Doll Dressmaking: Sasha Gets Dressed

When I was a child, I gained a lot of my sewing skills by sewing for my Sasha doll and my sister's and cousins' Sasha dolls. So a pattern set that teaches girls to sew sized for a Sasha doll is long overdue. 

Although new Sasha dolls have not been made for nearly two decades, I know there are still a lot of Sasha doll owners out there. Some may want to expand their sewing skills, others may want to teach a child or grandchild.

So for all of you Sasha doll owners, this one's for you. The Sasha Gets Dressed learning to sew dress pattern set is now available in my shop. The tutorials that accompany the patterns can all be found here, and more are coming. 

Some of the many ways to make a Sasha dress

Doll Dressmaking Tutorial: Creating a Cute Bodice with Elastic

There a number of ways to alter the basic peasant/raglan dress pattern to give it a different look. One is by adding an elastic cinching to the bodice. It makes the dress more fitted and can be used for both creating a modern or a retro look (this was big in the early 70s).

To make this dress you will need to use both the instructions here and some of the instructions in the original raglan blouse tutorial, which is here. 

When you cut out the pieces, you will want to somehow mark where you will place the casing for the bodice elastic. I make small snips where the elastic will hit on the side seams. Pencil makrks within the seam allowance will also work.

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cut and mark bodice casing placement. click to enlarge

Next follow the instructions in the peasant/raglan blouse tutorial: sew the sleeves to the bodice pieces and make the sleeve and neck casings. 

next add the elastic to the sleeve bottoms. DO NOT add elastic to the neck yet. 

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Click to enlarge

Next sew up one side seam.

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side seam

The next few steps involve creating and attaching the casing for the bodice elastic.

1. Cut a strip of fabric 1.25 inches wide and at least the length of the dress.

2. Make narrow machine hems along the long edges of this strip.

3. Pin strip to bodice using your markings.

4. Sew the casing down by stitching along the top and the bottom.

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Creating the bodice casing. Click to enlarge

Next insert elastic and pull to desired length and secure end with machine stitching. For final length I recommend 1 inch longer than your dolls chest measurement. However, your initial piece of elastic can be several inches longer than that.

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Inserting elastic in the bodice casing. Click to enlarge.

Next insert elastic in the neck casing and follow the remaining raglan blouse instructions to complete.

Phoebe tries ballet

First off, apologies, I know I have been a bit MIA for awhile. I was busy getting all of my Xmas orders out and well...kind of forgot about blogging.

But now I'm done and I'm back. Thank you for your patience and I hope all of you are enjoying the season.

Two of the dolls that went out this season had ballet outfits. The outfit includes a white cotton leotard with lace trim, ballet slippers with satin laces and a pouffy white tulle tutu. 

It was a fun outfit to design and make.

The set is now available in my Etsy shop.

Doll Dressmaking Tutorial: Drop Waist Dress

Making a drop waist dress uses the same skills and techniques as making the dress with a bodice. the new skill used for both of these is gahering the skirt and attaching it to the bodice. For the drop waist dress, the bodice is longer, which can lead to some other cute designs.

Like a dress with a pleated skirt.

Or a dress with a Victorian bodice.

Or just using the bodice pieces as a top, with no skirt. I will cover these later this week.

In this tutorial, I gave the dress ruffle sleeves. It could also be sleeveles or use any of the other sleeve patterns.

Start by cutting out all of the pieces (sign up for free pattern nd newsletter at the end of this post). If you already receive the newsletter, you're all set.

Sew shoulder seams of bodice together. Sew shoulder seams of the bodice lining together. for this dress I used the same fabric.

Match and sew lining and bodice back edges and neckline together. Clip curves and corner so it will trun nicely and has crisp corners.

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If you are adding the ruffle sleeves, iron them with a fold down the middle.

Stitch two rows of gathering along the raw edge of each sleeve. Pull gathering for sleeve to fit in armhole. Instructions for ruffle sleeves are also here.

Pull gathers to fit armhole length and stitch in place to one layer of the bodice.  

Follow the same stitching line to stitch other layer of the bodice to sleeve.  

Turn right side out. Your bodice now looks like this.  

Sew side seam by matching the underarm seams between the lining and the bodice.  Stitch from bottom edge of bodice to bottom edge of lining on each side. See Reversible Dress Tutorial for help on this.

Your bodice should look like this.

Finish the edges of your skirt. I did a narrow hem and then ironed it over about 3/8 of an inch.

Stitch two rows of long stitches for gathering the skirt and pull until the skirt will fit along the bottom edge of the bodice. Tutorial on sewing skirt to a bodice here.

Stitch the skirt to the bodice.

Hem and add trim.  

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Things I Love: Lillestoff Organic Cotton

I have a weakness for Lillestoff Organic knit fabric. There is really no logical way to justify my Lillestoff purchases.

Yes, it is a soft beautiful cotton knit fabric. Yes, it is the perfect weight and has the perfect amount of stretch. Yes, the colors are gorgeous. Yes, it is a dream to sew with. Yes, it is made for children. And of course, it is organic.

But it is made in germany and it is not even a reasonable price in Germany and I am paying to ship it here.

I use it to sew doll leggings, capris, t-shirts and pajamas. But I can't pass the cost along.

I told you there was no way to justification. Just enjoy it like I do!

Lillestoff leggings peaking out

Lillestoff T-Shirt

Liberty of London will be Phoebe's Spring "Thing"

My mother introduced me to Liberty of London when I was little. After a trip to London, she made my sister and I matching Liberty of London smocked dresses and my father got a matching tie. 

When I first started Phoebe and Egg I wondered, was Liberty too fancy for doll dresses? 

You can guess how I answered that from my sweet stack of Liberty fabric below.

Last month while visiting family in London, we just happened to find ourselves near their shop. I was surprised by how many things they sold besides their fabric—housewares, clothing, Rowan Yarn, sewing notions.

I recently cut into my Liberty fabric and started sewing. I am smitten. It is divine and it's weight makes it wonderful for doll clothes.

So be on the look out for a Liberty collection for Phoebe this spring.

Doll Dressmaking Series: Beginners Sleeves

There are lots of styles of sleeves: puff sleeves, flutter sleeves, cap sap sleeves, wing, long sleeves, cuffed sleeves, bell sleeves, you get the point. A number of these sleeves work well for doll clothes. In other lessons I will cover kinds of sleeves, tweaking a sleeve, and sleeve construction, but in this post I thought I'd start with an easy sleeve.

There is a form at the end of the post, so you can request the sleeve pattern (or any of the patterns).

Most sleeves require some gathering, or easing (just the slightest of gathers), I designed this sleeve to not need even that step. So although I've broken the process down into micro-steps, this is really a three step sleeve--hem, insert, sew side seam.

Although the sleeve can be attached to either your basic reversible dress, the dress with facings or the dress with the gathered skirt, my instructions or for the Peter Pan collar dress or the Reversible Dress. The beginning instructions are similar, so refer to the Peter Pan collar dress lesson but the armhole instructions are different. 

1. Make collar pieces as described in the Peter Pan collar instructions.

2. Sew shoulder seams of dress and lining.

3. Attach the collar pieces as in the Peter Pan collar dress instructions.

Sew armhole fabric and lining eges togther. 

Next, you want to sew the lining fabric and the dress fabric together at the armhole edge. It is important that the wrong sides are together. I used a bright visible thread, which can be helpful for aligning the sleeve.

Hem sleeve. I also serged the edge, but I do that with almost everything, you do not need to do this.

Attaching the sleeve to the body of the dress:

1. Pin center of the sleeve to the shoulder seam, right sides together.

2. Pin the rest of the sleeve to the edge of the armhole. You will need to "help" the fabric along the curve.

3. Sew the sleeve to the body. On the lining side, you can see your bright thread, it can help to use this as your stitching guide.

Doll dress basic sleeve

Your sleeve and dress should now look a bit like the above photo.

Next sew the side seams. When you have added a sleeve you cannot sew them as you would in the reversible dress. the side seam will be visible inside the dress. 

Hem. Add trim if you'd like.

Sew side seams. 

Hem. I hemmed this dress with the machine.

Doll Dressmaking Series: Sleeves

Doll Dressmaking Series: Sleeves

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Doll Dressmaking Series: Where to find cute trim

I love trim. As you can see I have a bit. Before I get into choosing and sewing on various trims, I thought I'd share some of my favorite places to buy trim. The photo below are the trims I tend to use most often for doll clothing.

Next in this series, a series about sewing on various dolls trims.

Where to find cute trim for doll clothing

When shopping for ribbon, remember often one yard will cover trimming three doll dresses.

Velvet Ribbon comes in all sorts of widths. 

• MJ Trim has the largest variety of widths and colors, but not the cheapest. You must buy a minimum of five yards.
• JKM Ribbon sells spools of ten yards of 3/8" and 5/8" the two best widths for doll clothes for roughly five dollars and has a sufficient selection. 
• Create for Less has 1/2" width spools for $3.39, but a spool is only 3 yards. 
• Farmhouse Fabrics has an amazing selection, but the ribbon starts at $145 a yard. If you are into quality classic sewing materials, you can lose yourself on this site.

Rick Rack, posted about this awhile back but here are the sources again.

Wright's Rick Rack (polyester) sold in the little cellophane cover packets is available many places online. It comes in over 20 colors. You can order Wright's here:

• JKM Trims and Ribbons
• Joanne's

Cotton Rick Rack can be found at:

• Farmhouse Fabrics
• Harts
• Elegant Stitches

Rolls of Rick Rack (polyester)

• Create for Less carries a cool brand called Cheep Trims in addition to having Wrights and lots of other cool stuff.

Crochet edging, sometimes called Cluny

• Farmhouse Fabrics, wide range, quality and there more expensive, but sometimes sell bags of assorted edging cheaply in their barn closeouts.
• Debs Lace and Trims: Lots of crochet edging, very inexpensive. have a whole cluny section.
• Ebay: amazing selection and prices for white crochet trim, which is my favorite. 

Jacquard Ribbon:

This is fairly easy to find, but what is hard to find is the narrower widths of doll clothing. You can play with scale, which can be cute, and use larger sizes. Here are a few places you can find some:

• MJTrim again.
• Farmhouse Fabrics. This is where the cherry trim in the photo is from. Huge selection and a lot of tiny ones. Not inexpensive though.
• Fabric.com has a fairly large selection.

Mini Pompoms!

• Fabric.com has a few colors at about a little under a dollar a yard. 
• Create for Less best source if you want a large supply of mini pom-poms. 36 yards for $18. Lots of colors. larger pompoms too.
• Etsy, lots of people sell them, often a few dollars for five yards.

Bias Trim:

I make my own. simple to do, and you will always have an endless variety and sizes. I'll post about this later.

Ruffle Trim:

I bought this particular one in bulk wholesale from Mokuba, Japanese trim dealer in NYC. I had to buy 30 yards, but I love it and use it all the time. If you ever find yourself in the garment district, stop in. You need a business card to get in, but they are not that fussy about what business. Lots of ruffled trims in lots of sizes and colors. Maybe it's a thing in Japan.

Farmhouse Fabrics has some, but they are not small.

Grosgrain Ribbon: 

I love the simplicity of grosgrain ribbon. It is easy to find.

• Create for Less has a huge selection, which includes stripes and other designs.
• Debs Lace and Trims: It's not a separate section, you have to look through other sorts of ribbons too.
• Fabric.com lots starting at about 20 cents a yard.
• Thread Art: About $2.00 for a 20 yard roll. You really can't do better than that. If you need 20 yards.
• Etsy, easy to get smaller quantities.

In the next few posts in this series, I'll show you how I sew trims on doll clothes.

Things I love: Rowan 4 Ply Cotton Yarn

I got fixated on Rowan yarns about ten years ago, before the knitting renaissance, before Ravelry, before Quince and all of the other cool new yarn companies sprung up. Back in 2004 Rowan kind of dominated the quality yarn market. Most stores carried it and it was available online. Not only was it online, but when it arrived it looked and felt as good as you hoped. Not true of all yarns back then.

I bought more than my fair share, when my youngest, AKA, Egg, was a toddler and would still wear hand knit sweaters, if they were cotton. That's when I stumbled upon the Rowan cotton line: their 4ply Cotton, Cotton Glace and Hand Knit Cotton. My youngest daughter still prefers cotton for her sweaters, but rather they are bought at Hollister or American Eagle. Luckily I now have a doll line, because I love knitting with it.

Four of the amazing colors Rowan 4ply cotton came in

It's a fingering yarn, meaning best knit on US size two needles. I like knitting small. I guess that's why I'm in this business. Sadly, it is discontinued, but still can be found on Ravelry and Ebay. I have a good enough stash that I don't feel panicky about the end of a thing yet. Rowan Siena is a very similar yarn, also recently discontinued but easier to find on the resale market.

Why do I love this yarn? It's soft, but crisp and holds its shape and feels firms to knit with--All qualities that are hard to find in a fine cotton yarn. But mostly it comes in the most amazing colors, fun children's colors, but not too bright. The whites are pretty too. And it has the most subtle but perfect sheen, even after blocking.

Love the color white!

My love affair with this discontinued yarn continues

Yes, that is my new label peaking through!

Doll Dressmaking Series: Base Patterns are ready

I have heard from a number of people that they are excited for this doll dressmaking series. I am too! I hope to teach both how to make patterns for a variety of dress styles from a base pattern and some techniques to help you sew small.

I know I said the base patterns would be done on Monday. I have been working hard both to learn Illustrator and trying to figure out how to post the patterns so everyone can download them easily. The good news is the base dress patterns are ready for Phoebe, American Girl Dolls and 16 inch Waldorf dolls. So yay! We can begin!

The second part of the news is there is no simple way through Squarespace (the people who host this website) to upload the patterns so you can download them. So here's how it will work: I have made a form at the end of this post, just email which ones you want and I will send the PDFs to you. 

I have started with these three sizes because I am assuming they are the most popular, but I am willing to add another size Waldorf or Toddler Phoebe if there is interest. But I will also be showing you how to adjust this pattern to fit a slightly different size doll. So no matter what, you win.

A series on designing and making doll dresses. 

Please fill out the form at the bottom and I will send you the PDF of the pattern, Once you have that you can begin.

The next blog post is the first lesson to start once you have your pattern pieces.

The base pattern

The base pattern is where we start. Next lesson, making sure it fits your doll!

Phoebe modeling the base pattern pieces.

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