Hats Off to Tiny BJD Collectors - My Tiny Fail Story

[paladinari]

So I guess this is a little random, but I just wanted to post up my appreciation for anyone who makes clothes for tiny (11cm-ish) BJDs and/or manages to dress them or handle them without pulling their hair out. I never realized how difficult any of this would be.

I recently came into owning a Jun Planning Ai Cosmos with the plan that I would turn her into a wee little cat girl for part of my BJD family. I wanted to dress her in a tiny kimono and make little bitty cat ears and a tail for her.

She came in an adorable nurse outfit, and I never really appreciated how small this was until I tried to take it off of her so I could get accurate measurements. The short story is that I began to panic halfway through undressing her, already worrying how I was going to be able to dress her again. Once that was done, I began to panic as my measurements were in more of the 1 inch range (than the 6 inch range I can usually get away with with my MSD, for example). This also called for teeny tiny seams, teeny tiny details, and working on such a small scale and I actually ended up straining my hand from trying to keep everything so small while sewing.

The kimono ended up horrible, and I abandoned the project halfway through and put off redressing her in her nurse outfit until today. Then I wanted to take pictures of my dolls in front of our Christmas tree so I wanted to dress them all nicely. The short story is that for the 10 minutes it took me to dress my two MSD sized dolls, it took me almost a half an hour, a pair of tweezers, and a few strategically placed swear words to get that small, adorable doll back into her original outfit. Her little bitty thumb kept getting caught on ONE thread. -.-

So in conclusion, I have a newfound appreciation for all you tiny lovers out there. Anyone who has the patience to make clothes for and dress these dolls deserves a hearty pat on the back. I guess I just need more practice...

Happy Holidays!

[Gift_in_Edge]

Reading this reminds me the first time I watched the making of the movie Coraline. A women kitted Coraline's sweater and even her mittens! Coraline is 9 or so inches tall and super thin!

More info below. :)
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/ ... s-sweater/
http://blog.oregonlive.com/knitting/200 ... sweat.html

[DollyKim]

Felt, stretchy velvet stuff, and other forgiving fabrics you don't have to hem that much. Most of my designs are jumpsuits, jackets, and simple dresses. Back in the Victorian day girls had a 6" doll they learned to sew for with all the frills and trims.

Wider sleeves, with elastic cuffs if you wish, solve many thumb problems.

[Greyhaunt]

Practice really will help, that's for sure, but don't worry you'll get the hang of it eventually.

I had no idea the JP Ai dolls were that tiny - I thought they were in the Yo-Sd range! One suggestion I have is that Seraphim Grace made a book of patterns for OrientDoll So-Types - which were the first truely tiny tiny dolls out there. The book isn't very expensive (she sells it on her Lulu page) and the patterns can be modified for most any tiny. Patterns do make it easier

[EAB]

Reading this reminds me the first time I watched the making of the movie Coraline. A women kitted Coraline's sweater and even her mittens! Coraline is 9 or so inches tall and super thin!

More info below.
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/ ... s-sweater/
http://blog.oregonlive.com/knitting/200 ... sweat.html

This is amazing!

[Linteia]

Funnily enough, I have the opposite problem of finding it easier to sew for my tiny than my 1/6th and MSD scales. I have to sew it all by hand, but it goes so much faster and I have an easier time adjusting patterns to her than the bigger girls for whatever reason.

[paladinari]

Greyhaunt:
I wasn't quite sure what to expect when getting such a small doll. I opened her up and probably felt as nervous as a parent with a newborn, "What am I supposed to do with this!?" (luckily she's not as breakable... as resin or a child ^.^*)


Here she plays with a tiny eraser and sits next to a 2.5" figurine.


Mina in my MSD doll's lap

Linteia:
I really admire people who have the patience to sew by hand. I'm practically glued to my machine and have no patience for handsewing. I can imagine that would make little clothing much easier to make.

[Greyhaunt]

Well, I know there are people who sew for tinies with machines, but I'm a dedicated hand sewer myself! I just can't do those tiny seams with a machine - I htink it's because I have pedal lead-foot syndrom hahahahaha.

WOW she is small! A lot smaller than I thought they were. Still, she's very cute and I'm sure you'll get used to dealing with dressing the tiny size. Dollykim is right - loose fitting fabrics are a lot easier to deal with and dress them in, but you know what - when I dress my Pukipuki I often pull their hands off (they are magnetic) to make it easier. And with 11cm obitsu - pop that arm right off and slide it up through the sleeve hahahahaha. Sounds wrong, but is much much simpler

[Evelien]

Mina is adorable!! What a pretty wig she has!

[EAB]

she is a darling! I love her in her little nurse's uniform.
I don't see how it's possible to sew clothes this small on a machine.