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Post by maggie on Mar 19, 2007 9:54:46 GMT -5
I've been toying with the idea of selling doll clothes on a portion of one of my websites. I make them for 18-inch dolls and am trying right now to work up some stock. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist and I'm trying to make really high-end clothes so it takes some time to get enough completed.
So far I've made a nurse uniform from WW1 with matching full nun-like cap. Also a dress from the 1890's with lots and lots of ruffles, and a plainer dress from the 1850's with ribbon sleeve jockies draped from the shoulder seams. When I find my camera I'll take pictures to share. I'm trying to figure out how much to charge for them and I want to go as high as I can.
I was looking at A life of Faith dolls (www.alof.com) and their clothes are very expensive. Mine are just as good as what they are selling so I'm hoping to have a simliar if slightly lower pricing structure.
Does anyone else make doll clothes or has anyone else sold them before? If so do you have any advice for a newcomer?
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Sister Michelle
Administrator
I must keep my eyes on Jesus my Saviour
Posts: 1,065
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Post by Sister Michelle on Mar 19, 2007 10:05:07 GMT -5
I have a friend who sells doll clothes on ebay. She is make money doing that. I do not know of any other way. I am making clothing and baby items and selling those on ebay. I also have set up a web site at www.homesteadblogger.com/modestmamaandme I love the life of faith dolls. To much money for us. I have down loaded the books from project guttenberg and can not wait till my DD is a little older and ready for Elsie Dinsmore.
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Post by maggie on Mar 19, 2007 10:54:56 GMT -5
Here is a picture of 2 of the outfits. The 1890's Dress & Nurse Uniform. I love the Life of Faith dolls too. I have Elsie and Violet, her daughter. I hope to get Mildred and Kathleen before too long. I don't have girls, and will probably never have any more babies, so I have dolls instead. I use 25% off coupons to buy the dolls from our local Family Christian Bookstore. ALOF dolls are the most beautiful I've ever seen and with the coupon they're cheaper than on the website. Springfield makes very pretty dolls and they can be had inexpensively from craft stores like Michaels or ACMoore. The Sunday paper usually has coupons for 40% of any 1 item, and when you use one of those coupons, the dolls are about $10 or $12. They are the same size as American Girl dolls. Pretty good quality too, except their hair is a little thin, still it's long and easy to brush. Your pads are beautiful! Mine never look that pretty. More of a rough and ready sort of thing. Clever idea about the bib too. I would have loved something like that when my boys were small. Do you have a link or a name of your friend who sells doll clothes on E-bay? I'd love to see her stuff. I don't sell on E-bay, but I think I can get enough publicity through my main sites so that people will know that I'm selling.
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Post by maggie on Mar 19, 2007 19:37:04 GMT -5
This afternoon I worked on a wool-blend challis plum colored 2-piece dress from the 1870's. I am struggling with how to arrange the bustle but expect to figure it out before too long. I added ivory ribbon and ivory lace and a light beige fringe-like trim on the hem of the jacket-top and the hem of the skirt. I am very dissatisfied with the quality of my camera and hope to replace it with a better one before I put make pictures of the clothes to sell. I might have to sell some first though, to have the money for the new camera. My old camera is about 7 yeras old and the quality is lacking. I think cell-phones take higher quality pictures now than it does. Technology moves so fast and I often feel woefully behind. I feel like with better quality pictures I can charge more for the dresses because I'll be able to show in greater detail the small things that make them nicer than most. I was feeling very good aobut the dresses, but after seeing them in pictures with this camera, I begin to wonder if I was over confident. I've been working on the site I'll use to sell them on, but haven't even come close to finishing it. I'll just keep plugging away at all of it I guess. And trust to the Lord that if it's His will good things will come of it. I find a great deal of comfort in remembering that all these things are in His hands, and not my own. My hands are awfully small to handle such big projects. .
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Post by maggie on Mar 20, 2007 7:47:06 GMT -5
My Dear Sweet Fred is just about the most supportive guy in the whole wide world. Last night found me at Walmart, cash in hand, buying a new digital camera with massive zoom capabilities. Fred wanted to do it, and he doesn't know anything about how to buy them, so he sent me off, and I came home with a good one. Today I'm going to play with it some, after I get my morning chores done, and see if I can get some good pictures of the doll clothes and maybe even some of the family to send off to Grandma.
I had mentioned to Fred a few weeks ago that I thought it was time to get a new camera and last night, out of the blue, he agreed with me. Amazing. That is the power of the Lord. I gave Fred the old one to use at work and wherever else he likes. He is still afraid of the new one, it's got so many buttons and whistles that it will take me a while to figure out how to use it, then I can show him how. I never thought I would be the technology guru of our home, but that's the way it's worked out. Fred does electronics, I do technology. We both have our areas of expertise.
I've had some good ideas about the bustle for the plum wool dress and am going to see what I can come up with today. Also planning a couple of other dresses. One in a small ivory print on a cocoa brown background over a light brown, yellow & blue calico with an ivory background and another, a purple jumper with a ruffled hem over a bright pink blouse. I'll work on them as I have the time. I'm also catching up with the laundry the next few days, so I'll just do all as I can. What a fun day I have planned, Whoo Hoo!
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Post by gardengirl on Apr 4, 2007 6:33:55 GMT -5
What beautiful work you do! Good luck with your endevors!
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jalynn
Senior Member
Posts: 512
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Post by jalynn on Oct 4, 2007 16:50:19 GMT -5
Maggie, what beautiful clothes...the dolls are also georgous ! A speciality shop should jump on those....they look like the Madam Alexander dolls from years ago....!
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Post by diane1220 on Nov 12, 2007 11:48:31 GMT -5
I I love the life of faith dolls. To much money for us. I have down loaded the books from project guttenberg and can not wait till my DD is a little older and ready for Elsie Dinsmore. Hello, I am new here and I hope that you won't take my comment wrong. But, I urge you to pray before sharing the Elsie books with a child. I have some grave problems with the messages taught within the books. (Exo 20:12) Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. This is the first commandment that is linked with a promise. If A then B. In the first book Elsie is defiant and she chides her father. Her father is a kind and loving man. Granted, the books make it clear that he is not a Christian, but he has Elsie's best interest at heart. Now, I know that many children lead their parents to Christ, but I sincerely doubt that outright defiance of a rather innocent request would win over many parents. Also, Elsie is a child. Her knowledge of Christianity comes from her slave. The fact that she values the opinion of her maid over the opinion of her loving and caring father is very disturbing to me. Actually the way the issue of slavery is handled in the books give me a bit of a check. Later in the books, Elsie is extremely wealthy. She lavishes her wealth upon herself in ornamentation and showy clothing. She is not at all concerned about others, even though she occasionally pays lip service to the plight of the South, etc. She does nothing to act on her convictions. However, I too think that the dolls are absolutely adorable. They seem to be well made and I would probably purchase at least one of them, if the books that they are based on didn't give me such pause. Diane
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