Top 10 most popular doll clothes patterns

Every now and then I have a look at what patterns are selling more than than others in my Etsy shop.

I was surprised to see how popular the 17" baby doll patterns were and thought I should see if there are any more surprises.

Here is my list from 10 to 1 for 2021

10

1852 Winter Sleepwear Nightie

9

Baby Doll Rompers for 17" Baby Born style dolls

8

Baby Doll Pinafore Dress

7

1877 Pieced A-Line

6

1804 The 18" Dress

5

Gingham Midi Dress with Butterfly Sleeves

4

Baby Doll Dress

3

1874 Boy T-shirt

2

1813 Gathered Pull-ons

Trousers, shorts, boxer shorts, bellbottoms

1

Knit Dress, Leggings and Infinity Scarf

There you have it. 

I can see which patterns I will be doing pattern hacks for. 

• The knit dress lends itself to lots of sleeve designs.
• Scarves are a great accessory with lots of variations if not strictly pattern hacks.
• There are a few things yet to be explored with the leggings.

My favourite pattern from these 10 is the Gathered Pull-ons.

While looking for the image to add in this post I went down memory lane looking at all the different designs I made form this one pattern. This is one of my first patterns from around 2015.

The title for each one links to that item in the shop if you want to have a better look.

Happy Doll Dressmaking,

Val

Start with a summer dress for your 18" doll

You can start with a summer dress but no doll is going to look her best unless she has a perfectly curated series of outfits.

Mix and match just 5 pieces to create 5 different outfits. Add the cardigan and you get 5 more new looks.

Let's Start with the dress.

You are going to love how easy this design is to put together.

No buttons or closures to fiddle with. Just simple 1/4" elastic in the straps and the back.

No need to worry about the fit if your doll is a bit pudgy. The elastic in the back and the high waist skim right over the doll's tummy.

It will look great on your Our Generation 18' doll, also your 17" baby doll and if you have a 20" girl doll like my Australian Girl Doll you will be pleased to know it looks great on her too.

One pattern, 3 different dolls.

Don't get hung up with this being a summer dress. You can add the cardigan and voila, you have a perfect into Fall outfit.

What about that t-shirt under a strappy dress look? I wish I could get away with that. It looks great on the dolls though.

(Little doll owners may need a bit of help getting the elastic back up over the t-shirt)

You can get this pattern from my Etsy Shop

Happy Doll Dressmaking

Val

Vintage doll clothes petticoat. A 40s design.

The latest in  the Underwear Collection is a cute 40s design. It has curved panels in the front and back and a nice neat flare at the hem.

The instructions are for lace at the neck and armholes but 1/2" bias makes a good facing too.

The hem can be cut at this length or cut up to 1/2" longer. It can be made longer with lace at the hem too if you like. It is perfect for the 20" Australian Girl Doll.

It is also really sweet on the 17" Baby Born doll

It opens all the way down the back and I use velcro patches for ease of dressing.

Batiste is a perfect fabric that is easy to sew and has a nice crisp look about it.

Best of all this petticoat is part of my newsletter offer for October 2018 and will be free to download with the newsletter for a few weeks in October only. Iy then goes into my shop.

Make sure you are signed up for the newsletter. You can click on the link below. There are always great offers.

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Have the best dressed baby doll in town!

I have just published a new baby doll pattern to fit baby Born 17" doll. The design is cute little rompers. So easy to dress your doll in these side opening rompers and of course all the little girls will want some dresses to fill out their wardrobe.
photo

Easy to dress your doll

• Watch my video to see how easy it is to get these rompers on your doll

• I always use velcro patches. They are so easy to do up and undo yet they hold the outfit together really well.

• If you know your little one won't be able to tie a knot for the belt just add 3/4" to the end next to the fold and don't cut it on the fold. Sew each end and down one side so most of the other side is open. Finish it off like the one piece belt then put velcro patches at the back. Put it on the doll and tie up the knot. Now just use the velcro at the back to take it on and off. You may need to also make a special one for a head band.

Lots of dresses for those family get togethers

• Rompers are OK for playing but special visits need something a bit more dressy.

• The BD Dress is perfect for creating all sorts of dress variations. You could even make the rompers with singlet and pants fabric and make the dress into a top with a shorter skirt. Just fold up 1" to make the skirt pattern into a little over top.

• The dress pattern comes with two sleeves, two collars and pockets.

Download the patterns from my Etsy shop

• BD Rompers

• BD Dress

Organise your patterns so you can use them over and over

• Watch my video on how quick it is to make a booklet of instructions to go into your envelope.

• I keep all my patterns in folders with plastic pockets. 
• The folder divider page keeps my folders in order when I take out the pattern
• The envelope keeps my pieces in order while I have the pattern out for sewing.
• The instructions as booklet style fits neatly next to my sewing machine.

You may think my videos are a bit ordinary but the only way for me to get better is to just jump in and make some. I hope you enjoyed seeing me and my sewing room in my dress up video. I nearly dropped the doll trying to do up the belt knot so you could see what I was doing and it was really hard to cut out some of the dumbest bits and keep the commentary making sense.

I did make an effort to dress well. The check shirt I had on for the day was just a bit busy to hold the doll in front of and I figured if I was changing I may as well go all out and find a nice necklace.

I couldn't believe how hard it was to get the booklet into the envelope. I should have seen that coming. I might have to have a word with the props manager.

I hope you head on over to my shop now if not before. I have lots of 18" doll clothes patterns as well as the 3 Baby Doll patterns.
You should also sign up for my Newsletter. I send out free things exclusively for my subscribers as well as keep you in the loop with new patterns and tutorials. The form is at the top in my side bar.

Happy Sewing and Crafting,
Val

New Baby Doll Dress Pattern

I have just published a new baby doll pattern made to fit Baby Born dolls. It is a version of the 18" Dress 1804.
I thought the baby looked cuter with short sleeves rather than long sleeves so the pattern has 2 kinds of short sleeve. The gathered elastic design and the puffed short sleeve with a band.
There are also two collar styles - pointed and peter pan.

The bodice is lined so you can easily swap styles from collar to no collar and from sleeves to no sleeves.

The sleeve with the band allows you to make all sorts of dresses with contrast sleeve bands and collars for different looks.

The pockets give you more opportunity to add some contrast. you can have them match the collar and sleeve bands or just make the pockets in a contrast.

I have tailored the pattern so it fits the baby doll neatly if you make the dress in shirt fabrics or quilting cotton. If you want to use something like velvet I recommend that you print out the pattern at 102% to give some extra ease. Make sure you label it somehow so it doesn't get mixed up with the 100% pieces.

My latest patterns and any that I update from now will have instruction diagrams with the right side of the fabric shaded so it is easier to read the diagrams.

As with all my patterns you get vector drawn pattern pieces that I draw myself using Adobe Illustrator.

You also get a coloured title page so it is easy to tell what the file is. The title page shows as a little preview on most computers. There are links to my facebook page and my blog as well as some photo tutorials to help with the dress.

There is not too much colour on this page so it is possible to print it out but I usually start printing from the second page. This is a black and white title page suitable to use as a divider page in a folder.

The instructions and pattern pieces follow then the last two pages are the pattern envelope that you can cut out and tape together. I usually put the divider page in a plastic pocket then put the pieces in the envelope and put it behind the divider page in the pocket.
When I want to use a pattern I take out the envelope while I use the pattern. It is then easy to put it back in the right place in the folder because the divider is still there.

See this latest pattern plus all my other 18" doll clothes patterns in my Etsy store.

Happy Sewing,

Val

Progress Report: Lots on my desk this month

Before I visited mum earlier this month I took stock so I could put it out of my mind for a week.
I have lots of projects in various stages.

I am redoing the sailor dress I had published without instructions. The no instructions was just an experiment. I won't be publishing any more patterns without instructions. I love this sailor dress so it will be up again soon.

I am working on adjusting the yoke for the skirt so it can be put on a blouse like a school blouse design. At the same time I am trying out some new collars on the round neck dress design.

I always have some inspirational quotes on my desk.

This one is a sample for the 20" dress pattern in the same design as the 18" dress pattern I just published.

Here are the pattern pieces to do another t-shirt sample before I publish the skirt and t-shirt outfit.

Here I have the beginning of my fabric choices for the wardrobe PDF book I am working on. The colours will be mainly pink, brown and blue.

In between sewing and designing I like to colour in. I found this picture to print out on a garden web page.
Botanical Interests

These pieces are cut from an old handbag. I hope to make some doll handbags from them.

These baby doll dresses use The 18" Dress design but I am making them to fit the Baby Born® doll. Just one more sample before I can publish it.

The last few days I have been working on an A-line pinny for the 20" doll. It just has to have the instructions finished off before I publish it. I hope to do the same design for the 18" doll soon.
I made a few minor updates to the instructions for the skivvy from 1801 and 2001 when I made the top to go under the pinny. If you have the pattern you can convo through the invoice on Etsy. Craftsy customers get it automatically.

I haven't forgotten the requests I have received for the witch outfit and the little black dress and the Breakfast at Tiffany's dress and more skirts. It is such fun working on all these designs.

Happy Sewing,
Val