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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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.

Doll Dressmaking Series: Long Sleeves for the Peasant Blouse

First apologies for the scant amount of blogging these last two months. I've been focusing on the ExtraSmalls and a number of custom orders and kind of neglected the blog and doll dressmaking. But I'm back. And I'm getting back to sleeves, which is where I left off.

My last tutorial was for long sleeves for the dresses. This tutorial is for long sleeves for the raglan peasant blouse (or dress). The short sleeve tutorial for the blouse is here. And the dress is here.

I am not going to repeat all of the instructions. Just skim over the making of the peasant blouse as discussed in the original tutorial, but with long sleeves. 

And of course the long sleeve pattern will be in the upcoming newsletter.

Cut out your pattern pieces, front and back (both the same) and the two sleeves.

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Sew three of the four "shoulder" seams. Make sure you are attaching a sleeve to a body and a body edge to a sleeve.

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On the bottom of each sleeve, fold under (to the wrong side of the fabric) 5/8 of an inch, press and stitch. This is the sleeve casing, meaning you will guide elastic through here.

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Do the same along the neck edge for the neck casing and elastic.

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Run elastic through the neck casing and then each of the sleeve casings. Directions for elastic and casings are here in the original tutorial. Finished wrist lengths (with the elastic) should measure as follows:

Phoebe: 3.5 inches, Sasha Dolls, 3 inches, American Girl and Waldorf: 4 inches. Neck length for Phoebe: 8.5 inches, Sasha 8 inches and AG and Waldorf 9-9.5 inches. Neck length is a bit of personal preference depending on how you like the neckline.

Stitch up the remaining "shoulder seam. 

Stitch up only one of the two side seams. Leaving one open makes it easier to add a trim on the bottom if one side is still open.

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Stitch trim onto bottom edge right sides together. Fold under and stitch down.

Stitch the other side seam and you are down.  Make the body a few inches longer and you have a dress.

Phoebe is a bit camera shy in this photo, but you can see the sleeve at least : )

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Doll Dressmaking Series: Long Sleeves

Sleeves are an easy way to switch up a dress and completely change the look.

So far in this series we have covered basic shorts sleeves, short puffed sleeves and a ruffle sleeve.  But there are quite a few more sleeve options that are easy to make on a small scale.

This tutorial will focus on the basic doll long sleeve. Most long sleeves on doll clothes have elastic at the wrist 9this pattern does). That is because dolls hands are big and that makes it hard to get them through a long sleeve with a narrow end. Plastic dolls hands cant's squeeze in. The hands and arms of cloth dolls are hard to push through the tunnel of a long straight sleeve. So the elastic at the end solves both of these problems. It allows the wrist to stretch out and the sleeve itself to be a bit wider.

The pattern for this dress and all of the others in the series is available through my newsletter. Sign up form is at the end of this post.

I used the basic dress pattern and the retro collar, all have been part of past tutorials and are available through my newsletter. The dress is lined. 

1. Until the sleeves I am basically following the directions of the retro collar tutorial. This starts with sewing the shoulder seams together and then the collar pieces  together and sewing them onto the dress neckline.

2. Sew the lining should seams together.

3. Place the dress with the collar on top of the lining with right sides together. Pin or wonderclip up one back edge around the neck and down the other back edge. Sew the lining to the dress making sure you sew deeper than the collar attachment seam so it does not show. Tirn right side out.

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Sew the sleeve edge of the dress to the sleeve edge of the lining. This is to keep them in place and together when you sew the sleeve on.

Hemming the sleeves and making a casing:

1. Turn the ends of the sleeves up 1/4 inch and stitch.

2. Turn the bottoms up 1/2 inch and stitch again. this is the casing for your elastic for the "cuff" at the wrist.

Making the sleeve casings

Easing for the Sleeve Cap

The next few steps are similar to the gathering of the sleeve cap done on the puffed sleeve dress. Except this is called easing.  Easing is step down from gathering. it is done to get the sleeve to curve slightly better at the shoulder of the armhole, which makes more of a shoulder shape. it is also done to obtain a better fit in the armhole.

1. Stitch about two inches of long stitches at the cap of each sleeve. As in gathering, leave one end without reverse stitching and leave the threads long, so you can pull one.

2. Pull one of the threads slightly to puff the cap of the sleeve slightly.

3. measure the sleeve cap to the armhole, when it seems the right length, secure the thread by wrapping around a pin.

4. Fit and pin into the armhole, adjusting the ease if needed.

Sew sleeves in. make sure you've put your stitch length back to regular.

You are almost done. Next is the sleeve casing for the wrist.

1. Cut two pieces of elastic, each approximately the width of the bottom of the sleeve.

2. You will need to use something to thread the elastic. I use this tool, but a safety pin works fine.

3. Thread the elastic through the casing, securing it at the starting end with a few machine stitches.

4. Pull to desired length. I pull to 4 inches for Phoebe. For Sasha, 3.5 should do. For AG and Waldorf, 4.5-5 inches. stitch done the other end of the elastic to secure.

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Sew up the side seams, hem and you are done!

The pattern pieces for this dress and all other dresses are available through my newsletter. When you sign up, you will receive a second email asking you to confirm, after you do that you will receive another email with the base pattern downloads and a link to pattern pieces that came through previous newsletters.

Please check your spam first before emailing me if you do not receive this.

The long sleeve pattern piece will be available in this Friday's newsletter.

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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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Doll Dressmaking Series: Bib Front Dress

My last tutorial was for a Retro pointy Collared Dress. So I thought I'd stick with the retro theme and add a bib front dress tutorial. The bib front can easily be added to a number of dress styles. I added it to a puff sleeved dress.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to add the bib to a dress pattern. To make the complete dress shown you might also need to reference:

The puffed sleeve drss instructions

The Peter pan collar instructions

The short sleeve dress instructions

Cut out dress, collar, sleeves, lining. I have been using cotton lawn for my linings. It is a lighter weight cotton whic reduces bulk in the lining seams. This especially helps in the neckline collar area.

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There are several ways to treat the edges of a bib collar. In this first tutorial I am using one layer of fabric for the bib and trimming it with rick rack. So choose a trim. Medium sized rick rack or lace both will work well. Small ricj rack is tricky and big may not bend around the corners so easily.

Sew Rick rack to the bib front. This is a two step process. Step one is sewing it about 1/4 inc in around the edge.

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After Step 1 the bib should look like this.

Next fold over the edge so the outer half of your rick rack is underneath and stitch. Try to stitch on top of your first set of stitches.

Pin collar to the dress matching up neckline edges. Stitch down, stitching over your first set of stitches. Press.

Add collar and sleeves. See links above if you need to revisit those tutorials. Or visit the doll dressmaking page with all of them. 

Add buttons. The pattern pieces for this dress and all others are available through the Phoebe&Egg newsletter. When you sign up you will automatically receive the base pattern set in 4 sizes.

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Doll Dressmaking Series: A Wrap Dress

Wrap dresses are wonderful. They are easy to make. There are many ways they can be adapted. They are great if you only have a small amount of fabric, you can just use it for the bodice, like I did.

But best of all, they are very forgiving as far as sizing goes. If your doll is wider, the bodice wraps less. If your doll is narrow, the bodice wraps more. If your doll is short, just make a shorter skirt.

The pattern pieces for all four dolls will be in my next newsletter. At the bottom of this post I will include a sign up form.

1. Cut out two bodice sets and one skirt. The dress can be all one fabric or two like I've done.

2. Sew both sets of shoulder seams.

3. Sew two bodices together, right sides together. Sew at armhole and around the neckline.

4. Next you need to sew the side seams. Start by pinning the armhole seam to the other armhole seam, right sides together on one side of the bodice. This is similar to how you sewed the side seams in the reversible dress.

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Press and your bodice should look like this (below).

5. Finish vertical edges of the skirt.

6. Run two rows of gathering stitches along the top edge of the skirt.

7. Gather skirt to fit bodice. Have less gathers on the side of the front that will be underneath (one side will wrap over the other). Pin the skirt to one layer of the bodice as shown below.

See below how the right side has less gathers.

8. Slip stitch lining to top of the skirt seam.

Have fun with trim.

Add snaps. Hem. Enjoy!

Sign up for my newsletter. It includes these pattern pieces and all of the base patterns. If you have already signed up, the newsletter with the pattern and other goodies should be in your inbox by the end of the week.

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Things I Love: Crosshatch Fabric

I have a collection of crosshatch fabric.

Maybe it's my fine arts background, or maybe it's my love of good basics, or probably both, but either way, I love this fabric.

I often prefer to us these almost solid fabrics, instead of a true solid. To keep things lively, but not too busy. I use it for PeterPan collars, lining, hair flowers, pockets and waist bands. 

There are several lines of crosshatch fabric. My pile happens to be from the Alexander Henry Heath Collection, which is discontinued but still available at Cias Palette, Fabric. com, and on Etsy.

But there are other lines of similar crosshatch fabric.

Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman is also crosshatch, but on the diagonal, which is lovely. Right now a half yard set is on sale at Fabricworm. 

Timeless Treasures makes a line called Sketch that is similar. They also make a diagonal version called Hatch.

The best way to find lots is to do a search for crosshatch fabric on Etsy.

Having a small collection of this on hand is useful for doll clothing, quilting or sewing gifts. Below you can see a few ways I have used it just in the past week.

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Calling all Waldorf Doll Dressmakers!

First, thank you for your patience. I have finally drafted the pleated dress pattern. The form to email me is at the end of this post. 

But my real reason for posting is that I'd love to see and hear about what you've been making from the Doll Dressmaking Series thus far. 

I'd love to see photos of what you have made so far...on your gorgeous Waldorf dolls. I don't own a Waldorf dolls so I cannot make the Waldorf size dress and try it on a doll and see if it works or needs adjusting. I am happy to give credit and of course I will include your business name.

I would also love to hear about any problems you have encountered. Especially in the fit.

Here...drum roll... finally is the pleated dress pattern. 

Fill out info below for the pleated dress for a 16" Waldorf doll:

Doll Dressmaking Series: A Simple Trick

There are a lot of easy ways to change up a doll dress. This trick can be used in a number of sewing situations, but I'll start with showing you how on the reversible dress. After you see how easy it is, you may want to try it with sleeves or a collar.

You will see this is an excellent way to use scraps of fabric.

Start with two pieces of fabric that you like together.

Sew the two pieces length wise. Your goal is to create a piece of fabric large enough to cut the outside of the reversible dress pattern from.

Once you've sen them together, you may want to add trim, but you don't have to.

Sew trim along the seam you just created.

Then lay your pattern out on your piece of fabric and cut.

Next cut a lining and proceed to make the reversible dress. As I mentioned earlier this can be done with sleeves or a collar too. 

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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