Yesterday I did a blog post asking you which one you liked better: Velcro, or snaps, for the back closure of your doll clothes garments.

Although I use both kinds of closures, I prefer snaps, and as I have said many times before on this website, I prefer Dritz snaps to other brands.

That’s because Dritz snaps come on a cardstock sheet, so you can be sure your snaps’ male pieces fit into the female pieces.

But I’ve had followers ask me a few questions about various aspects of using snaps so I realize that using snaps isn’t intuitive.

First and foremost, I get this question a lot: “Which snaps do I use for which doll clothes garments?”

The size of the snap has a lot to do with which snaps I choose for which garments, as does the color. A black snap looks better on dark fabric, while a silver snap looks better on light colored fabric. (They aren’t really made of silver. If you read the card, you’ll see that they are nickel plated brass snaps.)

As for sizes, the image below may help.

The gold arrows point at the spot on your card where it lists the size of your snaps. But what do these size numbers mean?

Size 1/0 is actually a very large snap for doll clothes. Note the grid under my snaps uses 1 centimeter by 1 centimeter squares. So those black snaps are really quite large for doll clothes. I only use the 1/0 size snaps for 18 inch dolls’ clothes.

The 3/0 snaps (and 2/0 snaps, which are missing from my collection right now) are a medium-sized snap, and they usually work well for dolls between 12 and 17 inches tall. The little 4/0 snaps are for 11 inch dolls and smaller, although I’ve been known to use a 2/0 for a Barbie dress every once in a while.

The snap in the image below is probably a 3/0 because the pattern I was using was designed for a bustier Barbie than the one who is wearing the dress here:

Here’s the doll that was meant to wear that dress:

She’s a Superstar Barbie from the late 1970’s or early 1980’s, and that means she was much bustier than the modern Barbie shown in the dress below:

So snaps can be a way to help you alter your patterns. If the dress fits too loosely, as in this case, a bigger snap will close the gap at the back closure a few extra millimeters.

Now let’s have a look at the card my Dritz snaps come on:

A typical card comes with about 12 snaps, but you can buy them in larger quantities as well. You can even buy cards with multiple sizes on them.

Always look at the size before you buy, and make sure no snaps are missing from the card. Mine has snaps missing because I used two of the snaps for a doll’s garment already.

That’s another thing I love about snaps: they’re easy enough to keep track of, if you just leave them on the card until they are needed.

If you look closely, there’s a hole in the middle of each snap. Once you’ve separated your male and female snaps, you can keep track of the snap you’re not sewing yet, by sticking a straight pin through its middle and pinning it to your pincushion!

Now let’s have a look at the back of the snaps card:

There’s actually a sewing guide on the back of my Dritz snaps card, which can be handy if you’ve never sewn snaps before. However I use a different method than the one they suggest here.

If you’d like to see the method I use, please feel free to view the video below. I’ve placed it there for your benefit.

 

Last but not least, if you’d like to know more about making alterations to your doll clothes patterns, go check out my class on the Creative Spark Online Learning platform. In my class, we do talk about how to make room for closures like snaps and Velcro. It’s an important part of creating doll clothes!

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