Paying more for your Doll's clothing than your own....

I actually have the tendency to buy clothes for dolls or stuffed animals or pets but not for myself. I get hand me downs from brother, so more like hand me ups, or I just tailor my own clothes.

 

I'm into lolita fashion so I have spent up to 200$ on a single dress and considered it a bargain but I have slowed down my spending significantly. And outside of lolita I buy all of my clothes from thrift stores. So their always cheap. I refuse to pay a lot for something unless it's really really cool. Though I've never spent much nore do I intend to spend much on my doll. I'd love handmade things and supporting other artists, the problem is I can make most of it myself. Oxo So I do... even wigs eyes and shoes. *shrug* Not a bad thing I hope. Especially since I'm considering selling my lolita for more dolls....

 

I do spend more on my dolls than myself, for several reasons:

-There are 16 dolls, one me. Each doll gets their own wardrobe, they only share very basic pieces like jeans or blank tshirts.

-They're standard sizes, so finding things to fit is easier. I'm a weird size and standard clothing in regular stores is hard to fit me. Something is always wrong with it! Bust is too small, sleeves are huge, waist is too high or too low, curves are in the wrong places...my dolls don't have this problem. Buying for myself often results in tears, buying for them is fun.

-When I do find clothes for myself, they're usually mass produced and I can buy them at a local store, off the rack. I can also shop at discounted stores for myself. Doll clothes are a niche hobby, and there aren't local stores for it, so I have to pay shipping as well as full price, since I haven't really found any clearance bjd stores.

-I am completely spoiled on doll clothes. After buying from places like TTYA, Luts and Nine9 Style, I want my dolls' jeans to be every bit as details as a human pair, complete with zippers or button/snap fly, all pockets, fading in the right place, high quality denim, realistic proportions and tiny little top stitching detail. Which means a pair of jeans for my dolls is usually around $50 or more. The only jeans I've found that seem to fit me right are about $20.

-I sew for my dolls. I know how hard it can be to find in scale prints, fabric thin enough to not be bulky but thick enough to hold up, and tiny buttons. I know how hard it is to sew teeny tiny pieces together with a machine, especially YoSD and smaller. Hand sewing and looking professional is even harder. The people who do this for a living deserve to be paid for their hard work and talent. I would much much rather pay someone else to make a dress for my 12cm girl than to attempt it myself! Also, most people who are selling doll clothes have had to make the patterns themselves, unlike human clothing where millions of patterns are easily available. So if you're commissioning someone, you're likely also paying for the time for them to draft a pattern.

 

Sewing small is a challenge, and people who do it deserve to get paid for their work. Yeah, that means I pay as much or more for a doll outfit than I would one of my own, but they're also not going to wear things out as quickly since they obviously don't sweat or move around as much in their clothes, and they don't need to change as often.

 

I've noticed that too!
And to be honest I hate paying a lot of money for my own clothes and I hate paying even more for doll clothes! x)
But I'm also cheap haha. Also, I don't know about you but I think buying doll clothes seems like a lot of money all at once, because I like to buy a lot of stuff rather than just one thing.


Although I do agree that making doll clothes is hardwork and the people that make them do deserve the money, I'm just tight! x)

 

That is so true! Hahaha! I think about this all the time! I could have bought myself some BOMB outfits and I would be fresh to death with the money that I have spent on my dolls clothes!!! I think the reason why doll clothes are so expensive is because of all the small details that go into these outfits. Especially if you buy off of etsy alot, many of the sellers on there make the clothes themselves and it takes alot of time, effort and skill to put together little outfits for dolls. So it's understandable, but at the same time it is ridiculous that I have not limit myself more when it comes to doll clothes hahahaha. BUT don't you just love buying clothes for the dolls? The dolls look so cute in their new outfits its like how can you not? hahahaa

 

i've never bought clothing for any of my dolls and most of the fabric i use to make the clothing is recycled anyways so... I hate buying clothes in general for my self but the amount of money spent on doll clothes (or rather fabric to make clothes) is still probably less than the almost non existent amount i spend on myself lol

 

I don't mind paying more for my dolls' clothes than my own, considering I don't care about fashion and I'm still wearing stuff from high school six years out. Besides, I only like my dolls to wear extravagant fantasy or historical outfits which would cost way more in human size (and I wouldn't have the body to pull them off, anyway). So it's really all justified to me.

 

Shhhhh! No one is suppose to know. I don't know why I always go the cheap route when clothing myself. However, I will spend more on my Dollie outfits. They make them so darn cute!

 

My boys get good clothes. I work for a department store so get things at a discount, but I'm on a kick lately shopping goodwill for pants at $5 ea... I've gotten many great pieces for dirt cheap & im helping a charity, somewhat......
I also can sew but I hate small scale so I'll pay for my boys clothing as it relieves me of the stress of doing so lol.

 

As far as you are able to justify your spending, I don't see why this is a problem. Doll clothes are quite intricate, in most cases. I kind of think pricing a bathing suit, there's not a lot of fabric but the designs are so different the different prices can be charged for each one.

 

I definitely have spent more on an outfit then what I typically spend on myself. I was initially surprised at how much some of the outfits I was looking at cost when I was introduced to this hobby. I have since developed an appreciation for the attention to detail that goes into the clothes I buy and the price that goes with them.

 

As I buy a lot of my clothes at thrift stores (I have found a few really nice ones) it is very easy to spend more on my dolls, which doesn't really bother me. I have gotten some Dollheart clothes and Volks clothes and other expensive clothes because I just love the quality and the fit. Of course I have found cool clothes for my dolls at doll shows and thrift stores also. I just like spending money on my dolls!

 

I definitely pay more for my dolls' clothes than I do my own. My reasoning for this is simple:
1) I don't give a crap what I look like anymore. High school ended long ago and having the latest style is no longer important. Thus I no longer spend a lot of money on clothes for myself.
2) My dolls are not bound to the same rules humans are. We humans are often bound by dress codes for school and work, but dolls are not. I get to make (and break) the rules!
3) Believe it or not, some BJD outfits are cheaper than outfits that I'd want for myself. There's this cute wa-lolita dress online that I want for one of my girls, for example. It costs seventy bucks which is pretty steep, far more than the jeans and t-shirt I wore to work today. However, it's significantly less than a wa-lolita outfit in MY size, which would run three to four hundred bucks, maybe more!

In other words, it's more fun to dress my dolls than it is to dress me, so I'm willing to shell out more money for them than I do me!

 

I do think its a bit odd that ive been spending money on my dolls rather than myself, i have been looking into handmaking my dols clothes but small scale clothes are hard v.v
I don't mind it as much as i thought i would, i find dolly shopping relaxing.

 

Making clothes at doll size is extremely difficult, so I figure that the price tag is worth it! I also know what it's like to be in the Lolita fashion hobby so I'm not as fazed by certain price tags...^^;

 

It still manages to amaze me how someone can sew those tiny tiny details, but that is exactly why doll clothes are so expensive. It isn't the cost of material, but the time and talent you need to make them. So I'm more than happy to pay.

 

If any item of clothing for myself costs more then $12 (and even that is pushing it) I will not buy it. I like my current hoodies and jeans, and only buy more when I have to, because I don't want to look a total mess!xD I buy all of my clothing secondhand and the most I spend on a new pair of shoes is $40, but they can last me for a long time if I take care of them! I also cut my own hair because I hate spending money on things that don't last a long time... hair grows to fast. Point being I spend very little on my own things!

Dolls... I'll buy a $100 outfit that has 5 items without even thinking about it when I know I have the money to spend. If I like a wig I'm willing to spend $60 on it if it's something special. I'll happily shell out $80 for an amazing pair of shoes. All of these would be my limits most likely, but I'm talking about things for tiny YOSDs!xD Mind you I'll spend less if I can, but if I find something I want, and I have the money, I'll buy it!

I want to save up $500 to buy a bunch of shoes for my dolls so they have lots of options to go with outfits I'm making them! I can't even imagine spending 500 on shoes for myself that seems crazy.... :')

 

I am a former professional seamstress, so while I spend too much money on fabric, I spend almost nothing on clothes. I am a cotton and denim sort of person, the dollies wear silk, brocades, velvet, and linen. I am willing to spend quite a bit on nice things like Freedom Teller outfits and boots though, and I definitely buy too many wigs and eyes for them. I almost never buy myself new clothes, but I am always working on something for the dollies. My first doll probably has two or three dozen outfits. My dolls are pretty spoiled, so yes, I probably spend more on them than me. Especially since my best friend is a professional silversmith. The dollies all own at least one signature piece of really nice jewelry. Recently, we glued a ruby in my Iplehouse Lahela's belly button! I am going to be making lots of skimpy little tummy baring outfits for her now!

 

At this point, I WISH my doll's clothing costs more than my own... getting into the lolita hobby along with the BJD hobby has not been good for my financial health hahaha.

I do end up spending quite a bit on the shoes, clothes, and wigs for my dolls. If I let myself think about it too much, I do start to slip into possible buyer's remorse and doubt. Recently in particular, I've spent more on dolls and also my own clothes than I ever have before. I'd like to thin out my collection (of clothes) and be a lot more moderate in the future.

The quality and detail that goes into doll clothes justifies the price to me as fair. There is going to be a lot of hand-stitched work, which is much more laborious than machine sewing, and the margin of error for both the hand-stitching and the machine-sewing is far, far smaller than for human clothes. It's a very specialized skill for a very small market, so it makes sense. But it's still, of course, hard to swallow sometimes.

I'd really like to stopper my spending soon though. I mean, just, I don't feel good spending so much on material things that ultimately don't have any practical value. SOME spending on frivolous things, I love. But it has reached a point to me where I'm question it, yeah.

Comparing the cost of the doll things I buy to the cost of things for humans can really help bring perspective back to the spending for me. I don't do it enough. It's too easy to become numb to the sticker shock.