Buyer's Guide, Crafts and Hobbies, Doll Measurements, Fan Mail, Interviews With Crafters, Links, Tips for Beginners, Tutorials: Sewing Basics

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I often get questions about where to buy tiny buttons, small-print fabrics, snaps, itty-bitty buckles, miniature zippers, and even sewing machines and their parts. So I’ve put together a “Buyer’s Guide” to help you with that.

In this photo, the Chelly Wood doll stands in her sewing room with her tiny blue apron on, and a dialog bubble which "floats" beside her says, "PLEASE READ what I've written below." A turquoise blue arrow points down from the dialog bubble. Her sewing room wall is purple, and there's a tiny window in the wall. To the right of the window is a white party dress with tiny multi-colored polka dots, hanging on a sewing mannequin. Chelly stands beside her sewing table, where her miniature sewing machine awaits. A silver folding chair rests behind the sewing table. The Chelly Wood doll is actually a Spin Master Liv doll that has had its wig colored grey and its facial features changed to look like the real doll clothing designer, YouTuber, and writer, Chelly Wood.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

When you buy fabric, ribbons, lace, snaps, or other doll clothes sewing notions, using the links I’ve provided below, this website will earn a small commission, which helps pay for the costs associated with running this free doll clothes pattern website. To learn more about how affiliate marketing works on my website, please click here.

Also, purchasing items from my Etsy store or my Teachers-Pay-Teachers store will help me pay for this website’s upkeep as well. I have a little one-page sewing project planner, that I use myself, and you can learn more about it right here.

And, if you take one of my online courses, you’ll learn something new, while also helping to support my library of free doll clothes patterns! The links to my paid courses through the Creative Spark Online Learning platform are found under the first heading below:

Online Courses — click to learn more

Fabrics

And…

Closures

(See this blog post for reasons why I recommend Dritz snaps.)

Small Buttons and Button Hole Tools

Embellishments

Elastic and Velcro

(With Velcro, it’s almost impossible to find sew-on Velcro smaller than that, so if you need it smaller, just trim pieces to the sizes you need.)

Other Items

Discover Something NEW!

Do you love to sew doll clothes? Would you like to discover a notion you didn’t even know existed? Click here to see what Etsy has to offer! There are artisans and product providers creating new items on Etsy every day. Come back to my site, to use that link, and discover something new every month or so!

A Tip for Designer Labels…

*In the past, I’ve bought embroidered personalized labels from Dutch Label Company, but the last time I ordered from them, they got my embroidery colors wrong and I was out a whopping $90 (because I buy a lot of them all at once).

Instead of my logo colors, the labels came out yellow. Ugh! I had never had this problem before, but I’d always purchased their template designs.

So if you’re going to buy from them, don’t use their personalization. Go with their ready-made templates.

This year, when my daughter re-designed my logo, I switched to MayDay Labels on Etsy. Theirs are ink printed on fabric, but Sara Boatright at MayDay was able to make my labels VERY tiny at my special request!

So I’ll definitely be going back to MayDay Labels for my next set of sew-on labels. Here’s an image of my new itty-bitty labels:

The image shows a very tiny miniature garment label that says "Chelly Wood" inside the shape of a bodice pattern. The label is so tiny, it's even smaller than the thumbnail of the person holding the label (which is Chelly Wood).
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Be Good to the Earth!

In my own doll clothes sewing projects, I try to be conscientious about the products I buy. If I can buy my fabric in the form of second-hand clothing instead of buying brand new textiles, for example, I do so. It’s simply better for the environment.

To learn more about how textile manufacturing can hurt the earth, please read this article.

I also recycle my buttons, elastics, and other notions, whenever possible. If I don’t like how a handmade garment turned out, sometimes I’ll re-use the snaps, the fabric, and any other pieces I think might be re-usable, rather than throwing the whole thing away.

So when you click some of the links I’ve given you above, don’t be surprised if it sends you to “organic fabrics” or other eco-friendly resources. It’s the least I can do to help out our generous Mother Earth!

The image shows a human figure in silhouette, caressing a planet earth. The image is in black and white, and this free image is in the public domain, provided here by ClipSafari.com
Mother Earth image is a free image without a copyright, provided by ClipSafari.

4 thoughts on “Shop”

  1. Thank you for sharing your suppliers with us. However, when I went onto Etsy to see the small buttons I couldn’t see your logo as a seller, how do we know which buttons you would get commission from?

    Reply

    1. I get a commission from all of them. Once I send you to Etsy, it records which website you came from, and then, as long as you make a purchase without navigating elsewhere, I will get paid a small commission.

      Thanks for asking for clarification! Hopefully that makes it a little clearer, should anyone stumble across our little chat down here at the bottom.

      Reply

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