I love sewing 18" doll clothes. It seemed a natural progression to start designing them too. You can read all about my life journey on valspiers.substack.com
I finished off the samples for this design today. I still have a few bit to do on the instructions but it will be published to my newsletter Sunday 25th may 2024.
Perfect for checks or stripes this top and shorts is the perfect summer outfit. Dress it up with sandals or just be ready to play on the sand with bare feet.
This outfit is both quick and easy to make.
My trademark style is easy and pretty and this one is a perfect fit. I love designing clothes that look like people clothes but are made especially to suit the dolls.
You can enjoy this pattern free to download when you subscribe to my Substack lifestyle newsletter. Every 4th Sunday of the month I write about my sewing hobbies and doll clothes pattern business. To promote my business I include patterns for the dolls for my paid subscribers. The 25th May I am including this summer set for free.
I am also working on another outfit to go below the paywall so those who have taken advantage of my paid newsletter will not be missing out.
Think of the paid newsletter as a monthly pattern subscription. Many of the patterns this year will be exclusive to the paid newsletter. The 3 weeks leading up to the dolls clothes pattern will include stories about my other interests and how I am leading a fulfilling and joyful life. I also include worksheets and information pdfs and planning pages to make it easy for you to create your own joyful life.
If you are interested in creating the life that you always dreamed of but don't know where to start you will find lots of examples of how I use all those confusing planning and mindful strategies along with worksheets and lists to get you started. The downloads will help you to customise the strategies to suit your needs.
Make sure you subscribe for free today. You can upgrade to paid any time and get access to the complete archive of newsletters and downloads.
I was thinking about retiring my doll designs blog but I have realised it will be a good place to journal about my doll clothes designs and at the same time record my progress.
I have set a goal to create 5 designs in 3 months or each quarter. I have worked out that I can fit in 20hrs a month to work on designing doll clothes. That is 1hr in the evening for 20 days and the other 10 days is part of my rest and rejuvinate time around the last quarter and new moon. I will only design if I particularly feel like it.
If you would like to read more about how I fit everything that I want to do in my life you should subscribe to my weekly substack newsletter. The content is free with the downloads for paid subscribers. This dress pattern will be offered in the last newsletter of April 2024. When you pay to subscribe you get access to all previous downloads in the newsletter archive.
I’m a quiet person who likes to keep to myself. But I love creating and sharing what I create.
I used to cringe whenever I sold a doll clothes pattern because I was worried there would be something wrong with it.
I used to flinch and feel afraid whenever I got an Etsy message from a customer because I thought it would be a complaint.
I had never made doll clothes for an American Girl Doll before. Though I could sew.
I didn’t know much about running a business but I wanted to prove to myself that I could do anything I set my mind to and be productive and successful.
It seems you can teach an old dog new tricks!
💼 Hence the pattern business.
I had just retired and found myself getting involved with blogging and patchwork on the internet. Some ladies were drawing patterns for patchwork and quilts and making them available as PDFs to download.
Fast forward a few years and I decided I could sell patterns because I loved everything about the “new” PDF download craze. All I can remember about choosing to design doll clothes patterns is that it came about gradually over several months. Then I was all out into creating patterns and sewing up the designs then writing instructions.
It sounds pretty straight forward but I spent about 5 years learning new skills. I am still learning!
I taught myself:
Illustrator,
Mailchimp,
Blogger,
Teachable,
Keynote,
Numbers,
Pages,
Google Docs,
Dropbox,
Doll clothes sewing of course.
I learnt about:
Craftsy,
Etsy,
branding,
audiences,
copy writing,
SEO,
title creation,
blog outlines,
time blocking,
batch creating,
Youtube video making,
Facebook groups,
Facebook Pages.
hero stories,
asking people to buy my patterns.
I learnt how to create:
a successful newsletter with 2000 subscribers (closed because it didn’t match my vision anymore),
My own FB group (now with 1000+ members),
My own FB page (now with 1000+ followers),
landing pages,
header images,
a book keeping spreadsheet.
I got an ABN and I hired an accountant to do my tax return. There was nothing slow about my life but I loved every minute of it until I didn’t, and I changed nearly everything about my business.
I realised one day that I had achieved all the goals that I had set out to achieve.
I had taught myself to be a business person. I had a steady passive income. I had an emergency savings account. I was no longer afraid of dealing with customers and my business was thriving. I was a self made success in every way I could think of.
The business was just starting to become ‘things I should do to keep my customers happy’. I took a good look at what I was doing and I decided it was time to make new goals!
🖥️ Somewhere along the way I had become a designer
I no longer saw myself as retired. I had a design business. I designed doll clothes and sold the patterns.
After about 6 years on the doll clothes I wanted to branch out. I liked the idea of designing digital planners and journals.
I know a bit about desktop design and graphic design and art. However, I’m not an artist in the sense that an artist draws original images. I can draw original images but it’s hard, slow work that I’m not prepared to commit to on a long term basis. I want pretty planners now! So I create a planner and use art that I buy for commercial use along with some of my own art.
I Love Designing Doll Clothes
Where do I get my inspiration?
How did we ever survive without Pinterest!
I get a lot of my inspiration from human fashions on Pinterest. I really enjoy making a human design look great on the 18” doll. I also get ideas for outfits from the doll boards and the human boards on Pinterest.
My latest design is a copy of a dress I saw on a lady on the Brisbane train station while I was waiting to get the train back to Bundaberg. I would call it a boho style with 3 tiers to the skirt and panels in the bodice and a tie at the neck. Hers was made from 3 or 4 different blue and white patterns. I had to use what I had so I used 2 patterns in pink.
This month’s sewing pattern
This month I have been working on the Boho Dress for the 18” American Girl Doll. I like the little panelled top so look out for more designs with this bodice.
I made the 3 tiered skirt and the sleeves using existing patterns. The bodice is more of a mish mash of several designs, making the dress original enough to go in my Etsy shop too for $9 Australian.
Tip for reducing bulk
I while back I decided that pinking the seams and seam allowances is the best way to reduce bulk and save on thread and it is a perfectly safe finish for doll clothes. Sometimes I forget and just use the overlocker (serger) that is next to my sewing machine but another good reason for pinking the seams is that it is easy to unpick mistakes. The overlocker is very unforgiving.
Same tip but it saves problems when you make a mistake
I made a mistake with the second sleeve because the bodice looks similar inside and out except for the seam of the first sleeve. Luckily I wasn’t planning to overlock this second sleeve seam!
A bias neck band is a good finish for lots of designs
I made the neckline with a bias band so I could slip the ribbon ties into the band as I folded it over to stitch down. If you are looking for different ways to finish the necklines of dresses and tops I have a set of simple designs that I made up especially for practicing different ways to finish necklines. Some of my oldest customers will already have this. It’s not something I will be adding to the shop anytime soon but it will go in the paid subscription later this year.
What are my plans for 2024?
I can see that the demand for doll clothes patterns is not diminishing so I want to keep adding to my pattern shop. Since I will be adding all y new sewing patterns and some old ones to the paid subscription (just like a pattern club) I will be adding all new patterns to Etsy at $9 AUD. (Don’t forget my VIP group formed many years ago can access all my new patterns through your dropbox link).
I’m a fan of taking existing patterns and changing them around. Anything I create this way is not exactly a new pattern so they won’t go in the shop. Such designs will only go in the paid newsletter.
I have a good collection of free designs that anyone can access with the dropbox link if you want to check out my style.
I have decided to stop adding designs to the free folder and start adding those type of designs to the paid newsletter.
Along with the sewing newsletter each month I will be doing newsletters on the in between weeks about the other hobbies I enjoy and the many interests that fill my life. Each topic is free but the digital items and patterns I create will be in the paid newsletter that week. Each month I create all sorts of things related to these hobbies and interests such as tea recipes, digital planners, wall art, digital stickers, affirmations, mindset practices, digital journals and notebooks, goal setting and a variety of worksheets and planner inserts and regular doll clothes patterns.
I love that I can offer all the things I design without having to put them in a shop.
Think of these newsletters as a monthly magazine that includes a variety of topics.
Help me build reach more people
If you like this newsletter please share it with your friends. If you’re on Facebook I would appreciate you posting my substack link with a recommendation: https://valspiers.substack.com
I’m sure this new version of my newsletter will be a hit with my original sewing audience because I know you had a lot of interests similar to me and many of you were around my age (that’s enthusiastic senior).
If you like this post you can subscribe to get them in your inbox.
P.S. Something that I enjoy doing is creating a magazine format for the things I write about. I’m working on a magazine format containing all my February posts. This first one will be free. I have a goal to create a magazine each month for 2024 to start with, that includes all the substack posts for the month along with some additional wall art and digital pages and lots of beautiful photos. Because it will be available as a PDF download you will be able to save the file and keep all the information and links on your device.
