New Doll Clothes Pattern

Check out my new 18" doll clothes pattern for shorts and trousers on my Doll Designs blog.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Working on my latest doll clothes pattern

It is just so nice when things work out. This pattern is so easy to customise. I have looked up some steam punk outfits and have fabric all picked out and ideas almost gelled to go from cutesy to a modern edge with the same pattern.

Post by Val Spiers Sews Doll Designs.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Sewing Successes

Sewing dolls clothes is so addictive. I have finished all the skivvy samples and now find myself immersed in underwear. Did you know there are hardly any underwear patterns for 18" dolls. Even the finished article is pretty scarce.
I bought a few metres of batiste fabric. It is lovely to work with. Light and breezy but firm enough to sew easily.

The petticoat and undies.

These I called shortie pyjamas even though the top is just my first attempt at the petticoat. It came out really short!

Here is my latest skivvy.

 

I am now working on a combination one piece undergarent that has some pin tucks and lace in the front. They take up so much lace for the neck and armholes and pants legs but it looks really nice.

Lots of tropical rain here today so it has been a good day to sit and sew. I get so excited about the doll clothes designs that even though my Go Wild quilt is sitting out on the table I keep passing over it to draw new designs and cut out new samples for the doll. Next week I will work on the quilt.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Sewing Buddy

I have been sewing and drawing designs in my craft room a lot lately. Stumpy has his new mat to sit on behind my machine but sometimes he just has to get a bit closer.

From the same basic pattern I have made a dress and a sweatshirt. It is a lot of fun seeing what I can create.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,

Val

Sewing and Other Things

It is so exciting to see the house coming together. The kitchen went in the other day and the tiler is doing the floors this week too. I am really happy with the open plan.

The yard just up the road has some nice grass.

The Bushfire Brigade have been burning off along the edge of the national park. The smoke the last few days has been pretty bad. I think they probably timed the burn so the fire was blown towards the road and the town rather than into the park. There is already a wide ditch between the bush and the road so a controlled burn blowing that way is not a problem for the firies but a nuisance for us.

I found some pretty grosgrain ribbon at the cheap shop while I was in Brisbane. It is perfect for doll tote bag handles so I have been making a bunch of cute tote bags.

I called this bag the Resort.

Dolly hasn't changed her clothes for a while. She is waiting for the witch costume. She had to stand on a moving box for the photo shoot and I had to level her up with a snack pack of rope. It is hard to find places with good light.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

First in a series of dolls clothes patterns

I have just published a pattern for an 18" doll blouse on my Craftsy shop. This first one has been a fairly long process but now I hope to add to the series quite quickly.
I love to create systems. My doll clothes system consists of three size types:

• Snugfit - this fit is as it sounds. Fairly snug blouses and dresses and light jackets and the like.
• Loosefit - this one is a series of patterns suitable for mid weight fabrics or garments that are meant to be loose like PJ's or over shirts or a raincoat.
• Largefit - is for heavy weight or thick fabrics and outer wear garments.

I set about creating Snugfit patterns for a variety of garments. The bit I am excited about is that the pattern pieces are swappable. All the sleeves in the Snugfit series can be used on any of the garments. All the collars designed for back opening garments can be used with any of these garments. I have even made a cute vest pattern that can be used to make a dress or a sleeveless top as well. 

I had all my test samples done for the blouse and realised I still needed to test out one of the methods for finishing the armhole on a sleeveless blouse. I didn't just want to make another sleeveless sample so I added a fancy yolk overlay to make it look like a western shirt. I think it looks really cute. I will be keeping an eye out for some smaller navy buttons. The ones I have used are just a fraction too big.

I was surprised that the plovers have had another batch of babies. 3 tiny things. These two hatched out the day before this picture. I took this on full zoom from across the road. There is a third one but I couldn't see it at the time. I am happy to say that there are still three babies after a few days now.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Sewing for my doll

I have been closeted in my sewing room trying to perfect a pattern for another doll tote bag. I decided I would make a pattern for sale so I have been taking my time to make sure it is up to a standard I would expect if I paid for something. Fingers crossed my step by step instructions are clear enough.

I have also been working on doll clothes patterns where you can interchange many of the pieces. The sleeves from the dress can be used on the blouse as well, or the collars can be swapped. It is quite a lot of fun working out how many things I can interchange. So far I have 2 blouses, a pinafore, a dress and a set of vests. I just need to write up the construction steps.

I am visiting mum again next week so the Welcome to the North Pole post will be a bit late. I will post on Saturday 29th June.

Happy Quilting and Crafting
Val

Visit valspierssews's Craftsy Pattern Store »

Make your 18" doll a patchwork tote

I found a link to this lovely tote bag made in regular size and thought it would make a cute doll bag. I wrote the pattern for an 18" doll size.
There is a mixture of inches and cm in the instructions because of the way I converted the measurements but a confident sewer should have no trouble with it.

The instructions for making the Moda Bake Shop bag may be useful for helping with the basic construction so I have included the link here.

Mill House Inn Tote Bag

Download you free instructions for the doll tote

Make sure you sign up for my newsletter. You get free patterns for 18"dolls and some tips on how to stay on top of things as well as interesting links. Of course, if you like a bargain you get some exclusive offers and first go at the sales.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

P.S. I don't have sales very often because I offer you my best price all the time. Visit my Etsy Shop for 18" doll clothes patterns and 20" doll clothes patterns that fit Australian Girl Doll.

Playing with Dolls

There is something very alluring about dolls clothes. For me, I can see all sorts of designs that I can make up with 1/2 a metre instead of 2 or 3 metres for adult sizes. It also gives me a chance to play with designs that I would never wear myself.
I like the idea of recreating styles from the past too.

I have been collecting paper doll fashion collections on pinterest and I feel confident I can draft patterns for the styles after completing a gorgeous pinafore and blouse based on paper doll outfits from 1947. The outfit is part of a school days collection probably for a middle class American high school or college student.

I used some vintage glass buttons on her blouse but the only pink buttons I had were the little plastic flowers for the pinafore. I think some little round two hole buttons are needed here. I am sure I have a bag of little buttons somewhere!

The American Girl doll scaling is for a 12 year old but she seems to be able to get away with styles for younger and older girls.

I have a fabulous old book  (1987) with basic pattern shapes for bodices, jackets and trousers that has so many ideas for putting them together. It is a great resource.

The Dolls Dressmaker by Venus A. Dodge

Each chapter starts with lovely drawings of underwear, dress and matching coat.

Most of the ideas are for vintage clothes but the basic patterns can easily be adapted to any style.

I also have some files I downloaded for free on how to change sleeve shapes and dart and seam positions. These are for human clothes but the principles are the same for doll clothes.

1942—Modern Pattern Design

by Harriet Pepin

The site I originally got these files from is no longer online so I had to track down a link. If you are into clothes sewing this book is a classic. There were a couple of chapters I hadn't downloaded so in Chrome I clicked print then opened it in pdf preview and saved it as a PDF. It is also possible to just save the chapters as a web pages.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as "Internet Archive - Way Back Machine" but someone found it and put up the link in a Burda forum.

Here is the link:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070103111428/http://www.vintagesewing.info/1940s/42-mpd/mpd-toc-short.html 

I am trying to draft the pattern for the pinafore and blouse using a drawing program. It is pretty tricky to get the size and the curves right but I will persevere. I am thinking that I will scan and upload my hand drawn patterns then trace around them to get a nice print finish. 

I have been looking at the prices for 18" doll patterns and they range from $4 to $12 for any items. I have spent hours drawing and testing the pattern. I had to redo the straps and throw away some fabric and ribbon. I will try selling at $5. At that rate I will have to sell at least 25 of them to get back my time and skill. May take a while before I make any profit but it is fun to spend time seeing if I can draft the patterns. Now I also need a whole new fabric stash for clothes not just quilts. Most of the clothes fabrics I have, the design printed on will be too large for a doll and most of them are in storage anyway. Nothing like a good excuse to buy more fabric :)

Happy Quilting and Crafting,

Val

Christmas Little Bits 20

I can't believe I went a head with this one. Common sense kept telling me to stop and wait until I had suitable fabrics. I really wanted patterned background blocks but I don't have any plain looking patterns. It was either solid or busy. Maybe I could have used solid letters. Anyway, it is done now and the doll is not going to complain.

Mainly I am posting this doll quilt because of how well the wool backing worked. I had 5 yards of a loose weave pure wool from Pendleton Woollen Mills in Oregon that I bought for $20 a yard. It gives weight to the mini quilt without unusual bulk for its size. It folds up just like a life size quilt.

I do like this design with the letters on the blocks. I had to fit it onto 24 inches x 16 inches so I had to make them rectangular. The other blocks I have seen have been square.
I am thinking that 20 inches x 14 inches would be a good size for the next doll quilt.

Here are the rectangular letters as PDFs

CHR
IST
MA

and this is the layout.

Flickr Link

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Little Christmas Bits 19

I was very pleased with the Christmas dress I made for my 18 inch doll so I looked up the scale used for accessories. The scale of the doll is 1:3 or 1 inch in doll size represents 3 inches in human size. Apparently the AGD type of doll is meant to be based on an average 10 year old human.

I got out my hobo bag pattern and and scaled it down so I could make a Christmas bag in doll size. It worked out really well. I even put in an inside pocket. Her pocket book is a needle book I had handy. The measurements made it easy to divide by three and draw up the new pattern. I made it exactly the same way as the big one in Little Christmas Bits 12.

If you like this small one why not download the pattern I drew up. You will probably need to at least read through the instructions that come with the large pattern. You can find them here at La Tee Da Kids.

You can comment on Flickr if you are not a google+ fan.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Little Christmas Bits 17

Got up really early this morning and made two more pillow slips then wondered what I could make. I had the urge to make something for my 18 inch doll so I rustled through the Christmas fabrics for a piece big enough to make this cute pinafore dress. I even used up some of my ribbons.
I used the overlocker on narrow 3 thread to finish the edges then folded the narrow hems along the surging line. Made it easy. Small seams I didn't overlock and I only overlocked the waistband seams after I sewed them.

My 18 inch doll is from Aldi.
The pattern for this dress (Molly's pretty party dress) and many more are free at Doll Dress Patterns. They are American Girl patterns and even come with some historical stories.

If you are sick of leaving comments (because I am posting every day until the 24th) why not pin me or +1 me

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val