more drawstring dresses

I have been wanting to post about this but have also been riddled with shyness, haha. Last year I got really into sewing little drawstring dresses! And this spring, to combat my months-long state of inertia, I cannonballed back into doing so. It seems I love nothing more than to develop a whole workflow and produce a whole lot of something, whether it be deer hats, socks, tights, skirts, or these dresses. As a result, I have made far more dresses than I personally need, just because I enjoy the process, and I enjoy picking out fabrics and coordinating thread and ribbon colors.

Someone once asked me if I'd sell these on Etsy, so that's my intention! I also intend to have them be fairly inexpensive -- in the scheme of Blythe doll dresses, anyway! I'm thinking $12?

And only that much because all the sewing I do is by hand. Although these are super simple, it still takes a little while to do all the hand-stitching to construct one dress. While I typically work in batch mode (cut a bunch of dress pieces, iron all the fabric, sew all the dress pieces, iron them all again, sew them all again, actually put the pieces together, put all the ribbon drawstrings in -- in that order, for these), I'd estimate a dress takes about an hour and a half to complete, from cutting the fabric to finished dress.

I can sew together one of these dresses on my machine, but I feel like they don't look as tidy... I'm still trying to befriend my machine.

I think regardless of the fact that these are a) so laughably simple they barely qualify as garments, and b) hand-sewn, which they definitely look, they have a nostalgic charm to them. They remind me of scoring similar dresses and simple hand-sewn items second-hand on Plastic Paradise or Blythe Kingdom back in the day. Some of my most beloved wardrobe items are handmade and slightly wonky.

And I think there's not a whole lot of things like them on the Blythe fashion market right now. I do a fair bit of browsing for Blythe dresses, very specifically, on Etsy. The typical silhouettes of Blythe dresses I see for sale these days are A-line shift dresses (it's always that one pattern, right?? Speaking of nostalgia) or party dresses with a fitted bodice and flared skirt. Sometimes the party dress style looks more babydoll dress in style, but the silhouette is still "fitted top, flared skirt."

I am a huge fan of such a silhouette!! Clean and classic. So, so pretty. But these have a different silhouette and look, with a ribbon tied at one shoulder. While not all that sophisticated, I think they can still be styled really cutely with different colored tights or socks, sweaters or jackets on top, shoes that match the ribbon or a color in the dress... et cetera!

All this to say: I put some of these up on my Etsy. I have a lottt more to take pictures of/list...!

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re-opening my Etsy shop

 

For the past couple of months I have been working doggedly towards re-opening my Etsy shop.

It's been slow-going, and I'm nowhere near done taking photos for all the things I want to sell (socks, tights, and crocheted stuff). But I'm pretty happy because I did finally get a few listings up yesterday! I thought it'd be cute to make some sock packs: five various pairs for $13. I just have fun organizing and visualizing things in terms of colors, so I thought I'd group the colors thematically for the packs.

Thus far I've made listings for five color packs and have some more ideas: an autumn pack, a dark academia pack, a 70s-inspired pack! I've had so much fun coming up with them and deciding how to package them. (Indeed, packaging and shipping supplies are things I have been working on collecting the past two months.)

I do intend to list single pairs of socks too. Taking and processing product photos has been very time-consuming, with sixteen different colors of socks to photograph, and three different lengths of each color. I also still need to take earband photos.

It has been my goal to re-open this month (July) so I've accomplished that, and now I've made a further goal of finishing up more photography before the end of the month. I also just want to take cute Blythe outfit pics...

By the way, Cure Touch has a new layout. I'm still getting used to it and tweaking stuff, but it's kind of invigorating!

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a good old-fashioned deer hat party

I was making a couple of deer hats by request this past week, and while I was at it, I made myself a couple, because actually, I never kept but one single fraise (red) one for my own girls. Since I got into the groove of cutting felt, I wound up cutting out enough ears/antlers for eight hats...!

I get to zone out and watch true crime shows or listen to podcasts while I work, and finishing up a hat is always satisfying!

I feel all pumped to get out to the craft store and get some yarn (I definitely want to make a foehn hat) and churn out a few hats. I don't actually have any yarn left at the moment. I'm also out of white/ercu/cream floss, which I usually use to stitch up antlers with. While I was pawing through my stash last night, I did find that I had crocheted, but never antlered/eared, a flora hat and a fetti hat... so I remedied that quickly!

Gavin's wearing a flora hat (she's also breaking in these dusky pink boots I recently got). I chose to stitch the antlers up with mossy green floss. Oddly, it doesn't come off very green in pictures. But it is green.

Mallow's rocking the fetti hat. You might also notice that she has new front-facing eye chips!! They're light blue, which I think really suits her, recalling her stock. I took out the uber-dark brown ones. (Two of my other girls got new chips, too. Pics sometime soon!) I also outfitted her with a new pull string -- hers broke while I was filming my Blythe collection video, if you recall -- and de-sleepy-eyed her, since I wasn't sure if that had contributed to her pull string snapping! While I was in her head, I also gave her a tiny gaze lift. It may not be noticable. I don't tend to go overboard with the ol' gaze lifts.

Neither of these hats are particularly wintry, but there haven't been hats in these colorways in my shop since, I think, 2011. When international shipping prices got jacked up a couple of years ago, it really depressed me and put me off even wanting to make hats at all for a long time, because mostly, I shipped international! Still can't figure a way around this, but I think I'll indulge in making hats while I feel like it!

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Blythe window shopping

I'm still looking for a perfect dress just for my new pink-haired factory girl (it will be just hers -- I like for each of my girls to have something that is just theirs; factory girl has no stock). Her general feel is very different from many of my girls.

I haven't landed on anything just yet. In a couple of cases, I just haven't committed to buying something in time, so someone else snaps it up. C'est la Blythe vie. But here are some things that have caught my eye as I've been browsing Etsy.

(MINI JIJO)

I really like MINI JIJO's dresses, especially the little $6 ones. I love a simple dress that looks cute styled many different ways on many different girls. I have quite a few of those little dresses from their shop, as well as netted lace skirts. But for $20 -- my personal spending limit on a Blythe item -- these are gorgeous duds. I just can't resist florals at all and the netted lace on the shoulders and sleeves is so unique to see on Blythe dresses.

(MissFreyaJ)

I'm also a repeat customer to this shop (I think four of my girls are in MissFreyaJ frocks right now!), since she also makes just what I like: simple, versatile dresses... often floral! The price ($12, and that's with international shipping included) just can't be beat.

(VioletPoppyDolls)

I've never shopped at Violet Poppy, but these dresses are perfectly retro, just perfect for Blythe. Many of the dresses have sweet Peter Pan collars that always catch my eye. Love. This one with the gold netted skirt makes me want to dance to ABBA.

(Macrocephalus)

Love, love, love these vintage-looking petticoats from Macrocephalus. Just gorgeous. I love petticoats so much. I'm so tempted...

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"How rude!" - Stephanie Tanner

I went this morning to ship a deer hat to someone in Australia, and to my utter shock, the price of shipping had doubled. I paid $17 to ship a small 3-oz package in a 6x10 envelope.

To be bluntly honest, I've always undercharged for international shipping. It's always cost me about $8.50 to ship a hat to Australia and Asia, and I just take the $3.50 hit out of the price of the hat, because I really don't feel right about charging a ton of money for a Blythe hat. I know a lot of people charge a bundle for their handmade items, but I don't want to make mine any more expensive than they are, and I've always charged $5 to ship internationally.  I have been okay with taking that dent. I don't do any of this for a living.

I went ahead and shipped the hat, since I was already up there with the addressed package and declaration form filed out. But I couldn't believe it. I still can't. I actually lost money. As February is one of the most expensive months of the year for me, it was so hard to lose that ten dollars unexpectedly.

Rather than complaining, because Cure Touch is my happy place and not my venting place, I'm just taken aback and unsure of how to proceed. I don't know what this will mean for the future of my Etsy shop. I mostly send internationally. I have shipped to Australia often. I cannot imagine tripling my shipping charges. Luckily my shop is empty right now.

To end on ANY OTHER NOTE THAN THIS, I'm pretty obsessed with this strange little k-pop song that has a "country" twist:



The video doesn't really do it any favors, IMO (it is terrible), but the song itself is a guilty pleasure of mine right now!

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lazy hazy crazy days of summer

Miss Petaline spent too much time with her foot bent in her boot, unbeknownst to me, so now my poor Miss has a jaunty-looking bendyfoot condition! I hope it will settle down again, but if not, I may well do a little [stage whisper] PLASTIC SURGERY. Don't worry, Petaline. All the best TV shows do body-swap episodes. You will join a grand tradition. Anyway, here's Miss P in one of my favorite little second-hand dresses, stockings and petticoat and bloomers in place because even in 105-degree weather, Petaline prefers propriety.

I have always wanted to do some green antlers on a deer hat. This is a colorway I've never used before, either. Why not, I say! It's in the shop.

PS: The other day Sandi of The Blythe Ghost, maker of one of Petaline's favorite frocks, kindly lauded me with an award!

I'm going to start saying I'm "versatile" instead of "scatter-brained."

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poor deer

Oh my gosh! The listing for this Middie deer hat is about to expire! I knocked the price down a few bucks! Buy it, buy it! I'm also open to a trade!

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easy as one-two-three

Made a trio of frost hats for someone on Etsy! I hadn't been to the craft store in a couple of months when I was asked if I could make three white hats, and so didn't know whether they would even have the frost colorway or not (they were very picked over last time I went). But they did!

Here's something I'm excited about: my friend L is coming for a visit! She was here last March, too, and then also in the summer of 2009. But this time she'll be bringing her CS, Clementine July, with her, and we're going to have a mini-Blythe-meet with my friend E and her SC, Cora. I recently also found out that Moofala (who made my blue-haired custom girl, Drew) lives in my neck of the woods, so the three of us combined won't even have the most Blythes in the city...!!

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business in front... party in the back!

Today I relisted some hats in my Etsy shop. Some were relistings of things that never sold, and a couple were old hats I have sitting around in my hat box. My hat box has been overflowing for a while. I would just like to clear them on out. I like to make stuff so much, but I don't need six zillion hats.

Readers of my blog, please feel free to use the coupon code FEBRUARY10 to receive 10% off any hat in the shop. This will be active through February 17.

(I like to have sales around holidays that I don't like!!!)

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mad about hats

Earlier I decided to relist this duplicate of a pixie hat that I made for someone who wanted one. However they never bought it and it sat in my shop and the listing expired. Right now Petaline is wearing it (with the frabjulous light blue Mary Janes from the Takara set I got the other day). What the hey. The ribbon was a little frayed on one end but I trimmed it up just now.

Poor Petaline has been wearing her sisters' dresses since I changed her from her stock. I have been searching high and low every day for something she might like to wear. She's quite chic, you know. More chic than me. Ha! She wants something fancy, and she'd rather wear a beret than a pixie hat. "But Sofia Coppola directed this hat," I whispered to her.

Yesterday my mother and I went on a mission for silly hats at a costume shop for a party she's having tomorrow. I got this furry abomination (I think it's a wolf? Or a coyote) and I have hardly wanted to take it off since I got it!! I actually never wear hats at all, personally, so it is strange that I would sleep in this hat if I could. It keeps my ears toasty warm. I put a pink bow on one of its ears, like a mutated Hello Kitty. It makes me LOL.

I also got a bunch of yarn today... I must go crochet it all up!!

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Look how pretty!

Ilil and I did a trade recently and she sent me a marvelous necklace, plus bobby pins too! They are much prettier and more delicate in person than they look in these pictures and came in sweet boxes. I was so happy! I can't wait to do a pretty chignon and tuck the little floral bobby pins into my hair.

Thanks, Ilil!!

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oh my antlers

Check out what I got in the mail today!!

I bought this deer ornament by Gingermelon for myself (YEAH, FOR MYSELF!!) for making 50 sales on Etsy! It'll be a reminder of my Year of Deer... and I think I'll keep it in my room all year 'round because it's all pink and green up in there anyway.

Thanks so much to everyone :)

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caught in a landslide

Gosh, so, the Thanksgiving sale I had was a major success. I had no real idea if anything would happen with it, but all of my deer hats sold. In fact, more than I had on hand because frost hats were what people seemed to want, so I made a lot of frost hats on the fly by request.

The woe of it all was that I had trouble finding the colorway of yarn I use for frost hats because it was all sold out at one place and way more expensive at another (and there was only one left there, so I just went ahead and snapped it up). Also, for some reason all the craft stores in my area -- and I did check every one -- are currently not stocking the shade of felt I use to make antlers, which is tagged "ivory." All they have is "champagne," and it's noticably more beige. Particularly against the white frost yarn, champage just looks off to me. I was really lucky to find 40% of a piece of ivory in my felt stash from before I was actively cutting antlers all the time that I was able to cut carefully enough to have antlers for all the frost hats. I didn't want to send a product that looked off or different than what anyone was expecting.

So the hats bought during the Thanksgiving sale are the last with ivory antlers until I find an alternate source for ivory felt that's, you know, reasonable. I've looked around online but I don't want to buy 25 sheets because I will never ever use that much, or pay 10 dollars shipping for one sheet. Seriously!! I'll keep looking locally but I feel like whoever produces the felt made the choice to switch from ivory to champagne. Why else would three different craft stores all suddenly have one color and not the other?

I picked up this yarn colorway while I was at one of the craft stores that I don't go to as often; I'm not drawn to blue but I thought it was so pretty and it wasn't at any of the closer stores. It's blue, brown, and green, all the colors of the world...

It's got champagne antlers though. I don't know! They just look weird to me!

Anyway, this Thanksgiving sale has made it possible for me to get a lot of Christmas shopping done. My humble thanks to anyone who would bother to spend money on anything I made.

Although Thanksgiving is a couple of days past now, a list of things I am thankful for:

Blythe/Blythe fans - I really love this community.

food! There's been no shortage of it this holiday weekend!

my rats, old men that they are

my bed, for it is comfortable

Dexter... I mean, it's getting real now, dudes!

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on sale, with thanks!

A bunch of stuff in my Etsy shop is on sale for the next week, till midnight on Thanksgiving. All deer hats are $3 off the usual price, and yes, if you want, I'll put a strap on it for you instead! Some other little hats are on sale too.

I have twelve deer hats within my line of sight just sitting here at my desk; it's getting stupid. Take 'em off my hands!

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Vinter VTF

First thing's first: VINTER VHAT'S-HER-NAME. Some official pics finally came out.

I'm... underwhelmed, I guess. Sometimes the art and the official pictures are both adorable -- I feel that way about Ice Rune and that's part of what pushed me to finally get a Blythe! Her official pics are some of the cutest ever!

Sometimes the concept art looks so cute, but the girl doesn't excite me in pictures, and sometimes neither art nor the official pics do anything for me but I fall in love with a girl when I see "real" pictures of her in different clothes, in a home, loved and lit with that love (Paris is a prime example -- I think she's the prettiest FBL to customize, so I was going to give her a bit of a face-up, but I even love her strange purple-tinted lips in person). But usually the studio pictures are really nice either way. Strangely, I think the studio pictures of this girl are terrible-looking. To me her hair looks too shiny, like bad plastic-nylon-not-even-soft-to-the-touch shiny. Or maybe greasy and kind of tangled. Either way it looks bad to me. Her stock is absolutely wonderful; that's not the problem. Those boots, gurl!! But even the background of her studio pictures is weirdly shiny and strange-looking to me, in comparison with the tidy backgrounds I'm accustomed to seeing from Takara.

But the pictures of her outside are a lot nicer:

Truthfully I was expecting this girl to be a little more pinky, from the illustration. I'm really curious to see how she'll look in pictures taken by Blythe collectors on flickr. She really might look utterly different.

Not to be too negative -- I just feel like I can't tell what color her hair actually is, and I'm really curious because I really responded to her concept art and I love her stock. Ice Rune has a definite peach tint in her blond hair and I love it, so I wouldn't mind if this girl has peachy hair too, and I love muted tones. I just think her studio pics aren't doing her any favors for me.

Here's a deer girl taking a peek:

I'm think I'm going to have a sale in my Etsy shop this week, starting tomorrow and ending on (American) Thanksgiving -- a little pre-"Black Friday" sale. Stay tuned.

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everything a big bad wolf could want

Who's that I see walkin' in these woods? Why, it's Little Red Riding Hood.

- Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs

I know I post pics of deer hats all the time lately, but I've been making so many of them!! Right now, on my girls and on my desk in various niches, there are eleven. ELEVEN.

It makes me quite happy to see so many little pointed hats and antlers and fluffs of pom. Half the fun of having Blythes is the dollies themselves and their little clothes and pretty faces, but the other half is getting to focus my crafting habits and felt addiction on them.

Currently there are fauna, flora, flossy, frost, and this lovely berry color (fraise) hats all in my shop.

I apologize if it gets tiresome seeing be-antlered accoutrements, but I am honestly just doing whatever floats my boat. This blog is quite the "what I did today, which I realize is boring for others" sort of thing most of the time, but it's really just for my own pleasure. :)

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candy girl, you are my world

I love this colorway! It's actually called "Cotton Candy." These are so cute in real life, I could die. They really remind me of the Blythe doll My Little Candy. If I had her, I would deck her out in one of these babies.

I added these to the shop this morning, but I have three more hats in progress so I'll be adding more soon.

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a scissor runner stole my heart

Guys, last night I had a dream that Lafayette from True Blood gave me a tattoo of David Letterman, who was dressed up in some kind of weird costume in the tattoo. I don't know what this means, but I'm just going to guess: I need the last episode of True Blood already!

Good long weekend! I spent a good deal of the weekend with my youngest sister -- we went shopping, test-sprayed perfume (my sister found this one and it was scrumptious on her, so the part of me that's already planning for Christmas is planning on this for her!), got crazy Labor Day sale dealios at JoAnn's, and watched a ton of Gilmore Girls.

I have two hats awaiting antler and ear attachments and two awaiting some other particular applique. There are hats with poms all over my desk. The poms are getting more and more ridiculous, too.

However, happily, half of them are in the "outbox" of hats people bought from my Etsy shop about to be shipped out!

Here's a flora deer hat on a lovely PuPe! I love that girl!

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Bumbie's Mom

I got those deer hats finished up last night! Hooray for sticking to goals. This flora deer hat (the one with the bright pink) has one pom with tons of pink and one pom with no pink. I like that even though sometimes I make duplicates of hats, whether by request or to use up the rest of some yarn, every hat (and every antler perched upon every hat!) is still unique in its own little way. I got to add them to my shop this morning and it was satisfying.

Also, I Hansel and Gretel'ed it from Etsy to dainty daisies and got to see one of my hats on a super-cute freckled girl... happiness!

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(not unlike "second drink")

The other morning I made a joyful discovery in my wallet: a JoAnn's giftcard left over from my birthday with $11.75 still left on it. I had forgotten it was lurking in there somewhere, so it was like Second Birthday! I spent it on deer hat supplies and other little things I go through quickly -- buttons, ribbon. (I think I have a dollar still left on the card. Someday it'll be like Third Birthday and I'll go get more ribbon.)

So thanks to Second Birthday, it's been deer hat mania here at chez maidensuit. I put these two I completed Friday and Saturday up in my Etsy shop yesterday and they were both gone this morning. I have two more in these colors in progress, so there's more on the way in the next couple of days. All of these little felt antlers and ears are littered over my desk waiting to be stitched together.

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