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

I thought making an outfit would be easy, and i was very wrong hehe, i can't even get the size right with measuring. It is a nice challenge

 

I feel you! I tried to make jeans for my doll and since the cloth I used was very rigid, there was no way to make them fit well, so frustrating! >.< Now she's wearing a nice top and ..."panties" made out of a crap of cloth ¬¬' poor thing. I have to try it again.

 

Awww, we will get there though! You are right it is frustrating, but that will make it all the more satisfying when we make something awesome!!!

 

Harder

• Sewing outfits - So hard and time-consuming, but very rewarding. I have never sewn before so I guess I shouldn't be too harsh on myself!
• Buying pre-made clothes - seems very little fits the curves of an Iplehouse SID that isn't insanely expensive
• Placing eyes - it's not difficult but just takes longer than I imagined, plus that pesky S-hook gets in the way
• budgeting - I'm not going crazy with buying things but it still ads up very quickly!

Easier

• Getting to doll to stand - I thought this would be really hard considering the weight but I guess mine is just strung well
• General maintenance - I just use cotton gloves so I don't have to worry about making her dirty
• Putting on clothes - I thought this would be really tricky but with a large doll it is really easy

 

I was sure making clothes for them would be easy. I've been sewing for decades, and am fairly accomplished with it, but sewing at small-scale and for doll proportions has been a definite challenge! I'm getting there slowly but surely, but I'm certainly not used to it.

I also thought tinting white epoxy clay would be easy, but I've never succeeded at that!

On the flip side, I thought restringing would be really difficult, but I haven't had much trouble with that at all!

 

Easier
-Face ups: Drawing and painting are not my forte, to put it mildly, so I'm surprised how fun face ups are. I think it's because I went into it with such low expectations; I have no artistic training, and I can't draw a straight line with a ruler. I bought good supplies, but I honestly thought my face ups would look like something a blind toddler did with a blunt crayon. Instead, although not professional quality, my results are okay--nothing to be super embarrassed by--and I know I'll continue to improve over time.

Harder
-Sewing: I wasn't exactly expecting it to be easy, since my sewing skills are minimal, but I'm surprised just how hard this is.
-Eyelashes: Why is this so hard?? The eyelashes stick to my finger, the tweezers, the doll's cheek...everywhere except where they are supposed to be. The last time I attached some, it took over 20 minutes to do just one eye. When those lashes were in place, I heaved such a huge sigh of relief that I accidentally blew the lashes for the other eye off my work table never to be seen again. Since I didn't have any other lashes on hand, well, little Ylva sure looked special for a couple weeks.
-"Completing" a doll: It really takes me a long time to find the perfect wig, clothes, shoes, and everything else needed to complete a doll.
-Wait times: Wait times just kill me, and they make me want to shop, not only for items for the incoming doll, but for additional dolls, too. Waiting is harder to deal with than I thought it would be, and I haven't even had to wait all that long. I don't think I could stand to wait 6-9 months, though I know there are people who wait more than a year. I'd go nuts and probably buy 15 extra dolls.

 

I thought faceups would be easier, given all my experience drawing and painting, and the reborn dolls I've painted. Nope. Totally different. I can blush ok, but the eyebrows are insanely hard. I decided I'd rather send them out. My eyes and hands can't handle small detail work anyway.

I thought restringing would be hard. I was so scared. It was easy compared to what I was imagining.

 

Sewing clothes for sure. I've sewn quite a bit, I thought knew what I was doing and that it would be pretty easy. Yeah, not so much. I'm too scared to restring my doll or, heaven forbid, attempt a face up.

 

Sewing. I've been trying to make a pair of jean shorts for my girl all week and it just isn't happening. Starting to think I'll need to go with stretch denim or tights or something

 

I thought stringing/re-stringing a doll would be hard. Nope, not at all. On the other hand, placing eyes so that they don't look weird is much harder than I thought. That's why I prefer (re-)stringing a doll over changing its eyes. *gg*

 

same here! I tried too and it was impossible to make them fit >.< If you use stretch denim it'll be way easier, I guarantee!

 

For me, staging photostories was/is much harder than I expected. Of course, it doesn't help that I have some wonderful online friends who are really into dollhouse minis and photography and set the bar very, very high for amazing photos.

Faceups are easier than I expected for one reason - if you mess up, you just wipe it and start over. I make cloth dolls, too, and you have one shot at getting the face right or else you're making a new head.

 

Eye-mods! I got a a head second hand and it's eyewells are in need of repair. So, I thought, 'Oh well it just needs to be scraped out a little bit and sanded." I was wrong, I ended up taking too much of one side off, and i don't even want to touch the head right now until I can find someone who's a pro at Mods.

 

easier: face-ups

harder: making clothes

 

I'm with a lot of the others on faceups. As an artist I figured since I'm decent at drawing BJD faces already, I shouldn't have a problem. It was fun, but the entire process, which I wanted to complete in one day, took me six full hours from start to finish.

If I'm doing another, I'm going to have to organize my time a bit better. Much harder to do decently and efficiently than I initially imagined.

 

I thought restringing a Mirodoll npdy would be easy specially with the arms... but NOPE! It was once hell of frustrations.

When I tried my first faceup, I thought it would be easy as I've watched so many videos and I have a background on doing makeup on humans amd facepainting... but I was WRONG!

I thought getting a second doll was fast... I then realized my budget does NOT prove all the time.

 

I didn't think it would be too hard to make my own doll shoes but I find them to be so difficult that I just buy them instead. I've also tried making eyes with poor results, when I thought it would be easy. On the other hand, I thought it would be hard to make my own doll wigs, but it's not and actually a lot of fun!

 

Not gonna lie, I thought making clothes would be easy, and I was SO WRONG.

 

Harder than I thought :
Photography - aperture, f-stop, shutter speed?! is this even english?
Sewing - measurements. how do people do them
Wigs - when the colors right, the style isn't - when the style is right, the color isn't

Easier:
Making eyes - i was sure the proccess would be way more complicated but its pretty straight forward
Restringing - same as above
Face-ups - I've been doing drawing for years and the only difference is that in this case it's a 3D surface

 

I'm a cartoonist so I thought hey drawing a faceup should be easy. I looked at different tutorials to see what kind of materials I should get. I purchased all the material and started to draw the faceup and it was terrible. Only portion of the face that was correct was the lips.