
Indoor photography can be a real hastle when you have to set up the kitchen table for a photo shoot right after breakfast, hurry though your photos, and then take the kitchen-table-studio apart again in time for serving dinner.
About a year ago, I moved all my doll photography stuff out to the kids’ playhouse. They were in junior high and high school, and they didn’t use the playhouse anymore. So it seemed like the ideal location.
I filled the playhouse with all the necessities: my photo studio lights, a coffee table, and some shelving for storing dolls in tightly-sealed containers. The scenario worked out nicely. Here’s a shot of one of the scenes from Romeo and Juliet, for example, set up on the coffee table in the playhouse:

That was more than a year ago. I’ve since moved my doll photography studio into my actual sewing room, but when we were crunched for space, the kids’ abandoned playhouse was perfect for my doll photography. A lot of my 2015 – 2016 doll clothes tutorial videos were filmed in that little playhouse. You can even hear the space heater running in some of my sewing tutorial videos!
The rest of the family felt like it was such a relief to not have to share the kitchen table with dolls!
So whether you carve out a space in a linen closet or find a spot in the garage, you’ll find your doll photography can be much more efficient if you use an indoor studio that’s designated as your own, personal space.
Additional Information:
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My Gallery Page is the easiest way to search through all of my patterns to find what you want. Each image on the Gallery Page takes you to links for patterns and tutorials.
Need help printing my patterns? This link offers a tutorial showing you how to download and print my FREE patterns using Google Docs. (For the older print-a-pattern tutorial, which uses Microsoft Word, click here.) To review my difficulty scale, take a look back at this blog post.
Please note: you must enlarge my patterns to fit a full-sized piece of American computer paper (8.5 x 11 inches or 216 x 279 mm) without margins, before printing. These designs use a scant 1/4 inch seam (4 mm to be exact).
If you’re wondering why I make patterns and videos without charging a fee, please visit the “Chelly’s Books” page, and that should explain my general motivations. My patterns are now available through “Creative Commons Attribution.” This means that I created my patterns (and therefore I own rights to them), but I’m willing to share them with everyone who will tell people about my website.
Here are some helpful ways to tell the world about my patterns:
- You can pin them on Pinterest.
- You can like them on Facebook.
- You can tweet about them.
- Use any other form of social media that appeals to you!
Are you new to sewing? I’ve got a playlist of tutorials for the beginning sewists on my YouTube channel. It includes video tutorials showing you how to do a basic straight stitch when sewing by hand, how to use the whipstitch to hem a garment, how to sew on snaps, and even how to design your own doll clothes patterns, for those who are new to design and alterations.
In case you haven’t heard, I have actually designed some commercial patterns for Lammily LLC. They have some new dolls in their line, including a new male doll, so you might want to visit the Lammily website to see what they’ve got going on.
If your question wasn’t answered here, feel free to submit a question. I’m always happy to help my followers find what they need, so they, too, can make amazing doll clothes and crafts!