A Couple of Pictures

This dress certainly has plenty of curves to deal with.  The skirt is circular so I had to clip the waist area to attach it to the bodice.  The hem of the skirt is done in a similar way except I didn't clip it.  If the hem had been quite deep I might have clipped it or I might have gathered it slightly but it is fairly narrow so it didn't need it, just tacked/basted then machined round.  I got the idea for this dress from here but used the circular skirt pattern from the Christmas dress and the bodice from another dress.

I made this cape out of flannel.  When I bought this fabric I thought it looked a bit dowdy but it turned out nice for use as outdoor wear.  The hat the doll is wearing was a swap from a friend, I think it goes really well with the cape.

Sewing Curves

Sewing curves on doll clothes can be quite fiddly.  This is the way I do it.  First I machine sew around the curves; clip almost to this line of machine sewing; finger press the hem at the line of machine sewing;  tack/baste this hem.

Machine sew around the hem once it is all neatly tacked/basted in place.  You can add any trim at this point.  The pictures above are the top of an apron, I'm all ready now for the sewing machining.

18" Doll Patterns

I'm gradually working my way through these American Girl patterns.  They really do look lovely when they are made up.  In my opinion though, you have to have quite a bit of dressmaking experience to use them.  I like that you can print the patterns onto plain printer paper and cut them out.  This makes it much easier than using the tissue paper pattern pieces.

Amongst my craft stash I have a lot of cotton fabric with small prints so these are perfect for this small sewing.  I tried using Velcro as the fastening on the back of the dresses etc but didn't like it.  Then I used part of a zipper on one dress.  This worked quite well and I will probably do this again.  Buttons with loops made from thread work ok too but my favourite fastening is to use plastic snaps.  I've used the sew on ones and, as soon as I can get some, I intend trying the snaps that come with the applicator, I think these should work well.

What Is Small Sewing About?

I decided to start this blog because I couldn't find any other blogs or groups dedicated to making dolls clothes.  My other blog is about my everyday life, this blog is to be a record of what I make for dolls and to find out what others are making.