Need some confidence :')

Looking at the doll he should be decently easy to dress as long as you have full hand mobility. If you don't have full use of your hands then please disregard.

Its okay to be nervous about your first doll but let me assure you that ball jointed dolls are a lot sturdier and bigger than you think! looking at the original outfit the only items that might be a little tricky to get on are the collar ( it requires you to remove the head ) and the leg strap (sliding the strap through the buckle can be a little fiddly) but everything else looks like it'd be fine.

I do have to ask though did you order the doll back when it was being offered as a fullset? cause right now on ACBJD im not seeing an option to purchase him with his outfit at all.

 

I'm super clumsy and even I've managed to dress all of my dolls! You got this!!! And, as the previous poster already mentioned, BJDs are also a lot sturdier than they look!

 

If you can dress yourself, you can dress a doll, trust me
Plus, what are you ever gonna do if you want to change something? Better to cast away that fear right from the start.

 

I have been a doll owner my entire life, I would say dressing larger dolls is super easy. There are some clothes that are definitely a pain, but any doll above 30cm in height, that is not proportioned as an adult (or is relatively slim), should be very easy to un/dress, unless you have mobility problems. I'm super clumsy, and have shaky hands that are only getting shakier by the minute. Having said that, the only dolls that I wanted to kick my head against the wall for thinking I should be attempting to dress (or make clothes for) so far, are willowy 28cm strung dolls. Otherwise, the bigger, the easier to dress. Unless they are over 70cm, then I would probably also need help (maybe why I don't own any dolls that big or heavy, my scrawny arms would probably break in two, just for looking at one. Lol!). Hope that helps, and good luck! (:

 

You can do it! You got this! Even if you never owned any other kind of doll before, you can dress your doll! Be patient, go slow, because yes there are sometimes fiddly bits with really extravagant outfits. You might have to take the head off, or the hands, or the feet, if you buy very tight fitting outfits for your doll. If the outfits you buy are loose fitting, you will be fine! No need to get him sent already dressed for you!

 

I don't think it's possible to have it come pre-dressed. That being said, I promise you can do it! I'm disabled and my fingers are not very dextrous, they also dislocate easily. I am totally able to dress my dolls. The only thing I will say, if you need to remove heads, definitely invest in a head puller with a handle like this one it really saves my hands and makes it super easy.

I will say that real buttons (as in buttons with buttonholes as opposed to just snaps or clasps) are the bane of my existence. They take me a long time of fiddling to get closed, but it will happen eventually. Just take your time.

 

If you have ever dressed a baby or a pet, then dressing your doll will be the easiest thing ever. (And if you haven't...just be glad you get to start with a doll!)

A few tips for hand/head removal to make it so much easier:

-Head: It sounds scary, but it's pretty easy. I joined the hobby back when headcaps were s-hooked on instead of magnetic and that could be rough!! But now most are magnetic, so all you need to do is pull the headcap off, lift the s-hook, twist it and let it fall into the hole. Take the head off, dress the doll, then pull the hook back up through the hole and settle it in the slots on each side. Done! Some people buy string pullers for this, but you really don't need to. Personally, I usually use a crochet hook! If the hook is S shaped and big enough, you can also hook it with a keyring and just pull on that. Or loop a strong ribbon or piece of string/cord through it and pull that. Anything that helps you grip and pull that hook and won't hurt your hands. Just be sure you have a good grip so it doesn't snap back in there too hard. If your doll is strung tightly, you might want to get somebody who can hold the doll firmly while you pull. Some dolls have a C-hook or O-ring instead of s-hook. It works the same. I personally like the C-hook in big dolls because it's usually big enough for me to just hook my finger in and not need tools.

-Hands/Feet: Some dolls have slots in the ankles/wrists that the s-hooks can sit on and not slip back into the limb. Volks, Luts Muse and Spiritdoll Elegance have these, that I know of. Some companies have magnetic hands and feet, Fairyland is best known for this. Some, like some Luts, Dollmore and Soom, have the "hook" sculpted as a knob or tab on the foot or hand and the string goes around that. But most don't. Most have tiny s-hooks. What I find easiest is to get some small carabiner clips! Pull the hand/ foot out until you can see the string easily, clip the clip onto it. Now pull on the clip, and remove the hand/foot. Leave the clip in place and dress your doll. Then pull the clip, replace the hand/foot, and remove the clip. Done! And no chance of string slipping back into the limb and needing a partial or full restring!

Most of the time, you won't need to remove hands. If the sleeves are very tight and don't stretch enough, or if the sleeve has a lot of holes or things for the fingers to get caught on (like a loose knit sweater), you will. Head depends. If the collar is tight and it doesn't have an opening with zipper/snaps/buttons, you will, but a lot of clothes won't require it.

Easy dressing tips:
-If the outfit is layered, like a long sleeved shirt and jacket, put the sleeves of the shirt inside the sleeves of the jacket, and then put it on the doll. SO much easier than trying to keep sleeves from bunching up while trying to dress them layer by layer! Also, put socks on before pants. Otherwise, you've got a struggle coming where pulling up a sock means the pants ride up, and pulling down the pants leg pulls the sock back down.
-If you have a belt that needs to go through belt loops, do that first before putting the pants on the doll. It's easier to hold the pants and bunch/fold as needed. If it's too fiddly for your fingers, tweezers help! They can also help prevent the belt from fraying or splitting on the end, which does frequently happen with fake leather.
-For shoes, you may need to unlace them, or greatly loosen the laces to get the foot in. A lot of lace up boots will have zippers so you never need to unlace them, but some won't.
-If you really struggle with buttons, you can get a tool to help with that! Google "button helper" or "button hook", you'll get lots of options. Or can probably make your own with some floral wire or ribbon. Or again, try tweezers.

Hope this helps!

 

If you DO have mobility/hand issues, and find any part of a doll outfit difficult, someone you know, or someone you can commission once you have Marketplace Access here, could do a little sewing to replace fastenings or alter an outfit for you to make it doable for you.

If you have a doll and want to know if it is On Topic for this forum, you can check that under "rules" in the little category bar at the top of the window, or Ask the Mods under the HELP tab up there. They're friendly, I promise!
Off Topic dolls can still be discussed in the Brigadoon section, (Which You'll want to bookmark since it can be hard to find!) so don't be sad if your first doll isn't On Topic- that's what the Brigadoon section is for, and a lot of people chat about Barbies, Tonner, Blind Box dolls, etc.

Welcome, remember everyone starts somewhere in a new hobby, and we'll be happy to help you with your dolly questions!

 

I don't think you'll have any trouble with getting those items on! That shirt should have closures in the back so you shouldn't need to even remove the head or hands for any of those. It's hard to tell how well they fit, given that ACBJD doesn't list exact item measurements, but you can always ask them if they could find that out for you and cross-check with Ivar's measurements. The only thing that might be a bit fiddly to get on would be the anti-stain suit, but I would also argue that resin dolls normally don't need one, especially with lighter clothes.

If it helps to calm the nerves, I'd also recommend looking up BJD dress-up videos on Youtube to see how other's do it! I really enjoy Cian's for instance. All in all, dressing dolls is nothing difficult and I'm sure you will have fun with it

 

Hopefully this will aset your minfd at rest.

It's really no more difficult than dressing any other kind of doll, and children dress and undress dolls all the time, so you shouldn;'t have any difficulty unless youre severely mobiolity impaired in your hands/arms.

It isn't a silly concern and hte only silly questions are the ones you don't ask.

Also, if you do hit a snag, then asking here - as you've seen, will garner you a fair number of responses.

Teddy

 

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I'm curious. Why would it be hard to find?
You click the forum tab and all the forums are listed in order, including Brigadoon. Like, it's right there among the others. Second one in the "Den Of Angels Events" -section. Am I missing something? Uhm, not missing something?

 

Everyone else has already given great advice, but one thing I'd suggest if you're worried about clothing fitting, is getting a tailor's tape measure that has centimeter increments on it and looking up the correct way to take measurements. It's not always easy with a doll since they don't squish like people do, but their proportions are usually a little exaggerated anyway, so finding the correct place to take the waist measurement for example is a bit easier. The company measurements are usually pretty good to go by, but they don't show where they've taken them from, so I always prefer to take some myself just to be sure.
Most doll clothes have some kind of closures on them to make them easier to put on/off. If the piece is complicated, just go slow and refer to the product image and you'll be fine!

 

Brigadoon doesn't show under any of the drop down menus, and to open the Forum tab, one has to know to double click - which isn't very intuitive or something one thinks of when a drop-down menu already opens on the first click. I've spent plenty of time on DoA but only found out about what you described now

 

I simply click the tab, not double click. The drop down opens when just hovering the pointer over it. The drop down menu doesn't show where there are new posts and as you've noted, not all forums can be reached that way. Too easy to miss something.
Maybe it's different on different browsers, or something? Or perhaps you are browsing from a phone?

 

I guess our browser or cursor settings are different (I'm browsing from my laptop) - which can oftentimes be the case. People use DoA on many different devices/browsers these days and the navigation experience can vary a lot, especially as the home page is not the simpler Forums view but the one with Doll Profiles, News, and New Threads that don't lead to it. I think also generally users just go around the forum in different ways so less visible parts are not as obvious to some as they are to others ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

if I click the forum tab it looks like this.
You see, I JUST learned from this very thread about ten seconds ago that it will look different IF i double click it, so I can't say it's terribly intuitive, at least not with Firefox. YMMV, it would seem.

 

@cobaltconduct and @Rosslyn Apparently so. I use Firefox as well. But I agree, it's probably a settings-thing.
In any case, now we know.

 

ACBJD is a great dealer. You can always get a deal with her. You definitely don't need to be afraid to dress up a BJD. They're not that fragile dolls. If you're not downright rude, it's fine.

 

Resin is not resistant to staining, but it doesn't stain as easily and as deeply as vinyl dolls (like Dollfie Dream or Obitsu, who often really do need that anti-stain suit) - I'm yet to see my dolls stained from clothing they wear, but of course super dark things can sometimes leave a mark when left on for a long time - it really depends! There is lots on information about it on DoA if you want to search around The jeans you linked are definitely light enough not to give you any trouble, though.