Showing posts with label valspierssews pattern club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label valspierssews pattern club. Show all posts

Saturday, April 20, 2024

A new design for the 18" Doll

My latest design is well under way. 


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.

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Happy Doll Dressmaking,

Val


Sunday, January 12, 2020

What to do with your 18" doll dress pattern

Doll clothes Patterns by valspierssews
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Have you ever been looking at doll clothes or people clothes pictures on Pinterest and seen the perfect dress for your doll?

Don't you wish you could recreate the design using patterns that you already have?

What you need is a great fitting doll clothes pattern or two that allows you to easily draft new designs.
Doll clothes patterns by valspierssews

My latest spring design that will be published in March was inspired by a dress I found when I did a Google search for Spring dresses.


I took a screenshot and thought about what patterns I had that had pieces I could use without any fancy drafting.

The 3/4 fitted sleeve I took from a dress in my 60s Vol.1 collection but the sleeve piece 7 from 1806 Blouse should do the job. You will just have to cut it off at the elbow.

I didn't want to have to experiment with ruffle depth so I used the skirt from 1804a Scallop bib dress.
It has a hem band that I like the width of. This design also had the front and back bodice pieces.

I know from experience that a normal gathered skirt looks silly with a 3 x gathered ruffle. It is just too out there for the size of the doll.
So I folded under the pattern pieces for the skirt strips so the front strip was 6 3/4" to be cut on the fold and the back pieces were 7 1/2". This gives me a 24" skirt.
I then took the hem band pieces and cut each 1 3/4" wide. I taped them together then adjusted the length to be twice the skirt front pattern piece. You could do this with plain paper too. You don't need the hem band pattern piece.

The hem ruffle is twice the skirt hem.

When you cut the ruffle you need to cut 2 on the fold. I stitched them together at the side seams then I turned up a 1/4" hem. I gathered using a single row of long stitches.

For the sleeve ruffle you need to cut 2 ruffles twice as wide as the sleeve hem edge. Fold under what you don't need on the hem ruffle pattern piece then cut 2.

The ruffle needs to be twice the width of the sleeve hem edge

I folded over the excess from my hem ruffle pattern piece to cut the sleeve ruffle


You can see my whole range of doll clothes patterns on Etsy

Doll clothes patterns by valspierssews
Just one of the add-on bib designs in this pattern

Happy Doll Dressmaking,
Val


Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Vintage doll clothes suspender trousers pattern for 18” dolls




These cute 50s style trousers have slant pockets, elastic in the back and suspenders that cross in the back.




The turtle neck sweater is perfect to wear for the colder weather. It is easy to make with collar and cuffs from the same knit fabric. No need to find matching ribbing.


As an extra for Halloween there is an easy to create spooky eyes costume made from a variation of the turtle neck sweater. A full pattern for this round neck sweater and instructions and diagram for the applique eyes is ready to down load and save as an idea for next Halloween.


I made this little round neck sweater from stretch velvet and I used lace trim to hem the neck and wrists


You can find these patterns in my store
In Etsy  



Happy Doll Dressmaking,
Val


Friday, September 13, 2019

Cute button front skirt pattern for 18” dolls

Button front skirt for 18" dolls


Some styles are just perfect for dolls. I love the way a flat front yoke or waist band makes a doll outfit look like a mini person outfit.


This modern little skirt was inspired by a Vogue skirt design I saw in Australian Vogue Magazine. The little belt loops and belt are an easy way to glam up the skirt.

I noticed this skirt has a bit more gather and a button band down the front. That will be a good idea for a variation on this design. I will keep that in mind for another time.



Happy Doll Dressmaking,
Val