I love dolls. Always have. I no longer care who knows. Sure, I was a Good Girl and gave them up when everyone else did (during my era, you quit playing around 12 or 13 - I understand it's much earlier now), but I still sneakily bought a few when I was in my late 20s. As an investment, you understand. Although why I thought first editions of Disney/Mattel's Belle and Beast dolls would net big bucks in 5 years, I can't explain. You can't look at a pile of doll clothes on eBay or at a yard sale without seeing her blue Village dress or gold ballroom gown in there somewhere -usually both. But even while I denied it, I'd still sneak into the toy section of most stores, just to look, or surreptitiously play for just a few minutes when no one was home and all the doors were locked. 

 I had lots of dolls as an only-child, youngest daughter in the extended family. Baby Go Bye-Bye, Swingy, Kissing Baby Thumbellina, Baby Small Walk, Timey Tell, Crissy, Raggedy Ann, a few others that no one else has every heard of (If you have any info about a doll in a red jumper that repeats what's said when you raise and lower her arm, please let me know !). I remember dismissing Blythe as a potential addition because I thought she looked freaky. I had generic infant dolls that wore 9mo. size real baby clothes, home-made rag dolls stuffed with run-laddered pantyhose (those were more fun than the doll), hand-me-down ones that I usually gave away. But my long-term fave had to be Barbie.

I disappeared for weeks in her world. I had a large (by 70s standards) Barbie family of seven, including the only Ken doll in the entire neighborhood. Malibu Barbie was first, followed by Malibu Ken, Sweet Sixteen, Quick Curl Barbie and Skipper, Growing Up Skipper, and Ballerina Barbie. In those more austere days, we made houses out of cardboard boxes, complete with wall art cut from magazines and furniture drawn on the walls and Kleenex curtains on the cut-out windows. Our dolls sat on spray-paint and hair spray can lids, slept in shoeboxes spread with fabric scraps, and drove around in bedroom slippers.  The two biggest props in our neighborhood were the orange Country Van (Lisa's) and the United Friend Ship (mine), until Lisa got the very first Barbie Townhouse (also known as Earthquake Manor). There were no huge plastic Dream Houses, no Corvettes, and the only horse was an out-of-scale Breyer Lisa got from the Green Stamp Redemption Center.

 I always felt bad for Dawn down the street. Her mother disapproved of Barbie, and would only let her play with Skipper or the Sunshine Family. So she always made her dolls act like real tramps ! As all of us had small doll families, we were pretty attached to what we had, and it was rare to let someone else play with your dolls. I don't think I ever named any beyond 'Barbie' or 'Skipper' - when I played, the doll I played with was me. I had a sum total of about six dresses beyond what each doll came with, and most of those were generic clones of the authentic stuff. Even then, I knew how to get the most for my allowance. There was also the truly ugly stuff Mom made, all from thin scratchy polyester blue with huge white dots. Why she didn't use some of my outgrown clothes for fabric instead has always escaped me. We all hated those outfits, even though I appreciated her effort.

 I gave away all my dolls and the Friend Ship with the broken tail when I found out that a friend's sisters didn't have any, and that was a real bonus. Every time I came to visit, they'd drag me into playing with them and my dolls again. I've never regretted giving them away until I see what I'd have to pay to replace some of those things on eBay. Even then, it's just a twinge. I really don't want any of them back. It's like seeing a friend's photo in an old yearbook and wanting to be with them back then for a bit, but knowing it's impossible.

 Years passed, and aside from buying a doll on occasion, I was pretty much Barbie-free. Oh, my wonderful husband bought me a new Princess Leia once there was one I really wanted on the market (FAO's Jabba's Prisoner), then I wanted an Amidala to display with the sole survivor of my teen-age doll purge, a '78 Leia that I'd saved for months to get, then there was a pair of Sailor Jupiters off eBay, and when Hubby was Fiancée, he bought me my favorite doll of all time, Oshogatsu II, known to me as Shinobu, but all of these could fit on top of my computer monitor comfortably. This was enough for me. Until I had our first child and hit 35 within a year. I began to lose myself in new, absorbing tasks that are a part of being a wife, a mother, and a near-casualty of peripartum cardiomyopathy.  I was too sick and exhausted to have any sort of creative spark anymore, and I missed it when I could enjoy a cohesive thought.

 Worn out and confined to bed, I thought that I could at least change my dolls' clothes (I had a shoebox full from yard sales and the stuff they came in) and comb the dust out of their hair while infant son slept. It was more fun than I thought, dressing Leia as Sailor Jupiter, and putting Amidalas weird mask/cowl on Belle. I soon found myself online via a borrowed laptop hunting out Barbie sites - my girls needed more clothes !

 Thats where it began. My adult Barbie compulsion. Soon I was scouring toy sections even in grocery stores, looking for clothes and props, hunting on eBay, peeking into boxes of misc. toys at yard sales, flea markets, and thrift stores, looking at fridge magnets with a practiced eye for scale. While I really didn't want any more dolls (by now my doll population had soared to 15, with another 20 or so still NRFB), I often found that it was cheaper to buy a used doll in a nice outfit than it was to buy a new halter-and-miniskirt-no-shoes bubble package, i.e., what passes for Barbie clothes under $5. from Mattel. Problem was, by the time I got the doll fixed up and looking good again, I frequently wanted to keep her ! Generic doll clothes were pretty seldom, and the three doll clothes patterns out there were of the expert seamstress level, far above my 'Home Ec. Sewing Failure' skills.

 Happily, most of that has changed. Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Maxway carry dolls and clothes that range from cheap plastic in a so-so dress to 'look close, it's not a real Barbie' clones. Simplicity now has a line of Sewing For Dummies patterns that yield pretty decent clothes from fabric scraps to fit almost any size doll. The Marts (Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target) have their own Barbie knockoffs that, heaven help us, wear stuff a normal human would. And hundreds of doll fans have stepped into the fray, producing cool patterns like Real Clothes and tiny elements that add versimilitude to your creations, like at tinyzippers.com. It's nice to see some of the playline dolls start to arc away from the Princess Fantasy gowns that don't fit through the doors of the Dream House. Collector series dolls, however...(sigh) Nothin' bad against 'em, but they bore me stupid, which is sayin' something. I'm just one of those unimaginative types that doesn't see why I should pay extra to have someone else's name on my clothes. Or my dolls.

Then, too, I'm still the little frugalista at heart. I have to work hard at not getting carried away by all that's out there, although by now, it's much easier, since my tastes have settled and my skill level increases a bit now and then. Another consideration is that there's simply not often much extra in our budget for more doll stuff, so I get the most for the money at the aforementioned yard sales and flea markets, and make what I can't buy anywhere. Honestly, what does Mattel have against forest green ?  My dolls cavort in and on bits and pieces of playsets and Dollar Tree finds, with inexpensive 'get aways' to the Bed and Breakfast (a $2. charity sale Folding Fun house) and the numerous 'parks' (various shelves in our bedroom), with occasional jaunts overseas on an eBay bargain Friend Ship. Well, I did have to have that again ! Most of the props are either cheap fridge magnets or bought by the zipper-bag load at yard sales. Since I'm out there most every Saturday,  the flea veterans and the thrift store sweeties hold dolls for me to get first pick !  I'm getting quite the reputation ! I seem to be the only adult buyer around here.

 Since I buy used dolls cheap for clothes, I soon accumulate a boxload of naked dolls that I don't want to keep. So I clean them up, fix their hair, and dress them in either stuff I don't want or stuff I make, and take them over to Salvation Army. A real sweetie bought about 30 of my donated dolls last Christmas, making me happy, the kids who benefit from the doll fund happy, and hopefully him/herself happy. If you want real inspiration on dressing dolls for charity, check out savethedolls.org.

So thats how my doll obsession started. Bored with what was out there, I had to make my own. And the internet is about the best thing in the world for doll fans ! Still, there's problems. I joined tons of yahoo/msn doll groups that were either silent as a tomb, or full of ads from customizers or people getting out of the habit, or groups on the verge of closing suddenly or embroiled in flame wars. I got tired of subbing and unsubbing often in the same day. I haven't been visiting the about.com group, mostly being busy with sickness or projects, but there's a fine lot of folks over there. Still, more of the focus is on 'hey, look at the six new dolls I bought this week !' and not much on customizing, so I visit only briefly. Heck, now half the 'I bought everything this weekend' ringleaders are now branching out into Gene and Tyler, so I feel even less at home there. So, I started my own place to have my own say. Plus, I was starting to feel as if sharing what I did was just for their applause, which is draining and annoying on both sides.

I don't buy much, new or used. I was thrilled when I crafted my own custom length zippers and bought a cool remnant this weekend, so you're not gonna hear me gush over $$$$ stuff. IMO, if it's that expensive, it had better be exceptional ! To me, it's more fun to feel the life in a 25c yard sale Barbie than blow $80. on a doll with eyelash-to-eyebrow blue makeup that can't even be posed well enough to sit down - and requires even more expensive custom fashion than Barbie was ever accused of demanding ! Think you're ever gonna find a Tyler Wentworth dress at Dollar Tree ?  The thrill in completing a new pattern and it looks gooood is a high for days for me.

If you'd like to hear ways to have fun with your dolls without buying everything Mattel makes, weird tips on how to do a lot with a little, and lots of cheap ideas for giving real-life appeal to your doll displays, stay tuned. If you're looking for reviews on Pretentious Overpriced BigDress Barbie, or Pick-a-Color Designer Overload Gene, you may wanna check Google. Ain't gonna be here. Frankly, I can't stand Bob Mackie and his tight-gown-and-a-stuffed-animal designs (the man created clothes for Mama's Family, okay ?) and I'm waiting for his next series, Barbie's Frosted Lucky Charms. I'm not gonna apologize for having a doll spending budget of $10. or less a week and enjoying what I already have. I'm happy to be here and happy with my doll life. So I hope I can share part of it with you.

That's who DorrieBelle is. What a train-wreck ! But she can write a little, so I hope you'll visit when you get bored. Thanks for reading all this.

         -DB