Old School

     I always try very hard to give my customers what they want. So when a customer recently wanted a western pleasure doll done on a Breyer doll, that is exactly what I made. It has been years since I have done a western pleasure doll, or most any type of doll, on a Breyer body, but I still have my patterns and I still know how. One trick is to fit the clothes properly. It's always a good idea to have a doll body handy while sewing. Even if it is a type of doll I work on all the time, I will usually fit on the clothing pieces as I sew, just to make sure everything is going to come together with no unpleasant surprises. It's easy to sew a tiny seam just a little bit too tight and have a piece of clothing that is totally unusable. 

    Another thing that happens with Breyer dolls is bits of body work. To be fair, even Yvonne dolls get some body work, but the Breyer dolls need several things to make them more human shaped and better at riding. For this lady I added some medical tape to her waist, to help it stay in whatever way it is positioned, and I did the same with her legs at the hip joints. Breyer dolls are a bit (or a lot) floppy and need some help functioning. I also add some padding at the waist so they don't end up looking like they are wearing corsets. Not that I have anything against corsets, but they would be really uncomfortable to ride in. 

     Since it has been such a long time since I worked on a Breyer, I had forgotten just how large their heads are! Which also means they end up with BIG hair, even if you just give them the minimum amount of hair. But it also means with that much hair you can definitely see the style. 

          It's also nice not having to alter a hat and have it fit properly. There are a couple of small perks to working on a Breyer doll. My preference is still for the Yvonne-type dolls, though those are also not perfect, but I like that they are more realistic than the Breyer dolls. Maybe some day we will have an amazing, totally realistic rider doll, that is shaped like a person, doesn't have an angry face, is easy to position on a horse, and is amazing in all ways. Until that time (I can't make one, I dress dolls, I have no idea how to create a doll) I will work with what I have and what is wanted. Sometimes people want old school, and there is nothing wrong with that. 

    I have not been getting a ton of doll work done lately, so I don't have a whole lot of doll related things to talk about very often, but I am still working, just at sort of a snails pace. I should have some other fun doll news coming very soon. Also, I am mostly planning on having a Black Friday live sale. Or semi-live at the very least. No matter how they are done they all take a lot of work so I am not fully committed to anything just yet. But I do have a bunch of miniatures saved at this point, so a sale will need to happen sooner or later. Likely Black Friday. It also may be the last time I offer miniature items other than things I may randomly decide to make. They just take too much time, and that is something that is in short supply for me. So if there was a cat or dog set, lunch set, saddlebag set, or something something (I don't remember what I have) that you were hoping to see, make sure to keep an eye on the blog for updates on the sale date/time. And if there was some particular item you were wanting let me know. If I haven't made it yet maybe I can talk myself into it.