This past weekend I made a trip to resale to see if I could purchase used doll clothing. I was very pleased with what I found there! Take a peek below to see if you can recognize some of the clothing your doll may have been originally sold with.
Much of what I was able to purchase was intended for Bratz dolls, baby dolls and American Girl Dolls. I discarded very little of it; so I imagine you will see some of these clothing separates worked over for our dolls on this blog in the near future.
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| Bag number one, full of Bratz Doll clothes. |
Take a look into the first bag of doll clothing above and see if you can see what I see? Why do you think this may be a good bag to purchase? You can turn the bags over and move some of the clothes around a bit through the plastic, however, shopkeepers do not allow anyone to open the bags before purchasing them. In order to save your cash, it is very important to become a discerning customer!
What I see are clothes that are well made. The brown doll slacks are made from some kind of swede fabric and these have fancy top stitching as well. The clothes are small but I have many sizes of dolls that need dressing so I am unconcerned with the sizes for now. I think this is a good buy, how about you? Now look below to see what was in bag number one.
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| The contents of bag one impressed. |
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| Bag number two mostly full of Bratz Doll clothes, there are few Barbie things, plus what I call "filler." |
Now bag number two has a bit of
"filler." This is a word I've made up to refer to the things that resale companies try to get rid of by concealing them inside grab bags. This filler usually serves little purpose other than to make the bag heavier or make the items in the bag look colorful to the eyes of a child. The hot pink filler in this bag turned out to be just random fabric scraps that had no relation to the rest of the doll clothes. Sometimes I can make use of filler but in this case I threw it away.
As you can see below, the quality of the clothing below was excellent, so I was quite unconcerned with the filler.
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| Bag number two had many valuable clothing items for tiny Bratz dolls. |
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| Bag number three is full of doll clothes and crochet filler. |
Bag number three was more expensive but not necessarily more valuable. However, there are two items made by American Girl Doll company included and one piece of Build-a-Bear workshop clothing. Build-a-Bear clothing is easy to alter to fit 18inch dolls and I love the details included on it.
I tossed the old crochet. In leaner years I would have unraveled it all for the yarn but I no longer knit and my hands have grown old and tired.
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I tossed the knit items and plastic cording. This bag would not have tempted me but it just so happened,
I needed pink 18inch doll shirts. |
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Bag number four contains some difficult to find items. Little girls frequently loose fashionable handbags long
before their dolls are broken or doll body parts go missing. I was lucky that this bag contained several. |
I spied the doll shoulder bags, a pink fur coat, a silk ball gown and tiny skirts. This bag was all good before I even bothered to open it up.
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| Ha! there is even a tiny camouflage canteen! |
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| Bag number 5 stuffed with the doll clothes little girls dream of from American Girl Doll company. |
Bag number five had just the items I was looking for, so I snatched it up without a second glance. What do you think I saw? American Girl Doll labels and I spied a set of matching shoes! I knew that the items inside would exceed $3.99 if purchased new.
I also felt the dog food bowl and a kitchen item through the plastic bag and the horse saddle bags were in excellent condition as well.
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I was pleased as punch with the American Girl Doll riding hat and the additional baby doll things too!
The Build-a-Bear shorts will alter easily for our 18inch boy dolls and thankfully the stains in the hot pink,
peace sign shirt washed right out! |
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| Bag number 6 stuffed with filler mostly and 18inch doll clothes. |
Although there was much filler in this bag, I noticed there were also 18inch doll clothes so I decided to take a chance on the bag anyway, plus I can usually find a craft or two to use the flannel for. The bonnet at the top is a real infant bonnet. I'll probably cut it down for a baby doll. The pajamas are for a baby doll not an 18inch. Fortunately, I have so many undressed dolls that anything will come in handy at this time.
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| The pink doll corduroy pants, purple footed pajamas and hot pink, long sleeved tee made this purchase worthwhile. |
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| Bag number 7 stuffed with American Girl Doll clothes and Build-a-Bear workshop clothing. |
Bag number seven was by far one of the nicest collections of doll clothes to be discovered on this outing! It contained a lovely Bitty Baby dress with pink ruffles and grey slippers to match it. The penguin night gown and additional pants/shorts were also very nice. Two of the shorts on the lower left hand corner are from Build-a-Bear workshop.
There were four shoes without matching pairs! I never purchase these bags for shoes unless I can clearly see a set. Most children toss doll shoes because they do not have matching pairs. The plastic diapers and mangled faux fur, I tossed.
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I will need to alter the glittery shorts and the jeans shorts because they were designed for teddy bears.
Each have a whole in the backside for a furry little tail to stick through and the hips are too generous
for our 18inch dolls. |
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| Bag number 8 filled with Build-a-Bear clothing and American Girl Doll Clothes. |
This bag contained some strange filler, a very large velvet-like pirate's hat of some sort. I could see some nicely made American Girl Doll clothes through the plastic bag so I took a chance.
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In this package, I found a very nice 18inch doll trench coat. You can see it, upper right corner. It's blue.
The black and white checkered blouse is American Girl Doll. The Build-a-Bear shirts will alter nicely for the
18inch dolls. The baby toy will be relegated to a doll cradle in the nursery; I'm sure. |
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| Bag number 9 packed with Bratz Doll clothes and accessories. |
You are probably wondering by now why I chose to purchase yet another bag of Bratz doll clothing. The reasoning is simple really.
I began to suspect that these doll clothes were not from a child's collection but from a shop where the packages had been opened, therefore making them difficult to sale. I noticed that so many of the pieces actually had transparent packaging still attached to them. "Like new" doll clothes are better than used.
I also thought that sets or outfits might be found divided into different bags given the circumstances and after opening the bags I found this to be true as well.
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| "Like new" doll clothing, still very clean and perfect for our photo shoots. |
After everything was laundered and pressed with an iron, I counted 17 pieces of American Girl Doll clothes for the entire purchase of $27 that included a discount at the register. I paid less than two dollars for each item made for American Girl Dolls. . . what a deal. Of course, the other pieces of doll clothing are a big bonus, given their excellent condition.
