I first posted this free pattern and tutorial just before Valentines Day, 2016. I’ve found this is a highly versatile pattern, so it fits many fashion dolls of different sizes. If you carefully position your snaps to suit the circumference of your doll’s chest, this pattern will fit Skipper™, Petite Barbie™, Blythe™/ Pullip™ /Momoko™ (in similar size ranges), Ever After High™ dolls, Liv dolls, Monster High™ dolls, and probably some others I haven’t even mentioned.

It’s pictured above on just a regular Barbie™ doll, but the trick to sizing this dress just right is in measuring the bodice for snaps. Before sewing the snaps on your dress, make sure you try it on your doll. Place straight pins in the dress’s closure flaps where you want your snaps to meet, in order to make the closure fit right. Then use those straight pins as a guide for snap placement. That’s really all it takes to adjust this pattern to fit the fashion doll of your choice.

Should you happen to find the bodice is too tight around your doll’s chest, try using a hook-and-eye closure instead of snaps. I can’t imagine which fashion dolls might be too big for this pattern in the chest, but maybe that would be true of some of the curvier female dolls made by Integrity Toys™.

If you need help sewing snaps on fabric, I have a tutorial for that. I’ll include it with the links to this free, printable sewing pattern and matching tutorial below:

• Pattern for universal sundress for fashion dolls
• Tutorial for making universal sundress for fashion dolls
• Tutorial showing how to sew snaps on fabric

To make this particular dress, I chose to keep the skirt fairly simple; instead of cutting the material on the fold line, I just cut one length of skirt. If you want your skirt more poofy, then go ahead and follow the directions on the pattern and cut your skirt on the fold line. Otherwise, if you want your fabric to lay more flat like you see in the photo, don’t double the length of your skirt.

If you’re not sure what I mean by this and you need me to clarify, please read through the links below. There’s a link for submitting any questions you have. I always welcome questions and comments from my fans and followers!

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Coming soon: easy-peasy sewing lessons for the beginner doll sewists. I’ve been getting requests for tutorials that even the brand-new sewists can make, so I’m working on a series of easy-to-sew patterns and tutorials for just that sort of person. These beginner tutorials will be suitable for both children and adults. I plan to begin posting those easy-sew lessons and patterns this fall, so stay tuned for more news about that.

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 have any questions about my patterns, instructions, or about sewing for dolls, in general, just submit a question.

Please be aware, however, that I may not be answering emails until mid-August, as I’m on a business trip  right now, so if you need answers to your sewing questions right away, you’ll probably want to search elsewhere.

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.

Need help printing my patterns? This link will take you to a tutorial showing you how to download my free, printable patterns.

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.

And in case you haven’t heard, I have also designed commercial patterns for Lammily LLC. They have some new dolls in their line, including a new male doll, so you might want to visit the Lammily website to see what they’ve got going on.