Doll Dressmaking Series: Pintucked Bodice

December 3, 2015 Lisa Press

There are several fun (and simple) things you can do with the drop waist dress pattern. One is to embellish the front. Pintucks, small stitched down pleats, on the bodice, are one way to change the pattern up.

Since doll dresses, especially their bodices, are small, it is easier to sew the tucks in the fabric before cutting out the bodice.

Cut a rectangle of fabric slightly taller than your bodice and at least three inches wider.

Fold it in half vertically to mark the middle. You will want to keep your pintucks centered.

I use a ruled piece of paper to mark where the pintuck folds will be (I will provide this in the newsletter patterns). It's kind of a pintuck cheat. Place the ruled piece of paper on your fabric. Center it.

Cut small snips at the end of each line on your cheat sheet. This is for marking where to fold and iron. Fold and iron along each line making sure all of your folds are on the same side of your fabric.

After pressing the folds, you will stitch each one with a contrasting thread a tiny bit in from the fold. I used the interior edge of my presser foot as my guide for keeping the pintucks straight and even. See arrow.

Using your presser foot to keep the pintucks straight and even.

Repeat this for all six of the pleats, paying attention to making sure they are coming out all on the same side of the fabric.

When you are done, press the pleats so they are all facing out from the center and then staystitch across the top of the fabric so they stay pressed in the correct direction while you cut out your bodice.

Now that your bodice fabric with tucks is made, you are ready to cut out the bodice. Since I use freezer paper, I ironed mine on and cut. Pins also will work. Make sure your pleats are centered underneath before cutting.

Next sew your dress together following the dropwaist instructions. I did this one without the ruffle sleeves and I machine hemmed it with contrasting thread to match the pintucks.

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Doll Dressmaking Tutorial: Drop Waist Dress

November 15, 2015 Lisa Press

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.

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

October 2, 2015 Lisa Press

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.

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.

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.

Doll Dressmaking Series: A Retro Collar

September 25, 2015 Lisa Press

Doll clothes are often retro. Or classic. Or both. I thought a longer sharper collar is both retro and classic. It's also simple to sew. The pattern pieces will be in my next newlsetter.

I am basically following the instructions for my beginner's sleeve dress, which are here. But I'm including complete instructions here too.

From your main fabric cut:

Dress front and back
Sleeves

From the lining fabric (I used cotton lawn which is lighter in weight):

Just the front and back

And then cut the collar fabric cut 4 collar pieces.

Sew shoulder seams of dress together.

Sew shoulder seams of the lining pieces together.

Sew collar pieces together. Clip corners and edges of collars.

Turon collar pieces right side out and push out corners with a point turner or blunt knitting needle. I use a Dritz Point turner,

Press.

Attach the two collar pieces to the dress fabric neckline making sure they are centered. I baste the centers on first. As shown here.

Stitch lining to main dress fabric, by starting at the bottom of the back opening, go up to the neckline, around the neckline and back down the back opening. When going around the neckline make sure you are stitching through the lining, the dress fabric AND the collar pieces.

Sew dress fabric to lining at each armhole. This is to make sure they stay together when you attach the sleeves.

Attach sleeves. See my easy sleeve tutorial if you are unsure how. These sleeves do not need gathering or easing.

1. Hem sleeves

2. Pin or clip sleevces to armhole edge. If you are feeling confident you can just sew and adjust while you are sewing.

3. Turn over and check that it looks okay.

Sew side seams and hem.

I'd love the pattern pieces! Sign up for my newlsetter and receive the base pattern set and keep up with all future pieces. This will be in the upcoming issue.

Doll Dressmaking Series: A Wrap Dress

September 8, 2015 Lisa Press

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.

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

https://lisa-press.squarespace.com/blog/2014/9/4/doll-dressmaking-series-the-reversible-dress

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!

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Doll Dressmaking Series: Peasant Dress Pattern

August 10, 2015 Lisa Press

Remember the raglan peasant blouse tutorial a few weeks ago? A very easy pattern. Now this pattern can easily be made into a dress.

Same instructions, it's just a matter of lengthening one pattern piece. I've done it for you and will include a download in my upcoming newsletter. Sign up form is down below.

To make sure you receive all pattern pieces and tips, sign up for my newsletter. When you sign up you automatically receive all of the pattern pieces to date.

Doll Dressmaking Series: Raglan Peasant Top

July 2, 2015 Lisa Press

Raglan peasant tops are classic. They are also simple to make. The main skill involved is knowing how to thread elastic through a casing.

And I explained that in an earlier post here.

Cut out two sleeve pieces and two body pieces.

Sew the two sleeves to either side of one of the body pieces.

Sew the remaining body piece to one of the raw sleeve edges.

Sew a narrow machine hem along the neckline and bottoms of the two sleeves. By narrow turn over no more than a 1/4 inch.

Make elastic casings for threading your elastic. These should be about 3/8 inch if your elastic is 1/4 inch. The casing are made by folding your fabric towards the wrong side (sorry i used fabric that does not have two distinct sides for this tutorial).

Cut elastic for neckline and sleeves.

For Phoebe: Sleeves two 5" pieces and for the neckline one 12" piece

For American Girl dolls and Waldorf: Two 6 inch pieces for sleeves and one 14 inch piece for neckline..

Thread elastic through casings, as described in my puffy sleeve tutorial.

I suggest draping the shirt on your doll to determine how "gathered" you want the neck. Remember it stretches, but you also don't want it too tight. Too tight looks awkward and is hard to get over the dolls feet or her head.

Sew remaining "shoulder" seam.

Sew side seam from bottom of top to the bottom of the sleeve, on each side.

Hem or trim bottom of the blouse. I think this style is perfect for all sorts of trim. Form for the pattern below. Phoebe's is ready. AG and Waldorf should be ready by Saturday.