I packed up some DD travel essentials since I’ll be brining one of my girls overseas this upcoming weekend. I haven’t decided who I’ll be taking yet, but I’ll be meeting up with some DD collectors in merry old London-town. My list of things that I can think of bringing at the moment are:

– Water Wax
– hairbrush (I use a super soft toothbrush)
– wig caps (silicone to keep wigs in place, and a white cloth one to layer on top in case I’m bringing a dark wig)
– face guard
– plushie friend for bedtime
– doll stand, or shoes that the doll can stand easily
– interchangeable hands (optional, can get too finnicky when you’re out and about)
– white pillowcase or shirt to wrap doll with
– doll carrier or other large tote bag

What do you guys bring with you when you take your girls out? Or am I over-thinking this too much? LOL

(Updated Dec 22, 2011)
Having taken Moe and Chibi-Aerie to London, Mélisande around with me in Tokyo and eventually home on the plane, and going to a couple of doll meetups recently, I wanted to do an update on this post since it’s one of the topics people search up rather frequently. Since Dollfie Dream dolls are very sturdy I’ve learned that I don’t need to be as crazy cautious as I was the first time I took Moe to London. For a casual outing when I know I’ll need to be walking around town and don’t want to lug my big doll carrier, I usually wrap the doll in a pillowcase, bend the doll into a sitting position and put her in my totebag. I try not to put any heavy things in the bag with her and carry only a few essentials like housekeys (in a separate pocket!) and maybe a small makeup pouch of girly things ^__~”.

When I’m going out for a meetup and want to bring multiple dolls I’ll bring out my Volks carrier bag. I adore this bag and it is very well designed – I love that it’s white on the inside so that it doesn’t risk staining my dolls, and from my outings I know that I can fit 2 DD’s and an MDD comfortably inside, with lots of accessories stuffed in the pockets and a couple of doll stands as well. I could probably fit 4 DD’s in there too, but would get a bit cramped. I will have my dolls mostly dressed so that when I take them out I only have to slip on their wig or shoes and not waste time fidgeting with little things.

Face guards aren’t really necessary for DD’s unless you have eyelashes added onto their heads, in which case you definitely want to protect them from getting crushed. If you want to use one, go ahead but I don’t find a need to. Silicone wig caps are an absolute god-send since they keep wigs in place on windy days, or just from sliding around in my bag. It actually saved the wig Chibi-Aerie was wearing in London when she flopped backwards while I was taking a photo on the Embankment Bridge! I had the sense to hold onto her, so she wouldn’t have fallen but if I didn’t have the silicone wig cap on her, the wig would have fallen into the Thames River! >_____<”

When I flew with Mélisande I wrapped her in a couple layers of bubble wrap, bent her into a sitting position and placed her into my Lululemon gym bag. I was able to fit TONS of stuff in there with her without concern that it would damage her and I could still get her out easily if I needed to. Mélisande had one compartment of the bag, with my camera and some others small articles, and in the other compartment I had my ziplock bag of liquids and gels, and other things I needed for the flight. On this particular journey it was impossible to put her into my roll-aboard suitcase since it was full of other things that I didn’t want to risk losing by checking them in as cargo. When I flew with Moe I had her wrapped in a SD doll pillow and bubble wrap and it was just too much bulk! I had her bent into a sitting position, laid her into the top section of my suitcase and filled the rest of my suitcase with clothes and whatnot. If you’re having trouble making your doll fit into a suitcase, don’t be afraid to bend her or even take her apart at the waist/neck to make her fit. Just be sure to protect the joints & pegs so that nothing gets damaged. I keep a fold-up totebag in my suitcase so that when I’m at my destination I can take my doll out without having to lug my big gym bag/suitcase with me.

I hope that this was helpful – if you have any questions about traveling with your Dollfie Dream, feel free to leave me a comment! ^__^”