For your free patterns and additional tutorial videos, please scroll down to the second set of bullets.
Today’s tutorial video will show you how to make a pretty sun dress for 10 inch dolls like Disney’s Moana fashion dolls (and a number of similar dolls with a small bust measurement). Scroll down to the first set of bullets to see all the dolls this pattern will fit.
I first made the orange “fire” style sun dress for my cousin Illy’s girls, because at that time, they were having a lot of fun playing with Moana dolls but they didn’t have any doll clothes for them (except the ones that came on the doll originally).

And then I made the pretty yellow “button flower” sun dress, after that, which is shown below:

The little pink sandals Moana is wearing in the image above are not my own design. Instead, I got the idea for these shoes from a YouTuber called Pipe Cleaner Crafts.
However I did make the black Mary Jane-style shoes that Moana’s wearing with the “fire” dress, using my Monster High / Ever After High doll shoe pattern, which you can find here.
I love how the skirt is short but full, when you use the shorter sun dress pattern that comes with today’s set of patterns. It looks like Moana is “doing a twirl” (as my daughters used to say, when they were little).

Of course you could use some ribbons for the straps on this dress, but the pattern does come with a strap pattern, so you can make the straps out of the same fabric you use for your dress.

To make this flared-skirt sun dress for your ten inch dolls, you’ll need some cotton fabric and a single Dritz snap. That’s it.
Today’s patterns will fit these dolls*:
- Disney Princess 10 inch dolls
- Disney fairy 9 inch dolls (like the little Tinkerbell dolls)
- Momoko dolls
- Petite Barbie dolls
- Skipper dolls
- vintage Sunshine Family adult female dolls
- Project MC Squared dolls
- Disney’s 10 inch Moana dolls
- Creatable World dolls
- Ideal’s vintage Pepper dolls
- Rainbow High 10 and a half inch dolls
- Strawberry Shortcake 10 and 3/4 inch dolls
- Vintage Skipper dolls
- DC Superhero Girls*
- Vintage Francie dolls
*Note: the dress is very short on the DC Superhero Girls.
Here are your free, printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making the dress shown in the video at the top of this page:
- Free printable PDF sewing pattern for a 9 or 10 inch fashion doll sun dress with straps
- Tutorial video showing how to make the dress (at the top of this page)
- How to do a whipstitch
- How to sew snaps on fabric
- How to do a backstitch
- How to gather fabric
- How to press seams
If you’ve ever had a dress turn out to be too tight for your doll after you’ve sewn it, then my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” on the Creative Spark platform could help you.
Once you sign up for one of my courses on Creative Spark, the class’s videos will remain open for you to view over and over again. There’s no specific time limit to your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you.
If you enjoy my free patterns and tutorial videos, please help spread the word! Feel free to pin, like, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials. Here’s an image you’re welcome to share on social media:

Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Links:
*ChellyWood.com earns money by linking to Amazon, eBay, Michaels, 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.
To honor the trademark rights of the doll companies mentioned in this blog post, I am including links to their websites here. Please feel free to visit their website and consider purchasing one or more of the dolls mentioned, but the links below do not necessarily help support this website (whereas the links in the bulleted list at the top DO support this website, as the top links are affiliate marketing links).
Skipper, Petite Barbie dolls, Creatable World, vintage Francie, DC Superhero Girls, vintage Skipper, and vintage Sunshine Family dolls are products offered by Mattel, which holds the registered trademark for them (™). Please visit the Mattel Toys website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.
Rainbow High dolls are products offered by MGA Entertainment, which holds the trademark for them (™). Please visit the Rainbow High website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.
Momoko dolls are products offered by Petworks, which holds the trademark for them (™). Please visit the Momoko Dolls website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.
Disney Princess, Moana, and Disney fairy dolls are products offered by the Disney corporation, which holds the trademark for them (™). Please visit the Disney Toys website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.
Project MC Squared dolls and Rainbow High dolls are products offered by MGA Entertainment, which holds the trademark for them (™). Please visit the Project MC Squared website or the Rainbow High website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.
According to Wikipedia, “Ideal Toy Company was an American toy company founded by Morris Michtom and his wife, Rose. During the post–World War II baby boom era, Ideal became the largest doll-making company in the United States.” They produced the Tammy family line of dolls, including Ideal Pepper dolls, but eventually the Tammy line of dolls went out of production (with the exception of the Sindy doll — the UK version — which has had a recent revival). There have been a complicated series of sales of rights for Ideal toys since then, and you can read about it on Wikipedia, if you’re interested. But at the time of this blog post, the trademark name “Tammy” for these dolls was abandoned and has remained “dead” (according to the US Trademark database) since 2004.
According to Wikipedia (as of 9 January 2022), Strawberry Shortcake “is a cartoon character used in greeting cards published by American Greetings. The line was later expanded to include dolls… The franchise is currently owned by the Canadian children’s television company WildBrain and American brand management company, Iconix Brand Group through the holding company Shortcake IP Holdings LLC.” I was unable to find a website for Shortcake IP Holdings LLC, but I believe they own the US trademark for the dolls, even though I believe my own doll was originally made and marketed by Hasbro. To learn more about these companies and their toys and products, please click on the links I’ve provided within the quote.
THANK YOU for the link to Pipe Cleaner Crafts and her diy shoes. I’m going to make these summery shoes for MY Barbie 🙂
You’re quite welcome. Thank you for taking the time to comment.