Oh, look: more doll clothes

 I rerooted a doll, but felt like the clothes I had that fit her didn't suit her.  Time to sew something!

 

 which also included sewing five more dresses with the same pattern

And then I sewed these

 Yes, I made the previous post of doll clothes I'd sewn over the last few weeks, then spent the intervening time (that was posted on the 20th and today is the 22nd) sewing more doll clothes.

A Smattering of Doll Sewing

While I am also sewing a stack of doll clothes to sell, I have also sewn some random things for my own dolls

Wash Bag

There has been a small pile of relatively delicate garments accumulating on my dresser that I have not wanted to hand wash.  They are all too large for the lingerie bag I have, so of course my solution was to make a larger bag myself.

I did not have suitable fabric, so I kept an eye on the Walmart mill-end precut selection, and it recently turned up a weird synthetic mesh-y fabric that seemed good enough.  Bonus that it was 2 yards for $4.

Shirt of Sweet Vintage (Print)

Ages ago, I thrifted a length of a very sweet vintage floral print.  I used some of it for doll clothes--honestly, I figured I'd only ever use it for doll clothes.

Until, of course, I decided I wanted to use it for another modified Burda 7831.  There was about a yard and a quarter, which would have been plenty of fabric if it had been 45".  However, I knew it was vintage because it was 36".

I am, of course, stubborn.  I got the shirt I wanted out of it.

With only a small amount of  improvisation necessary.

mumble

 So I've wanted to revisit Simplicity 8241 from 1987--I don't have my own photo of the pattern envelope, and I don't particularly want to take one at the moment.  There are two listings for it on eBay right now, so I borrowed this from one of those

My copy is in size 8, which was fine when I first acquired and made it (for the only time) over 20 years ago.  No so much now.

Earlier in the week, I had pulled a piece of red and black and white plaid fabric--cotton, not quite coarse enough to be homespun, but not really lightweight enough for me to want to go ahead and make it into another try at a buttoned shirt with a scoop neckline instead of a collar, with no print mixing.  The fabric was also 36", so I would not have been able to eke out even the tiny sleeves. So. No shirt from that fabric.

But, I got it in my mind that I absolutely would use that fabric next. And eventually I thought, hey, I could mix prints with it after all.  Maybe a skirt?  Tiered, with each tier in a separate fabric? ...or...gored...with the fabric mixed across gores...  And that led back to Simplicity 8241.

Which I didn't exactly use.  It's a twelve gore skirt, and there are six separate pattern pieces for those  twelve gores.  I didn't wanna deal with that.  I dug out the back center piece and cut 12 of those, adding some extra width to the top, as well as shortening it by two inches from the top.

Yeah, in retrospect: bad idea.

I knew one fabric I wanted to use with the plaid, but needed another to be able to make everything.  Meh, I have a lot of cloth, I'll find something good.

Hey, guess what?  I did not find something good.  I did find something adequate, and I sewed it all together, but...I'm not happy about it.

Acanthus

Since I have black thread in the serger, I am making an effort to sew dark fabrics.  I chose a black and white acanthus scroll print and wanted to make yet another button up shirt.  I had a yard of it, so I figured I'd once again use the hacked Burda 7831.  I've made shirts from 7831 and a yard of fabric plus a bit more fabric for contrast on the front bands and collar assembly.

But.

I just didn't want to do contrasts this time.

I thought a but and realized I could do a variation...without the collar.

I borrowed the scoop neck shape from the fake McCall's 8197 variation of Burda 6401 and confidently cut the front and back, a bit less confidently cutting the sleeves and facings, and then hoping I could get enough length to make the front bands.  I did!

And yes I realize the pattern is busy enough to hide anything like a detail this shirt may have.

Eggplant Man

I have made several Mado Monogatari/Puyo Puyo Carbuncle plush for the kiddo [link to the cutest] because I think the character design is so cute.  A lot of the characters in Mado Monogatari/Puyo Puyo are cute, albeit in a baffling way (Mado Monogatari is a satire), but most of their character designs are a bit complicated

...but not Nasu Grave, an eggplant who wears glasses.

So I threw together a quick little felt version

First, I cut the 'glasses' from foiled silver knit, and glued them on with white glue, edges touched up with Fabri-tac. I machine sewed around most of the body, catching the arms and legs in the stitching, notched the seams, turned right-side-out, stuffed with a pinch of Polyfil, realized I should make a simple stitch to represent the glasses bridge, then hand stitched the top closed.  I attached the leaves with a line of whip stitching through the center (is it still whip stitching if it's not on the edge?), then whip stitched the bottom of the stem over that line of stitching.

I may or may not make a larger, more-spherical version--I have an entirely suitable low pile purple plush fabric, but the kiddo doesn't think an eggplant should be fuzzy.  We'll see what happens, whenever it happens, if it happens.

Leopard Leopard

Nearly ten years a go, I made a cute little shirt that mixed a floral and leopard print.  Alas, "little" is more than a term of endearment and I let it go about five years ago, when I finally accepted I was not the size I used to be.

A few years after I made the floral and leopard shirt, I made a spoopy spiders and leopard shirt for a friend.

I decided it was finally time to make an entire shirt from what I had left.

Slip Squares

I don't remember the circumstance, I just remember that I had the thought that I needed to make a slip at some point.

The diagonal print rayon in the last dress seemed perfect for a bias-cut project.

Slips are often bias cut.

So.  Even though I couldn't remember why I thought I needed to make a slip, I decided this would be good fabric to make it from.  I cut the front and back pieces for the slip, using McCall's 6696, before cutting the pieces for the big dress--I could easily play around with the dress's length if needed, but I didn't want to have to finagle the slip pieces from weird remnants, so it made sense to cut the slip pieces first.

...although I did wait to make the bias tape after everything else was cut out, which did require some brain work to translate the normal instructions for assembling the continuous bias tube into something I could use with the odd angled bits of fabric I had left.  I ended up with exactly the right amount of bias tape for both of the projects.

Not that the pattern for this slip expects you to use any bias tape.  No, it wants you to turn and stitch and trim the upper edges.  The upper, bias-cut, curved edges.  Ha ha no.

Another Quick Note

I just took in the waist about 3" on this black twill skirt I made last summer.  I said in the post "it's loose"; I have worn it many times since then, and that should have been "it's too big."

I finally got tired of it drooping below my waistline, so I removed the button and picked out the waistband stitching from the button side around to just past the other side seam (leaving the buttonhole untouched.)  I folded the inside-out skirt and trimmed off the top of the side seams, then re-stitched with a half-inch seam allowance, finished with serging; repeat for the lining.  Then I sewed the waistband back on, cutting off the newly-created excess at the end and finishing it for the button extension.  I sewed the button back on with the machine.  Skirt fits better now.

All Angles Anachronism

After all that dedication to (eventually) changing the serger thread to black, you'd think I had more things planned to sew with it. (Granted, what I do know I want to sew with it, I have not, at this time, wanted to sew.)  

I poked around the fabric stash and eventually decided I would use a very 1990s print mostly-purple rayon, and eventually settled on using it for a slip (cut first, not yet sewn) and another peasant dress based on Simplicity 9866.  I did not check the posts I'd made about making the previous two versions, and I had forgotten that I had been experimenting with sleeve length--I mean, yeah, I saw that there was a shorter traced paper version of the sleeve, but I didn't remember the circumstances, so I used the original dress's sleeve pattern.  At this point, it's so far from the Otome no Sewing project that it's no real concern.

I am amused that this uses a 1990s print to make a 1940s silhouette using a 1970s pattern modified to mimic a 2010s magazine project.

New Weights

I finally made more pattern weights!

I made the first four in late 2021, and tried making some more in early 2022, but I got distracted and mixed the resin wrong and had to, sadly, throw those away.  I paid proper attention and everything worked this time.

I was really happy with the two on the bottom.  The metallic confetti really captures the feel of my memories of the resin things I saw at the Rock Swap as a kid (although in much more modern colors), and the skeleton surrounded by color shift glitter and stars against a pink holo background (cut from doll packaging)...how could that have gone wrong?

The top two, though, I thought ended up rather bland.  The pink was an experiment in using up left-over resin by pouring it into the mold whenever I had it.  I thought it would look fun with all the layers. It did not, and I turned out not to have left-over resin very often, either.  The glitter in the upper right is a mix of glitters left over from various projects, all poured into the same container for storage.  I really liked looking into the container at the glitter blend and thought it might be fun in the top layer of a pattern weight.  It's...OK...

So I added stickers!

Yeah, they're pattern weights, they don't need to look good.  I have stickers to spare, though.

I also tried adding a contrast layer of resin at the bottom of the other three.  I mixed some of them a bit dark (they're all translucent. really.), but I'm really happy with the pale green under the pink in the skeleton weight.  Maybe next time I do this, I'll remember to do it on a level surface, which apparently the card table does not have.  The angled layers are fine--these things can still hold down a pattern piece.

Black Eyelet Babydoll

Happened into a Walmart one day right after they had obviously restocked their mill end precuts, and so was able to buy a lovely "3 yards for $8" piece of black cotton double border eyelet.  I knew from the start that I wanted to use it for a Fake Burda 6401, and that conviction grew even more sure after I made the Fake McCall's 8197 modifications to the basic Fake Burda 6401 pattern.

The main thing that kept me from actually making this dress?  The fact that there was white thread in the serger, and I had a lot of other things I wanted to sew that would work much better with white serger thread than with black serger thread.  However!  I finally got to a point where I felt like I was through with those projects--and wasn't thinking of more that I wanted to make immediately--so I finally changed the serger thread.  We won't discuss how long ago that was; we shall just rejoice that it happened.

And so I sewed the eyelet into the intended dress

No, wait, it gets better.

Pink'n'Punk'n

Untold years ago, I bought a quarter yard of an orange jack'o'lantern on white ground Halloween print from Joann; I probably figured I'd use it for doll clothes.  But.  I stopped sewing doll clothes for sale so often.  And when I thought of using it for something for me?  Well, with it being orange on white, it definitely had marks against it.

A few years ago, I got the idea of overdying it, to make the white pink. I finally did that a few weeks ago, and then I was determined to finally use it for something.

I checked the stash and juggled the length limits and ended up with this

Purple Check

 I did it! I made a for-me version of the pieced checkerboard sweatshirt I just made for the kiddo.

Orange Check

 The siren song of the Walmart mill end precuts enticed me into getting two yards of vivid orange knit, with the idea I'd use it to make something for the kiddo.  What would that be?  Enh, I'd figure it out.

And here we are.

Started this before I knew

When I was working on the doll dress from the last project, I noticed that I seemed to be having allergies triggered by all the fiber particles created by ripping the fabric.  When I made doll clothes more often, I ripped fabric all the time but never had itchy ears or sneezing because of it; I figured, meh, I just hadn't exposed myself to it for a while, so I simply wasn't used to it anymore.

Nope! Covid!

(very probably from someone where Husband works--someone who knew they had been exposed to it but decided it was nothing to concern themselves about and so went to work anyway.  The way it manifested in Husband was more classic covid, and I really did think I just had allergies, but tested anyway since he had it.  Not allergies! Covid! This is the first time we've had covid.  I'm just waiting for my tonsils to stop hurting when I swallow reflexively while I'm trying to sleep.)

So, back when I thought I just had allergies (the trees behind the house are setting buds already! Allergies are happening! But not for me!), I decided to do another Teen Me Would Have Loved This Simplicity 9630 'tapestry' vest.  This time, the project would involve finally figuring out if there was enough of the longer end of the irregularly cut jacquard 'tapestry' fabric I'd gotten from the craft thrift store in summer of 2022 to cut the full vest fronts. Folding and cutting normally: no.  Offsetting the placement of the pattern piece for each side and tossing out all hope of pattern matching: yes.

And even in the full size medium.

Different Doll Sewing

In that, in addition to sewing the doll's clothes, I also sewed the doll's body.

Years ago, someone (I feel bad that I can't remember who) sent me a set of craft doll head, hands, and feet, made of vinyl and meant to be attached to a cloth body.  They went into one of the doll parts boxes, figuring I'd eventually find a plastic body for the head (which a very cursory examination showed was cast from a head that very probably was originally on a plastic body, with an extra flanged neck part added.  The original doll had more hair, too.)

A month or so ago, I decided I should go ahead and make a cloth body for the body, as intended (well...intended by the craft component company who copied whatever doll the head was originally from.)  I thought I'd use one of the body patterns from NunoDoll, but the prospect of resizing and printing one did not appeal.  I eventually remembered that I'd thrifted Simplicity 6006, a Holly Hobbie doll pattern

And when I checked, it looked like it would be a good size to go with the craft doll parts.

And then I let that sit for a few weeks before finally semi-arbitrarily choosing a fabric (scraps left over from a recent skirt) and cutting the body parts out late Saturday night.  I cut off the hands and feet to work with the vinyl parts.

I sewed the body together, folding the edges inside to make channels for string to tie on the appendages, stuffed the pieces (after buying a bag of Poly-fil first thing Sunday morning from Walmart.  I can't remember the last time my stuffing purchase wasn't an open bag from a thrift store.) and tied on those appendages. I hand sewed the legs to the body (if I make this doll body again, they're getting sewn into the torso when it's assembled) and attached the arms with button joints (again, if I make this in the future, those're getting sewn into the torso, too.)

 

I took the path of least resistance and used the Holly Hobbie pattern dress and pinafore patterns to make the clothes.  I added some extra details, as per my usual kinds of doll sewing.

The bloomers pattern piece was missing, but it's easy enough to cut bloomers without a pattern, especially for a doll who can't complain if the fit feels funny.

The shoes as given would have been far too large, but the doll foot sole pattern piece was about the same size as the vinyl foot soles, and it looked like the original shoe pattern minus the seam allowance would have been the right size to fit onto that smaller sole pattern piece.  Did it actually work out that easily?  For the answer, consider that I am not showing any close up images of the shoes. 

The small floral and the chintz were also gifts, and I'd wanted to combine them for years.  This project used just about all of them, so that was nice, too.  I bought the basket weave print ages ago for doll clothes and surprised myself when I was looking for a third print to use and it seemed like the best option--I was looking for something else with at least a little yellow or orange in it, to try to tie things to her hair.  I'm not fond of yellow, so my choices were extremely limited.  I don't think I ever would have picked it if I didn't have a color limit, but I think it works well.

(And, yes, I'm not happy with the doll's hair overall--even if it were a different color, it's still cut very badly.  I don't have any wigs on hand that would fit this head, and, for many reasons, I am not rerooting this head.  So.  The yellow stays.)

This is definitely not my usual kind of Doll Thing, but it is finished.

Fauxaloha

Another shirt for the kiddo--not quite as straightforward this time, because I had slightly limited yardage...because I made a shirt for him from the same fabric about twelve years ago

Then:

Now:

Faux Nineties

 Faux Nineties, Veritable Wax Print

Or, at least, so its says.  I think it may be a screen print, because there is a noticeable difference between the front and the back of the print, although it does take some squinting to see.

Overall, though, I think it passes as much for a late era Memphis/early era Factory Pomo style of print, so that it reads as more of a 1990s Throwback design than a wax print (real or not)

Coral Kettle Cloth

Years ago,  I thrifted several yards of an odd fabric in a steely blue gray, and then a bit later thrifted more of it in an equally odd maybe-coral color.  I used a lot of the blue a few years ago in a quilt (not just patchwork, but an actual quilt!), and then for a few other things, and during that time I found out the fabric was a cotton rayon blend called kettle cloth. 

I had seen kettle cloth listed in the suggested fabrics of some vintage patterns, but I hadn't known anything else about kettle cloth.  I don't even remember how I discovered that this particular fabric is kettle cloth.  And as soon as I identified it as kettle cloth, I also learned that it's no longer made, and hasn't been for a while.

Which is a little odd to think about!

But so much of my fabric is vintage, made ages ago and never again, that it's not out of place in my fabric stash.

So, I grabbed McCall's 7981 and the not-exactly-coral kettle cloth and cut out the longest A-line view.

Then I made some weird decisions and had to let it simmer for a few days before I convinced myself they were worth correcting.

The "I'm still here!" posts usually happen after a lot more than one week of inactivity, don't they

I am working on a sewing project--I actually thought it was finished several days ago, but I didn't photograph it immediately, and that gave me time to not only acknowledge that I made some Bad Decisions on it, but it also gave me time to decide that it was worth fixing.  So, it's currently in the state of having had many stitches picked out, and only some of them re-sewn.  I'll get there.

Also!  In December, I finally started putting stuff into a print-on-demand shop, which is here: DollsAhoy Shop on FourthWall. So far it's mostly stickers with graphics related to doll customizing, creative positivity, Halloween, and food, but I do have the Unwise Sewing Adventures badge available as 3"/76mm stickers in a range of colors.

I do have at least one more sewing-specific design idea, and I'll probably have more, eventually.  However...the time I'm taking to work on the designs is definitely coming out of the time I would otherwise be sewing.  I am having fun working on the designs--I have loved working with vector graphics for literally decades, but have always had a problem coming up with ideas.  There's a little more motivation now.

FourthWall shops also allow you to sell things you physically possess, so I plan to add doll clothes I've made, eventually, and maybe also some things I've made for me but decided didn't really suit me--and because I photograph everything I make for this blog, that means I wouldn't even need to take new pictures of the stuff.

Another deterrent to sewing: plain ol' winter cold.  It's a lot easier to work on the computer while bundled up in a blanket than it is to work on the sewing machine while bundled up in a blanket.

Finally, there's been an occurrence in my life that I may never go into more detail about on this blog, but it's requiring adaptation that I am absolutely choosing over sewing right now.  Things will smooth out, I'm positive.

I'll probably still end up posting another year of a ridiculous amount of projects, but, if I don't? It's because I'm putting work into other things.  Some of which may be available as stickers.

Klax!

The kiddo is a big fan of somewhat obscure older games, and a bigger fan of art for those games rendered in dubious style.

I had cut out pieces for a sweatshirt for him in November, and did not want to make another plain gray garment for him, so I asked him what graphic he wanted for the front.  I figured I'd make another freezer paper stencil, whatever it was.

Time passed and I asked if he'd chosen an image yet; he had not.  This repeated a few times, until I got an all caps email, subject line AWESOME, text PUT THIS ON THE SHIRT

So I opened the email and was confronted with...this

He likes Klax a lot, so I wasn't surprised he chose a graphic related to it...but...that it was this, and not the simple "highly stylized hand held up vaguely like the letter K" graphics that are more common...yeah.  I wasn't going to do this with freezer paper stencils.

Granted, I was willing to try, but I knew it wouldn't go well.  However!  I have a hobby friend who has access to direct transfer film printing and set me up with a professionally printed image fused to black synthetic knit.

Now...I hurried a bit in my eagerness to get the graphic sewn to the front piece.  But!  I did get it centered, so that's something my experience has improved over the years, and then I sewed the shirt together in no time

Bubblegum Cargo Skirt

I somehow stumbled across the Waffle Patterns Anzu cargo skirt pattern a while ago, and it made me add "cargo skirt" to my list of Vague Ideas for Someday Projects.  I did make a carpenter skirt, out of a completely inappropriate fabric, and that I never once wore until I shortened it (which involved removing the excess pockets.)

I also wanted to make another shortened McCall's 7981, and it recently clicked together that a shortened 7981 could be a good base for the vague idea of a cargo skirt.

I decided to use the 2 yards of 60" pink chambray I got from the craft thrift store, since I didn't have any plans for that fabric and that much fabric seemed like it should be enough (and it was, with a decent remnant left)

Just adding pockets to McCall's 7981 probably would have worked just fine, but I also wanted to add a back yoke.  I borrowed that, along with the shape of the edge to sew to the back yoke and the back pockets and the belt loops, from early 1980s Butterick 4703.  Many pockets came from Simplicity 8526, plus some done free form.

And I ended up with this