wait no this one

 I shared a doll sewing pattern a few days ago, but I was unhappy with the sleeve shape, so I did some work on it today and now I present this version

and I'm happier with the sleeves, so I'll leave it alone now.  Probably.

Wishing for Springtime

Hoping so much for springtime that the freak winter storm we had in mid February discouraged me from working on this extremely simple dress for a week after I started it, but finish it I did.

And then I didn't get the pictures for...several more days.

But  here it is!

They involved stitching, so...

 The last week was mostly taken with making pins

First was this

 and then these

but the excuse for posting here comes in the form of these

which I machine sewed together at the tops and then hand sewed on pin backs.  So.  Sewing.

Zooming to the lead

 So I have sewn a dress and did some jewelry projects that involved sewing and thought I would get to documenting those today, but instead I was inspired by a picture of an upcoming Barbie to throw together a sewing pattern to share

You should be able to right click and save the pattern.

The skirt used the last pattern I shared, shortened a bit.

Maybe tomorrow I'll convince myself to document the other things I've sewn recently...

Ruffle & Roll

 Just posted another quick doll video, showing how I use a narrow rolled hem foot and ruffler to make quick doll skirts (my biggest deviation from most advice you see about using the rolled hem foot is that I use it just fine on calico and quilting cotton all the time, while I see a lot of advice on using the narrow rolled hem foot insist that it's only usable on super lightweight fabrics.  I gotta say, though, the idea of trying to use this thing on something as delicate as chiffon sounds horrible to me...)

And here's the skirt made in the video

and then I sewed more doll clothes

I had another round of "just make whatever doll clothes from these fabrics you want to use/use up," initially concentrating on the long pile minky that PhantasmCreations gave me, but that got a bit frustrating because there ended up being not quite enough of some to them to make the things I envisioned, so I moved on to other materials and items.  Some of those other things included the test iterations needed to get the pencil skirt pattern (in the previous post) ready to share.  And I had an urge to make some complete things from lace trim again, which prompted me to include a bit of yardage stretch lace that someone gave me a while ago.  And I also decided to use up what was left of the small(ish) scale gray camo twill that I bought in the form of clearance baby pants.  And some of the iridescent coated fabric salvaged from some drawstring bags that had originally been for sale at Target, didn't sell well at Target, got bought out by the local chain of salvage stores, didn't really sell well there, either, and got marked down further, whereupon I bought a few to use for doll clothes.

So.  Y'know.  Completely normal random stuff.

I won't post everything I made, but I will share highlights (not shown: the iridescent bomber jacket, gray camo jeans, and gray sweatshirt with galaxy print ribbing items made in Ken size for a local doll person)

Mostly made with my own sewing patterns/variations thereof.  The gathered print skirt used no pattern, and the bomber jackets used a pattern I generated in the late 1990s by scanning the pattern piece guide in a commercial pattern and enlarging that to doll size--oh, the stretch lace bodysuit that's mostly hidden under the fluffy jacket and cosmic skirt is a modification of a pattern created that way, too...hmm, and, y'know what?  So is the pattern used for the gray and faux fox fur jacket...and. with extreme on-the-fly variations, the leopard print jacket.  Huh.  I guess I use those patterns more than I realized.  It's probably because I've had all of those since the late 1990s that I take them for granted...

I did not sew the berets (although I probably really should try sometime, huh), the scarf used as an undershirt on the first doll, the shirt on the fuzzy sleeve camo jacket doll, or the hose on the doll with the lace shirt and gathered skirt (or the crocheted bag the first doll has, but it started as a sleeve on a second-hand crocheted doll item--missing the other sleeve--and I did stitch the bottom closed and crochet the 'strap' to make it into a purse, which is the extent of my crochet ability.)  Nor did I make the sewn black boots--someday, maybe, I'll make an effort to learn doll cordwainery, but not yet.  Still, I feel like it's a nice amount of sewing that turned out nicely, so I'm happy with that diversion back into doll sewing.

I have some videos to edit (one of which is...doll sewing...) and then I want to get back to sewing stuff for human size

Pencil Skirt Pattern for Original & Curvy Fashion Dolls

 

This one was prompted by my own needs–the sheath skirt pattern I had made a few years ago was belly button Barbie body size, so juuuuusssst a bit too tight for the current “Original” size bodies, and when I’d actually remember to add a bit of width on the fly, the results…varied.

And then I wondered if it could be made Curvy size by simply adding a quarter inch to each side, and, yes, yes it could.

If you want both sizes without printing everything twice (and don’t want to hassle with cutting along the smaller lines without cutting away the larger size, which is…uh…probably what I’d do), I’d suggest tracing one of the sizes and using that copy for your second version of the pattern.

 Right click and save; the 1"/1cm reference lines will let you know of it prints the right size