What to do with stuff you made, but did go wrong?

@Ara that's a great point about photos-- you can always save pictures so that you can look at a side-by-side of how far you've progressed, without devoting the physical space. With my non-BJD toy collection, I've taken to photographing every bit of packaging so that I don't feel like I need to save every single box. With art, I've taken photographs of sketches I've liked so that I could just have it digitally without keeping a huge backlog of paper... why not extend the idea to doll crafts I've tossed and repurposed?

 

What to do with things that went wrong? Learn from it, sometimes (if possible) use for something else. I try not to safe everything

 

Learn from it, pick it apart and see what you can use. You can try to fix a wig, or pick it apart and use the fiber for stuffing. You might be able to use some of the fabric from failed clothes for pillows, doll quilts, trim, even also for stuffing.

 

As far as failed doll sewing projects go, there's generally not enough fabric to repurpose into another garment, but there are a few things quilters tend to do with small amounts of scrap fabric that can work. You can cut scrap fabric into tiny little pieces and use them as pillow stuffing. If you know any quilters or quilt yourself you can cut the scraps into either one or two inch squares and then make a scrap quilt when you have enough squares. A doll quilt made out of scrap fabric would be really cute and easy to make.

 

Pile of shame. I tend to be a bit of a packrat and keep everything to use for some future crafting project. All my failed sewing goes in the scrap bin and when i come across it at some future date i examine it and see what i can learn from it and compare it to my more recent items to see how ive improved (which can really make you feel good somtimes) i recently found the very first pair of pants i made for my first doll almost 12yrs ago and it was really nice to look at them and see how much ive learned.

 

When I first started the hobby, I had no sewing skills and made a few pieces (Lolita bonnet, basic underskirt, etc) that were okay at the time and are still okay now considering my skill level back then. I am tempted really to take a seam ripper to them and see if I can redo them now that I have actual sewing skills and am not afraid to use a sewing machine. Hahahaha. We'll see if I'm partially sentimental and I get a little nostalgic just looking at my poor craftsmanship.

 

If they can't be unpicked and redone better, then they either get discarded if they're beyond hope or put into Dump-and-Donate at the next doll meet that has one, in case they're of use to someone else.

Sometimes I end up making a garment that is perfectly fine in terms of quality/construction, but the finished garment just doesn't match up to how I envisioned it when I set out to make it. Often, I can't settle to liking these garments because of the difference between my original idea and the actual end result, so I pass them on to someone else or Dump-and-Donate it so it will get used instead of wasted languishing in a box of clothes I never put on my dolls.

EDITED TO ADD: Sometimes I pick up other people's badly made and/or badly fitted stuff at Dump-and-Donate or wherever, unpick it and remake it. I figure If I do it then other people might so am happy to put my own failed attempts into the dump and donate.

Teddy

 

I was going to suggest just that Teddy! You could extend that to offering on social media as free to a good home as well.

 

Good point

Teddy

 

Into the swap meet pile it goes. It feels a bit wrong to straight up sell a product I'm unhappy with, so I prefer to swap when things aren't up to my standards. It's always nice when someone gets really excited about something you thought wasn't good enough to sell, though haha. It's like, "Oh, okay, I'm not bad, I'm just not where I want to be."

 

Why is selling out of the question? Quality is a matter of perception, you know, and if you offer something for a very cheap price I'm sure there are plenty of needy doll owners who would jump at the chance to get something for their poor nekkid babies.

If you don't feel comfortable selling, and you can't recycle or repurpose them but they're too "good" to completely toss, you should definitely consider giving them away. Wouldn't it be great if we had a kind of charity giveaway where new doll owners could get one or two essential items? Maybe a "care box" full of odds and ends the rest of us have no real use for but would be treasured by those who don't have anything at all or the skills to make what they need?

 

With anything that doesn't turn out I usually salvage whatever I can for a new project. Could it have value to someone else? Donation/give to a friend. If it can't be salvaged at all? Trash. I am sorely against keeping extra stuff without a use so I try to go through it all regularly.

 

I once had a bunch of my 'beginner' clothes I didn't feel like selling, so I put out a post where it said they're for free + the shipping cost, in case anyone wants them. Turns out a girl living close to me liked them, so I shipped them to her. She was really happy with the package too

 

I wouldn't sell something I wasn't happy with the quality of.

If it's something that I'd be unhappy to have bought, I wouldn't have the bare-faced cheek to sell it myself.

It is indeed.

And I've seen people buy things that I'd have frankly been ashamed to sell. Occasionally, they've been happy with the item. More often they aren't happy but haven't complained.. While the quality isn't good, they don't feel it's worth returning the item and/or making a complaint because item meets the description in the listing even if the quality isn't what they would expect. They just avoid buying from that seller in future.

Personally, I think it's always worth complaining if the quality isn't up to expectations.

Some (unscrupulous) sellers rely on people not thinking it's worth making a complaint (and they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it).

Others have an unrealistically inflated idea of the quality of their work, while others genuinely have no idea that the quality of their work isn't good** How else are their misconceptions going to be addressed if unhappy buyers don't bother to complain?

Teddy

** Years ago, I bought a dolls coat from someone who was surprised when I wanted to return it because it was so poorly made. She hadn't had any complaints before, she informed me, but when I asked a few questions, it turned out that she hadn't had much feedback at all, and had no repeat customers. When I pointed out that it might be due to the quality of workmanship not being good, she genuinely had no concept of what I meant.

In the end, as an example, I cut the badly made coat in half down the middle, upicked and remade one half, and left the other half as it was when I received it. I sewed the two halves back together, then sent it back to the seller so she could compare the two halves.

She stopped selling for some time, then sent me another coat, similar to the one I had originally bought from her, but this one very nicely made. It was an example of what she was now making and selling. She had bought a few items from other sellers for comparison purposes, and had taken some sewing lessons to improve her work before starting to sell again.

It turned out that she had started sewing dolls clothes as a child just by "having a go at it" and achieved quite reasonable results (by the standards of a child with no sewing knowledge). Her schoolfriends (none of who knew how to sew either) had been impressed and full of praise - none of them knew any better. Years later, she had naively hit upon making dolls clothes as a way to make a bit of extra money, but never having seen any examples of other peoples' work, had no concept of the low quality work she was producing (I suspect she was thinking in terms of the clothes being bought for children, who would be as impressed by them as her schoolfriends had been). She ended up making a nice little sideline of it for a few years, until the time pressures of a growing family caused her to close up shop.

 

I always make samples of unbleached white fabric first, so I can draw the adjustments on it. I also sew these pieces with a contrasting thread, so I can see better. I am very careful with taking measurements and I use coordinate paper for constructing the pattern, nevertheless I regularly need to make adjustments, mostly relocating bust darts or avoiding crotch drapes. I make up to three test pieces before I cut the fabric I actually want to use. I only keep my final paper/cardboard pattern and throw the samples away.

 

I wish I had half this much patience with my sewing. I rarely make mock ups and generally just wing it with the actual fabric. I'm slowly learning that winging it works better with people clothes than with doll clothes. I'm sure all your final pieces turn out beautiful since you put si much effort into them.

 

Same here... If I went through all the rigmarole of doing all the mock-ups first, I'd never get around to making the actual garments. Even if I hd the time to do it more than once, I'd have mentally and emotionally moved onto the next project by the time I'd done a mock-up version, so the actual verion just wouldn't happen.

Attention-span of a goldfish with a flighty-butterfly mind.... or somesuch

Teddy

 

I made a staff for one of my guys out of wire and craft clay. It was great for awhile, then the clay kept cracking. I'd patch every bit with apoxy and then a new area would crack. Finally it snapped in half when I moved and I just said fuck it and threw it away. Sometimes things just don't work out. Unless you think someone else could get use from it just be rid of it and try again.

 

This is a pretty hot topic for me, since I recently spent a long while sewing something of a nightshirt that I can't stand. I'm torn between trying to fix it or just giving up on it.

Needless to say, I like the donation thought- Any of my old junk that's not-trash but not-sellable might just go into a bag labeled 'for the next newbie I see'.
I think, though, I might try to include something nice in there, since it'd be discouraging to join the hobby and only have sub-par items, y'know?