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OK, then. Now that we all know precisely what 'gimcrack' means, let us begin with this review of LivingSoft's Doll Shop Deluxe.
You can find this and their other products on www.livingsoft.com, as well as download a non-printing demo version free of
charge.
The download of DSD is part of the Dress Shop Family and cannot be downloaded separately. The Dress Shop Family download
is approximately 60meg.
Very little mention is made of DSD on the home page or any page at all, save for the download, photos, and questions pages.
This was not the case when I bought it nearly a year ago.
LivingSoft is quite proud of its flagship software program, Dress Shop, which drafts and prints sewing patterns for children
and adults using home computers and printers. There are numerous add-on tools and pattern packages available for separate
purchase.
They also sell a scaled down version of Dress Shop called Doll Shop Deluxe, which prints patterns for dolls up to 40 inches
tall, comes preset with several modern popular doll measurements, and includes an original soft doll pattern. If the doll
of your choice isn't preset, you can add measurement sets of your own, and would never need to buy another antique doll pattern
off eBay again. They say that every Dress Shop module works for Doll Shop, including the pattern packages. Updates are complementary,
upgrades have costs associated with them, but I've yet to see an upgrade for Doll Shop.
The free demo download is almost full-service. The only thing it doesn't do is print. For that, you need only pay US$99.
for a code to unlock the print function. If you use a credit card or PayPal, you get the code in minutes - if not seconds
! - via e-mail. Most impressive.
There are various user groups you can join via the LivingSoft page, although the Doll Shop one is tomb-silent. You can
also join their regular mailing list and get early heads-up on updates and some 'FAQ' type help.
The dolls that are pre-set into DSD get wonderful patterns. They fit, look good, and are actually fun to make. However, if
your sewing is still at 'Absolute Beginner' stage, you may want to work a few more basic commercial patterns before diving
in to DSD. There are some 'text with a few images' directions in a PDF file, but they're nowhere near as detailed as the ones
that come in any Simplicity or Qwik Sew pattern. If you're familiar with basic garment construction, ie, know what gets done
first, second, etc. in a standard clothing article, you'll be fine with DSD. I've been known to refer to a Simplicity direction
packet from time to time, though.
I mostly made My Size Barbie dresses and pants when I first got DSD. They all fit well the first time, no alterations
necessary unless I did something stupid, like forget to enter what sort of closure I wanted - believe me, if you don't tell
it 'zippper back' or 'button front', it'll design you a pattern with no way to get it on the doll unless you make it from
Lycra ! Not to fear, it's all on pull-down menus, part of the DSD learning curve. The PDF and 'How To Use' animated tutoral
will take you through it all.
However, I had major problems when I tried to enter a new doll's measurements. It often took numerous tries before anything
fit, and I measured and remeasured the same doll seven or eight times, and still got too-tight finished items. I started to
fudge the measurements, add in half inches here and there, anything so I could at least get *something* to fit.
I also adjusted the seam allowance - 3/16 of an inch is pretty small ! - and learned how to tweak other things. You'll
have to download it and see how this works to understand most of this, guess I'm a bit late in telling you that !
So,by the time I got through tweaking, I got things that mostly fit, but not quite as well as I'd hoped. Frustrating.
I figured out that DSD seems to believe that since dolls don't move, they don't need ease, drape, or not-skin-tight clothes.
Also, it seems to think all dolls' arms go out as well as up and down. It asks for measurements that, with many older dolls,
you simply can't get.
For example, the bust measurement is supposed to be from the doll's side seam to side seam, along the front. Simple enough.
But when you have a doll like Timey Tell, her arms don't move out, and they're too low on her chest to get the measurement.
So you end up entering an 'arm to arm' measurement instead of a 'seam to seam' one, and of course, the shirt, dress, whatever
doesn't fit, and won't close in the back.
Other measurements also seem to be more geared to people than dolls. The ankle-heel one expects your doll to be able to
point its toes. Most of my dolls have non-moving anything from the hips down. If you enter the reading from ankle to heel,
98% of the time, the pants won't fit over the feet, and have to be split to get past the feet. I've begun to measure the entire
foot length and enter that in 'ankle-heel'. At least that way, I can get the pants on.
It's also hard to tell when they want a circumference (all the way around) or a point-to-point measurement. On some they
specify, others they don't, and the 'Mia' image they use to illustrate is sometimes difficult to tell the difference.
There's editing tools to help, but I still can't shake the baggy seat most of my DSD pants have. Oh, well, at least my
dolls can sit without mooning other dolls !
So that's where I was with DSD. Occasionally annoyed, but since there were many, many options and designs, I grumbled,
reminded myself that Beloved Hubby spent a fortune on it for me, and grabbed the tape measure and scrap fabric again. I was
OK with it...
Until another DSD user on LivingSoft's mailing list sent a list of issues and problems she'd had with Doll Shop to the
software designers. They acknowledged all those faults, said they knew of far more, and simply didn't have the time or energy
to deal with any of 'em. Especially since DSD wasn't their flagship program, and they were far more interested in updating
and upgrading Dress Shop. If they ever had time, they'd try to troubleshoot DSD, but don't count on it in this lifetime.
Other messages - yes, unfortunately they dug DSD's grave pretty deep, there's more - grudgingly admitted that not all
of the patterns would work for all sizes of dolls (not what their web page says !), said they never checked updates to see
how they'd impact DSD, so we were on our own if we decided to download an update and it crashed our program and lost our input
measurements.
So I was pretty cheesed. I tried to use their Layout Tool, but it kept saying I needed more than a yard when I knew I
used less than a quarter of that to work the pattern before. When I informed LivingSoft, their glib reply was, "Take
the yardage it gives you and divide by four." Gee, thanks.
I also mentioned I'd dearly love to have a few of the Dress Shop only enhancements for Doll Shop Deluxe (like sailor collars),
was told they'd try 'someday', but nowhere in the forseeable future. That was October, 2004.
I'd heard enough, finally. Signed off the mailing list, spent the funds I'd allocated to buy four pattern sets on other
things, and eventually let it go. I still wrestle with Doll Shop Deluxe, mostly because we paid so much for it, but on the
whole, it did not perform as well as I thought/hoped it would. And LivingSoft doesn't seem to give a damn about it.
Give it a try, and if it has enough preset measurements in it for your dolls, it may be worth the US$99. When it works,
it's amazing - limitless options, designs, and fun stuff to play with. You can even load fabric scans and see about what they'd
look like in the garment of your choice !
It's a great program - when it works. If you can deal with darn near zero support and trial-and-error fittings on every
non-preprogrammed doll, it's probably worth the cash to you. I'm disappointed, but mine is far from the last word.
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