This week I’m going to show you how to sew my “Nautical Shorts,” which as we saw in yesterday’s preview post, will fit most 18-inch dolls, including American Girl dolls, Madame Alexander dolls, and even the Vintage Crissy doll that I displayed in yesterday’s post.
At the top of this post, you will find my free, printable sewing pattern, but it’s a little easier to download and print with high resolution if you click here instead of trying to print a screenshot or something. (I have a tutorial video that can help you print my patterns; scroll down to the “Additional Information” section below for a few helpful guidelines.)
If this pattern looks familiar, that’s because it’s similar to the pants pattern I posted in August. (Click there to see that series of patterns and tutorials.)
Tomorrow I’ll post the tutorial video, so you can see how to make these nautical shorts. And just in case you’re wondering, I got my “nautical” patterned fabric in the Fabric Quarters section of the quilting fabrics, at JoAnn’s Fabrics and Crafts, here in the United States, where I live. If you also live here, you may find these Fabric Quarters (also called “fat quarters”) can be a really inexpensive way to add to your collection of doll clothes fabrics.
For more on “How to Shop for Doll Clothes Fabrics,” feel free to click on the link I’ve provided here.
Additional Information:
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Some of my followers have wondered what motivates me to give my patterns away for free.
First of all, I’m a librarian by trade. Librarians love free stuff! We believe that the more a person knows, the more enriched their life will be. So it may sound kind of crazy, but I want ChellyWood.com to become a sort of library of free patterns that help people learn to sew doll clothes.
If you’d like to learn more about my motives, feel free to visit my Chelly’s Books page.
My Gallery Page is the easiest way to search through all of my patterns to find what you want. Each image on the Gallery Page takes you to links for patterns and tutorials.
Need help printing my patterns? This link offers a tutorial showing you how to download and print my FREE patterns using Google Docs. (For the older print-a-pattern tutorial, which uses Microsoft Word, click here.) To review my difficulty scale (demonstrating how hard or easy a pattern is by the number of flowers displayed), take a look back at this blog post.
Please note: you must enlarge my patterns to fit a full-sized piece of American computer paper (8.5 x 11 inches or 216 x 279 mm) without margins, before printing.
My patterns are now available through “Creative Commons Attribution.” This means that I created my patterns (and therefore I own rights to them), but I’m willing to share them with everyone who will tell people about my website.
Here are some helpful ways to tell the world about my patterns:
- You can pin them on Pinterest.
- You can like them on Facebook.
- You can tweet about them.
- Use any other form of social media that appeals to you!
Are you new to sewing? I’ve 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.
In case you haven’t heard, I have actually designed some commercial patterns for Lammily LLC. You might want to visit the Lammily website to see what they’ve got going on.
If your question wasn’t answered here, feel free to submit a question. I’m always happy to help my followers find what they need, so they, too, can make amazing doll clothes and crafts.