There are five pieces to this Basque-style dress, which I designed to fit Barbie™-sized (1:6 scale) fashion dolls. There’s a long-sleeved gown worn under the pinafore, like a shift or undergarment; there’s the apron-like pinafore with the lace-up bodice; there are two lace-up sleeves which don’t have to be worn with it (but look very elegant); and there’s a snood (the hat thing).
The easiest to make is the snood. Even a child could make this, as I simply gathered a store-bought doily to create it. (See tutorial for the easy step-by-step process for making it.)
The lace-up pinafore and sleeves are quite difficult to make, so I only recommend that project for the advanced sewist.
The shift or dress worn under the pinafore, which I’ve displayed below, is of medium difficulty. If you’ve made a few other doll clothes items–pants, shirts, skirts–then you’re probably ready for this dress. Here’s a picture of just the dress that’s worn under the Basque-style pinafore:
And here are the free, printable patterns and free tutorials to help you make each piece:
- Tutorial showing how to make a snood for fashion dolls
- Pattern for the white long-sleeved dress’s bodice only
- Pattern for the white dress’s skirt only
- Tutorial showing how to make the white dress that’s worn under the pinafore
- Pattern for the pinafore with lace-up bodice and sleeves
- Tutorial for making the pinafore with lace-up bodice and sleeves
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Remember that you need to enlarge my patterns to fit an American-sized sheet of printer paper (8.5 x 11 inches or 216 x 279 mm), without margins, before printing. Feel free to pin,like, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials. If you can’t find a specific pattern, just submit a question to me directly.
Need help printing my patterns? This link will take you to a tutorial showing you how to download my free, printable patterns.
I’ve also got a playlist of tutorials for the beginning sewists on my YouTube channel. It includes video tutorials showing you how to do a basic straight stitch when sewing by hand, how to use the whipstitch to hem a garment, how to sew on snaps, and even how to design your own doll clothes patterns, for those who are new to design and alterations.
If you’re wondering why I make patterns and tutorials without charging a fee, please visit the “Chelly’s Books” page, and that should explain my general motivations. Overall, I love to sew, design doll clothes, and embroider, and I think it’s important to share my talents with the world, so others can learn to do what I do.
And in case you haven’t heard, I have also designed commercial patterns for Lammily LLC. They have some new dolls coming out soon, so you might want to visit the Lammily website to see what they’ve got going on.