The Great Brand Cross-Size Project (An Idea!)

[maywong]

I belong to several 1/6 doll forums. The doll clothes can sometimes be a hit or miss. Unless you make your own or buy from a company that makes clothes to a certain brand of dolls.

[MeltedCaramel]

SetsunaKou No need to apologize!!! Thank you so much!!! That's QUITE a list!!!! Thank you very much!!! Like I said, I wanted to try and include as many cross references as I can, and I really appreciate you listing the ones that need alteration as well. A lot of people have the rudimentary sewing skills necessary to snip and tuck something to fit better so I will include the caution that they need some alterations.

DollyKim:

I spent years trying to figure out drafting patterns, measuring, and working stuff out. I could put out all the bust-waist-hips-etc I have for free but at the present time I don't see a good reason. I've posted free patterns and tutorials, I give a lot of free advice and will continue to, my drafting sheets just aren't on that list.

<----Oh, I'm not asking you to put out something you've spent a lot of time and effort on for free!! I completely understand your position. And I understand your philosophy. I'm not asking that you do anything you don't want to do!!! Its completely your decision to make, I don't want to force or coerce anyone into this project. I appreciate your willingness to help where you can though!

maywong I know the cross-brand clothing can be hit-or-miss, and this isn't going to be an iron clad guarantee that the certain such and such doll outfit you're lusting after is going to be a perfect fit, even if that brand happens to be on the list for your. I fully plan on making sure people understand this is a general checklist. It would be impossible to gather up EVERY SINGLE say, Dal, for instance and try on her clothes against a 21cm Obitsu. It's just a general reference sheet that will help people decide if it's worth taking a gamble on that outfit they've always liked but have no idea if the size will correspond even remotely with their doll. The thing is, there are SO MANY scattered threads asking if "such and such will fit this" that I figure it is a popular enough topic for further investigation. I think between these board members we all have at least one of the "major" brands and possibly two, and doing a quick clothing swap between your Bratz and your MH doll or your Taeyang and your 27cm Slim Male Obitsu would tell us a general "yes" or "no". Of course I understand every outfit is a little different, but that's the nature of it unless you want shell out for customs every single time you want a doll outfit if you're unable to sew yourself.

Also, I don't want anyone saying "just learn to sew". I know this is a very pleasant community but I also know people have these kinds of thoughts. It's not bad, it's human nature. We all think that about people who just can't seem to grasp something that happens to come naturally to us or is a skill we've learned. Unfortunately some people have life circumstances, be it time, health, or a sheer "mental block" that prevent them from learning said skill, and I don't want anyone to hold that against them. I myself doubt I will ever be the master seamstress I wish to be. I can shorten a pant leg or tuck something in a bit, but honestly, I'm one of those "mental block" people where my skills seem to refuse to budge past simple repairs.

I will however be very careful how I word things for the list, and remind people that the only way to guarantee a 100% fit is to buy clothing from your own brand or to find a reputable seamstress and to, yes, shell out the bucks for a custom. I've done it in the past and been very happy with the results, but unfortunately I don't have between $50-100 for every single doll outfit I own, so general, pre-made clothing is a great alternative!

[WhiteDove01s]

I'm not sure how much I could help with the fitting part, as many of the clothes I dredged up from the back room I'm not certain what they're from beyond "probably Barbie", and with something like this you'd want to know for sure.

I'm willing, however, to provide the body measurements of the dolls I currently have, including any of the back room parts pile as needed. Most are Barbies, but there are 3 obitsus of various sizes, both male and female Liv bodies, 1 small Volks with very large boobs, some Star Wars and a single Dr. Who 1/6 fig, and so on in the whole mixup...

Let me know if this would help and I'll start pulling them out one at a time, stripping them, and grabbing tape measure and camera.

It seems doing it by measurements might work best, in case one doll's tops fit another but not the bottoms... rather like how one uses measurements to find out clothing sizes for humans. I'm not sure, though, and I might need pointed to a decent list/chart of all the measurements that should be taken on each doll if this will help.

[DollyKim]

Maywong said it. Many of the toy soldier uniforms are one size fits many but definitely not all.

I have a detailed measurement chart in my drafting book. Basically bust, waist, and hips is a big help. Some custom gals have more junk in their trunk than some Barbies and can't share or they have microscopic waists that require tailoring.

[MeltedCaramel]

WhiteDove01s I really, really appreciate your offer, especially since taking them out and measuring them would be quite the undertaking, but unfortunately as you can see by the somewhat tepid reaction this thread is getting even doing a general cross-brand chart itself is a massive undertaking. To actually do it by measurement for every doll would be a nearly Herculean task, which, unfortunately I am not up to, and while I will gladly head the cross-brand project if more people come out of the woodwork to help, doing it by measurement is taking it to a whole new level of complicated. That's why I have the full intention of writing disclaimers and whatnot that this is by no means an iron-clad guarantee that the outfit a person wants is going to be a perfect fit. I just mean this to be what a lot of people seem to be asking for in fragmented posts across the web: "What other brands fit brand X?"

DollyKim I'm not even into the military doll scene but I've already run into this problem when I found out Hot Toys Ninja outfit does NOT fit True Type Basic without looking like my ninja shrunk in his clothing. The legs, the legs! But while this particular subset seems to be plagued with inconsistencies, we can still catalogue what we know does work. And as I'm stressing, this would be a general chart, for the person who wants an outfit on a budget that custom seamstresses just don't allow for, or without the inevitable wait period. So far I've had nothing but good experiences with seamstresses, but my last outfit took over two months to be completed and cost me $60-something. I regret not one single penny and the seamstress is not only talented beyond imagining (you'll see her work when my first custom is ready for unveiling, and let me just say she does things in the 23cm scale that I didn't think were possible), I've made an amazing friend as well. But if not for the necessity of the clothing being character-specific, many people find it much cheaper to find something that suits their needs for the most part and just buy from a cross-brand. Also, many people work on original dolls, not replicas of certain characters.

I still think this idea has merit, if more people could jump on board with me. But I have a sad feeling it's a sinking ship and we're just going to see more of the same specific threads about well-known brands and do they fit such-and-such. *Sighs* I really like this idea too. I think it would be useful. Yes, it's "generalized", but when people want customs, they buy customs, they don't bother trying to find out of Monster High has somehow miraculously made the dress of their dreams.

Wow, I'm tired, I think I'm starting to ramble. I think it's time to bid the threads a very late (early?) goodnight. *Yawns*

[DollyKim]

It's more of a run away train where more and more dolls get on all the time. Start with a group like the Pullips and Obitsus and a few of their same scale friends, the dolls you can easily get information on, or pick an arbitrary number. Have a chart of a few standard measurements and you can start to see where dolls are the same or similar sizes.

[MeltedCaramel]

Oh, I never intended to try and catalogue every single 1/6 brand out there. That's impossible, time and money wise not to mention some of the dolls are rare and out-of-circulation. For example the brand Tsukuda Hobby. It's a modest Japanese company that has produced some anime dolls for some older animes in the mid to late 90's. I happen to own two of them, and despite them being labeled as 1/6 (sometimes 1/5, but mine in particular were 1/6, but in my opinion that was pushing it) the sizes can vary wildly to where some 1/5 dolls could fit 1/6 clothing and vice versa. It would be impossible to compare them to the popular brands today, despite them rightly still being hot collector's items. (Seriously, despite the woeful lack of articulation in some key parts of the bodies, the dolls hold up really well for being nearly 16-17 years old: http://www.hlj.com/product/TSUAD-02/Dol ).

I was going to try and stick to the generalized popular companies like Obitsu, MH, Bratz, Blythe, Pullips (the major size classes they have done), etc, and SestunaKou's extremely detailed list on the companies like Bandai/Irwin (without her I would have NO idea what those even were! ). If a new doll comes out after the list is "completed", well, if it explodes in popularity within the doll community (the next "Monster High" if you will), there's no rule to say I can't add on to the list.