Custom Dolls
Customized Bambolettas will be available in TWO batches. The first batch is for Newbie's so people with no Bamboletta dolls in their household this will be at 3pm PDT (6pm EDT) Sunday July 25th. The next batch will be for everyone at 3:30pm on the same day. ONE DOLL LIMIT PER FAMILY!

Please read through this information thoroughly - Ive tried to cover everything that could come up during the process!

Also - please refer to my Flickr site - here you will find examples of pretty much everything I do! http://www.flickr.com/photos/bamboletta/

So here is the down low on the customized Bambolettas,. The cost is $185 paid at the time of the order and they will be delivered to you by mid December. On the day of the upload you will click on the Customized Bamboletta Item (in the 'New' section of the site) it will be set up like how I sell items of clothing, with quantities not 100 listings - there will be one listing to click). You will buy your spot and then proceed to check out. I will not be personally confirming orders like I do at Ready to Go uploads - If you check out and receive and email confirmations with Customized Bamboletta , the price and a total then the spot is yours! You will receive a link *within 24 hours* (give us a bit of time to go through them all!) to a form that you will fill out with the specs on your doll. you will have 3 Days to complete this form, so lots of time. Once you submit this form your selections are FINAL no changes. Really.

After everything is organized and all the materials are ordered, yarn is dyed, clothing is 'in production' then we will begin to work on the dolls . Orders will be chosen randomly - no rhyme or reason to it. After your order is in we ask that there please be no emails asking 'Is my doll almost done?' or ' I saw so and so's fairy bits this week - I LOVE that' - get what I mean? Please remember that it's just me really here doing all this admin stuff - it gets pretty overwhelming pretty quickly if everyone wants to add 'just one more thing to their order! :)

There will still be LOADS Ready to Go dolls on the site each week!

What dolls are available for customization?
At the moment only the 15 dolls will be available. If this set of customized dolls goes well I will add other dolls to the list. So, just our 'regular' Bamboletta's. NO Fairies.

Why the price difference between a Ready to Go and a custom doll?
There is a lot more involved in creating a custom doll careful attention is paid to the options you choose we check and recheck the order and have to make sure that yarns are bought and dyed for these specific orders. This price includes an outfit and a jacket or cardigan I will not be offering dolls with no sweater or jacket for a less price.

Why the 4 month wait month wait? I really need the doll for Susie's birthday in June!
The six month timeline allows us to be able to focus our attention on several custom dolls per week and still be able to get out many of the Ready To Go dolls onto the site. At this point in our business, it is really important for us to have a good supply of dolls available each week due to the incredible demand for them. The reason we are doing the customized dolls again is purely based on the sheer demand for them almost daily requests! If this does not work for you then I would recommend trying for a Ready to Go doll.
We made a decision to release 100 spots at this point - mostly to try to alleviate some of the demand for custom dolls.

Why do I have to pay upfront?
We offered payment plans before and it just got so confusing people paying with multiple cards, different paypal accounts, etc, So, this time it's all in one go then I don't have to spend time emailing people for their payments it keeps things simple for us. Remember, it's really just me doing all the admin stuff here (with some help from John when he's off!) I'm not going anywhere don't worry!

If I get a Ready to Go doll that I looovvee can I cancel my customized order?
No please. All custom orders are final.

Can I sell my custom spot to someone?
No please.

Questions about Customizing your Bamboletta

So I like Molly's eyes, and Penny's nose and Maggie's faceshape can you do that?
Please try to understand that there is no way to recreate dolls especially doll features. They all turn out so differently that's the beauty of handcrafted! Please just trust in us that we will create a doll that is just perfect for your little one! From my experience the best dolls I make are the ones where the customer just picked out the basic (skin, hair color/style, and eye color) and just let us create. The more detailed the order the longer it takes and ,honestly, the more hesitant I become, it's like I know that there is a detailed picture in your head - I just can't see it. We can't recreate head sizes, or body shapes or noses they just happen - kind of like kids. I thought I should add in a note here about my sewers - I have several gals sewing for me - I am blessed that they work with me creating these dolls , these women have incredible skill and heart. Each sewer has her own particular style of sewing - the patterns are all the same - the bodies are given to them stuffed the same - but they do put their own 'spin' on it. Some dolls arms will hang lower, more relaxed, where as others are more upward ready to hug. I LOVE this about what we do here - we aren't a factory that can produce the same thing again and again. These dolls are all handmade, stitched with much care and love - each totally unique.

I have a picture of a doll I want you to recreate I want a doll that looks just like her!
I can take elements of what you like about that doll the skin, hair and eye color but we CAN NOT recreate dolls. I know I may sound like a broken record here but this comes up again and again and was a source of frustration around previous customs we did. These dolls are one of a kind there are so many variables in what we create I simply cannot do this. If the anticipation or not knowing exactly what you are going to get is too much then I would suggest you keep trying for a Ready to Go doll then you can see exactly what you are going to get!

What are fairy bits? And -I loved 'Penny's' fairy bits in her hair! Can I have those?
Fairy bits are special yarns that I use to add some color to a doll's hair. The yarns I use are usually bought from markets or Etsy ' they are one of a kind creations. When mixed in with the regular hair I can usually get 2 or 3 heads of hair from one skein (ball) of yarn. So ' I cannot recreate fairy bits in hair. If the 'Fairy Bit' is chosen I determine what color to use based on the color family you select under the fairy bit section. This will make more sense to you if you are working on a custom order form.

Full Dreds, or Mixed dreds or Scattered Dreds - what is the difference?
Full Dreds - is the hairstyle that has 100% dreds.
Mix Dreds - is the hairstyle that mixes our regular yarns and mohair with about 50% dredlock yarn - super funky :)
Scattered Dreds - The dreds here are used more like a highlight - think a beach-y surfer blonde or the blonds we do with pink or purple (or both - what the heck!) dreds You will be able to choose the color of dreds from a drop down menu if they are 'accent's - for example - you want a blonde dolls with pink dreds - then you would choose pink in this section.

I can't tell the difference between Sunkissed and Light Tan! Help!
Sunkissed is more of a golden/peachy tone and is my most popular skin color. Light Tan is more beige/ashy. They are so close in color ' it's just the tone that is different.

How does clothing work?
You will choose a clothing style so kimono/pants, dress, etc and then select a theme for your fabric so floral and classic or fun and funky and then select a color from the drop down menu. I'm doing it this way rather then the customer selecting fabric so that we can have fun with fabrics and order in small amounts therefore varying what we have on all our dolls there is just TOOO much cute fabric out there! You then get either a sweater or felt jacket to match the outfit you choose!

So phew, I think I covered most of it! Thanks for reading it all! If you have any more questions please contact me at Christina@bamboletta.com