How do you choose your clothing?

That's horrible. Were you able to get things straightened out or do the suits sit in a box shoved out of the way where you try to forget about them? You would think they would check with you first before creating such a monstrosity of bad taste.

 

Basically, I shouldn't have assumed the maker would understand that I intended one fabric for each suit, and the maker shouldn't have assumed that I wanted all three fabrics in each suit, so it was a six-of-one, half-a-dozen of the other situation.

There wasn't enough fabric ot cut new garments from and the maker wasn't willing to unpick the jackets that were already made and swap out panels to make them all the same fabric. The waistcoats and the britches are useable as individual garments, but not combined as suits, so my boys do wear those, but the jackets with mismatched panels sit unused.

Teddy

 

I agree with other commenters in saying that I go by my doll’s personality or key elements from their story. I also tend to lean on a story aesthetic for my tinies because they’re in a group together. I prefer to search for clothes extensively before I order to make sure I’ve found the best pieces for their outfits. I’m also a fan of making their clothes by hand should I find that I can’t find a specific piece I need or dyeing something that is nearly perfect the right color.

 

I have a tendency towards casual modern clothing for my dolls. I had no idea where to start initially but finally found a few Etsy shops selling items I liked that are made to fit specific dolls. I still don't really know where to find things such as clothes for Iplehouse EID and SID dolls. I started out buying some clothes from Legend Doll and Dollmore (I think?) because I didn't know where else to look. Some of the clothing I bought didn't quite fit right though. That's always very disappointing. I prefer to have clothes and shoes made specifically for each doll. I'm waiting on a couple of orders from Etsy for made to measure items.

 

That was my original intention but, here I am, a number of yers on, and i haven't gotten aroudn to doing it yet, This is thevery reason I commissioned the suits in the first pace - I could make them myself but I don't get around to it and I have even less enthusiasm for sewing boy clothes.

I did get the suits made (in different fabrics) by another very talented needlewoman a few years later, so my boys got their Norfolk suits anyway (Bracken (RML R20J/Volks SD10) Alphie (CP Luts Delf Chiwoo) and Jean-Claude (Volks School A SD13) in Norfolk suits commissioned from the fabulous Raj at Sewing Box Designs)

Teddy

 

They look very dandy. I'm glad you got some nice outfits in the end.

 

I sew all my BJD clothes, some of my OT doll/figures clothes as well, but I am normally limited by fabrics I can purchase. I am vegan, I've been all my life and have no plans to change that at my old age. I am not willing to use any fabrics that are not 100% free from animal-derived materials, so I do have some limited choices to work with from the start. I live in the middle of nowhere, and hate paying for s/h when it comes to potentially heavy stuff, so I don't purchase fabric online so that's another limiting factor. I am also limited by color choices, I dress only in black IRL, so I feel like my dolls would only feel comfortable wearing black as well (I'm a weirdo, so that's that). I used to sew quite a bit when I first got into the hobby and got my first BJD hybrid, around a million years ago (it seems that way to me, but it's only been 15-16+ years). However, that changed a I got my fourth and fifth dolls...


I like my dolls' clothes to look in-scale and detailed; I have dolls based on ancient (deranged) vampire-characters, Japanese video games and anime based-characters. So, most of the outfits I would need to sew would be pretty hard for someone like me, who knows nothing about sewing. Since I've gotten much older, I've kind of stopped sewing, sometimes I get the urge to make clothes for my dolls randomly, but then I realize I could be doing something more productive like staring blindly at the celling for countless hours, so I kind of procrastinate and end up not getting anything done. DX It's kind of a pain, because I enjoy sewing by hand but most of my BJD are large, so it takes for ever to get any larger than 1:6 outfits by hand, and sewing on my sewing-machine is a another pain in the gut (I suck and always have to pull the bobbing out, or remove birds-nest). I'm not good enough to sew on the machine for smaller dolls, but too lazy to sew by hand for my larger ones. (:

 

I usually choose my clothing through Etsy or Instagram. Facebook BJD groups also have sellers who list the clothing they make

 

This is pretty much exactly it for myself as well! My dolls all have very specific characters, and very few of them are able to share styles, let alone individual clothing pieces. So obviously I spend a lot of my time sewing for them.

 

I always intend to go based on my characters but sometimes I just get swayed by what I like hahaha.
Its especially easy for me to pick whatever at the moment because my dolls only have very loosely defined characters.

I'm contemplated purchasing a mystery bag for my YoSD before since pretty much anything goes for her xD

 

I made them myself based on my doll’s character. Sometimes I also like to put them into cosplay.

 

When I see a new doll appear, my brain will have some inspiration about the style of the doll. How can I dress him up? What kind of story setting does he have? These are the questions I think about. I am very happy when I think about them. When I am sure, I will look for clothes that meet my requirements in the market (which is why I have high requirements for clothes. I will only buy clothes that meet the requirements of my heart) if I can't find it all the time, I will try to customize it (but customization is really expensive. And sometimes the dresser can't accurately understand what you're thinking.) so now I'm going to develop my own hands-on ability.

 

Well, my method is to write background for my dolls first. I set around 3 backgrounds (fantasy, cyberpunk and ancient egypt)
Put all my dolls in these backgrounds and make a relation chart for them, and then starting buying clothes and accessories.

 

It's definitely different for each doll... I like a lot of variety.

With Vince, he'll wear anything, and so all I really think about is whether or not something fits. I mostly don't go looking for specific pieces for him, it's about what items or what fabrics catch my eye. He's got stuff I've bought and stuff I've made or had made, but his wardrobe is very haphazardly built. Because Party Martian is so small and not in scale with other dolls, he also has kind of a 'whatever fits' wardrobe...

With Pete, I really stick to an aesthetic and palette-- his style is modern, femme but relaxed, a lot of athleisure, mostly pink and white. I'm a lot pickier with him and I do look for specific pieces sometimes, but if something fits his look I've picked stuff up on a whim. It's just a lot more purposeful in general, and even the things I pick up because I see them available, it's because they suit him. Marigold is in the same vein-- she's got some things that are cute just to keep her from being naked in the meantime, but I have an aesthetic firmly in mind when I actually search for either clothing or fabric.

And then Jack, who I'm waiting on, is on the other end of the spectrum from Vince, where everything he's going to have is going to be very specific.

 

All my doll clothes are comissioned, I basically like clothes while looking at aliexpress (for myself usually) and I think “yea this clothes would fit my baby” and I make a commission to my local tailor It is also cheaper than store bought doll clothes so yeah I do it this way

 

This thread has made me realise that I will have less time than ideas and I am now thinking what to do about it

But it's, nonetheless, great topic @Cainhurst

I generally know that I love cute white frills, rococo and Gothic styles the most. So I have a girl for each of these. One looks better in black clothes, another in rococo and pastel and I yet have to get down to making some white/creme clothes

I sew the clothes I own (aside from e.g. print tops that I used to like and now don't care for or jackets that have some studs in them, etc.). So when you sew or craft, generally, crafting AND collecting the craft supplies are two different hobbies lol And I often go online or go to brick and mortar fabric stores and look to find something beautiful and I just buy it.

I usually go for pure cotton, because I love sewing with it and how well it keeps the shape on this scale. I just generally love cotton, also for myself. So once I find some nicely patterned fabric, I buy a piece.

Sometimes, I have some plans beforehand. And then I look for a specific (usually plain, not patterned) fabric to sew the piece I have in mind.

And often I segregate through my fabric and I give away some and I tuck small cards with sketches or names of planned clothes in between the folds of a given fabric I keep. Often, however, I change my plans. For instance, I may have a pink, white-polka dotted fabric and say it's a 'shirt for doll X' and once I get down to handling this piece of fabric, I realise I no longer even own this doll

But I love sewing. I used to be into trading or selling my creations straight from under the needle, but it's when I was a student and money was tough. Now I don't care for it anymore and I just want to make the clothes I need specifically for my dolls. That being said, I haven't done any new piece in several months xD I have other priorities going on right now.

 

I preordered two dolls based off of anime/manga characters that include the military uniform they wear in the anime. Although they don’t wear casual clothes too often in the anime, there are several real-world promotional tie-ups and spinoffs that portray the characters in different outfits so my plan is to try to recreate as many of those outfits as possible. For example, in one of the mobile game spinoffs, the characters have a “Japanese New Year’s Shrine” outfit (which they wouldn’t wear in the canon anime storyline, but still fit their personality), so I’ve ordered accessories like geta and a doll-sized fox mask, and am keeping an eye out for materials or ready-made clothes that are close to those outfits. So for me, I have a specific outfit in mind rather than a general aesthetic.

Incidentally, I signed up for a sewing class at the local community college and bought a brand new sewing machine at the beginning of this year with the goal of learning how to sew so I could sew doll clothes. Then COVID-19 happened and my class was put on hold indefinitely, so I still don’t know how to sew yet. My dolls still haven’t shipped to me yet either (presumably also because of current events) so maybe I’ll be able to self-learn how to sew some basic pants for them by the time they arrive

 

Hmm.
I'd say, I look online and in irl wherever I find clothes and items that will work with the image I have for that particular doll.
Whether I'm buying tons of doll clothes in the target or walmart, because yes, I know it's limited in some ways.
Yes, I know all of it is modern, and no matter what you do, it will be baggy on a Sd. As for a dear sd, don't have one, so I can't experiment that way.
Otherwise, I stalk Y!Japan Auction, browse Etsy for things that only an artisan could give me, shop on doll specific sites, or pray ebay will work out....

That's with clothes, shoes, etc. I am still very limited in the pool that is accessories.....