2026 Doll Plans

Holy moly, it's that time of year again! Pour yourself some hot cocoa, snuggle up in front of the fire, and consider how you intend to handle the upcoming year in Doll Shenanigans! Alternatively, take a nice dip in the pool and enjoy a refreshing spread of summer fruits, for my southern hemisphere folks.

So far, my plans for 2026 are as follows:

• Finish ALL the dolls! No more faceless girls for me!
• Sew kimonos for my vinyl crew -- I have some fabric already, I just need to cut and sew.
• Go to a local doll meet! I meant to do that this year, but it never worked out due to work schedules and the move. Time to change that!
• I'm tentatively hoping to track down 03 and 05 heads, preferably blank but in good condition.
• My BIG pipe dream purchase would be to get my hands on a tan Dream Choice girl, but I still don't know which one I would want.

Tell me about yours below!

The year passed so quick! My 2026 plans are:

Body for the last floating resin head!

Get enough body stocking/anti-stain suits for all vinyl dolls

Perhaps acquire a Himari standard DD model? (I think she's so cute)

As always some more shoes lol

More clothes for the vinyl boys (especially pants that actually fit)

Keep trying to sew for my dollies!

I have some carry over from this year, but...

●Finish Calicula's wig. Doing it with yarn didn't go as well as I had hoped, so I ordered some nylon off Etsy and a pre-made wig cap on Aliexpress, and will be working on that as soon as we get the sewing machine out. Which leads to my next (somewhat related) wish...

● Get the craft room cleared out and usable! Long story short, two new people moved into my house this year, so the fourth bedroom, which we plan on using as a craft room, is right now crammed with storage stuff. Anyway, the four of us together I'm sure can get the house sorted out, and I just hope the craft room gets done sooner rather than later, as atm, I cant even get in to access my sewing kit, let alone the sewing machine.

● Speaking of which, I want to refresh my knowledge on how to use a sewing machine, once it's set up again. I took a quilting class in elementary school, but that's about it, lol. 

● Touch up Chibi Ludo and Kuru's faceups. Kuru needs some more lip detailing, I think, and Chibi Ludo, being my sometimes purse buddy, (as well as the first faceup I ever did) has gotten so scuffed up that I think it's time to wipe and redo. 

● Get either a Dollfie Dream or the new Corvus Corax unit 2. 

● Faceup for MNF (take two lol)

• Sew a lot more outfits this year, or at least pieces of outfits
• Organize and paint the hands that I have
• New custom doll coming in February or April!  
• Hit all twelve month next year, even if it's just a quick outfit and only one doll
• Finish two building projects that I want to use for shoots.  A set of stairs and a light up dance floor. 

• Do more faceups
• Get more SW DD bodies
• Get 05 & 09 SW head, plus some other extra heads
• Get an actual character DD
• Get two more Azone bodies

2026 plans are mostly the same as 2025
this year was super hectic with just one thing after another so I couldn't hammer away at projects as productively as I wanted to 😭

• finish outfits for several dolls, at least 4??? (one has been waiting years atp 💀)
• find heads for 3 floating bodies, or sell one (unlikely)
• attempt to not buy anymore dolls until the above are done 😂

I have pretty much stopped buying doll stuff recently (tariffs, ugh) so my plans look like:

- get back into making my own doll stuff

- paint that cast resin wig, dangit, Bobby

- maybe buy a Chikage from Volks USA if I get to feeling spenny

I feel like I wrote my 2025 plans last week, how is it already december? My 2026 plans are pretty much the same as last year.

-Try making my first wig. (I have an incoming doll that will be perfect for this project) 

-Keep learning to sew. Continue using down the ridiculous amount of fabric Ive been hoarding.

-Shoes. Always need more shoes. 

-Buy less, make more

-Create and Stick to a hobby budget. 

On 12/2/2025 at 5:32 PM, DesertPhantom51 said:

Sew a lot more outfits this year, or at least pieces of outfits

Any advice on where to get patterns? I finally bit the bullet and bought a sewing machine, and I want to start making clothing for them. I'm starting with basic pieces like underwear and swimsuits.

My 2026 plans involve making clothing and making more jewelry for them.
 

Finding a way to better store all of the stuff I have for them.

 

 

Building Up a Set of Alt Hands and other small Accs. from VOLKS USA a little each month for my Lone DDS ♥Miyuki♥

...And Hoping that the T-Word will Go Away so i can Get some Nightgowns and Dresses for her

from a couple of Chinese EBAY sources of whom i Trust in their Quality...

Edited Thursday at 04:49 AM by Tasuke

13 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

Any advice on where to get patterns?

 

ModaVationDesigns and UnderOrange on etsy have nice patterens.  I've also used KitNKat's patterns, they were very easy to follow.  I'll send you a DM for some free links. 

Have you sewn before, or is this your first try? 

I would like to: 

• get used to my first DD first! I was used to the MSD size so that’s gonna change thing a bit

• learn how to take care of a DD stock wig and outfit

• take more pictures of my dolls especially outside

• learn how to sew? And maybe learn how to do embroidery too! 

As for my purchasing plans :

• buying the 2026 Snow Miku outfit if it’s cute 

• track down some of the older Snow Miku outfits and buy them if they ever pop up at a good price (one can dream lol)

1 hour ago, DesertPhantom51 said:

Have you sewn before, or is this your first try? 

Aside from buttons, snaps, and a wig repair, not since I was a kid. 

I still need to do a lot of things from the previous years and I just pulled out some +2 year old projects so I will actually work on it! (I won't)

I mostly need to do faceups and update some older ones. My faceups are rough since I am very impatient and just keep blobbing on the paint even though I know I need to wait until the layer dries. I also need to stop buying heads or work on my blank dolls. Will need to dye a few of them too but I don't like doing that indoors and I need to find an outdoor stove.

Lots of floating heads need bodies and I am waiting on a few of them. Since I often have heads from the same maker, I can just have them share a body since them having the same artist makes them more consistent in style and that makes great alternate expression sculpts especially with lower detailed anime sculpts.

There's also a gijinka project I'm working on where I need to figure out which bodies, tones, and sculpts are the best for it. I'm thinking of just learning to 3D sculpt to make different body types and skinning either a 
1. Tan DD body 
2.Smart Doll Tea/Cinnamon body
3.Imomodoll 75 brown sugar body
for their inner frame since that will be more difficult to recreate via printing.
Another issue is the scale of the bodies since I want to keep everyone in scale with each other and the Imomodoll 75 body may have the most appropriate frame for some of the tallest characters but you see, it's too tall and I would need to keep a bunch of SmD+DD bodies to keep the next height group in scale, which will be troublesome to obtain vs having the tallest group being DD/SmD and the rest of the bunch being of 1/4 Imomodoll, MDD+DDP, and Obitsu 48/50 bodies. I want to focus on this one a little more due to 2026 being a special year for the things I'm making a gijinka of. I'm trying to aim to make at least one or two of them.

Sewing.....I swear I'll learn to properly sew. I have a lot of floating outfits that need to find a doll. I also have dolls that are still waiting on me sewing clothes for them.

 Overall, lots to do with many other non doll projects in the mix. Let's see how productive of a year this one will be.

Edited Thursday at 07:20 PM by Amapola

This year certainly went by quickly, even faster than usual for me! I acquired 1 new DD and pre-ordered another (Alisaie and Luka, respectively) so I’m very happy with that! Received my first TinyFox too, Huifre! Annnnd I would like to customise the Dollfies, so I’ve got a bit of work ahead of me next year… hopefully I can get it all done! I’ve purchased and received the materials I need (for the customisation parts of this list), or already had them. I just need to learn/practice/watch YouTube/read forums and all that good stuff so that I’m brave enough to start modding any of the girls without making them look worse, lol. 

Here’s a rough and overly large list of what I’d like to get done next year off the top of my head and in no particular order:

• Making some doll frens! Online or off!
   
• Body blush Stoli and Rena. Extra nervous about learning how to blush their torsos since they both use silicone ones like peach pai or another equivalent, and I haven’t used an airbrush since school! Need to add some eyelashes too since I love that look. Don’t try to Blu-tack them on like me, hahaha. 
   
• Find Rena’s “forever” eyes. She’s a full set Alisaie so her default eyes are lovely, but don’t quite pop much next to the hair colour I’ve chosen for her (the Volks Ramune colour and anything close to it). 
   
• Get up the nerve to go to a doll meet in person! Not even sure if there are any in Melbourne, although anime conventions will often at least have a display so I’ll start there, maybe?
   
• Photography… again! I probably listed this last year too but I don’t want to go and look at all the things that I haven’t done yet, haha. I should have a chance to get some beautiful shots over the Christmas break though if my bloody health issues don’t get in the way so I’m immensely looking forward to that (and showing my niece the dolls, lol, she loves stuff like this). 
   
• I miiiight try to learn how to sew, although my husband loves doing it and is particularly excited to get back into it when Luka arrives. He’s a big Luka fan, ehe. Got a couple of the popular DD sewing books for him already and he’s done a wonderful job on some of Stoli’s casual clothing! Really shouldn’t rely on him though and learn for myself (even if I did essentially fail my sewing class in home economics back in high school, LOL). 
   
• Getting brave enough to try and learn how to do faceups since unlike sewing, I do know how to paint/draw so have no excuse to not try. I’ll grab a blank face next time I do a Volks order as to force myself to try and do something, at least, so I don’t feel guilty about materials going to waste.
   
• Most likely headed to Tokyo in ‘26 so I need to start saving for a Dream Choice!
   
• Maybe finally find the ghost of a DD Icon that I’ve been chasing for goodness knows how long now? If I can afford her after all I want to do above, rofl.
   
• SELL SOME UNUSED STUFF! I’m just straight up hoarding doll stuff at this point. 
   
• Stretch goal is to get a resin doll, preferably a Volks one since their style tends to be my favourite. Might be a bit too much of an ask of my wallet though, haha, especially if I do end up getting that Dream Choice. 

I probably won’t even get half of these done but hopefully writing them done will give me at least a bit more motivation? 😅

Edited Thursday at 09:45 PM by Zai

7 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

Aside from buttons, snaps, and a wig repair, not since I was a kid. 

Exciting, I can't wait to see what you whip up! 

For anybody else looking to give it a go in the coming year; a fun resource for anybody looking to take up sewing in the new year, hellosewing.com has a lot of tutorials and worksheets for practice on your new machines.

https://hellosewing.com/wp-content/uploads/sewing-practice-sheets-v1.1.pdf

These are the worksheets I did in my sewing class last year to get used to working with my machine and how the feed dogs moved etc.  

On 12/4/2025 at 5:35 PM, DesertPhantom51 said:

Exciting, I can't wait to see what you whip up!

My hope is to make these outfit for my Sailor Mercury in the next year. 
 

I want to learn to resize human clothing patterns for dolls too. 

Definitely a few things I want to do in the coming year, especially since I've done almost nothing this year...

• More photography. I've been too slack this year with it, and definitely need to up my game with it!
• A sister for Millicent. Only, I'm torn on trying to decide what the second doll should be! Too many good options! (and I might sneak this in before the end of the year... we'll see )

and, slightly more difficult, but if I'm able I'd love to

• Make doll furniture / diorama / other set pieces for photography.
• Sew my own doll clothes. (requires me to repair my sewing machine first, though...)

Honestly, there's even more I'd like to do, but it's hard to find the time when having a half dozen other hobbies and work... So keeping the list somewhat short and, hopefully, achievable!

Now I'm officially neurodiverse I feel I need to spend more time on my special interests, i.e. dolls.

After waiting an eternity and then some, long ago pre-ordered Sakura Miku might actually arrive next month. Then my Mikus can twin and it will allow NT to take more of a back seat with next year's conventions season.

We have one confirmed event next year: UK BjD Mini Con. I believe we're well covered on this one as far as outfits go, although we're also pouring a lot of effort into trying to win the photo competition.

There are also two doll meets this month. Taking the girls out this year has been the highlight of what has otherwise been another terrible year (for their hooman at least).

The twins have one main plan going forward... enter more fancy dress competitions to win more prizes.

Hmmm, what will i do next year..?

- I'd like to get my ladies an outfit for every season, so 8 new outfits total... maybe 7 if i choose to use the one extra outfit i already have. 

- get a wig and proper glasses so I can make my Sheryl into Shion (it's been months already!! i keep putting it off..)

- try to get a new internal frame for Kos-mos (or at least a head frame with the part i need replaced)

- alternitavely, get a new body for Kos-mos even though it might not be a color match (early SW batch woes)

Lastly, i'd like some carrying cases! it's scary taking them around in a backpack. I got both of my girls this year so i'm trying not to rush into it too hard LOL

37 minutes ago, Lunah05 said:

alternitavely, get a new body for Kos-mos even though it might not be a color match (early SW batch woes)

I put mine on a f3 body, and she's fine. here she is on a DDS f3.