Ways To Play With Your Dolls
Playing with dolls can mean many things. It can mean creating beautiful displays of your dolls. It can mean sewing for your dolls. It can mean dressing and redressing them. I have quite a few dolls, so when I finally set aside some time this weekend to play with my dolls, I decided I wanted to play with my Tonner fashion dolls.
Wardrobe Trunks For Play
My favorite Tonner fashion dolls are from the Tyler Wentworth group. My play dolls include several Tyler dolls, Sydney Chase dolls, Esme, Jac and one Mei Lei. I have my favorite dolls and outfits stored in two of the Deluxe Wardrobe Trunks that were made for several years ending in 2005. These trunks have room for three dolls and a great number of outfits, shoes and other accessories. The trunks are now out of production, and are getting very hard to find. If you have a large collection of Tyler-sized dolls and outfits, and you can still get this trunk, I highly recommend it.
If you can't get this trunk, you can still find the Basic Trunk which will fit one doll and a decent number of clothes, accessories and shoes. I highly recommend any of the trunks, especially if, like me, you are brave and toss all the boxes once you've decided to play with the dolls/outfits, since you can fit so much more unboxed into the trunks!
What To Put In The Trunks
In the trunks, I place my favorite (for the moment) dolls to dress. This is usually a variety of doll molds and sculpts of the 16" size. I also neatly organize shoes, clothing and accessories. I line many of the shoes up in the little shoe shelves (but...since my dolls are a bit like tiny Imelda Marcos' I also need to use an extra drawer or two. In one draw, neatly, I like to sort the doll jewelry in little 1 x 1 inch plastic zip bags. Into another drawer goes random accessories (candy boxes, bagels) and another one gets lingerie and panty hose.
Full Body Hangers
I am especially fond of the new "full body" hangers that allow you to hang separates together--pants or a skirt, the top, even a matching overcoat. These hangers are fantastic, and the clothing doesn't slip off of them. These hangers are still available from Tonner Dolls.
Co-Ordinating Outfits
After organizing (OK, OK, the organizing is part of the play; I especially love it when I get a new batch of Tonner Boutique clothes to play with!) then I like to co-ordinate various outfits for the dolls. I've been collecting for six years, and I have quite an assortment that lets me create new combinations. We also like to sew, and sometimes will note items we are lacking to try to sew for a later time.
Playing Dolls
Sometimes my play will include taking photos of the dolls in the outfits for one of my many projects; other times, I literally "play" dolls together with my 11 year old daughter. She has her own case, the new mod-colored Fashion Wardrobe Trunk. I'm not as fond of this case because it has pockets for accessories on one of the trunk inner sides, and you cannot see what is in the pockets unless you look in each individually.
Furniture and Other Ideas
We have lots of the Tonner furniture, too (dining room table, piano, etc) and we also like to create displays using the furniture.
Of course, there are many ways to play with Tonner fashion dolls, and also many types of fashion dolls. This may not be the way you play with your dolls, but I wanted to share how I play with mine to hopefully give you some ideas if you never have before and would like to get started.
