7. Now the Work Begins

While First Union was creating the doll molds, I spent the next six weeks working with their staff in finding suitable fabric and colors for the costumes and the completion of acceptable costumes. The first batch of costumes was horrible – too big and poorly sewn. They were sewn for the mass market instead for a high quality collectible doll. I refused this clothing and worked with the First Union supervisor for months, teaching what was needed for the clothing line.

The doll wigs became an issue, because they were poorly made and, though brand new, actually fell apart! Correct sizing of wigs was also a problem, most being either too large or too small for the dolls’ heads.

Custom-made doll eyes had been negotiated and promised by First Union. The doll faces and heads samples were produced with eyes having the appearance of being “possessed.” They looked like Halloween figure rather than goddesses. After much frustration and failure to achieve the desired look, First Union gave me permission to outsource the eyes and wigs, as they could not meet our quality standards.

The doll faces were poorly painted. The samples received were distorted, again, to the point of being scary in appearance. Our prototypes had eyelashes glued on the dolls’ eyelids. First Union insisted it was impossible to glue on eyelashes and assured me that they could paint lashes with an acceptable effect. To my dismay, the painted eyelashes appeared to be tiny spiders crawling on eyelids.

As if I could stand another surprise, First Union manufactured all of the doll fabric into outfits or costumes. This first order was to have been only for the test market in case changes needed to be made for mass production. Instead, all the fabric was sewn into costumes. First Union admitted to making this mistake, yet insists that we purchase all the costumes. We have not seen, and therefore cannot know, the quality of this unauthorized work.

In the middle of August 2006, I gave up being able to offer dolls for the Christmas season, yet still continued to seek a better source of workmanship. Missing the Christmas season created great financial loss for SophiaDolls™, and has negated the opportunity to test the dolls in the market at a premium time.