Still sewing doll clothes

Including, but not limited to, everything here but the Midge-faced P.J.'s shirt (which is from Generation Girl Chelsie) and cardigan (which as an old Etsy purchase), and Stacey's purse (that's a Zuru MiniFashion piece--someday, I do want to try sewing doll purses)

Things were made from a combination of my own patterns, Japanese doll sewing publication patterns,  person-size pattern piece guides that were scanned and enlarged to doll size, and a few things were made without a pattern.

Twist'n'Turn Barbie Head on a hybrid smaller body's dress was first.  I took inspiration from two different dresses in Doll Coordinate Recipe Volume 8, but used my own pattern as a base.  The fabric is left over from a dress I made for me.  I made the hosiery long ago, probably without a pattern.

 

 I've posted about the overalls.  Sun Set Malibu Christie on a modern articulated body was originally the only doll intended for the concept, made from a plaid that evoked my Teenage Plaid Phase in the late 1980s into early '90s. I used the last bit of textured blue woven fabric for the shirt because I like the contrast with the overalls fabric, and then I made the rosette because that kind of blue is a very brief trend right now, and so are ribbon rosettes.    The fabric for the socks was also chosen for its contrast to the other fabrics. 

Christie is not using the brick background, because I had not yet realized I was making coordinated doll clothes for dolls with Mod-era heads.

Midge-faced P.J. got the more traditional-looking overalls, after I altered the pattern to be a little less wide.  I didn't think that even ultralightweight denim would work for those straps, so I used chambray.

I still wasn't aware I was making a series of coordinated outfits, so I used an existing Barbie shirt for that P.J.'s outfit...and then I noticed that the clothes for those "doll heads from the Mod Era on modern articulated bodies" outfits all shared a color scheme, and that's when I started making it an intentional project to get a lot of similar dolls into similar clothes.

Steffie-sculpt P.J. was the first to have the sewing choices subject to that decision.   I wanted to use the last of this very fine striped fabric to make a button-up-style shirt (I have made doll button-up shirts with working buttons, but didn't feel like fiddling with that this time.)  The Barbie-size button-up-style shirt pattern I made long ago is more of a camp shirt, which is the kind of button-up shit I used to make a lot for me.  I genuinely enjoy making shirts with front bands and collar stands now, so I wanted to make this doll shirt like that, too.  I didn't want to go through the trouble of working out all of the changes I'd need to make to my old pattern, though, so I scanned the pattern piece guide for much-used McCall's 6613 and enlarged that to doll size.  I did make changes to the pattern before cutting the fabric, like making the sleeves one piece and adding more seam allowance to the collar stand and front bands.  I'm happy with how it turned out.

The jeans are a pattern I worked out a while ago, although this is the first time I did not make the opening at the fly, and instead moved it to the center back.  I like the realism of having the fly be the opening, but I do not like the bulk.

Casey's shirt is from Doll Clothes Lesson Book.  The skirt and socks are entirely freehand. 

Stacey's jacket got its own post.  Her dress is a longer version, but with less collar, of Casey's shirt.  I made the tights with a pattern I had forgotten I had made, since I generally make doll tights without a pattern...which leads to varying levels of frustration.  The scarf is an unhemmed square of an interesting vintage fabric.

Most of the effort that went into this Francie was the doll itself--de-oxidizing the vinyl, rerooting new hair, touching up the paint, and creating a hybrid body by grafting on legs at the thighs, using the ends of lip balm tube to add a rotation joint over double-hinged knees that originally lacked the ability to turn.

I had a bag of White Rabbit candy in the room while I was working on all of these clothes, and I realized that the candy fit the color scheme, too.  I'd scanned a Whit Rabbit label, and printed it on ink jet iron-on 'paper' over 20 years ago, and decided this would be a good time to use it.  The tights were made with the same pattern as Stacey's, but shortened.  The shorts are a pattern of mine, but narrowed.  The cardigan is a modification of a pattern from Doll Coordinate Recipe 8.

And that was the last of the dolls I actually wanted to sew for!  But!  Not the last of the dolls!  There was still a Ken and a Skipper.

For Ken, I decided to scan the pattern piece guide from Simplicity 8845, a jeans jacket from MimiG (which was probably designed by Norris Danta Ford, because he obviously loves jackets--if that Japanese doll publication hadn't had the motorcycle jacket I used for Stacey, I very well would have tried using the pattern piece guide from motorcycle jacket from Mr. Ford, my beloved ME2011.)  I estimated that I needed to print the pattern so the back yoke was 3" across, to make something to fit Ken.  That estimation was very wrong, but it did make a jacket that fits Barbie-size dolls well...as long as their hands are removable.  See, because I didn't want to deal with trying to sew the cuffs onto the otherwise finished sleeves at that size, and also didn't like the idea of ignoring the back sleeve seam and moving the cuff opening to the under-sleeve seam (like I did with SteffieP.J.'s shirt up there), I decided the best option would be to just sew the cuff closed...and that ended up making a cuff opening that was rather small.  And bulky.  Other that that, it fits just fine on an articulated Naturalistas, with nice removable hands.

I reprinted the jeans jacket pattern with the back yoke at 3¾" wide and tried again.  This time it worked!  However, this particular body has weirdly wide shoulders, so it might not fit other Kens.  (Not that this Ken probably won't end up wearing this outfit for years before I decide to change his clothes.)  

Although I made the jacket from a light blue ultralightweight denim, I wanted it to look not just faded, but distressed.  I got out the seldom-used bleach, and that's when I learned that bleach turns to saltwater after a surprisingly short time.  I then used diluted white acrylic paint to get a similar effect.  I was going to use sandpaper to rough up the edges before sewing on buttons, but I didn't have anything I wanted to use for buttons, and was losing steam on the whole project, so said the jacket was good enough.

I used most of the last bit of a Tula Pink print I'd gotten in a fabric trade (a very long time ago) to make his shirt.  I did make this in a camp-shirt configuration, and drastically mis-cut the front so bad that the dreaded "same print element ends up right next to itself on either side of the opening" happened.  The remaining bits of the fabric weren't large enough to re-cut either of the front pieces, so I moved the overlap waaaay over to hide it.  The result hangs weird, and, again, I didn't feel like using any of my doll buttons or beads on it.

The pants are made from pinwale, using an elastic-waist pattern I made that fits both Curvy and Ken, but I haven't finalized the pattern to share yet.  I improvised pockets, taking several increasingly frustrating tries to get the leg pocket the right size.  No buttons for the pants, either.

Finally, time to sew for the last doll, which is a Malibu Skipper that's still on the original body--and even still has her original sunglasses still sewn to her head.  I had wanted to try making a particular Blythe-size dress from Doll Coordinate Recipe 8 for a while, and realized that would work for Skipper.  I initially chose a fabric with a print that wasn't so loudly Early 1970s Mod Era, but I printed the pattern a bit too small, and the dress in that fabric is now on a Rainbow Junior High doll.  I had enough of that first fabric to make the larger version, but I didn't want to use it again.

I dug around my doll cloth dresser and found a vintage handmade dress.  This dress was...not made well.  It also completely lacked any signs of having been played with, so it hadn't been someone's childhood favorite.  I carefully removed the skirt, and picked out the very wide hem's stitching, then ironed it flat before cutting this second dress from it.  I will say: whoever made the dress might not have been good at making doll clothes, but they were very correct in their judgement that the fabric and print were just right for dolls.

The photos of the dress in the Doll Coordinate Recipe book seem to show a very delicate, very narrow lace, which I do not have.  I used the top edge of some cluny to try to create the appearance of narrow lace.

These tights were made without a pattern. 

The resulting dress looks more like a direct attempt to emulate clothes from the time the doll was made than the rest of the things I made for this overall project look, but I guess that fits, since this is the only doll included who is 100% a doll from that time.

I have sewn clothes for other dolls during the time I sewed everything above, and I have plans for more doll clothes, and not so much for human clothes.  I've been enjoying wearing the dresses I made earlier this year, and don't currently have the itch to make more.  I'm sure that will change!