Things you thought would be easy but actually WERE NOT, and vice versa.

Easier:
-Sewing, especially for Boobsy McBoobsalot my DDDy. Granted, I'm still learning a ton on every piece I do, but I had been half expecting to be swearing frequently while struggling with fabric pieces that don't make sense. Turns out that, while things like the grain of the fabric aren't the same, the basic principles of pattern drafting aren't that unlike unwrapping a 3DCG object. XD

-Preventing/removing stains. After making my decision to get a vinyl doll for my first, I was thinking she'd stain if I even looked at her funny. Between keeping zit cream on hand and testing all my fabrics with a spare hand before sewing, staining has been a fairly minor issue.

-Dressing the dolls. I'd seen a lot of people grouse about how long it took to put their dolls in their default outfits and how confusing the clothes could be, but I've never had any issue at all. (Maybe that's because of how guy-heavy the DD fandom tends to be? :/)

Harder:
-Faceups. I thought my past experience drawing and painting things would help. Nyope.

-Setting eyes in their sockets. I hate this part because of how long it takes me. I'll get one right, then tweak the other, bonk the first out of position, adjust that one, accidentally move the second. . .

-Photography. Granted, I'm using a lame little point-and-shoot, so I have to fight the autofocus *all* the time ("No, you stupid thing, I want you to focus on her face, not her cleavage!" comes up at least five times a shoot). But other things like lighting and continuity in stories I think I'd find tricky regardless. Thank god for whoever invented tripods!

 

Imagined difficult, but ended up easy:
- Hot glue sueding
- Restringing (except that one moment when I thought all hope was lost)
- Waiting two months for my second doll (I found things that kept me so preoccupied that I had to kind of get myself back into excitement mode when I realized my doll would arrive soon)
- Handling the dolls at all (I always thought they were super fragile, but they're not. They should be treated like a doll that costs a lot of money, but they can take more than glass could.)

Imagined easy, but ended up difficult:
- Aligning the eyes after changing them/the putty
- Sewing
- Face ups? (I haven't done one, but I've had my share of make up experience, so I figure things shouldn't go too bad... and I also have seen a lot of face up tutorials to see what I liked and didn't.)

 

Thought hard, but ended up being easy
Restringing!
Changing and positioning eyes (in general)
modding hands

Thought would be easy but is hard
Changing and positioning eyes on 14cm tinies
finding wigs for 14 cm tinies
photographing 14cm tinies

 

I recently also got my first doll and her eyelashes weren't glued on, they were stuck on with the eye putty. anyway, one eyelash fell off. I thought, okay ill just pull out the other eye and take off the other eyelash. First off the eye putty was stickier than I thought it would be so it took a lot of effort to get the eye out. Then, I had to put the eye back in and couldn't get it to align properly. It was harder than I thought.

Also, once I had a doll I thought it would be easier to resist buying another straight away but my fiancé is constantly trying to stop me from buying another one until after our engagement party and holiday we are going on.

 

Eyebrows and glossing on faceups. So hard for me!! !!

 

I thought faceups and making clothes would be easier...Boy did I get a wakeup call...

 

I thought posing them would be easy, but it turns out it's really hard to do, at least for me.

Re-stringing was actually much easier then I had been led to believe.

 

Restringing. One became floppy mess so she sits cross-legged all the time. The other one is two tight and I'm too weary to attempt to fix either of them. I have done several attempts but I can't seem to get them to be neither floppy or tight.
Eyebrows too. I can draw them, but on a curved surface, nope.

 

Easier
- Restringing, I've read enough horror stories to be very afraid of it. Luckily it turned out to be not-so-bad
- General care-taking, I thought I coulnd't take care of my dollie. I was wrong.
- Posing. Maybe my doll is just awesome? Anyway I thought this would be a problem

Harder
- Face ups. Tried it once... Now I happily pay for people who actually know what they do
- Photographs. I knew I sucke but this much?
- Putting eyes on their places. They always end up wonky. Whyyyy?
- Wig styling. This is much harder than you think! GUH!
- Finding inspiration to sew. I know how and I have fabric but I lack motivation.

 

I thought Face ups will be easy... they are not, soooo time consuming for such a small thing (proper 0/10 brush make a massive difference and good over all tools)
Not scratching the body blushing is sooo hard, never thought about it until I noticed how easy it is to damage blushing. Maybe im just careless...
I thought changing eyes will be a pain.. well it seems to be the easiest thing ever.. same thing with eye lashes, dont have any problems with it.

 

Harder:
-Face-ups. Oh God, I was so wrong about this!
-Blushing fantasy parts and removing the blushing. All those little cravices...
-Painting apoxy
-Inserting / adjusting eyes
-Modding teeth and ears
-Sewing (I was never taught how, had to teach myself)
-Curly wig maitenance
-Sculpting
-Wig making
-Photography
-Posing

Easier:
-Restringing. I hate it, but it was not as difficult as I had anticipated
-Styling wigs, especially fur wigs (toothbrush ftw!)
-Cleaning
-Dressing them up
-Collecting (I thought I couldn't spend this much money on them or buy as many as I have).

 

harder--

Faceup-- I'm an artist, had an airbrush and all the paints and brushes. I can manage the eyeliner and the lower lashes, even, if I'm lucky... But the eyebrows and lip-lines just kill me!

Changing clothes-- I'm probably forgetting how it was dressing dolls when I was a kid, but I thought it would be easier to dress and change bjds... It always seems to take ages (mostly to find the right items, shoes, socks), and putting everything on... in the right order... getting things over the head without totally scraping over the faceup and lashes... I don't know, but it's like a total work-out every time I do it!

Posing-- How hard can it be? Well... Apparently, it's something that doesn't come easily to me. I'll have to think about it, and move things around, and they can still look pretty awkward.

Photos-- I always thought I wasn't bad at taking photos, but... my photos are pretty mediocre... I can't seem to figure out depth of field and exposure and lighting... agh.

 

I was so afraid of restringing my first doll, I thought I'd mess up and break him or something. I finally did it when he was getting all floppy and...it was so easy. Took less than an hour and he was a perfect poser after that.

Clothes are very easy to put on, even though I never played with dolls as a child. I simplify everything by removing the head, easy peasy.

Styling wigs...eh, kinda easy, pain to fix if you mess up though.

Photographing...well, there is no photographing to speak of since I don't have a decent camera. Might get one soon, so we'll see.

I don't do face-ups, sew clothes or do modifications...call me a lazy person who prefers to pay others to do the job for me. Too busy with other things.

Hardest thing for me would be adjusting eyes. It took me ages to find eyes that actually look normal and don't gap. Posing them correctly inside the doll so it doesn't look ridiculous is also tricky.

 

I have a really, really, really hard time positioning eyes. It takes me forever to get them even. Most of the time I think it's okay, and then I take a step back and her gaze is lopsided. I definitely didn't think it would be as hard as it has continued to be for me. ;___; I don't even feel like I'm getting any better at it. >_>;

 

What i find really difficult is to create the perfect face up... Sometimes when you are trying to make it more perfect, you do one small thing wrong and the entire picture is ruined xd also stringing the doll is pretty hard

 

Things I thought would be easy but weren't:
*Restringing. I spent most of my adolescence making jewelry out of fine-gauge wire and thread, so I figured that restringing would be easy peasy. Wrong answer. Do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars, go directly to jail. I didn't even take Johnny apart all the way, and it was still a living nightmare.

Things I thought wouldn't be easy but were:
*Placing eyes. While doing research I heard over and over that placing eyes was hard to do. Some collectors even admitted that they hated placing eyes. I'll admit that placing eyes is a little on the tricky side, but it's not as hard as I thought it would be.
*Putting on wigs. I was afraid that my hands would slip and I'd wreck Johnny's faceup, but they didn't. Like eyes, wigs are a little tricky, but it's not a task I dread like restringing.

 

Harder than I thought ;
Sealing a face up with an airbrush and getting the right consistency of sealer to spray at the right psi without clogging up my airbrush or getting the face too wet.
Overcoming my own worst critic when it comes to painting tiny eyelashes and eyebrows.
Creating a character for my doll and getting everything ready before they arrive and they turn out to be completely different than what I planned.
Photography and lighting

Easier than I thought;
Restringing
Hot glue sueding
Eye placement
Making wigs
Making props
Sewing
Modifying

 

Just putting eyes in my dolls' heads with potty is hard for me! So once they're in there and set I don't change them EVER.

 

I recently painted a pocket fairy... such a headache. Faceups itself aren't so hard but on such a small head, even with my magnifying glass, took about half a day and I don't even consider it finished.

 

I'll say sewing is for me one of the most difficult things of the hobby. I've always been into crafting, like jewelry, art... but following patterns is not as easy as I thought it would be. I hope it's just a matter of time, but right now, patterns make almost no sense to me and I find really hard to figure out how I have to put all pieces together.

About sueding, it's a relief that I've read that some of you thought it was difficult but turned out easier. I've never done it and my girl definetely needs it to improve her poses. It scares me a little, but I hope it's easier than I think ^_^