5 Ways to Make Doll Clothes Collars that WORK (Tip #3) @ ChellyWood.com #SewingTips #DollClothesPatterns

Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Look closely at the collar that my Ken doll is wearing in the image above. Do you notice anything strange about the collar?

Zoom in. Do you see that little white circle under his collar?

That’s actually the head of a straight pin. Uh-huh. His collar wouldn’t stay down for the photo shoot, so what did I do? I pinned it down!

The image, which is purely decorative, shows a heart-shaped pincushion with needles and pins in it. Beside this are two spools of thread. — Purchased from iClipart — all rights reserved.

What works better than a straight pin? A stitch…

Collar Tip #3: Tack the Collar onto the Shirt with a Quick Stitch

My grandmother would say, “You cheated!” But when it comes to making doll clothes, I’ll be the first to admit that there’s plenty of cheating going on! Only I don’t call it cheating; I call it alteration.

Yes, I often sew the collar to the shirt from underneath. This will help you get a really stiff collar to lay flat, and as long as your collar has a top and bottom layer, you can easily hide your stitches in the bottom layer of the shirt collar.

That’s what I do with nearly all of my shirt collars, when I want them to lay flat. Even big dolls can benefit with this one. So if I were making the 16 inch baby doll collars shown in views 3 and 4 of my vintage Simplicity baby doll clothes pattern #1844, I would definitely tack these collars down with a stitch or two.

The image shows a close up of the cover of vintage Simplicity doll clothes pattern number 1844 which has a copyright date of 1956. The photograph has been enhanced with enlarged numbers for each view. In View 1, a baby doll wears a baptismal dress trimmed in lace around the hem with a zigzag of lace about four inches above the hem; each zig zag in front is topped with a tiny blue ribbon like the tiny blue ribbons on the ruffled sleeves and collar. In view 2 a little white dress made of rose-printed fabric is trimmed inn lace about an inch above the skirt's hem, and above each puffy sleeve, we see a pink ribbon tied in a bow. In view 3 a red coat has a little round collar trimmed in rickrack to match the rickrack trim around the matching red bonnet. In view 4 the doll wears a white shirt, a pair of yellow gingham overalls, a matching gingham jacket, and a matching yellow gingham bonnet. In view 5, we see a slip trimmed in lace around the hem, collar, and sleeves. Beside it, a smaller dress or slip has a similar lace around the collar and sleeves, but the hem is trimmed in 1 inch eyelet and tiny pink ribbons. These two slips also come with unadorned white underpants. In view 7, we see a pink baby bunting which is trimmed with ribbon or bias tape (or both). — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

I mean, look how narrow those collars are! There’s no way those things are going to lay against the bodice correctly without some stitching from the underside.

In fact, I’d probably do that for all three of the patterns shown in this image:

Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Ken’s shirt collar is never going to stay down without tacking it onto the shirt somewhere on that Simplicity doll clothes pattern number 7928. No way! Neither will Barbie’s.

The image shows Simplicity Barbie and Ken doll clothes pattern number 7928, which includes the following patterns: a Barbie bikini top with Hawaiian shirt and shorts; a Ken Hawaiian shirt and shorts; a Barbie short sleeved shirt with collar and crop tie and jeans; a Ken tee shirt (T-shirt) with jeans; a Barbie strapless short evening gown; a Barbie muumuu dress; a Barbie jacket. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

But as I noted last week, an 18 inch doll’s collar may be okay, if you’re using really, really thin fabric. However, coats aren’t usually made out of thin fabric.

And the doll in the center of this Simplicity 4364 doll clothes pattern is definitely wearing a coat made of cotton or maybe denim.

Here we see a close-up photography image of Simplicity doll clothes pattern 4364, which shows seven different styles of dresses for 18 inch dolls like American Girl, Journey Girls, etc... The pattern dresses can be described as follows: a pink dress will tulle overlay and a coat (pictured at center), a blue summer sundress, a pink and white tutu, a burgundy colored dress with short sleeves, a white baptismal dress, a red and black holiday dress, and an indigo-colored ice skater's dress. The watermark on this image reminds us that it comes from ChellyWood.com, a website offering free printable PDF sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

So if you don’t want to sew the collar to the jacket, what else can you do? I’ll talk about another alternative that’s especially helpful with big dolls’ collars in next week’s blog post…

Here we see a little tan bear made of flannel with felt eyes and a felt nose. His paws and ears also have felt. He wears a red, black, and white splotchy Hawaiian style shirt with a collar. He also wears black trousers. The watermark says, "Chelly Wood." — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

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.

Another great way to help fund this website is to take my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” which is now live on the Creative Spark platform. You can sign up any time you want–there’s no rush!

And don’t panic if it seems like too much to take on right now — sometimes our lives get really busy. I get that.

But for any class on Creative Spark, once you’re signed up, you can take as long as you want to finish the class. You’re not under pressure or a time constraint to finish your lessons.

You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you.

If you enjoyed today’s sewing tip for making doll clothes collars, and you’d like to see what other helpful doll clothes sewing tips I have offered on this website, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.

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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.