MINIKIN Dolls of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George

The whole world has been watching and waiting for the arrival of Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. Since his arrival we've all seen pictures of him in the arms of his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, on the front pages of newspapers, magazine covers and the like. Now, you can see Prince William and Kate (and Prince George!) as Minikin dolls.

Elizabeth and I thought that Peppermint Toes should feature a set of dolls based on the Royal Family when they appeared outside of St. Mary's Hospital on July 23rd. The Duchess of Cambridge wore that blue polka-dotted Jenny Packham dress, and we have recreated it in felt for our Minikin doll out of wool/rayon felt. The dots have been hand-sewn onto the felt. Prince William is wearing his baby-blue shirt and has a metallic thread belt buckle and studs. Prince George is needle-felted from merino wool. Even his white shawl is felted from merino, which is what the real Prince's G.H. Hurt & Son shawl was made from.

These dolls are now available as a custom order in our Etsy store. It will take about three weeks for us to complete and ship your set of Royal Family Minikins. Prince George is felted individually, so if you would like Prince William to hold him, just let us know! We would also be able to make the Royal Family in the outfits as they appeared in the first Official photos of Prince George.

Elizabeth and I have had a lot of fun making these and are hoping that others will enjoy our version of the new Royal Family. Thanks for stopping by and visiting! Be sure to check back often, as we've got more dolls coming soon.

A Reassessment of Our Online Selling on eBay and Etsy

Been selling on eBay for 11 years, and our sales have taken the same nosedive there as on Etsy. Opened three stores on Etsy last December. Pretty slow, at first, but a few sales coming from our blog. Then a few sales (and I mean a few sales) from searches, mostly Google (a few Etsy).

Views/favorites mean nothing, learned after so many years of selling on eBay. It's the sales that matter.

I feel sorry, though, for those who depend on this venue as their main income and are experiencing this "online recession". This is not the historic "ebb and flow" of online selling. I've watched people in online forums offer up a never-ending list of hollow excuses for no sales: it's Christmas, it's after Christmas, it's New Year's, school has resumed, it's winter, it's tax time, it's Easter, it's Spring Break, school is almost out, it's spring time, it's graduation time, it's post-tax time, school is out, summer is here, it's vacation time, it's summer time.

Online selling is different than storefront selling. It transcends these problems, most of the time. Everyone buying online does not celebrate Christmas & Easter, doesn't go into debt for Christmas or have taxes due in April, live surrounded by children's needs or school events, pay for an extravagant vacation, thrill for the feel of the outdoor, or even have the same weather.

In fact, these same excuses have all been used in past years as positive markers for online sellers: YEA, it's Christmas (and people need gifts), it's after Christmas (and people have Christmas-gift money to spend), it's New Year's (and there's a party need), school has resumed (and supplies/wardrobes need to be refreshed), it's winter (and people have time to sit at their computers and shop), it's tax time (and people have refunds to spend over the next three months), it's Easter (new clothes for the kids), it's Spring Break (and you need new things for that trip to Daytona), school is almost out (and we're looking for things to do/wear this summer), it's spring time (and I need something new to do/look at), it's graduation time (and the gift list is pretty long this year), it's post-tax time (and I've got a refund burning a hole in my pocket), school is out (means extra evening time for the computer not spent doing homework with the kids), summer is here (new clothes/toys are a must), it's vacation time (and everyone needs new things to take), and it's summer time (whoo-whee, it's too hot to be outside, so I'll sit at the computer for a while).

So, you see, these are not helpful answers for this receding-income issue. In previous years, you could count on Christmas bolstering things up a little. But there's never a guarantee. Last year was shaky for even the big retailers.

People ARE spending money, even if it's less than before. Since we've watched eBay, Amazon AND Etsy slowly-but-steadily decline over the last year or so for sellers like us, we know that this isn't something that they can fix. If they could, they would have fixed it already. (Granted, Etsy does need to do some big-time advertising to become the household-word that these other two are.)

We have to face up to the fact that people -- the buying public -- have changed their spending habits over the last several years. We, as sellers, need to figure out how to tap into this "new" market. While a few of the small sellers seem to have figured it out, the rest of us have to face up to the fact that our items/services may not be what people want right now.

We sold books for 25+ years, and it was painful to watch that market dry up. I love old patterns and sewing supplies, but not many people sew (or even craft) anymore. We've been buying/selling antiques for 30+ years, and we watched it lapse into its slump. And "Handmade" has little value with the general public these days.

Please don't get me wrong, I know that there are still sales happening in these (and other) areas. Generally speaking, though, I've been in this long enough to confidently say that "things ain't what they used to be".

I'm still plugging away, though, always trying to figure out what will sell for us. Making excuses for low sales isn't getting us anywhere. Marketing has changed, because people's buying habits have changed. While some product or season may have been successful last year (or the year before), you can no longer bank on it working in the coming year.

Old Indian proverb: "Keep ear to ground, and sales will come". (Not really, I just made that up.) If you're selling what people want, they will find you. To be found, though, you have to be waiting for them. Somewhere. Doesn't matter what colour your photo backgrounds are or how many items you have in your shop. Just keep trying to find out WHAT people are looking for, the true selling VALUE of that item, and WHERE the buyers are looking.

I won't say "hang in there". It's all about stewardship, at the end of it all. How you spend your time, talent and money. In a time of plenty, it's easy (and fun) to play the game. When things get tight for everyone, though . . . well . . . sometimes the right thing to do is to keep playing. Sometimes it's time to quit and use your resources elsewhere.

We keep plugging away, because we've got this credit-card debt to exorcise from our lives. At times, though, it's been more cost-effective for us to back off of the online selling and use our time to make living within our means a reality. Never an easy decision, but it's always been worth it, in the end. At other times, we just keep listing and hoping. And that's always been worth it, in the end. It's just a matter of knowing which time we're in . . . right now . . .

Detective Minikins Moved to Their Own Blog

A quick note to let everyone know that we've moved all of our DETECTIVE MINIKINS to their own home -- a new blog that's all about our popular Hercule Poirot & Friends dolls!

While the news about our Detective-themed Minikins will now be found on the Detectives in Retrospect blog, we'll continue to post here about everything else having to do with Peppermint Toes on Etsy.

 

Just click on the banner to see our new blog.

The new Detectives blog is a place for us to talk (and occasionally rant) about our favorite Mystery movies and television shows. As a family, we're passionate about the older films and TV series. Agatha Christie's Poirot & Miss Marple characters are probably our favorites, but we're hoping to introduce readers to a few of the less-remembered Detectives from days gone by. Join us some time. You might just find something you like . . .

Felt Faux Food coming up!

As if we don't have enough going on with our Peppermint Toes store on Etsy, we're planning another line of wool whimsies for release in August/September. Elizabeth is experimenting with some designs for Faux Food made from her favorite National Nonwovens Wool/Rayon-blend felts from Wool Felt Central. Elizabeth's tiny stitching on the Minikins is so fine, that handstitching the Play Food is a natural extension of her talent.

We're designing two special lines, one of which will be Strict Vegetarian (with a few Vegan selections). The other will remain a secret until its release, but we're very excited about its possibilities.

One thing we learned early on is that you get what you pay for. May be stating the obvious, but this Faux Food brings it home sharply. We've seen a wide variety of designs and prices in this ever-growing Waldorf Play Food genre, but it only took a little while to decide where we should go with this. If you're looking to buy Felt Food, then spend a little more and be happier with fewer items for your money. How to choose? Consider the following criteria, before you spend.

FELT. This was a difficult choice for us. (1) 100% Wool Felt with non-toxic dyes was our first choice. Until we got some and realized that the food would look rather fuzzy and feel slightly scratchy. Colors were slightly limiting, but, still, no synthetics and non-toxic . . . that's a hard choice to leave behind. (2) Next came the Wool Rayon Blend Felt that we use on our Minikins. Sleek in appearance and soft to the touch. Lots of fabulous, vibrant colours. The dyes are NOT non-toxic and do bleed when wet, however, so that would limit our Play Food to older children who no longer put everything in their mouths. Worth the trade, after much circumspection. (3) Only briefly did we consider the Bamboo Rayon Felt that Elizabeth loves so much. The reason she loves it for the Minikins is the very same reason that eliminated it for our Felt Food. It's very soft and drapy, which isn't good for the stiff food. (4) I will mention this only for the sake of letting you know that we didn't forget to critique the cheaper synthetic felts. We wouldn't use them for ourselves, so we wouldn't even consider using them for products to sell to someone else. Our choice will raise the cost a little, but we think it's worth it.

FLOSS. DMC is our choice for all felt work, whether Minikin or Felt Food. Can't imagine a better brand which we haven't tried, and we really do prefer DMC. I even have a hundred or more skeins of vintage floss, but Elizabeth doesn't care for those brands, either. Anyway, DMC is what we use. It was a sad day when jewelry designers started making necklaces out of floss. The price of floss has tripled in just a couple of months and no longer goes on sale. Hope they stop making those necklaces soon (smile).

STUFFING. We stuff our projects with merino wool or bamboo fiberfill. Both are naturally anti-bacterial and work well with the felt. Again, no acrylic or polyester synthetics in our house. Just a personal preference, but it makes a difference in the cost of the raw materials, as well as the lasting nature of the Play Food. We've chosen not to use "stiffened felt", because it's chemical-laden, and we do have less-toxic alternatives at hand. The pre-stiffened felt might be cheaper, but it's still one more toxic chemical to deal with. So, we're using needled wool and/or cotton batting. If, at some point in the future, we feel that we really need something a little stiffer than batting (can't imagine why, but who knows), we'll stiffen our own felt with non-toxic Elmer's glue. Since we're not trying to recreate plastic play food, we actually don't need our food  line to be so stiff. Nobody wants it to be floppy, of course, but Sarah & Elizabeth are very picky about their Play Food and won't sell anything they wouldn't have in their own houses. That translates to as natural and non-toxic as possible, without lowering the overall quality and appearance. A little costlier, but definitely worth it.

STITCHING. This is probably the biggest factor which will affect the price of your Felt Food. I can tell you right now that Elizabeth will not make a living wage out of this. Her tiny, exacting stitches make this a very labor-intensive line for Peppermint Toes. We couldn't possibly charge an hourly rate for her work. You couldn't afford it. Allowing her to put the same quality into stitching the Felt Food as she does in the Minikins means that we'll be able to offer a quality line of play food, though. And that's a lot more important to us than just sales stats. If you're looking into Felt Faux Food right now, please bear this in mind when shopping. The difference between machine-stitched and hand-stitched is immediately noticeable. Take that a step further, and you'll soon be able to tell good handstitching from the quickly-done pieces. Go for the better-made food every time. Buy less so that you can buy better.

Bottom line. If you think that your children will destroy this food (or lose interest in it) in a short time, then go for lots of less-expensive food and don't give it a lot of thought. If you have an imaginative child that wants their toys to look like the real thing, or you want something that will last for a long time, then spend a little more and look for quality in materials and workmanship. If you're somewhere in the middle, then you should probably just buy a little of each and see what happens. After all, there's no one way to do Felt Food, is there?

The Hills are Alive . . . Looking at Maria in "The Sound of Music"

"The Sound of Music" has been one of my favorite musicals for many years. Naturally, when we started making Minikins, Maria was on one of the first lists of prospective ideas. She was slightly challenging in the fact that her dress is one piece, and I had to make it without ever trying it on, as it took a bit of work to get it slipped over the doll's head! It looked really nice once it was done and the hem was trimmed, though. The apron was the really fun part. Wool felt doesn't come with stripes printed on it, so I had to decide if I was going to try and do stripes, just edge the whole thing in a different colour thread or eliminate the stripes altogether. 

I decided to try and sew my own stripes. Using a simple back stitch, I used a darker grey thread and created my own striped fabric. Her apron is actually made in three parts and then sewn together when I sewed it to the dress. The only hitch was that I ran out of dark grey thread halfway through, and we had to run to the store.

This is certainly one of the more recognizable of our Minikin outfits. When you think of Maria, it's always standing on the top of the hill with her arms outstretched, getting ready to sing the title song! (When they actually filmed that famous shot, the camera was in a helicopter. Every time they passed over Julie Andrews, the downdraft from the rotors would send her flat on her back in the mud! Not quite as dreamy as it seems in the film! However, it certainly made a very memorable opening to a memorable film!)

If you are interested in seeing more photos of this doll, just click here.

Wool Felt Makes the Difference

Early on, we made a decision to use only wool-blend felts on our Minikins. Since we avoid synthetics everywhere else, it wasn't much of a decision, really. The marked differences between good wool-rayon blend and synthetic crafting felts are obvious immediately. The wool blends look better, feel better, last longer, are easier to work with, offer better colors, and on and on. Difficult to find in our rural area, online shopping brings a rainbow of felt to our front door. Well, actually, the Postal and UPS guys bring it, but you know what I mean. Yes, both kinds of felt do contain synthetic dyes in those vibrant colours, but our customers love the variety offered by them.

We began by using National Nonwovens felt, purchased at PrairiePointJunction.com. We've now worked with both 20/80 and 35/65 blends and can't really tell the difference. The thickness tends to run close to the same for both blends. We've got a stash of nearly all 108 colours available right now (with a few discontinueds in the box), and we still wish there were more choices. Isn't that the way it always is? Mom says that we were three years old and thought that the 64-color Crayola crayon box was too limiting in its choices. Guess you don't outgrow certain things. The only thickness issue, in our opinion, is that most of the light pastels have "thin spots" where you can see through them. It looked like fabric that's been pulled too far. We'll have to cut around these spots, so that does make them a little less desirable. Worth mentioning, also, is the fact that all three "white" choices (i.e., white, linen and antique white) smell terrible. This felt, across the board, has no wool or gamey odor (wish it did); but most of them have no odor at all. The colours seem to be nice and standardized, so re-ordering has not been a problem. We highly recommend the folks at Prairie Point Junction--great variety, quick service, reasonable shipping, and they let us order in 1/8th-yard increments. Thanks, PPJ!

(For those of you who care about these things, we did contact National Nonwovens about the wool content in their blend felts. The reply that we got was a long time coming and not very informative, but here it is: "Australian Fine Tops with a blend of Merino Sheep’s wool". I asked them what "Australian Fine Tops" are and how much Merino was included, but they never answered. So, that's all I know.)

Production was rolling along well, and we thought we were all settled in and knew what we wanted. Then we discovered bamboo-rayon felt at TaDaaStudioFelt on Etsy. Not very many colours, but there are times when Elizabeth wanted a drapier felt for some of the women's garments. A quick order of a 6x9" sample pack, and she was absolutely hooked. If you know Elizabeth, you can hear her now, "I'm never going to use anything else again!" Not as many colours as wool, but its softness and ability to hold together while micro-stitching the edges grabbed her attention immediately.

We did look at a non-toxic, European 100% merino felt. A sample was sent to us, but it was too thick and scratchy for our needs. Nice that everything is non-toxic, though, so we recommend looking into it for other uses.

The rest of the wool-blend felt story is hardly noteworthy. Occasionally, we buy wool from JoAnn's (with our 40% coupon). It's National Nonwovens, too, but is limited by the store in color choices (and the regular price is higher than PPJ). Still, if we need the colors they happen to have in stock, we can't resist the savings. The only other thing worth mentioning is our purchase of Benzie Merino Felt. A little more expensive than PPJ, since you can only order it by the sheet, but the Merino caught our attention (and we always try to support individuals before large companies). We enquired, before purchasing, asking if they were selling the same National Nonwovens felt which we already owned. They just answered that we would "love" their "merino felt", so we excitedly ordered what we thought was a different line of felt. Turns out that it was the same National Nonwovens felt that we already owned, renamed by someone, so that we spend a lot of time trying to match it up. It's in a box by itself, and Elizabeth doesn't use it on anything which might have a repeat order. It's a pain, but live and learn. If you're only going to re-order from Benzie, you'll be fine. Just be sure that you don't order a stash of NN from someone else before doing so (smile)!

At the end of the day, we're all thrilled to have so many choices in colour and texture. Thickness, flexibility, sturdiness . . . lots of fun waiting for us in these more natural choices from the felt world. Once you've worked with one of these felts, you'll never go back to that synthetic stuff from the chain stores. You might consider ordering some variety packs in cut sheets before jumping in the deep end. It's a nice way to try things out!

Philippians 2:3-11

Maria Von Trapp from 'The Sound of Music' MINIKIN Doll

The past couple weeks has seen us busy with custom orders, but we've managed to list another precious little Minikin Doll in our Etsy shop.

Elizabeth and I have always been crazy about musicals, and one of E.'s favorites is The Sound of Music. It didn't take long to think of making a miniature doll of Julie Andrews as Maria Von Trapp (actually, she's not a "Von Trapp" in the first scene of the film --- what was her maiden name?!).

 Julie Andrews Doll as Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music

This little Maria is dressed in her Nun's Novice dress and apron. This outfit is worn by Julie Andrews in what is probably the most well-known scene of the film: the singing of The Sound of Music. Maria's dress is made of wool/rayon felt, and the stripes on her apron are actually hand-sewn! Her hair is made of blond mohair doll hair. Feel free to browse through our Etsy shop (link at the top of this page).

John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara in 'The Quiet Man' as MINIKIN Dolls

We've been so busy with custom orders this week that I've completely neglected this blog. One of our favorite movies is the John Ford film, The Quiet Man. It's a simple tale about simple, country life in Ireland --- and the stars are John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

The Quiet Man seemed like the perfect theme for some Minikin dolls, so we designed Sean Thornton and Mary-Kate Danaher in their trademark outfits.

All of their clothes are made from wool/rayon felt, and their heads and hair (including John Wayne's cap) are needle-felted from 100% wool roving. These precious dolls are available in our Etsy shop, so be sure to take a look (link to the store is at the top of this page). Thanks for stopping by!

John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in 'True Grit': A MINIKIN Doll

This is the first Cowboy Minikin! Rooster Cogburn (as played by John Wayne in the 1969 film, True Grit) seemed like a perfect choice for this venture into the wide world of the Wild West. Okay, so it was the eye patch that really inspired us to make this character.

Elizabeth and I are just crazy about Westerns and cowboys. This little Minikin is complete with his very own red bandana and tall hat. He stands at a whopping height of 4-3/4" --- perfect for a miniature John Wayne.

So, be sure to check out this adorable doll in our Etsy shop (use the link at the top of this page). Coming soon: John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hercule Poirot's Friends as Minikin Dolls

We have spent the past week making a set of Minikins based on Hercule Poirot's friends (as portrayed in the Poirot TV shows starring David Suchet). These were made as a special order for a friend, so they don't appear in our Etsy shop. However, we did manage to make another Miss Lemon doll, and she is now available on Etsy. More of Poirot's little friends will be coming soon --- and we're always open to filling custom orders! The photo shows a Poirot doll surrounded by his friends.

Minikin Dolls (left to right): Captain Hastings, Mrs. Oliver, Poirot, Miss Lemon & Inspector Japp

These little dolls range from about four to four-and-a-half inches in height. Their clothes are all made of wool/rayon blend felt, and their little heads (and Inspector Japp's hat!) are needle felted from 100% wool roving.

Captain Hastings wears an outfit loosely based on one worn by Hugh Fraser in Murder on the Links. Mrs. Oliver wears an outfit based on one worn by Zoe Wanamaker in Mrs. McGinty's Dead. Miss Lemon  and Inspector Japp wear outfits based on some worn by Pauline Moran and Philip Jackson in The Case of the Missing Will.

Poirot and Miss Lemon are both available in the shop. If you're interested in any of Poirot's other friends, then feel free to e-mail us or request a custom item. Thanks for looking!