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.

 

High Waist Pleat Front Wide Leg Cuffed Cropped Trousers...for Dolls: The Pattern Hack

So I wondered, would it be enough to trim the pattern pieces just a bit to convert the pattern from Curvy size to "Original"* size?

 Yep!

 The Curvy waist is 1"/24mm larger than the "Original" waist, so I hypothesized that it would be enough to take ¼"/6mm off of the sides.  Once I drew on that contour, I realized the area above crotch level (the rise) would be too long, so I measured (yes, I actually measured) and then reduced the rise by ½"/12mm.  The waistband got a simple inch taken off of one side.

Here's a picture with my pencil sketch lines for the alterations

   I know it would have been better to print a new copy of the pattern and alter it with actual cutting and taping, but...it's me, so I just folded things.

I might still reprint it sometime, so I can add length to the legs--probably by cutting both leg pieces at approximately the level of the word Front and then taping in the half inch pieces cut off from rise.  There will need to be a bit of angle tweaking, but the way the bottom of the leg is designed to accommodate the cuff means I wouldn't add the make up length there.

Or I could leave 'em short


* anyone who knows anything about Barbie knows "Original" size has been around no longer than Curvy size.  Bah.

High Waist Pleat Front Wide Leg Cuffed Cropped Trousers...for Dolls

In late 2018, I made this somewhat random pair of pants for a slightly-larger-than-Barbie doll

(She's a Calico Lassie, sold in the 1960s by Kellogg's on cereal boxes, whose original style was heavily influenced by Ellie May from The Beverly Hillbillies)

The pants got a decent reception, so I made a quick sketch recreating how I'd cut the  pieces and said I'd make a pattern to share.

I started working on that a bit over a month ago.  It took a few iterations

I'll spare you the photos of the process of getting them right, with all the "oh, if that were a real person, that looks like it would be...uncomfortable" fit issues, so here's the final fit on two Curvy Barbies, left and right (while a Takara Cool Girl looks on from the center.)

Yes, I stubbornly refused to change the thread throughout the whole process, and completely expected the dark printed plaid attempt wouldn't fit right, either, so of course it did and that contrasty thread at the waistband is...contrasty.   It blends better with the lightweight light purple denim, which I made after the dark plaid pair to check that the pattern did indeed work.  The other pair is one of the bad-fit versions, but that doll has a different body so she can wear them a bit better.

You should be able to right click and save each of these.  There's a 1" line and a 1cm line on the pattern, to check that they print at the correct size--make sure *not* to click Fit To Page on that!

All of the shirts are pattern I've created and shared, too--they're on this blog, but I'll go ahead and put copies under the cut here

Presented without comment

Skirt-to-Dress Conversion #3: Spoopy

This one is also a Shirt-to-Dress Conversion, as well as technically being a Dress-to-Dress Conversion, since I used the skirt from a dress I made in 2015, which didn't even fit well then (and that was before the weight gain)

I knew I wanted to salvage the skirt somehow, and for a while the plan was to add an elastic waist.  Yeah, never did that.  But, when I decided to convert the other two skirts into dresses, I decided I'd do something similar with this, too.  And I had plenty of that haunted house print left, so of course I could use that for the bodice!

but...I also had this shirt, made from McCall's 7956 and that same haunted house cloth in 2016, and never worn--initially because it seemed so ridiculously voluminous, despite the six darts added to the back, and later  because of that weight gain (and not wanting to deal with picking out those six darts)

Well.  I called upon my stubbornness and dealt with those darts

Skirt-to-Dress Conversion #2: Strawberry

In May of 2014 (eep!), I made this dress

And then not long after that, I ripped it along one of those sharp angles at the arm opening, patched it inelegantly, ripped it again, and gave up on it being a dress and turned the bodice into a waistband and made a side-zip skirt.  Then it got squirreled away in the "maybe I'll do something to make it fit again" pile after the weight gain.

And now I'm making this post...

Skirt-to-Dress Conversion #1: Swirl

So, in June of 2015, I made this skirt

And although it is one of many things I outgrew in the years after, I still kept it, for a while letting it ride up over my abdomen and accepting it as...just...shorter, then eventually shifting it to the category of "maybe I can do something else with it someday."

And I finally have!