Last Monday we talked about cutting out patterns for people’s clothes vs. cutting out patterns for doll clothes.
Today I want to address how stitching methods vary from doll clothes to people’s clothes.
First, the smaller the doll clothes, the more you should consider stitching by hand. I mean yes, a sewing machine is fine for 18-inch American girl dolls, but tiny little arm holes for Chelsea dolls are going to get caught down in the bobbin hole on a sewing machine.
Seriously. Think about how tiny these little arm holes are, as an example:
When attaching a sleeve to a dress that small, you’re going to have more control if you sew it by hand.
But that would be incredibly time-consuming for human-sized clothes. However, it should be noted that all sewing was done by hand before the invention of the sewing machine, so my great-great grandma, Rachel Tannehill, sewed every one of her garments by hand.
That’s why I’m amazed when people cringe at the suggestion that they should consider sewing their Barbie doll clothes by hand.
Let’s take a close look at Butterick Pattern #6668, as shown below, and let’s think about why it might be easier to sew these items of doll clothing by hand, rather than using the sewing machine…
Notice how tiny the pockets are, on Barbie’s little tan jacket, in View A? Now imagine running those pockets through a sewing machine. Ugh. I can already hear my machine going “clunk” as the fabric jams down in the bobbin hole!
Adding the ribbon to the jacket in View A is going to be different from adding ribbon to a human’s jacket as well.
Because we don’t wash doll clothes as frequently as we wash human beings’ clothes, we can just dab a little Fray Check on the end of the ribbon after stitching it to the garment for Barbie. But with a person’s clothes, we would likely secure the ends of the ribbon (or perhaps bias tape) inside the hem to avoid fray in the washer and dryer.
But in addition to these differences, the construction of doll clothes is often different than the construction of human beings’ clothes. Butterick Pattern #6668 is a rare find because it offers patterns and instructions for making both a bow tie and a necktie for Ken dolls.
But have a look at how they are constructed:
They’re simply attaching ribbon to a piece of narrow elastic. That’s it.
Anyone who has tried to tie a man’s neck tie knows that the thing is far more complicated than that in real life. But how ingenious the makers of Butterick 6668 are!
In fact, I must confess, I was inspired by this concept when I designed my own neck tie for male fashion dolls because it was so darned easy to create one this way!
Finally, let me draw your attention to the dress in View C of this pattern. Here’s the image once again:
Believe it or not, this dress doesn’t open in the back as one might expect. Instead, the instructions recommend that it open at one of the shoulders. How strange is that?
When I made mine, though, I re-designed it to open in back. Pattern alteration is pretty easily done with doll clothes because they’re on such a small scale. It’s just a matter of re-drawing the pattern the way you want it to work.
Which brings me to my Creative Spark class… Yup. Once again, I’m going to tell you about the class I’ll be offering with Creative Spark in late December or early January.
I’ll be teaching people how to alter doll clothes patterns in the first class of this series. So if you have any interest in learning how to do any of the following, you should navigate over to CreativeSpark.CTpub.com to sign up for their newsletter:
- How to lengthen or shorten a doll’s skirt
- How to combine a skirt pattern and bodice pattern to make a doll’s dress
- How to alter a pants pattern to make overalls
- How to change the shape of a doll’s sleeve
I’ll be teaching many more concepts, but these four are pattern alteration concepts my followers have mentioned in comments and messages that they’ve sent me. So I’ll be sure to cover each of them in detail, in the class.
Most of the commercial patterns I display and talk about here on ChellyWood.com are also available for sale on eBay. However, if you’ve never purchased a pattern on eBay before, it’s a good idea to read the article I wrote called, “Tips for Buying Used Doll Clothes Patterns on eBay.” It will save you time, money, and will likely prevent buyer’s remorse.
And by the way, if you use the links I’ve provided to make your eBay purchase, this website will receive a small commission, which helps fund the ChellyWood.com website, so I can continue to provide you with all the free patterns and tutorial videos offered here.
Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:
*ChellyWood.com earns money by linking to JoAnn Fabrics, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and other online affiliate programs. Links provided above may be affiliate links. For a full list of my affiliate programs, and to understand how cookies are used to help this website earn money, please see my “Privacy Policy” page.
Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with the pattern company or companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly finds inspiration in the doll clothes designed by these pattern companies. To purchase patterns from Simplicity, McCall’s, Butterick, Vogue, or other pattern companies shown and discussed in this blog post, please click on the links provided here. These links below the “Disclaimer” section do not help raise money for this free pattern website; they are only offered to give credit to the company that made these patterns.