Cat Patch for Halloween...Gift...in March

 This is for a friend who likes Halloween

 

 

Olive & Aubergine Patchwork

Once again, I opened a fabric storage drawer and said to myself, "This is very crowded, maybe I should use up all of a certain kind of fabric here in a patchwork project."

This time, it was bits of rayon, especially after I noticed they all circled around the same greens and purples...plus one black and white print.  At first, I wasn't going to include the B&W, but I thought it made a nice, unexpected contrast, so I went with it, which helped when it came to finding additional fabrics to mix in.

In addition to the rayons (most of which are challis, but one is faille), there's a vintage linen???, smooth plain weave cottons, homespuns, a flannelette, and a slubby silk cotton blend.

Patchwork Cat Jacket

About eight years ago, I made a patchwork blanket based on a quilt block idea I had about ten years ago.  I based the block on 4½" fabric squares.  Early last month, I wondered if I could figure out a version of the block based on the square die sizes I have for my die cutter.

I did a little sketching and math and arrived at cutting the squares at 35mm, the squares that would be cut into half square triangles at 40mm, and the squares that would be cut into quarter square triangles at 45mm.  Because I am not 100% committed to Perfect, I cut those squares into halves and quarters with scissors, so things were...variable...but workable.

The day I posted the previous project (still not happy with that), I cut enough squares and triangles to do a test, and made this 

Success!

Then the tedium started, eventually getting to this

 

 Eventually.

Another Perhaps Ill-advised Diversion

I have cut pieces for another (simple) dress, but recently saw a post on the blog So, Zo covering the free Hyacinth bralette pattern from Ohhh Lulu.

Now, I am not, generally, looking for a...ah...soft bra. But.  I do have many odds and ends of knit fabrics, and, more pertinently, a small assortment of random bits of decorative elastics, which I very rarely use, and this seemed like a good opportunity to draw from that stash.

Also, sometimes, I get nasty headaches that make me think maybe I would be better off with everything being as soft as possible.  To date, worn out bras have served for that, but this will, perhaps, offer another option.

This pattern is very straightforward, with detailed instructions.   It probably took me longer to figure out which of my odd elastics to use for the pattern (and to pick some of them back off when I decided something else would work better) than it did to cut and assemble everything. 

 

The leopard print knit is from the same person who sent what I used for the seven slapdash sleep shirts, and the fold-over elastic is from a doll acquaintance. The white lace was salvaged from...something, and the black lace is from Deb's Lace (ordered for doll use; Deb's vast assortment of stretch laces have not interested me before...)  The white elastic is from Wawak, and the bra hardware was scavenged off of bras long-gone. 

The construction on this is rather slapdash, and I haven't even tried it on yet (it's cold!), but it was an interesting project to see if I could scrounge out of the stash.

Seven Slapdash Sleep Shirts

For quite a while, I've been sleeping in thrifted T-shirts that had gotten too worn out in everyday use.  I'd thrift a shirt, wear it until it started developing holes or other signs of damage, and, if I didn't creatively repair them for continued dressing use, retire them to the pajama drawer.  However, since I drastically cut back how much I thrift, my T-shirt supply has dwindled, and the pajama shirts have started more or less disintegrating.

Not too long ago, someone I've known online for ages asked if I'd like some fabric—left over from her clothing sewing projects—that should be good for doll clothes, and I said Sure, Thanks!  The parcel arrived and the generous amount of knit cloth was indeed a good weight for doll clothes.  The quantity would have taken me years to sew through if limited only to doll use (and probably had a lot passed on to other doll sewing people—in fact, I just sent two huge boxes of doll appropriate fabric remnants off myself); however, a lot of the pieces were large enough to be able to use for ribbing in person-sized sewing projects, so I sorted out those bigger pieces and put them on the large yardage shelves, then crammed the rest into the small yardage knits drawer.

I realized a few days ago that I just might be able to solve the sleep shirt problem with the larger odds'n'ends of the gift knits.

And I did!

Citrus-esque Vest

Continuing the patchwork adventures with the die cutter and the scrap bins, this time with the goal of making a vest front.

I've made two versions of New Look 6514 using woven cotton patches made from 2" squares that I cut by hand, choosing to cut the squares at 2" because I have a ruler that width.  I later made Simplicity 9630 from heavier fabric patches, cut at a larger size.  Now that I have the die cutter, I wanted to try...smaller.

I chose the 35mm square die, with the idea that the finished squares would be around 1".  Roughly.

I had spent time (happily) poking through the scrap bins and sorting out groups of coordinating fabrics.  This one was built around some Very 1970s green and orange prints, contrasted with black and white.  I originally assumed I would use it for doll clothes, but this project required more fabric.  A lot more.

I pulled some from other scrap assortments, the small yardage stash, and a little bit from the large yardage, too.  I don't generally have a lot of orange or yellow, so that need, plus a variety of black and white, meant I called in a few Halloween prints.  There are no pumpkins, so the Halloween touches may be subtle.  It's fine either way.

Apple Print Patchwork Bag

So. I had gotten to the point where most of the remaining apple print was in the form of unavoidable odd scraps left from all of the other things I'd made.

What do you I do with odd scraps? ...well, normally, my answer is "squirrel them away for later," but my small piece knit fabric drawer was very very full, so I decided to grab other pinks and greens from there and make something from patchwork.

Now, while I do very much like the patchwork cardigan I made from knit fabrics last year, I felt like the fact that I have already made a cardigan (two, if you count the not-so-successful first attempt), a motorcycle jacket, and a vest from the apple print meant I had plenty of apple print options for the upper body, and the two skirts were literally good coverage for the lower, so it wasn't time for another patchwork skirt.

I eventually remembered the Very 1990s bag pattern I'd gotten from the craft thrift store, McCall's 8705

 

The messenger bag in view C was the whole reason I'd picked this pattern--yes, I can and have figured out how to make messenger bags without anything but my own imagination, but sometimes it's nice not to have to think so much.

Especially when I was going to add the over-complication of patchwork to the project. 

And that's when I discovered that whoever had owned this pattern before had not put the pieces for view A back in the envelope, nor had they returned the first page of the instructions, which is where the yardage requirements are (the back of the envelope has full color photos of the bags in different fabrics than the front views.) (There were also pieces from a completely different bag pattern in there.)  The missing yardage requirements (or anything relating to view A) weren't a problem for this project, because the whole thing about making patchwork specifically to make other things is that you only need to assemble as much as you need to cover the pattern pieces.

I did later find a listing for the pattern with a picture of the yardage requirements, and noted them for the messenger bag, which is, honestly, the only one of these I'll probably ever make.  Beyond the added labor of the patchwork (and issues caused by the bulk of medium weight knit patchwork), this was a fairly easy thing to make.

 

Not Doll Dresses! Not Human Clothes, Either

(with the caveat that I did sew a few more pieces of doll clothes today, but I gave them to someone and did not take photos.)

Poking around in the archives here will show that I do like making patchwork, but have pretty much never made a quilt (with one single straight line exception.)  I have had a stash of pieced quilt tops in my closet for years; some I took a good look at it and said "It was fun to make but I am never going to finish that" and donated some to the craft thrift store.  I still had the stash of pieced quilt tops, it was just a smaller stash, somewhat more aligned with my personal tastes.

A big part of the reason I hadn't finished them was because...well...batting is expensive. So, when one of the local Walmart stores remodeled somewhat recently and put two rolls of batting on clearance, I snapped those up.  And then they sat in the closet. For quite a while.  Kind of in the way (I had to move them every time I wanted to use a backdrop for doll photos that wasn't the painted stage backdrop.)

So, instead of realizing that I could just put them in the top of the closet where the quilt tops were, I decided that Now Is The Time To Make Quilts.

Which required finally acquiring a quilting/darning foot, which I got cheap via eBay.  I absolutely do not plan to make quilting something I do regularly, so cheap is fine.

And I do understand that I will probably never do enough free motion quilting to be anywhere near good at it, but I did want to practice on something smaller first.  I got into the unsorted scraps from relatively recent projects and chose a pink chambray and a green plaid, and added a thrifted floral that I didn't have a lot of

Then I cut 96 little triangles that I sewed into 48 squares that I sewed into chevrons.  I loosely stitched some batting off-cuts to roughly the same size, then made and pinned the quilt sandwich with more of the floral as the backing fabric.

I moved my sewing machine to the end of my sewing table, and put the ironing board next to the table (where I normally sit) to help support the thing--it's 16" x 21" so I probably could have worked with it with the sewing machine in the normal place, but that won't be an option for anything larger so I wanted to get a feel for the new position.  I still haven't figured out the best place to put the lamp, but, overall, it worked.

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.

Halloween Patchwork Blazer

I have once again made a Halloween patchwork project.

I made the first one in 2020, inspired by a friend's similar project.  Then made another one the next year because my small yardage storage was getting crowded.  Last year I started to wonder if this was becoming a tradition.

And here we are this year, the evening before Halloween.

 

 I don't think it's a tradition yet--if it were, I might have thought of making it before October 25 and starting it on the 27th.

House Purse

 I saw a post a few weeks ago that had pictures of a few different simple little purses that had appliqué details of windows and doors, so they looked like houses.  They were very cute!  Ans also very uncredited.  I looked for sources, and quickly discovered that most of them had been re-posted without credit for so long that the originals were lost, or at least extremely obscured, but I found enough of them to further discover that making purses like that seemed to have been fairly popular among non-English-language craft bloggers 10-15 years ago. Here's my Tumblr post of the sources I could find, plus a few others.

As with most craft things, spending that much time looking at this craft made me want to try this craft.  I dug into my scrap stash--the same stash I used for the patchwork waist cincher-not-really project, so it's the same pink-blue-green color scheme

And possibly even less planning.

Blended Tee

 I really do plan to sew fewer things this year than I did last year. It's just that...these T-shirts are really easy to sew, and are things I've wanted to make for a while, so I'm riding this T-shirt wave until either the available appropriate fabric--or the T-shirt sewing motivation--gets used up.

And this version of New Look 6068 (again with Kwik Sew 303 sleeves) shows that the definition of appropriate fabric is flexible--no, not switching to overwhelmingly synthetic fabrics, but instead to...scraps!

Marimo Faux

 I saw these plush marimo moss (yes, I know, they're really algae) balls online a few months ago http://kumamushisan.shop-pro.jp/?pid=80450747 and realized that the fake fur I used for the ridiculous green coat would be perfect to use to make my own version of fake marimo, and, eventually, I did!

I freehand cut circles from the fabric and sewed them mostly closed with the sewing machine.  I stuffed them with bits and pieces cut off of the fake fur and roughly hand sewed (hiss) them closed. I brushed the fur out of the seams with the wire brush I use for doll hair, and here they are. (I'll eventually find a jar for them.  Maybe.)

Zippy Zips

 So I had two decent-size rectangles of the Ikea fabric left over from the scrap-filled floor pillow(ish) project, and apparently what my brain wants to do with scraps of Ikea fabric is make zip bags.

So.

Here are two more zip bags made from Ikea fabric.

The pattern placement turned out as good as it would have if I had been making these intentionally--well, on the one with the bird, at least.  The other is...minimalist.

See?  Even the print on the back of the bird is a nice assortment and distribution of elements.  The other one is...a void. And what you can see on the other side of that one in the first photo is all of the print on it.  I think it's funny.

They both use yellow zippers that I remember Mom buying in bulk in a weird fabric store in the very early 1980s.  No lining, just serged the very few seams, so these were super fact to make.

No ideas yet what I'll do with them, but, hey: I'll have em when I do figure that out.

Another quickie

 This time for the kiddo, who currently wears his hair in a low ponytail held with a black jersey knit scrunchie that was in a package of otherwise doll stuff someone gave me.  So, I thought I'd offer a different scrunchie.

He likes purple.

(and of course I didn't measure the fabric, just squared up a scrap that looked roughly the right size)

Lots of little sewing

This post is mostly a record of what sewing I've sewn--I mean, this entire blog is a record of what I've sewn, but I usually, y'know...details.  This is more just to show that I have been surfacing from the general malaise and felt inclined to create again.

So.

In early May, I poked through my stash of cloth for doll purposes and grabbed a bunch of pieces that had very small amounts left.  Most of them were pieces from other people (thank you!) that came to my stash in odd little bits, and I had absolutely no plans for any of them--I just wanted to use 'em up.

Every few years I do this--take the fabric that I have bits of but that doesn't directly inspire me and make whatever I can from them, and I usually end up with decent basic pieces.  I haven't dressed any dolls in most of these bits yet, so I'm not sure if they are "decent basic pieces," but...they're pieces that do exist and can be put on dolls, so that's something.

I started by cutting things out randomly over the course of weeks, with no desire to sew them and no idea if the desire would ever be there, and in early June I ended up with this pile of future projects

I tried to group the pieces so I could use the same thread for a lot of them, so I could sew one right after the other.  (I didn't think about batch sewing until the last few pieces.)

And then eventually I thought, oh, I'll sew one, just to get it started, and then I wanted to sew another, just to move things along, and then I was sewing for the fun of it and by June 17 I had this

So yeah!  I sewed doll stuff.

And then I turned to several existing skirts I have that I realized I could make bodices for and turn into dresses fairly easily, picked out the cloth to make the bodices, and then had my brain say "No!  It's reroot time!" which...if you've ever rerooted a doll, either it's something you like and can do whenever you want, or else it's something you generally dread and can only do when motivation strikes.  I'm the latter.  This mood carried me easily through one complete reroot, one partial reroot, and into another complete reroot before the mood faded.  I still finished that one (battle of what's worse: reroots or incomplete projects? hmm) and I'm going to post a picture here because the way I reroot uses an anchor thread so it's kinda like sewing

I need to dress these gals, as well as whoever else seems suitable to the clothes I made (plus some clothes other people made that were generously sent by a doll person I've known a while, thanks again), then, maybe? sew for me again.

 

BEES!

I have been sewing--mostly doll clothes for a big trade (and I still need to do more of that), and a start at a purse that I allowed myself to put aside for a while (but I am happy with how it's going so far!  I just...kinda got tired of working on it.)

And I had a vague notion that I would like to replace the thing I keep my sewing machine feet in for easy access.  It was fine for years, but then it got to this point

which felt too crowded.  So I decided to add "slightly less small divided plastic (or maybe even wood/bamboo) tray" to my thrift wish list.

Which is why I almost didn't get this

because it was not until after I had sadly decided that I didn't need a lovely glass candy dish that my brain said, "well, unless it could hold the presser feet?"  (And that was a while after I said "Bees!" out loud--although quietly--when I first picked it up.)

So I bought it and took it home and cleaned it up (it was very dusty and did indeed appear to have little bits of hard candy stuck inside.)  Finding information about it was really easy, even with the lack of maker marks--it was made by Indiana Glass for direct sales through Tiara home parties between 1970 and 1999 in 29 different colors, inspired by a candy dish they had made in the early 1900s (the originals had flared feet.)   And it was roomy enough for my presser foot jumble.

But...I didn't relish the idea of the steel feet sliding around on the smooth glass, so I decided I should make an insert.  At first I had a plan for something divided, like the small tray I was growing out of, but I eventually settled on making a small pad instead.

And making it from velvet.

And quilting it.

Now, me being me, I did it as slapdash as possible--a scrap of very rumpled velvet, generously gifted by a friend (along with about...ah...ten 18 gallon tubs of other textiles, including many amazing vintage pieces) was chosen and not in any way pressed, and neither did I think about the fact that the thread in my machine was purple so I probably should have used some of the purple velvet or velveteen instead, and, mark the center lines?  Why?

So I ended up with this

which I trimmed to this

 (my still life lies, I trimmed the edges with a rotary cutter and rounded the corners with shears)

I stitched it to a piece of something medium-weight and synthetic, with a tiny B&W check, that I forgot to photograph

 Oh!  And, I haven't mentioned, I used some polar fleece instead of batting, because I couldn't remember where I had put my bag of batting scraps.  (My sewing space needs a serious re-arranging right now--did I mention the ±180 gallons of textiles?  Which the piece of fleece was also part of.  Many thanks!)

I placed everything inside, and I'm sure they will eventually find their Appropriate Spots

Bees!

I have not yet sewn with a need to use anything from this, so I haven't had a chance to find out whether or not it was an actually good idea.  But, it makes me happy to look at!

...as does the top of this table, which was another recent thrift find.

I had, for a while, not been happy with the cheap laminate wood grain print on the computer desk I had been using as my sewing desk.  I thought about covering it with something, but, honestly, I wasn't really happy with the Very Early 2000s Aesthetic of it overall, either.

And then Husband got interested in building computers again, and got to a point where he was committed to having a good computer on the main floor (instead of just the basement), which meant that the small folding table he had been using as his "temporary" computer desk was starting to feel a bit too unstable (especially when the Kiddo was near.)

Nowwww, a while ago, I had happened upon a table in a thrift store--a table that looked and felt like it had escaped a restaurant, with a heavy laminated top and two sturdy legs with broad T bases, all in black, and I snapped it up and (politely) made somebody find a screwdriver so I could take it apart and get it into my car.  The sole goal for that table was to replace the little cheap computer desk the Kiddo's computer had been on, and it's still doing that, holding everything wonderfully solidly.  (We have had to ask him not to sit on the desktop, though, because we don't want to take any chances.  Not that the table seemed to notice the extra weight of a whole ¾-size human on it.)

So, when Husband started expressing interest in getting a proper desk for his new computer, I said I'd keep an eye out in thrift stores (while he looked at new options.)  We didn't expect I'd find another escaped restaurant table, but I did have the idea that, if I found any table that I liked, I could put my sewing machines on that and then he could use the computer desk that had been in here.

Obviously, that's what happened...eventually.  I had dashed into the thrift store and there was a really dubious looking old table, with a metal-edged laminate top supported by Queen Anne-style cabriole legs.  It was beat up, it was wobbly, and it was $15.

I didn't get it.

But I thought about it all week, and I decided I'd go back to see if it was still there, and I'd take a pair of pliers with me to take off the legs so I could get it into my car.  It was indeed still there!  And the price was half off!  I had it purchased, disassembled, and in my car as fast as I could.

When I put it back together, I realized that it was not, as it had first appeared, an ill-advised merging of the remains of two different, stylistically discordant tables, but instead was one complete (well, minus the leaf) original table, and it was very probably a decade older than I had thought.

Which made it all the better.

(and it was considerably less wobbly after I re-attached the legs.)

This was taken before I managed to mount the power strip on the inside of the table apron--I used the screws that had been partly holding the very broken support for the missing leaf, so it was really nice knowing I wouldn't accidentally go all the way through the wood, because they were of course just the right length.

Yes, the sewing machine and the serger are closer together now, but I'm pretty sure they've been that close before with no problems.  The overall surface area is a bit larger now, and, who knows, maybe I'll rig up a leaf for it someday--this laminate pattern is available again in several Retro collections, but, also, the idea of a strip of something completely different is appealing...like...really really appealing...hmm...

Anyway!  I am indeed very happy with this table.  (And Husband is very happy with the computer desk he got out of it, too.)

Extended Shoulder Shirt...for dollsssss

In March, I had an idea for altering one of my doll patterns to make a shirt with extended shoulders, and then I kinda forgot about it, then remembered and felt guilty for not finishing the pattern, then I used the unfinished pattern a lot in sewing for a trade and I realized it had more potential than I expected, and I finally sat down and finished it today.

 The initial idea was only the short sleeve version, but I eventually realized that a sleeve variation could work, too (the fact that there are raw-edge bottoms on both of 'em was completely unplanned, and, indeed, something I only realized as I was editing this post.  My brain does stuff like that a lot.)

 also possible: adding a gathered skirt

as well as cutting it short and adding a skirt (oh hey look it's like the dresses I've been making for me  lately)

And and as you can see, the one pattern, originally intended for Curvy-size Barbies, fits larger bodies pretty well, too

 Tulabelle's hands had to come off to fit through these sleeves, but the short sleeve version fits fine over 16" dolls' hands

I find this really easy to sew, as well as being surprisingly fun, because it has a "loose sweatshirt" vibe even when made from wovens.

...and now I'm wondering how it would look with a fancier woven or even lace...

Flighty

So, OK:  I don't do New Year's resolutions  So when I realized that my desire to, like, just stop buying hobby materials (read: dolls and cloth) for a year might feel more possible if I broke it down into three-month chunks, and, at that time, it had already been two weeks since I'd bought dolls or cloth, I decided to go with it.   I have a bit over a month left before the first three month period is over.  And, if I do go back to my old...ah...excessive acquisition modalities, well at least there'll have been three months of not buying every quirky/shiny/interesting thing around.

I thought I'd Make So Much Stuff!!! during this time.  I didn't.  But I'm starting to?  A big hindrance was the fact that the weight I gained in 2017 is looking like it's here to stay--I'm (mostly) OK with my current shape

BUT

Everything I ever sewed, and all of the beloved patterns I had...nope.  And I'd look at all my fabulous me-made clothes hanging in my closet and mourn.  All the work, all the happiness I got from the finished items (the items that didn't make me so happy...those were already gone), and I'd never be able to wear them again.  I also felt like donating them was not the best idea, because...mmm, maybe I'm mistaken, but I don't think a lot of thrift store shoppers in this area are going to be interested in things like side-zip shirts made from vintage patterns and Halloween prints--and be the appropriate size.

I did consider cutting everything apart and re-using the cloth, likely for patchwork, but, honestly.  "More cloth" is not something I need. (see first paragraph.)  So I put out the word on social media: Huge Lot of Quirky Handmade Clothes, Yours For The Cost Of Shipping!  and the one mutual who has a big following reblogged it and hey I mailed them all off yesterday.

And now I can start the adventure of discovery, going through the thrifted patterns I'd accrued in sizes that used to be too large ("I can use these to sew for friends!"  I thought to myself and then never did--although I still might!) as well as re-examining the size ranges of patterns that I've had forever and...uh...and never used...  There hasn't been a Chain Fabric and Craft Store super duper pattern sale since I admitted my need for new patterns, so I haven't bought anything new and I'm not sure if I will?  Because I still have a whole lotta patterns.

And I have way more cloth.  So I need to get sewin'!  I have started a project, using a few yards that someone gave to me.  As usual, I'm deviating from the pattern-as-given on the fly, and tomorrow I hope to sew it all together to see if it works.  Today, though, I embellished

(and I obviously did not iron)

Will I sew a lot this year?  Dunno.  But at least I won't be held back by the idea that I don't need to, because I had all those cute things I already made...just need to lose about twenty pounds first... Well, I mailed off about 20 pounds of those cute me-made things.  So.  Let's go.

Another Fashion Doll Pattern--Blouse!

 

 

Back again with another fashion doll clothes pattern to share!  I really have been...uh...thinking about sewing human-size stuff...but I started working on this idea a few months ago, and I stalled out on the project for a while, finally convincing myself to get it all together this weekend.

This is not meant to be a tailored top, and the fit is best on Curvy Barbie and dolls with older-style bodies (with larger bust than modern dolls, but, no,  people-who-hate-Barbie, the bust doesn't scale up that large.  Anyone who sews with vintage patterns knows that no-one was expected to have a bust over 36" back then, sheesh.  Yes, some sarcasm was just here.)  The doll wearing the gray/silver striped version has an articulated Fashionistas body, so it's slightly smaller than the other dolls here:  a Curvy in the mixed print version, a pre-1999 articulated body in the check, and a 1960s clone in the white.

And here's the pattern!

As usual, no guarantees about clarity, you get what you pay for, and all that!