, location and accommodations. Pick a place that is relatively easy to get to for all interested people. Keep costs low, as not everyone has the funds to spend just to hang out. Consider things like allergies, special dietary needs, enough space for everyone, reasonable accommodations for anyone with mobility issues, if anyone has a service animal and if that will be allowed, if you'll allow children to attend, and if it's a location where most people will need to drive to, make sure there is enough parking.

If you want to do a swap, instead of buying for a specific person, you could do a sort of "dirty santa" type thing where everyone brings one anonymous gift, draws a number and gets to choose from the pile in order. You could mark the size on the gifts so hopefully no one gets stuck with something they can't use, or people could swap afterwards.

 

Just throwing this in the pot, you could put together a photo story between the dolls. I am making one of my dolls shell a character from a mobile game and someone from my comm is making one the other characters (by pure coincidence). We will definitely be playing them off each other at the meets I think everyone would have a lot of fun coming up with little interactions between the dolls and it would make for a great photo album for the meet.

 

A calendar would be really nice I just wonder how much it would be for printing them out. I think Shutterfly will give a discount if you order a certain number.