I sewed some doll jeans, and I know it took right around an hour start to finish because I made a video of the process, and then I procrastinated editing the video for a while
I sewed a shirt to go with the jeans, and, again, the shirt went together fast, but the video did not
And then I customized the doll who the shirt and pants were made for. I took photos of the finished project three weeks ago. I only just finished editing the video yesterday.
Here's a picture, so you don't have to watch the videos if you don't want to!
Granted, most of what I sew for dolls involves at least a little deviation from the patterns I use, varying all the way to "Pattern? For this? Pfft."
But this one
This one was a combination of an on-the-fly alteration of an existing pattern for the bodice, complete improvisation for the skirt (albeit based on the idea of a 1983 Barbie dress), being inspired by a Japanese doll magazine project for the head band (the cover project on Dollybird vol 15), and making a video of the whole dress-making process
It's an hour and 40 minutes long, as I share my rambling thoughts about (almost) every decision made and technique used. My long doll videos are always intended as background noise that other doll people can play to keep them company while they do their own hobby things--if I can share any sewing tips that anyone else can use, that's a bonus.
The ultimate purpose of the LOL OMG-size qi pao/cheongsam pattern in the previous post was to make a dress for the very 1960s style LOL OMG that I painted purple
Why did I paint a LOL OMG purple? Honestly, it's because I suspected that the exaggerated cartoonish shapes of the OMG design would work well in a fantasy skin tone, but I suspect that's something MGA will never actually decide to produce. So. I decided to paint some myself.
I painted another one green.
Green's dress is made from a galactic print quilting cotton, using a pattern I drafted right before I cut the fabric. An A-line halter dress does not need a lot of fitting tweaks. I also drafted the pattern for her tights right before cutting them, and the stretchiness of the fabric meant they fit the extreme curves of the LOL hips surprisingly well.
The wigs are made from long pile faux fur, using a modified technique from an early 1970s craft book I stumbled across on eBay years ago. By 'modified' I mean making the bouffants as wigs, instead of pinning the fake fur directly to the doll head as directed in the book. I have roughly followed the directions for similar doll hair by gluing the fake fur directly to the doll head, too. To make removable wigs, I first wrapped cling film smoothly over the heads, then a layer of thin knit (ideally it would have been tulle, but I couldn't find my spool of tulle until after the project was finished.) Secure those around the neck, then spread glue on the scalp area and start attaching things. Once dry, remove the layers, pull the cling film out, and carefully trim away the knit/tulle. Wig accomplished! (Styling done separately.)
Part of what made this project take so long was because I decided to do a video
Soooo, when I was working on the Tulle Star Shirt, I also recorded video of the process. Since I figured out where to put the camera so it need only be swiveled between the sewing machine, the ironing board, and my desk, without having to move the tripod, that eliminated 90% of the fiddliness of video recording, meaning that it adds very little effort to the process of sewin' stuff.
Editing the recorded video is another matter. But! Here we are over a month and a half later (time which was mostly taken by...not at all wanting to work on the editing), and it is finished.
(apparently I also pronounce "tulle" weird, and, thinking about it, I seem to have grown up with a sewing Mom, spent my teen years watching Style with Elsa Klensch regularly, studied textiles and sewing at university level, and worked in a fabric store, without ever once hearing anyone else pronounce the word "tulle.")
I (somewhat) impulsively made a video while I was working on that last vest, too
Featuring: some of the thought process behind deciding to make the vest, some of the other potential fabric options, and a whole lot of me rambling about the ways I cut and sew and the gadgets I like to use
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...)
I feel like the word "tiny" would mis-represent how small it is--to me, "tiny" is dollhouse scale, and this is play scale, better known as Barbie-size, so it's, as far as I'm concerned, absolutely enormous compared to dollhouse scale. Opinions may vary.
it was...so boring to edit, mostly because I talked a lot and that meant I couldn't do the fast edits like in the previous sewing video experiment. Next time I feel like doing a sewing video experiment, I'm probably gonna plan to (figure out how to) do voice overs.
Whenever that may be.
As with most of my recent videos, this is not meant to be watched! It's meant to provide hobby-adjacent background noise, for the times when that's the kind of thing you want.
About a month before Halloween, a friend shared a sewing project: a bomber jacket made from a patchwork of Halloween prints. It turned out adorable (I'd add a link but I cannot find it on their blog), and I wanted to make one, too.
I did make a patchwork bomber jacket for a (different, but mutual) friend a few years ago, so I knew that the amount of fabric needed would be a lot less than expected. I got out the gallon bag full of Halloween print scraps, figuring that would provide more than enough...and was faced with the reality that most of those scraps are better suited for doll-size projects than human-size. So. I'd have to cut out the patches.
I shuffled through my Halloween fabric, starting with the smaller pieces, and was drawn to a color scheme and...hmm...let's say...attitude? of some of the prints. After I sorted out everything that fit the (vaguely-defined) theme, I figured I should look at the larger yardages, too, and ended up with one more Halloween print and three non-Halloween prints.
What size would the blocks be? I have a quilt block ruler that makes 4" squares, so I went with 4" squares. How many? I measured the front pattern piece and did some math and knew I'd need 15 blocks for that, so I extrapolated 15 blocks for the other side + 30 blocks for the back + let's say 30 for each sleeve = 120 blocks. I ended up cutting 123 initially and three more later, but those last three were purely for design purposes; the sleeves ended up being 25 each + 3 halves across the very tops, so my math was sound, yay.
I cut out a lot of blocks and I sewed together a lot of blocks and I even ironed a lot of blocks. Simple patchwork like that goes together easily enough, even if it's a bit tedious, and since I used New Look 6120 again you know the jacket cutting and assembly were easy. I didn't rush things and managed to complete it in five days.
Which was good, considering I hadn't started cutting and assembling until, like, a week before Halloween.
