Yesterday I did a blog post showing you how I made a pair of Bermuda shorts from my Simplicity 7928 doll clothes pattern, along with my own reversible tank top pattern, which is, of course, free on this website.

As I said yesterday, I’ve found that I can learn a lot by sewing other people’s patterns, and I especially love to take other people’s patterns to the next level, creating something brand new and altogether different with them.

Take a close look at the Bermuda shorts that the doll on the left is wearing. What’s different about her shorts?

Yep, they have a little front pocket! It can be a back pocket too, if I want to flip the shorts around the other direction. See what I mean:

One of the great things about a Made-to-Move Barbie doll, is the fact that she can actually bend her arm in such a way that she can put her hand into her own back pocket! How cool is that?!

But how did I take my vintage Simplicity 7928 Bermuda shorts pattern and give it a pocket that it didn’t actually come with?

To start with, I had to recognize that the original pants pattern had a casing. This will make alterations necessary because if you don’t alter the casing, then you run the risk of sewing the pocket over the top of the casing (and possibly over the top of the elastic) when you attach the pocket.

It’s always a good idea to read the directions that come with your patterns to see whether or not your pants come with a casing, but on my Simplicity 7928 Bermuda shorts pattern, you can actually see where it says “fold line” for the casing at the waist area of the shorts:

In brief, if your pants or shorts come with an elastic waistband, it’s a good idea to extend the waistband before attempting to put a pocket on your pants or shorts. But if your pants or shorts are fitted, it’s probably going to be less of a problem.

Of course if the pattern itself came with a pocket option, it won’t be necessary to make any alterations to the waist. The designer would have made corrections to accommodate the pocket.

In the image below, you can see how I’ve measured my doll, measured for the alteration, and used a fabric pencil to bring up the casing. That way I can easily put a pocket under the casing without sewing over or through the casing.

That’s exactly the type of technique I teach in my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” course on Creative Spark. The purpose of this class is to help you be more creative with the patterns you already own, lengthening shirts, skirts, sleeves, and pants, or making them shorter — or making your skirts more full, to create a wardrobe that suits your personal style.

In my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” class, we also learn how to take a small doll’s clothing pattern and use a simple formula to re-size that pattern so it will fit a bigger doll, as I talked about in a previous blog post about vintage Velvet dolls:

And also, people have submitted questions about whether my course is a subscription or a one-time fee…

For any class on Creative Spark, you pay a one-time fee, and you can continue to access the coursework indefinitely. So you can keep going back to review the videos without ever paying a penny more.

There’s no specific time limit to access your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. It’s definitely not a subscription. It’s just a super fun class that will teach you how to alter the doll clothes patterns you already own (or my free patterns from right here), to create a wardrobe, to fit dolls of any shape or size.

If you like my sewing tips, feel free to visit the “Helpful Tips” page. There’s a lot of great stuff on that page too!

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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.