How to Sew Doll Clothes: Fully lined bolero jacket in fur

I have been practicing with lining a lot lately. If you want to get better at lining then you just have to  give it a go. This little jacket is part of a design I am working on that has a jacket with a collar and long sleeves. It will also have a curved front bolero.
If you follow what I make you will probably recognise this pink jacket from a while back.

I just wanted to experiment with fur before publishing it.

I have added photos to show what I did. If you haven't done lining before you will need to get used to turning things odd ways and making funny shapes.

I put 2 back pieces together to make one piece so I could
cut the fur in one layer rather than trying to fold it.

Make sure you cut it so the fur lays in the right direction.
This one smooths downwards.

Stitch the shoulder seams and trim the fuzz a bit.

Fold one centre back seam allowance of the lining to the
inside and press.

Place the folded seam on top of the other seam and stitch
at the top and bottom to hold it in place.

Line up the main and lining at the neck and the sleeve hem edges.
Stitch it. rim the corners a bit and clip the curve of the neck.

Turn it right sides out.

Bring the side seams together at the lining...

... and the main. Stitch both side seams. It is a bit tricky
to get past the underarm with all that fur. Just make sure you go
far enough in then with the needle down, lift the foot and turn
to angle down the rest of the seam.

Both side seams done. Now I am going to finish the hem edge.

Bring the hem edges together by pulling them away from each
other and rolling them around the rest of the jacket. Push the sleeve
parts out of the way as best you can so you have room to stitch
without catching the inside bits.

Pin it along the hem edges. Stitch it all the way across.
If you are not using fur you can cut the back lining on the fold and leave a gap in the hem edge
for turning that you can finish as you top stitch around the jacket. This method doesn't work for fur because you can't just turn in the seam allowance with all the fur pile in the way. 

Use the gap in the centre back of the lining to pull it rights sides out.
First one side then the other.

Hand stitch the centre back seam of the lining.

It looks great just edge to edge.

I had a beautiful coat clasp that I thinks looks great.

You can get the Bolero Collection in my Etsy shop. It has 4 styles that include different shaped boleros and a jacket with sleeves.

Happy Doll Dressmaking,
Val

Gathered skirts are perfect for dolls: Part 3 - Elastic casing photo tutorial

Last night I looked up some summer fashions at target online. There was a little chambray skirt that looked cute.

Sometimes it is nice to have a place to start. However, I didn't have chambray and I didn't feel like doing embroidery and tassels were just beyond the scope of my Sunday fun. But a skirt I could do!

If you want to make sure you don't miss any of my tutorials you should get my newsletter. Just sign up in the side bar.

For this cute little skirt you need:

1. a fat quarter of light fabric.
2. 25" of trim
3. 10 1/2" of 1/2" elastic
4. a shoe lace

I folded my fabric over 6 1/2" and cut 2 skirt pieces and 2 waistband pieces.
You can make pattern pieces.

My elastic is 1/2" so I calculated the width by adding
1 x 1/4' seams, 2 x 1/8" casing stitching rows and 5/8" for my elastic.
You then multiply by 2 for the width. Recalculate if you want to
use 1/4" elastic and make the skirt longer.

This is a short skirt. It could go 1/2" longer I suppose.
The other option is to use 1/4" elastic then you would need to add
1/2" to the skirt to keep it from being too short.

Of course you can make the skirt in one long strip for the skirt and the waist band but I don't always have that much fabric in one piece.

Stitch one side of the skirt.

Overlock the seam and the hem edge.

Press up the 1/4" hem.

Sew on the trim about 3/4" above the hem fold.

Press.

Stitch the other side seam and overlock it.

Turn the skirt inside out and stitch the hem.

Press.

Stitch one side of the waist band.

Press the seam one way and press up 1/4" on the bottom edge.

Stitch the other side seam and press it the same direction as the other seam.

Re-press the fold.

Attach the waist band to the skirt by placing the unfolded 

edge rights sides to the wrong side of the skirt. 

Pin it and Stitch.

Trim the seam.

Press the waist band up with the seam.

Fold the waist band over to the right side of the skirt and line up
the folded edge with the waist stitching line.
Stitch it down close to the fold leaving a 2" gap near a side seam. 

Press the waist band.

Stitch another row 1/8" from the first, leaving the gap open.

Stitch a row 1/8" from the top fold, all the way around.

Use a safety pin to insert the elastic going in the direction that you pressed the seams.

Pin the end about 2" before it disappears.

Overlap the elastic ends about 1/2" and zig zag together.

Ease it back into the casing and stitch the gap closed with two rows of stitching.

Cut 6" ends off a shoe lace. You could probably cut a bit more. Mine was only just long enough.

Overlap the cut ends and zig zag them to the centre front of the band.

Tie a half knot then tie a bow.

Another option is to cut a 14" piece of string. 

Stitch the centre to the band. Tie a bow. 

Then tie knots in the ends.

Hope you like this one. She is wearing it with the 1806 Open Neck Shirt that comes with lots of variations.

Happy Sewing,
Val

P.S.
Sign up for my newsletter so you will always get links to my tutorials without having to remember to look for them. This skirt comes with printable instructions and ready to go pattern pieces. It is no.21 in the newsletter folder.