A number of you have contacted me asking for me if I had patterns for certain dolls. In addition, although I sized the pattern sets for Phoebe, AG doll, 16 inch Waldorf dolls and Sasha, each of those dolls' sizes vary.
In other words inevitably it is useful to know how to resize a pattern to fit your doll.
There are number of easy steps to resizing a pattern.
If the dolls is overall bigger or smaller, start with copying or printing the pattern at a larger or smaller percentage.
If the doll has the same proportions this step may get you there. You can start by taking a chest measurement of your doll and searching online for the chest measurement of the doll the pattern was created for. If your doll is 8" and the doll the pattern was created for is 12", then 8/12 or 75% is what you should print at.
If that gets you closer, but the pattern size still needs to be tweaked. Here are some next steps.
Dress is the right size but the neck if tight.
If it is more than the neck that is narrow, you may want to widen the dress without making it over all bigger, ie the armholes and shoulders and length stay the same. this can be done by splitting the pattern down the middle and separating the two sides by the amount you need to make it wider.
Once you've done this, take tracing paper and trace over to make a new pattern piece.
Be sure to also add some onto each back piece. I usually add half of the front increase to each side of the back.
If the dress is torso is too short, especially in the armhole area, you can cut the pattern horizontally and divide and make a new pattern piece.
If a dress is the correct length but overall too wide, the pattern can be narrowed by cutting down the middle and pushing the two pieces together.
Be sure to also trim a bit off the center back edges too. If the neck is too narrow you may need to redraw the neck.
Although any one of these steps may get you straight to the a doll dress that perfectly fits your doll, it make take a combination of these steps. If you don't feel like using lots of fabric to sew the size trials, use paper towel.
Hope this helps! Happy sewing (and resizing)!
