Doll Ballgown

 

Marie-Grace is modelling for us today. She is wearing a lame floor length gown with a silver cord belt. The dress is the same pattern as before. You can kind of see where my neckline is too high and the arm too large. This was the first bodice that I cut. The lame was impossible to press and I don't know how anyone sews actual garments with it. You know, to wear. But it looks great on the doll and I think little Miss is going to be pretty pleased with her birthday presents.

 

I used the silver cord as the closure. It is fixed to the dress by hand, using couching. I am hoping that it is going to hold up to some degree of wear and tear and not be too fragile. (When I look at that picture, I always do a double take and think it is my youngest, standing against the wall for being naughty! Am I the only one who finds dolls a little bit creepy?)

For the hem, I zigzagged along the raw edge and just turned up once. It made for a smaller and lighter hem than the pink dress.

I wonder if I could make some doll shoes?

Doll Dress

I'm afraid I have succumbed to the special kind of madness that is the American Girl Doll. This is Emily.

I don't mind really. Yes, it is an insane price for a doll. Yes, they are not even very cute. But my daughter likes hers very much and it makes her very happy. Which makes me very happy.

Now here is where being able to sew really comes into its own and becomes cost effective. Mere scraps of fabric are all that I need and suddenly I have a dress that would cost me $30 to buy!

I did some making in time for her birthday and the doll got a new outfit for the birthday, and one for the party. I'm afraid that I have been so busy making doll clothes that the child has not got a matching dress for her birthday. She did choose the fabric herself. I'm afraid it is pure polyester. It has a lovely drape but it is not the easiest fabric to cut or sew.

I used a free pattern generously shared at the blog, All Things With Purpose. I ended up retracing it slightly because the bodice was a bit high in the neckline and a bit wide in the armscye. My second version suited me better. Technically, I should be cutting the back bodice separately from the front but doing it all in one is so much faster that I'll take the small fabric wastage and going off-grain.

I changed the construction method too, I joined the outside and the lining at the back, neckline and armholes but not the side seams. After notching and turning right side out, I joined each side seam through the lining and the outer as one continuous seam.

The skirt dimensions are: 80cm wide and 20cm for knee length, 27cm for ankle length.

I used a strip of velcro for the closure. 16cm is the right amount to get it on and off easily.

The great thing about making doll clothes is that the finishes don't have to be perfect. Nobody is going to complain about velcro being scratchy!

Jacket Potato Mice

These jacket potatoes were gobbled up in no time. 

Circle Skirts

Two circle skirts for the two girls.



Easy peasy, and yet quite fiddly, with a lot of fabric needed.

The fabric is from an eBay seller I buy from, Favourite Fabrics. 2.1m Temari Sakura Balls, Airforce Blue, cotton (£11.24 inc shipping)

I used a variety of Google sources for the circle skirt tutorials. I never got the maths quite right but I did a gathered waistband so it didn't have to be precise. The waistband gathers were a bit beyond my imagination for a while, but I got there in the end.

I made bias binding for the hem, using the last of the dyed shirt fabric. Making that much binding, pinning and sewing it all into place - twice - was the long road to the finish line for these beauties. I love how the colours match perfectly.