Hat Storage!

How do you all store your hats? I used to just stack them, but then they take up shelf space, and some don't even stack! So. I did this: Hang some cork board, and then use push pins to put the hats where you like. Easy!

Photography Science

Hey! We're still amped for Little Miss Playthings, right?

So, at the Playthings forums, user k8c asked me about taking pictures of dolls with bangs. How do you get rid of the shadow over their eyes?

And my reaction was, "What shadow?" I'd never noticed. I have three different sorts of bangs in my collection: the little tiny bangs, the huge pie bangs, and no bangs. (I'm missing the new bangs, and I love you all, but I wasn't going to buy another doll just for this experiment. I grabbed three test subjects, took them outside, and put them in the sun:

Oh. See Sara, over there on the left? There's a shadow on her eyes. Huh.

Well, I don't know. Maybe different times of day would help? The picture above was taken around 9 AM.

Here we are at noon. Sara's looking better, but this might just be because of how she's positioned -- look at poor Jess and Ivy!

This one was in the late evening ... 8, I think? Actually, everyone's doing pretty well. That might be the trick, waiting until there's less light?

Actually, the best photo I took, I took around the tool shed in my yard.

Aside from the crappy posing, there's no real problem with the facial shadows. Nice! I took it in the shade, not the sun, which is the key.

This has to do with light diffusion -- the way the light is hitting your photography subject. There's plenty of science you can google if you want to read up on it, but mostly, light directly on your doll? Shadows. Light rays shuffled around? Less shadows.

That's probably why Sara doesn't look so bad in the noon photo -- my tomato plant is diffusing light for her. :-P!

If you've ever heard someone say that they like to shoot when the clouds are out? They're using clouds as a diffuser. Which may or may not work fine, depending on your clouds. If you've got a photographer's light, it probably has some sort of diffuser, like an umbrella or a screen. Even if you don't have one of those, as with all things, Google has your hook up.

Actually, the fill flash on your camera is supposed to act something like a light diffuser, but ...

... the flash on your camera sucks.

Doll Size Items

I found these at Wal Mart, they were too cute not to share:

Mini Barbies! They look more, err, Barbie than just giving your doll a Skipper. I found them close to the crafts, just a bit off from the cards ... no idea why they weren't with the toys. Maybe because they're pens too?

what you see above are the only varieties my Wal Mart had, let me know if you see more.

The AG Playthings Forum has also been buzzing about doll size Apples to Apples games that Wendy's is apparently giving out. Man, they have good chicken nuggets, too.

Let's Talk Velcro!

Let's talk velcro, shall we?

Some people are going to only put their doll clothes together with snaps, or buttons, or hooks and eyes, or fairy wishes and moon dust, and that's fine, but for you and me, we velcro our stuff together. Having the right kind is important. Let's discuss what is the right kind.

Anything labeled "sticky back" is NOT. the right kind. For one, don't get fooled, it won't stick permanently to doll clothes. For two, you can't sew it. The glue on the back makes this stuff thick and impossible to sew. I've tried ... even with pliers, it's way too hard. Don't run it in a machine. The glue will get into your machine cogs and ... no. Just no.

Watch out, because sticky back velcro hides in the wild!

Look really close. This is sticky back velcro.

First of all, you don't want to be associated with anything "fusion." You're sewing. You sew. Get that fusing web out of your head. Second of all? Sticky back.

THIS is the correct stuff. It's thinner than normal velcro, very similar to the kind AG uses. It'll run through a machine. Perfect!

They changed the label on it, though. I know it says it's for cables, but they meant doll clothes. Trust me. This used to be branded as thin velcro for sewing. I guess it sells better this way?

Organizing

I get bitten every so often to organize ALL THE THINGS. Not a bad thing to do.

This is what I just installed next to my sewing machine: two cork boards and one of those ... file ... thingies. One cork board, as you can see, is holding all my important doll patterns. I have no idea why I have two sleeve patterns and two bodice patterns, but I do. That pant pattern is folded like it is to do double duty as a legging pattern.

What am I going to use the other board for? No idea. I'll tell you if I figure it out.

I ~think?~ I might use the metal file ... doohickey for pattern storage. I have a drawer, but the fit is getting tight if you're picking up what I'm putting down. I don't even own that many patterns! But it'll be nice to stash my patterns that I don't use quite as often. (I mean, I love my homemade doll qipao pattern, but how often does that come up?)

By the way, over there on the left edge? The light in my sewing space sucks big time. That's one of those Aero Gardens. It grows bunny food for me AND doubles as a sewing light. When you use them for double duty, they are a total steal.

Doll Collection Organization

Someone was asking a while back when I was posting it on my personal LJ about how, exactly, I have my doll clothes organized, so I figured I'd put this out here for everyone to see.

I am totally aware that this is overly OCD of me, but here it is.

I've got these bins, one for each American Girl:

I used to have smaller bins, and everything fit, but I found that it wrinkled less if I gave it some room to breathe.

Anyway, each doll gets 12 outfits, one for each month. You can see each bin is labeled:

(Hey, it's my handwriting!)

Anyway, this is Kirsten's, since it's all filled out. When it comes time to dress the doll, all you do is look to see what month it is and what outfit she should be wearing. None of these are hard and fast rules -- October can also be Halloween costumes, for example -- but it's one way of sorting out who gets what. I don't even know if this is the best way to do it, but here it is.

Buttons!

I wanted to show off my doll button supply:

You probably have figured out that teeny buttons are better for dolls than big buttons. I find that you can get the best selection and value by buying those sacks of buttons at craft stores. I keep mine in little zip lock jewelry bags after I open them.

I've gotten the most mileage out of the blue and brown variety packs. I have no idea why. It seems like one of those two colors always goes with what I'm sewing!

I have totally forgotten what I use the teeny tiny buttons for. I must have gotten them for something, especially those colored ones. Someone told me the white ones are good for replacing the button on Kirsten's blouse from her winter set if anything ever goes awry with that.

I have a soft spot for those dragonfly buttons. They're decorative, obviously, but they added a nice touch for a coat that I made a kid in a sewing swap. I'm pretty sure the square buttons were for a coat too!

THE HAMSTER!?

Everyone's crazy over McKenna's hamster! Until AG offers it up as its own item (or at least a replacement part), the only way your dolls are getting a hamster is if you spend some bank on McKenna's bed.

Err, except not.

Follow me back to a magical land called "The Mid 1990s." They haven't made a historical doll about it yet, so you'll just have to use your imagination. During this time, there were toys called Littlest Pet Shops.

"Oh! But Bean! I have some of those," you say! No you don't. You're thinking of the horrifying bobbleheaded genetic abominations they try to claim are Littlest Pet Shop toys today. In the 1990s, Littlest Pet Shop toys:

• Actually looked like animals
• "did something" -- the big hook was that every toy could do an action, like chase a toy or wag their tail or something.

Now, some of these toys are scaled perfectly to AG size. Some aren't, but such is life. But! They actually released several hamster sets that, drumroll please, look strikingly similar to McKenna's.

Don't feel limited. They also had a gerbil set that would stomp McKenna's hamster set into the ground. That cage in the picture is modular. It came with different pipes so that you could come up with a huge variety of configurations, and a magnetic wand so that you could guide the gerbils through the cage.

Actually, both those pictures come from a really good Flickr set if you're interested in seeing more of the old toys. There were literally hundreds of them, way more than pictured there.

If you decide you want to pick up some of the old 90s Littlest Pet Shops, sadly, your only source (that I know of?) is eBay.