A tricky situation...

So I recently decided to sell my bought-on-a-whim Pukifee Icis. She was cute, but just not fitting in with my twins, so I put her up for adoption. I gave options for layaway, and also for possible trades/partial trades.

A DOA member messaged me back, offering me several limited RosenLied outfits and a pair of boots as possible trades. I made her an offer for their trade value that I thought was fair, but she valued them at their brand-new price. She said the outfits were in excellent condition and hard to find .I accepted this reasoning and valued them at their original purchase price.

The outfits were sent to me, and I received them today. They are beautiful, as expected of RosenLied, but there are damage issues that were not disclosed. The net petticoat on one dress is torn and has holes in several places around the elastic.


There are also some small BRIGHT BLUE stains on the center bow of the matching cape that I have tried to wash but aren't coming out.

On the second dress I found no damage, but one of the snaps in back refuses to snap shut. It simply will not close no matter how hard I press it, and I find it hard to believe it ever worked at all. The boots are perfect, no complaints there.

So, the question is, how to proceed? I have sent photos of the damage to the DOA member. I feel sort of uneasy, because the most heavily damaged limited set with the holes and the stains is the one I have decided to sell because it doesn't suit my girls. =/ I could never sell it without disclosing its issues, which seem irreperable (the netting is not fixable and I can't get the stains out) and to my mind, would lower its value. The dress with the wonky snap I want to keep, and I can replace the snap myself (even though I'm miffed that the problem wasn't disclosed to begin with).

The member still hasn't replied because there's a huge time difference and I've only just sent her the photos, but I'm very flustered by how to proceed. The pukifee I'm selling is brand new, and will include the wig, dress I made, and shoes in the photo. I feel like the items I got in trade should have been without issues. "Excellent condition" doesn't seem quite an appropriate description.

How would you proceed? Am I being to nit-picky?

Have you ever?

Does anyone ever change their mind about a doll based on something as simple as getting a new wig or eyes? Well I have. I was going to sell my soom afi because I never did anything with her, but after trying on this new wig, I'm in love again. Look at her now, isn't she gorgeous?

I got my soom afi a long time ago because I loved her face and hands and the color of her tan. But after I got her and gave her a faceup, I sort of got stuck. I plopped a long blonde wig on her because it seemed like the obvious thing to do, but somehow it didn't really click.
Then I tried giving her a short blonde wig (admittedly it's sort of scraggly) and giving her some pretty light brown glass eyes to replace the pupil-less pink glitter ones. This is what she looked like...
But I was still not happy. I tried black wigs, pink wigs, grey wigs... no joy. But then I tried this light brown wig from Fairyland and some grey glass eyes I bought on a whim, and she just clicked!
I wonder if anyone else has ever been on the cusp of selling a doll, and then changed their mind at the last moment after making a seemingly small change. I've always suspected that getting the right wigs and eyes and almost as important as getting a good sculpt... now I think my suspicions have been confirmed!

Reopened Shop and New Listings

I re-opened my DOA shop about a week ago and put a few things up for sale, and today I added a whole bunch more. I've got tons of clothes sewn and my boxes are full, so I'm putting things up for sale that I can free some space!

This set includes the shoes!
And a pretty silk rose headband...

Dress and little lace ankle socks :)
Pretty nightie set

I love this fabric, I can't wait to use it again!

Lots of new stuff, and more to be added. Still working on my puki commissioned dresses... I've got two out of three done. Blue, pink, and mint on the way!

My newest addition... a baby!

For the longest time, I've wanted a Felixdoll Small Comfort baby to make a puki hybrid with. The small comfort body looks incredibly natural with puki heads, and of course I had just the puki head in mind. However, when Felixdoll unexpectedly went bust 2 years ago and stopped production of all their dolls, Small Comfort babies became hot commodities. Secondhand market prices were unstable, the SC babies just didn't come up for sale very often, and when they did there was crazy competition to be first in line to snag it. (Can you blame 'em?)

So I waited and tried to put it from my mind. I had given up hope almost entirely, when I happened upon a listing for a SC baby on DOA. It was incredible, the listing was a day old, but when I messaged the seller to inquire she said the baby was unspoken for! Imagine my joy. :) So after a long long wait, I have my dream baby- Baby Alice.The first night she wore some puki clothes (white panties and pink vest) but everything was hopelessly large and I knew she'd need some clothes of her own. I planned on making a snuggly onesie, but somehow I got my hands on some dove grey silk and instead of a onesie I wound up sewing a victorian baby set, complete with lace ruffled baby cap to keep her little head warm.


It was sort of a challenge to figure out how to do the back because even my smallest metal snaps are too large and bulky for clothes this small. I eventually settled on some micro velcro.
The result is pretty good for a first try, but next I definitely want to make proper soft and tumbly baby clothes. This means I'll have to venture into knits and fabrics with stretch, but I'm willing to try! For tonight, my baby girl is sleeping bundled up in a vintage linen hankie...

It's been a LONG time...

Wow... I can't believe my last past was in 2009! o.O That's insane! Here's a shot list of big things that have happened since then:
~ Got married! <3
~ Had appendicitis and surgery >.<
~ Graduated law school
~ Took the Bar exam

I've been dipping my toe into and out of the dolly hobby in the meantime, because I can never stay away for long, but my blog was neglected. Well no more! I will resume my dolly blogging post haste!

Wedding... Alice was there, but she felt comfier hanging out in the dressing room
Appendix... Alice stayed with me in the hospital and kept me company


Graduation... I was up all night studying for a final so it took a LOT of makeup magic to look normal


And of course the bar exam!


Now that things are settled down more, I'll have time to be dolly blogging and sewing again. =] Yay!

Alice's First Meetup!

Alice and I went to our first dolly meetup today. We stayed for about 2 hours and we met so many other dolls and dolly owners! We're still bummed about the loss of our beloved Bernard, but we're not giving up hope of finding him someday. Perhaps by some miracle the puppy did not eat him, and he's merely on an vacation somewhere.

In the meantime, Alice has an adorable new little friend, Mr. Benjamin. This bunny is a gift from a lovely girl we made friends with at the meetup. :)

I bought Alice a miniature donuts and coffee set... I think she likes it!

Missing Bear!

Alice's beloved teddy, Bernard the Bear has gone missing. :( We are very sad about it, and many tears have been shed but Bernard is nowhere to be found.

Alice and I made a missing poster for him, and although I've searched my apartment top to bottom perhaps when I'm asleep my other dolls will help Alice search?

Warm Winter Coat

Ooh, double post day! It's cold cold cold today, so I made Alice a new winter coat.

Brrr.... today's chilly weather (and all the talk of snow!) got me thinking about Alice's winter duds. She still has her blue furry coat from last winter, but i figured it was time for something new. Here is what we came up with...

I used pink baby corduroy for the outer shell and then I lined the inside of the coat with Liberty of London cotton in "Nina-Rose". The lining is not visible when the coat is buttoned up, but just know it's there makes me happy. I also sewed on a white minky fur collar and cuffs, to match Alice's white fur earmuffs. Isn't she a cutie?

I wonder, should I add buttons to the front of the coat? I have some 4mm plastic white buttons (but I'm afraid they might look cheap), and I also have some tiny round goldplated beads I use as buttons. Or I could do a small pink bow in the center of the white collar in front... hmmm, decisions, decisions...

New Dress for Alice

This is my first foray into using dark fabrics. This is dress is reminds me of My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn. The hat doesn't match at all because it belongs to another outfit, but I plan on making a black top hat especially for this dress. :)

Alice and I think the dress looks better with boots rather than with mary janes. The dress is Victorian-ish, so boots are definitely better because they look more sophisticated. The weather is starting to get cold though, so I don't know how much longer Alice can wear sleeveless dresses! Perhaps I need to make her a new winter coat?

Slight Emergency

I got some new puki sized shoes today, and as I was taking pictures I popped Alice's wig off to adjust it. To my horror, I discovered a deep scratch/gouge on the side of her face, in the area usually covered by her wig.
Que a mini freakout, because Alice is my most precious dolly. I have no idea how the gouge got there or when it happened, but now that I'm not in shock anymore it doesn't seem so bad. It's a unique part of her character, and it definitely makes her different from all her look-alike sisters (and brothers!) out there with the same face. I've made a little bandaid for her to wear under her wig...
So now she's feeling much better. Cuddles with her bear Bernard were also helpful. =)

Vintage Maid

I haven't played with Eli for a month or two, so today I took her out for some quality time. Poor little girl needed a breather! She's been spending her days in her box wearing the pink Marie Antoinette outfit (it suits her so well), so we played dressup and tried out different looks. She slimmer than my littlefee and yosd, so their clothes are a bit roomy on her, but I think it makes her look cute. We wound up with this vintage maid-looking ensemble, and I did my best to make it look like an old photo with the help of some Photoshop magic.

New Dolls, New clothes

I haven't written any updates for a while, due to being busy with life, but I think some new photos are in order. :) Two dolls have come and gone this past month- a Soom Glot and a Fairyland Pukifee Flora. Glot was cute, and had amazing hoofed legs, but the white skin really threw me off. The pukifee Flora was also very cute, but I have a pukifee Ante as well and I really prefer her over Flora.

Which brings me up to an introduction! Rosalie is my pukifee ante, and she is my little rose angel. This is the first photo I took of her, wearing a short term wig that I made myself so she wouldn't be a baldie. Her open eye faceplate had issues with the faceup when I got it, so it's being replaced. Thus, for now Rosie is one really really sleepy angel.
I tried on a littlefee wig on her, but of course it's way too big. I really like the white fluffiness though. :) I did some sewing for her as well- if you notice, the apron from the top photo doubles as a pajama top in the bottom photo! The pukifee size is really fun to sew for, because she's big enough to be able to get interesting details in the clothes, but small enough so that it doesn't take forever to finish an outfit.
Best of all, my pipos Ringo (named Momochi) can share clothing with Rosie. I had Momochi first, even though she was never introduced here), so I already had a few basic patterns to work with when Rosie arrived. Here is Momochi wearing the exact same thing as Rosie in the top photo. The kitty's legs are a little shorter so the bloomers are ankle length instead of knee-length, but I think she look really cute. So that's all for now. :)

Magdalene Gets her Own...

Maggie finally got a dress made just for her that fits properly. I used the fabric from a men's shirt my aunt let me have, and although there were some stains here and there, there was tons of prisitine fabric! So Maggie has a dress that is not only a designer fabric, it's also non-wrinkle! =) I never appreciated how nice that could be for doll clothing, but it really is great. No matter how long she stays in a certain position or how the dress is folded or creased, once you straighten her out there's never a wrinkle to be seen anywhere!

Trying something out....

I have a sinking sensation that my posts are being eaten, so this is a test post. Testing, testing...

Eli's Lacy Sleepwear

At night Eli sleeps in her box, but I like to put her away wearing something comfy. :) I'm not sure her daytime dresses are the best for sleeping in, so I made her a sleep set of ruffled panties and matching bralette top.

I used a white stretch ruffle I had, because I wanted the undies to be without any snaps or closures but I had to sew several lengths together to get the ruffle thick enough to work with the design I had in mind. I'm really proud of myself for figuring how to stitch the elastic bits together without hampering their ability to stretch. ;)

A bit late but... New Doll!!!

That's right, a new doll. :) Elaine Josephine is a Pipos Alice Jr. She's a fullset, so she came with wig/clothes/shoes, and I adore her wig. It's so soft and perfect for her, it totally makes her character for me.

In this photo she's wearing Evie's fullset outfit. It's a little big on her, but I like it. :) All the patterns I've made for the littlefee body work with the pipos body, so all the clothes I've already sewn fit Eli just fine... in some cases, better than they fit Evie!

and the winners are...

PR Gerry- Bozo (boy outfit)
renzi - Wendy (pink bows dress)
Half.Jak - Boots (blue bows dress)
Winternight - Soonji (coat)

Alice's Summer Lottery

Please click on all photos to see them in their actual size! For some reason, this blog makes my photos appear all fuzzy and blurry until you click on them. =P

I will be accepting lottery submissions until Thursday @ 9:00 pm (east coast time). Since I have made more than one prize so that there could be more than one winner, I would appreciate it if winners would pay their own shipping costs. Otherwise I could only have one winner, and one prize, and it would have to be limited to US residents only, and I didn't want to do that. ;) So winners pay their own shipping. (I will provide the shipping materials free of charge of course)

And here are the prizes...