How to Sew Doll Clothes: Using Buttons

Sometimes I can be a bit impatient when it comes time to choose the buttons for my doll clothes.

However it usually pays to take your time and try different combinations.

Sometimes several different colours and sizes look good but if you try several colours and sizes often one combination will stand out as looking great.

You may also need to try different spacing and 5 buttons or 6.

I always sew on my buttons with the machine and the button foot. You can see my blog post tutorial here.

Heart Buttons

I tried a couple of different buttons before deciding on the hearts for this blouse. They just stood out over the regular buttons.

You can see that the spacing is quite wide. This is 7/8" from centre to centre of each button. I didn't want the buttons to overwhelm the rest of the outfit, just add to it. I'm pretty sure I bought these heart buttons in a bag of several different sized hearts from my discount craft store, Spotlight.

Decision points:

1. must be red as a feature since I didn't do the piping on the collar
2. looking for small buttons. The hearts were the right size
3. spaced them so the bottom one fell above the skirt band rather than just on it.

Matching Pink Buttons

These buttons are meant to blend in with the blouse. I just had to decide on the size. I ended up with these tiny 1/4" ones because I like the solid quality of them. I have other thinner ones but I thought these added to the vintage look.

I have placed them 3/4" apart by mistake. I meant to do them 7/8" like the hearts but as you can see they look OK. Maybe a little bit busy looking and detracts from the other features. Because the buttons are small it doesn't look out of place.

Decision points:

1. must match the blouse fabric
2. small so they don't stand out too much
3. thick and glossy rather than thin and translucent because I thought they looked old fashioned
4. spacing was meant to be 7/8" so they didn't look too busy.

When I did the skirt I tried different shades of pink buttons as well as different sizes. I loved these dark ones with the 4 holes and it took me ages to find a matching pair in my button bag collection.

Decision points:

1. dark colour to stand out against the pale pink in the skirt
2. medium size so they have the same dramatic affect as the check in the skirt. They stand out almost equally.
3. 4 holes because it looks kind of vintage and more like suspender buttons than blouse buttons.

Happy Sewing,
Val

Valspierssews
Tinker, Tailor, Doll Dress Maker