Clothes for Blythe Dolls: What You Need To Make Them

Every single item of clothing or accessory imaginable can be made for Blythe Dolls. As can every type of furniture, upholstery, or any kind of decor for that matter. 

As well as this, Blythe Doll clothes can quickly become a money-making channel for your Blythe business. 

There are dozens of pages online offering free patterns, particularly on Pinterest.com. Alternatively, you can create patterns yourself and offer them through your own site, or you can make and sell ready-to-wear clothes without patterns.

Many, if not most of these materials listed here, you can procure from your local modelling store. It’s not hard to build your supplies into an abundant stock of resources for making quality clothes. 

What you need to get started

1.  Sewing machine – A very basic one will do. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on this, but it ought to be the first thing on your list when setting up your fashion design enterprise. 

2.  Fabric – Ultimately you want choices in a wide range of colours, patterns and types.

• cotton
• wool
• velvet
• corduroy
• nylon
• polyester
• lace, ribbon
• silk, satin, brocade
• leather
• denim
• elastic
• yarn & string 

Most of these things are needed to build really extensive and quality clothing collections. A good habit is to start consciously cutting out and collecting scraps and swatches of cloth when and wherever you see them. 

3.  Other materials for other items – Again, you can build a large range of these materials over time, but three key ones are buttons, beads and PVC.

4.  Organize a storage system for these, because organization is the key to efficiency and to working in an ordered and satisfying way.

5.  Sewing tools – Needles, pins, thread, tailor’s chalk, scissors, glue, tweezers, the craft knives we mentioned in the previous post, are again essentials in building your Blythe Doll workshop. 

6.  Dyes and acrylic fabric paints. Remember, dyes are different from inks. Inks are used for printing, which is fine if you want to print your own t-shirts for instance.

______

More materials

What is hard, though, is designing the garments. It takes practice, of course. But you can start by going through magazines and trying to copy designs. Build a scrapbook, or a “swipe folder” on your computer, to arrange your sketches next to your favourite designs. 

Then, first on paper, or digitally if you have the skills, start to draw a pattern so the garment can be clearly cut and stitched.

The next step is finding the materials you need, and following that, to make your idea a reality. I know it sounds very simple to say something like, “just go and make it…”, but you really do have to dive into it. 

As I mentioned in the last post on setting up a workshop: there are very few rules to making good art, but one of those essential rules is to have the right equipment and the right materials in place from the start. Another of those rules is to learn techniques from others with experience. These measures give you both the platform and the confidence to then create at your best. 

______

One Blythe pattern, endless options

The list of apparel and items that you can make for your Blythe Doll universe is really endless because literally every household object can be reproduced, from a soccer ball to a smartphone, from sun lounger to a scooter.

So start getting imaginative about the environments that you can build. The sky is the limit and you have the choice to keep your designs contemporary, vintage or completely original. That’s the freedom Blythe Doll customizing gives you – it’s a world of its own that others will immediately be drawn to.

Of course, not everyone has the eye or time for crafting these intricate and well-detailed Blythe dresses. If that’s the case, check out our newest collection of Blythe Doll Clothes!