3 Ways to Add Hearts to Doll Clothes for Valentine's Day

• It is always fun to make themed outfits for your 18" dolls.
• Hearts are perfect because they are not just for Valentine's Day.
• 3 ways you can add some heart to your doll clothes sewing.

Dress ups is fun for girls and their dolls

A really quick and easy way to comply with themed days is to add applique to either existing doll clothes or make something simple like a dress or skirt or t-shirt to put the applique on.
I love hearts! They are so simple to draw and there are lots of ways to arrange them to create your own unique outfits. They go well on girls' clothes too.

This dress has applique hearts that I cut out with the pinking shears. I had some little bows that I thought looked cute.

I have been working on a jacket with binding around the edges so I made a practice one that went with the dress.

You can use the raw edge applique method, also called fusible web applique to apply cute images from patterned fabric to your garments. When you are making doll clothes that won't be washed much you can get away with not stitching the applique on at all. the fusible web holds is without fraying really well. That's what makes it so good for using on garments you already have made up.

If you have never done raw edge applique before this you tube video gives you the basics.

You can download a heart shape from lots of web sites. Here is a search I did on Pinterest.


Dolls and hearts go together really well - Not just for Valentine's Day

Pink is so nice on any doll and hearts are cute and girly.
I used flannelette with hearts on for these wonderful winter pyjamas

And this heart fabric is perfect for the stand out lining on this little jacket made from my Bolero Series. I think it would have gone well with the dress I just made but I no longer have this jacket.

Ways to add hearts to your doll clothes

Using fusible applique to add hearts to your doll clothes is pretty simple but as you can see in the examples above there are lots of beautiful heart fabrics to make an outfit. The fabric speaks for itself.

Another really simple way to add to a new dress or an old outfit is to use heart shaped buttons. Like applique you can apply the buttons to finished garments without much trouble.

I love how the heart buttons provide some wow factor to this simple contrast add-on bib style yoke.
This dress is from 1804a Add-on Bibs. You add the bibs to the bodice of 1804.

The heart dress I made using 1804 18" Round Neck Dress. 1804 has different sleeves, different collars and different skirt lengths all in one pattern. Read more about the 1804 dress pattern here. You can get it from my Etsy Shop

Happy Doll Dressmaking,
Val

Valentines Doll Apron

I found the perfect modern fabric for this cute vintage apron. Lots of yummy sweet things and a fussy cut cake on the bib.

It has clear instructions with photos.
There is the useful full sized pattern envelope to make and  folder divider page along with great fitting vector drawn pattern pieces.

The landscape format is made for the iPad but also looks great on a regular computer.

My patterns are priced with the hobby sewer in mind. I hate paying more for the pattern than the fabric.

Check out all my patterns so far on Craftsy
The apron is pattern 1819.

Happy Sewing,
Val

Valentine's Elbow Patches

I was taken by the fashion pin I found of a jumper with hearts for elbow patches and really wanted to do that for my doll. As with so many things these days someone had already done it but it is still a good idea, so I included the little heart shape and placement in my Knitfit Lucy Classic Skivvy pattern.

I used some regular woven fabric in pink for my hearts. Trace two hearts onto fusible applique paper and cut out a rectangle around them. Iron this onto the back of the pink fabric then cut out around the hearts.
Let it cool then carefully peel off the hearts. To position them I held the fabric and pattern piece up to the window and put the fabric heart over the outline that I could see through the sleeve fabric. Iron the hearts in place.

Have you used your edge stitch foot lately?
My overlocker is threaded with black and I just didn't feel like swapping to the cream so I tried out my edge stitch foot on my sewing machine and it worked a treat. The little finger that the zig zag stitch goes over, stops the edge of the fabric being pulled in by the stitches. I used my regular tension with a 5mm zig zag and my regular 2.5mm stitch length.

After stitching the shoulder seams put on the neck band. I used the singlet neck band for this jumper. I forgot that the t-shirt back and front I used has a higher neck line than the singlet and I should have cut 1/2" off the neck band length to make the neck fit a bit snugger.

I cut my sleeves an extra 1/8" longer, left off the cuff and turned up 3/8" hem. I zig zag my hems 1/4" from the fold.
When you put in the sleeves make sure you get them right and left so the hearts go in the right place. The heart is placed closer to the back of the sleeve.

After trying it on the doll a few times I decided to make it a bit shorter and put on some lace edging.
This knit fabric did not hem too well. It stretched a bit and looks a bit loose around the hem. I will have to work on a design that is tight fitting. I have a plan for a fashion skivvy with a few different variations. A tight fitting option will be one of them.

I have plenty of time to play around with my computer as well as sewing. I imported the final photos into Fireworks and erased the background. (I hope to have a studio set up for green screen photos soon). Jessica is now at Binna Burra for a short break :)

Happy Sewing,
Val