Cat Dolls!

For the past few years I thought about doing soft bodied dolls again. In the past I’ve done foxes, some fairy dolls with wings, and an Anubis doll – they were the type with jointed legs & arms so that kids (or adults) could move them around and make them sit & such.

They sold ok, I didn’t want to put four hours of work into each one because the selling price point on them was in the $25 range so ‘fast, easy, low cost’ were my primary factors.  I’d put costumes on the foxes (pants and a belt, with a small pouch holding a little mouse for their ‘lunch), and a dress on the fairies (not good sellers so I only made 10 of those, but they sat with bent legs under them like glamor models).  Cats are always a good item to get peoples’ interest but for whatever reason I just never got around to doing those.

Well, at the fabric store this week there was a polar fleece print with multiple cat heads on it, all life sized and realistic.  I bought 1 1/8^th yard which gives me 22 heads. I matched the pale gray cats to a pale gray solid color polar fleece and the darker gray heads to a dark gray polar fleece, and bought a medium gray fake fur section to make furry tails from. 

They’ll go together as ‘flat’ dolls, but I’m going to add some panache to them by using bits of long black fake fur as ear tip tufts, adding a small white bead to the eye for a highlight, and whiskers made of fishing line (8 lb test, it knots the best and isn’t so thin it would break when you double knot it). 

With the body/legs all solid color I figure dressing them up is a good idea and while I like the thought of a Medieval nobleman cat or soldier cat, I know perfectly well that there’s going to be a LOT more interest in having them in Fortune Teller Gypsy outfits instead, the peasant top with flared skirt.  With ‘extras’ added to them, like tassels, a scarf tie belt, jewelry bling, a pouch (I have plastic gold coins from Halloween to put in those) and a fancy bead or two to class them up for fun.  They won’t be ‘baby toys’, this is for teen girls and adults.

My color scheme (after 2 hours up/down the aisles at the fabric store) will be silver/gray/blue for half the dolls, and silver/gray/red for the other half. Greens and yellows just didn’t look right.  They’re going to the Ren Fairs – price range wholesale I’m anticipating in the $20-$25 range for me, retail at $40+   I’m pretty sure I can get that for them. 

They should be fun to put together.

MARKETING TIPS !

I’m in the throes of the summer fair heavy sewing, sorry about not posting more lately.  Two Renaissance Fairs, a craft fair, a vet clinic’s request for cat toys, a local seller needing more, and a few other things happening all in the past two months.  There’s still another event coming up in August, and a craft fair in October, but those two I’m not stressing over.

MARKETING!!!!!!!!!!  The Ren Fairs want fun stuff.  I’ve made several trips over to the local Boelters store for generic ‘to go’ boxes and have been boxing up sets of cat toys.  I’ve learned over the years to go with humor, it not only sells an item faster it also gets someone to pick UP the item which is halfway to getting them to buying it.

So this year my feline cuisine line now has ‘assorted hamsters and dipping sauce’, ‘parakeet a’la mode’ and ‘Japanese Ninja Throwing Shrimp’.  Names like that are far more interesting than ‘four hamsters and a ball’, ‘a bird and a ball’ or ‘four shrimp’.  PRESENTATION IS EVERYTHING. That goes for the name of the thing as well.  It’s all part of perceived value by the customer. 

Think outside the box, folks.  It can make a huge difference in your sales.