Trying for Halloween

Hello again!  If you're just joining us, WELCOME~!  Come!  Read!  Sit down for a spell~!

It's that time of year again!  Halloween!!  Samhain!!  All Hallows Eve!!

Last year's dress, modeled by Chiyo.

Last year, as previous readers may remember, I attempted to have a Halloween dress (or was it dresses?) up for sale in my shop.

If you followed along, it fell through, however, sewing by hand bringing me to a resounding halt as things got busier.  So, this year, I've hoped to try again.

If anyone is interested in last year's dress, however, I am debating on putting it up for sale.  If you agree with this, let me know because up it will go!  It will come as is with little black socks.  It fits perfectly on VOLKS Yo-SD-sized dolls and similar, but it's a bit big on my Fairyland LittleFee.

As I said previously, I do plan on making things OOAK in my shop, so if you would like this one or this year's dress, be sure to jump right on that, as there will only be ONE of each posted!!

This year's dress, in the works earlier this month.

This time round, we have pumpkins!

Adorable, petite pumpkins with a silvery-black ribbon lining the bottom.

Now, this is just a sneak peek, there is more to be seen of this dress as the next few days go by, so please, if you are interested in seeing it's progress or seeing it listed, keep an eye out on the Facebook page or the shop!

It will have sleeves and other embellishments, as well as snap closures in the back.  I'm still debating on putting a collar on it, though, it being an autumn-timed outfit and all.

Well, we have time for one last sneak peek of things coming to the shop in the near future.

16mm green acrylic eyes.

Acrylic eyes, anyone?

As of right now, I have access to 16mm eyes, so that's what will debut at the shop as soon as I finish the testing phase.

I am still debating on the Custom Order or if I will just do certain colors and keep it at that, but they do seem like I can make them digitally quick enough to work on a few at a time.

As you can see, the pupils in both eyes came out a tad big, and the left one ended up off-center, but this is the test pair, so please bear with me.

Hopefully, within the next few days, I will have the 16mm down pat, and find where I can procure some other sizes to add to the shop.

In the meantime, keep your eye out for more updates!

As always, thank you for joining me!

Have a wonderful evening!

♥ The BJDA

Sewing Machine!!

Hello, and welcome to the Ball-Jointed Baby, property of the Ball-Jointed Boutique! ;)

Sewing 101 pillow case, playing with Snow.

In this exciting issue, WE HAVE A SEWING MACHINE AGAIN!!

Yes!  After ages of waiting patiently-- well, not so patiently-- the store finally has access to a new sewing machine!!

It does human-sized button holes, tons of stitches, and came with all sorts of feet that I can't wait to try!  It runs so much smoother than my previous machine, and I can't wait to keep testing everything and learning it's ins and outs.

This lovely little machine and I are going to become the best of friends very shortly.  Once I'm done playing, I'm hoping to finally get all those projects I've been doing by hand underway and completed.  It's about time my store re-opened!

And, speaking of the shop, I've taken to looking for small prints on fabrics, things that won't look too ridiculous on smaller dolls and themed things as well.  Every time I go to my favorite fabric store, I bring back at least 3-5 fat quarters in different colors and styles, just to mess around and see what I can do.  So far, the only thing they're difficult to use on is an MSD-sized kimono, other than that, fat quarters are great for doll clothing!  Remnants, the bits left over after a bolt of fabric has been almost all used up, are great for doll clothes too!  They are excellent resources when you don't want to lug the whole bolt up to the counter to cut just a 1/2 yard off or something small like that.

Fabric quarters and a remnant.

So!  Things in the works:  Leeke Art Doll and SD-sized clothing.  I have all sorts of little ideas flying around this noggin of mine on what I could add to the shop, be it permanently or OOAK sets, so hopefully I can at least get a good "crop" in my shop this year. :)

Wish me luck!

As always, thank you for joining me! 

Until next time!

♥ The BJDA

Good Gravy It's Been an Eternity!

Hello again!

Welcome back!  In case you were wondering, yes, it HAS been an eternity, and yes, I missed it terribly!

In the past almost year, we've had job issues, hospitalizations, and other daily life things that always seemed to get in the way of my sewing.  Fortunately, I hope that these have all settled, at least for a little while, so I can resume sewing and bring the store back from holiday.

My first attempt at a kanzashi flower.

I see other shops doing grab bags and limited edition outfits and sets, instead of the traditional buy>>make>>ship set up most shop owners use.

Now, I have a new sewing box, new sewing patterns, and a few new tricks up my sleeve to help get my shop up and running smoothly again... Hopefully sometime soon, too!

My current projects have been kimonos and kanzashi flowers, both human sized at the moment, however, I DO want to try for BJD sized kanzashi. It seems like it would be adorable.

We've officially hit 250 Likes on our FaceBook page, so I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to follow us in the past few years, especially recently despite the page being at a standstill like the blog.  It's so heartwarming to see all the support we are receiving.  Thank you all so much, from the bottoms of our hearts here at the BJB.

I hope to have more updates soon, with more pictures of current projects and other things for sale.  I can't wait to introduce all my new models, and write up a post about my current in-progress doll!

As always, thank you for joining me!

Have a wonderful day!

♥ The BJD Addict