If You Sew It Together, It Goes Together

For years I've been sewing doll clothes with mixed prints.  I used to have a list of rules I'd use for choosing what print went with what other prints, but, sometimes, I'd notice two prints next to each other in the storage spaces and think they looked good together.  Whichever way, I always got compliments on the finished doll clothes.  (I used to sell a lot, before Etsy went evil, so the compliments were often backed up with purchases.)  So, eventually, my A #1 Rule For Mixing Prints became: If you sew it together, it goes together.

People might question separates of mixed prints, but, if the different prints are sewn together?  Who are they to question the designer?  Humans are all about pattern recognition, too, so they can find ways to make the prints coordinate, if they really want to think about it.

Now, another thing about my attitude toward mixing prints is this: if you can easily give a name to the entire class of one of the prints, then the brain parses it as A Whole Thing, and it might as well be a solid.  Stripes, checks/plaid/gingham/madras, dots, leopard print, camouflage.  But not florals (and I haven't quite figured out why)--florals, however, will easily mix with all of those others.

So, yeah, I'm sitting here now wearing a dress I sewed with a mix of a madras plaid and a Star Wars print and really feeling like it's not much of a pattern mixing achievement, because, pfft, "plaid" is neutral.

But, I wondered...could more aggressive print mixing work on a grown human, or is it something I should keep for dolls (and small children)?

So I made this

As far as I can tell, yeah, it does totally work.



The cloth is a combination of some of the Doll Person's Destash (thanks again!) for the bodice, and the skirt is a combination of some of the more posh fabric I've thrifted--the pink and octopus is "Medocino by Heather Ross for Windham Fabrics" and the stars print is a genuine (I'm fairly sure) Vlisco wax print

(I have thrifted an absolutely fake "Vlisco" wax print, so I know knock-offs exist--the quality of this star print reassures me that it's real.)

And the pockets...

The skateboard bee print is from a thrift store grab bag.  There wasn't much of it, and I wasn't sure if I'd ever use it for doll clothes, so this makes me happy. (It's The Bee's Knees...pads.)

But the Combine-O-Rama didn't stop with the cloth!  Because the pattern is cobbled together with elements from all Big Three pattern companies

McCall's 6453 contributed the neckline shape and facings to modify the bodice made from the shirt/dress of Butterick 6470, and Simplicity 9153 was called in for the (modified) skirt and pockets.  And as I was taking the pictures I realized that the numbers are 6470 and 9153 and 6453 and what did I say about humans being prone to finding patterns in things?

(the socks  unquestionably match the blue dress I am otherwise wearing today)

The bottom of the skirt and the contrast were both cut using the bottom edge of 9153's skirt pattern, with the upper portion being cut first and then the star print laid out under it and the skirt pattern piece aligned with the out edge and extended over the stars so that the skirt side angle would stay the same, and then the cloth was cut along the bottom of the pattern for the bottom of the piece, and the bottom pf the upper piece for the top of the bottom band.  Eh, well, it worked, and the two curves sewed together smoothly with a ¼" seam.

I have a nice amount of the star print left, but I used just about all of the octopus print and of the floral.  The amount of the floral available was not enough to use the bodice from Simplicity 9153, with its cut-on sleeves, which is why I chose the pattern used in my last post, Butterick 6470 for the bodice.   I had to cut the sleeves on the cross grain, due to the shape of the cloth I was working with

but I don't think it's too obvious.

I used orange thread and decided to go ahead and top stitch in the usual places--around the neckline

(I did edge stitch the facing to the seam allowance, but my top stitching love runs deep)

and above the lower band

The orange thread matches pretty well with the fabrics here, which was a nice surprise.  I chose it because the yellow orange colors were a unifying aspect (brain find pattern!) and because I hadn't yet used any of the orange Saba C from my last Wawak order.

The sleeve and skirt hems were pressed up 5/8" and then the edge of that was turned under, then stitched about a quarter inch from the edges.  (Butterick 6470 calls for cutting out two of each sleeve and sewing them separately at their under arm seams then sewing them right side together at the hem then treating them as a single piece after that and I honestly can't see me ever doing that...at least, not when the pattern actually directs to do so.  Even if I didn't sew almost all of my sleeves on flat.)

Oh, and, I tried something with the pockets--I've made a few other patterns where the pocket bags are attached with a smaller-than-5/8" seam allowance, then the skirt side seams are sewn with the full 5/8" seam allowance, and the result is something that does not require precise pinning and several rounds or unpicking and resewing to get the seams to all meet up in the exact same spot (that's how it usually goes for me, at least)

(they're so happy!!!)

In retrospect, I wonder if this area would benefit from being interfaced...

I cut the front and back pieces of the skirt the same

so I was able to be a bit picky and choose which print placement for which side--there wasn't much difference in the octopus print, but I definitely chose the piece with more stars for the front.

I didn't think about it until after things were sewn together, but attaching this skirt/pocket combo to a bodice that's about 3" longer than what the skirt is supposed to go with...well, the pockets are a bit...low

The skirt isn't as wide as given by the pattern (it's supposed to have center seams), but it's still wide enough to be fun

And I know--I know--this dress is about as far from "sophisticated" as it gets, but the clean line created by the contrast band, instead of the easier-to-cut ruffle that was considered, makes me feel like the overall dress is a touch more grown-up than it could have been.

The main goals of this dress were stash busting and creating something loose and easy to wear when summer rolls in.  Those goals were definitely met, and now I have something to wear that rivals the doll clothes.