The Story of the Miniature Stocking Caps: Part 2 (PLEASE Comment!)

A woman sits in a turquoise blue chair, her legs crossed, knitting a tiny stocking cap. At her feet are two balls of yarn.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Yesterday, I told you the story of Evelyn, who hand-knitted a multitude of tiny stocking caps before she passed away. I bought them at a church rummage sale, from a woman who seemed very disrespectful toward Evelyn.

And now I’m trying to sell these very tiny handmade stocking caps in a way that honors Evelyn’s hard work. When I say “very tiny,” this is what I mean:

A woman's hand is held up in front of a purple fabric background. On the tips of each of her fingers is a hand-knitted stocking cap. I will describe each stocking cap from left (on the thumb) to right (on the pinkie finger): far left is a black stocking cap with a white pom-pom on top and a folded, short cuff. Next is a green hand-knitted stocking cap with a cuff; next is a burgundy-colored stocking cap with a cuff; next is a navy blue stocking cap with a cuff and a pink pom-pom on top. On the pinky is a yellow hand-knitted stocking cap with cuff.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

To read the earlier blog post about the origin of these stocking caps, please click here.

In brief, I don’t know what Evelyn intended for these little stocking caps, but I’m sure she had some kind of craft project in mind.

Maybe she wanted to make them for little snowmen that she could give away to friends at Christmas. Or maybe she wanted to make them into Christmas tree ornaments. I honestly don’t know.

A snowman made of two balls of yarn also sports a red handmade knitted stocking cap and a red scarf to match. In the distance is a similar snowman and a candle, with the branches of an evergreen tree in the far distance.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

But I want to honor her memory by making sure these tiny, hand-knitted stocking caps go to people who will truly enjoy them.

Today’s blog post is an opportunity for you, my regular followers, to help me brainstorm ways to sell these tiny stocking caps in my online store.

First, what are they worth?

They’ve been for sale in my shop, for $1.99 each, but no one has purchased them. I only posted three colors of hats, to see if this would be a viable way to sell them.

On a pale blue background, there are three stocking caps, each with a matching pom-pom and a folded cuff. They are blue (far left), pink (center) and purple (far right).
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

 

When I first encountered them at the church rummage sale, I was willing to pay two dollars a piece for them, but in an online store, one must also consider the cost of shipping, which I have currently set at $7.99 because that’s the average of what it has cost me to ship the first few packages that I’ve mailed to my buyers.

I’ve tried the little hand-knitted stocking caps on various dolls. Most of them are designed to fit very small dolls, like this vintage Skipper doll and any dolls with a head-size that’s smaller than hers:

A vintage Skipper doll models a black hand-knitted stocking cap with a tiny white pom-pom on top. The stocking cap has been elongated to fit the doll without a cuff. The doll wears a black and white sleeveless gingham dress.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

As you can see, the stocking cap fits her snugly, with the cuff rolled down.

For smaller dolls (Pippa/Topper Dawn doll sized), they look fine with the cuff, as you can see in the image below:

This image shows a Remco I Dream of Jeannie six inch doll holding her tiny hand up to wave at the camera. She wears a little handmade stocking cap and a handmade coat. The text, white words over a purple frame, say, "Doll clothes swap with Dawn and Pippa" followed by a question mark. This is part of a blog post article that asks the question, "Can Palitoy Pippa dolls and Topper Dawn dolls swap clothes with a Remco I Dream of Jeannie doll?" This blog post asks this question because Chelly Wood (the writer, YouTuber, and doll clothing designer) has created some sewing patterns that will fit her I dream of Jeannie 6 inch fashion doll, and she wants to know if her free doll clothes patterns will also fit Pippa and Dawn dolls.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

There are also a smattering of bigger winter hats, that seem to be made of strings of yarn, all wrapped around a plastic ring, and then tied in a way that forms a stringy pom-pom on top.

These will fit Barbie and similar-sized dolls, but they were probably much easier to make, and therefore not worth as much money.

Here’s what they look like:

A black Barbie with silver hoop earrings models a stringy-style stocking cap which uses the strings of pink and blue yarn to form a stocking cap around some sort of plastic ring. At the top of the "stocking cap" is a pom-pom of the pink and blue strings.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

In the bag of handmade hats that Evelyn made, I literally have about 100 hats in total, but only about half a dozen of them are the stringy kind that will fit Barbie.

Both styles of hats will look good with a doll’s winter coat, even just an easy-to-make felt coat.

I enjoyed making the coat and dress you see on my Remco I Dream of Jeannie doll, below, but to make 100 of these seems daunting. And I doubt that I could sell 100 of them.

Here we see an image of an I Dream of Jeannie 6 inch fashion doll modeling a handmade doll coat with tiny embroidered stitches around the edges. She also wears a teeny-tiny miniature stocking cap. The doll waves at the viewer with her itty-bitty hand. This is part of a blog post article that asks the question, "Can Palitoy Pippa dolls and Topper Dawn dolls swap clothes with a Remco I Dream of Jeannie doll?" This blog post asks this question because Chelly Wood (the writer, YouTuber, and doll clothing designer) has created some sewing patterns that will fit her I dream of Jeannie 6 inch fashion doll, and she wants to know if her free doll clothes patterns will also fit Pippa and Dawn dolls.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

I’ve made some beautiful felt coats for dolls, for various projects in the past. I like to embroider my coats, and the tiny coats with embroidery are especially fun projects for my followers.

Take this coat that I made for my Disney Mini Elsa doll, for example:

In this photo, a pink felt jacket is slightly open at the front, so you can see its cotton lining. At the bottom of the front of this jacket, a tiny rose has been embroidered on both sides of the jacket's opening. Closer to the side seams, tiny chrysanthemum like flower has been embroidered. Each tiny flower has light green leaves embroidered around it.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Instead of me sewing 100 of these, maybe I could create kits that include the felt, the embroidery floss, the cotton fabric for the coat’s lining, and the little knitted stocking cap hat…

What would you be willing to pay for a kit like this?

On a flat white desktop surface, we see a red swatch of felt. On top of this lies a fat quarter of white striped cotton fabric with white pinstripes. There's also a cardboard square with white embroidery floss wound around it and a tiny hand-knitted red stocking cap that has a tiny white pom pom on top. The Chelly Wood dot com logo appears in the upper right corner.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Or maybe I should try to sell the hats in bulk, with a variety of colors — a sort of “grab bag” of tiny hats. What would you be willing to pay for, say, ten little hats in a variety of colors?

Can you help me brainstorm some other ideas?

How might I honor the memory of Evelyn, who made these tiny hats, and at the same time offer a product that you, my followers, would enjoy working with, in your own creative endeavors?

Please add your thoughts in the comments section! Thanks!

The image shows an elongated pink, hand-knitted stocking cap. It's resting on a blue grid with two rulers, one showing imperial measurements and the other showing metric. With the hat extended (no brim fold), it appears to be 5 cm or 1 and 3/4 inches long.

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Have you been browsing through my doll clothes patterns, but wishing a certain pattern was slightly different? If so, my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” may be just what you need to make these patterns into the pattern you see in your mind’s eye.

I also have a class called “Design Your Own Doll Pants Patterns from Scratch.” In this class, which costs only $19.99, you will learn how to create your own pants patterns, including leggings, fly-front jeans, elastic-waist pants, and overalls.

With any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to follow a schedule. Just sign up when you’re ready.

It’s a one-time fee for the course, and there’s no specific time limit to finish your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. So go check out my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link!

In this image, we see a smattering of tools that will be needed to take the Creative Spark course on doll clothes pattern alterations with Chelly Wood. The items include the following: a doll, a ruler with metric and imperial measurements, a pencil with an eraser, graph paper, patterns that don't quite fit your doll, fabric, craft felt, ribbons, elastic, and post-it notes or scratch paper.
Visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

As always, feel free to pinlike, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials. You’re welcome to share any of the images from today’s blog post on social media.

To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.

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To honor the trademark rights of the doll companies mentioned in this blog post, I am including links to their websites here. Please feel free to visit their website and consider purchasing one or more of the dolls mentioned.

11 thoughts on “The Story of the Miniature Stocking Caps: Part 2 (PLEASE Comment!)

  1. Shipping is so expensive it keeps me from ordering many things plus those tiny knitted hats are on Amazon and maybe even temu. I don’t have any answers about selling items as shipping costs keep increasing.

    1. Hmmmm… I’ve thought a lot about these things, Karen, and I’m 100% with you on this.

      It’s really hard to decide how to charge people fairly when a.) it’s a handmade item, and b.) you don’t want to take a financial loss on the item due to shipping costs.

      I have also seen similar hats on other websites, however these hats do look very well made. Maybe I should only offer them at a price per dozen, just to be competitive against the Amazon prices.

      1. That’s not a bad idea. I would gladly buy 5, 10, 12 if you decide to do that. You could also sell a “package” of 5, 10 or 12 on ebay. You get a break on shipping charges if you are a seller with them.

  2. Hi! Here in the U.K. there is a drinks firm called Innocent, every year they have a Big Knit . This involves knitters making tiny hats for the tops of their fruit juice bottles, with a charity donation going to the homeless for every bottle sold with a hat on. If there’s something similar where you are you could donate them, then the folk who bought them could then decide what to do with them.
    Ps. I’m enjoying the patterns!

    1. What a neat program!

      I don’t know of anything similar here in the US, but maybe other folks will comment and let me know of US-based programs that I’m unaware of.

      Thank you for your comment!

  3. I have truly enjoyed your posts about Evelyn and the tiny hats. I have a tiny (3.5″) porcelain bisque baby that my mother acquired in Germany in or about 1947. When it passed down to me it was still naked. Stayed that way for a long time. But I am finally retired and finding your web content made me realize I should enjoy my dolls. Made an cute little crocheted jacket and cap for this baby., as well as a flannel bunting, and a little white felt diaper, a lace=trimmed pillow, a “mattress” and two flannel blankets. I think these caps would fit this size doll. Would you sell 3 caps for $5? That might interest collectors. I would not buy a kit, but I would think many people might be interested in that. At any rate, you have been an inspiration on a lot of levels – not room here to be specific enough. Oh, and I really would be interested in buying 3 hats if you were willing to sell 3 for $5 plus postage. Thanks.

    1. Great! Thanks for the tips, Margaret!

      What color hats would you like? I will put together a set of 3 hats for $5, specifically in the colors you want.

      There are LOTS of colors in Evelyn’s collection. Let me know what three colors you want, and I’ll post them as a specific item.

      1. Two blue and 2 red. Or, if you need to post three different colors – blue, red and green. I will watch for it and buy as soon as I see them. thanks

  4. The hats with a ring at the base I have made several times as Christmas ornaments. The smaller ones could be used as a package decoration or on a miniature Christmas as an ornament. For the price point unless someone a large quantity selling at a craft, garage etc sale would seem to be the best way to go to avoid shipping

      1. LOVE the idea of using them as package decorations. Wouldn’t that be cute? Maybe combine a little hat with a couple of jingle bells!

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