How to use misshapen fabric scraps for tiny doll clothes @ ChellyWood.com #SewingTips #DollClothesPatterns

The image shows an Ever After High doll with very yellow-blond hair, modeling a holiday dress. The dress is in an A-line style, and the fabric shows holly and berries in a tiny red and green print over an ivory colored background color. Just above the hem of the skirt, there's a tiny one-eighths inch red rickrack zig zagging across the bottom of the dress. The doll also wears little red felt elf-style shoes. Her feet are in a prancing pose, and the doll looks slightly to the right of the viewer.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

For your free pattern and tutorial video, please scroll down to the second set of bullets.

Last week we saw the little A-line dress shown above on a Ginny Weasley doll from the Harry Potter doll line that Mattel put out in 2018. Today I’ve used the same dress pattern to make this little holiday dress for my Ever After High doll.

And of course, I’ve added a little rickrack to the bottom of the skirt too. If you’d like to learn more about how to apply rickrack, take a look at this video.

In this image, a nearly-finished A-line doll dress made of holly-printed fabric lies open and flat on a white surface. Beside it, a spool holding red rickrack trim (one eighth inch wide) has been laid next to the dress, the rickrack trim pulled from the spool and stretched across the skirt of the dress.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

But the most interesting feature about this little holly-covered dress, I think, was how I used a very tiny swatch of red and white striped fabric for the bodice’s lining. As you’ll see in figure 1 below, the fabric was oddly-shaped and very tiny:

In figure one, we see a tiny pinstriped cotton fabric laid out beside a ruler. The pin stripes are as thin as a sewing needle! But the swatch of fabric is oddly shaped, sort of in the shape of a mushroom laying on its side. The ruler shows that the top of the mushroom is about six inches long, while the stem of the mushroom is only about two inches long, having a wider base at the bottom of more like three inches. Figure two shows how a Monster High or Ever After High doll's bodice pattern can actually fit on this mushroom-stem-shaped odd piece of fabric, with a cut on fold. Figure three shows the red and white striped cotton fabric has been cut into a bodice front, but so has a different fabric made of white cotton that has a holly print. The two bodices lay one above the other, so we can see that they used an identical bodice pattern.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

My mother-in-law gave me this swatch of fabric, and when she handed it to me, she said, “You probably can’t use this. There’s almost nothing there.”

To which I replied, “Oh, I’ll find a use for it!” and as you can see, Figure 2 shows that I was actually able to cut the bodice front on the fold, on that really uneven piece of fabric that stuck out from the rest of the fabric!

And all my lines were going the same direction when I added the bodice backs to the bigger end of the swatch of fabric, so in all, I’d say this was a successful use of that very small, very oddly-shaped fabric scrap!

Here we see an A-line skirt beside detached bodice pieces. The skirt's fabric is white cotton, printed with very tiny holly leaves and holly berries. The bodice fabric shows a very tiny red pin stripe fabric, but on the flip side of the bodice pieces, we can almost see the holly fabric poking out from the opposite side of the bodice pieces.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

When a little girl plays with this dress, every time she opens it up to put it on a doll, she’ll be pleasantly surprised by the contrasting lining that I gave to this dress’s bodice!

The holly dress worn by Chelly Wood's Ever After High doll is laid out, open to the "wrong side" or underside of the garment. Its pin striped bodice contrasts pleasantly with the holly print that's visible at the seams and hem of the garment. A strip of red Velcro is used as a closure for the skirt part of the A-line dress; snaps are used to close the bodice.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

To make this dress, you’ll need a few Dritz size 3/0 or 4/0 snaps, sew-on Velcro, 1/8 inch wide rickrack, and some cotton holiday fabric or other small-print fabric. You don’t have to use a contrasting fabric for your bodice lining, but doing so will allow you to get rid of those teeny-tiny bits of fabric you weren’t sure you’d ever use!

On that last image, you’ll see I’m using a tiny little special-order label. I bought those from May Day Labels on Etsy. To learn more about why I switched to May Day Labels, go to my Shop page and scroll down to the image of my hand holding one of these teeny-tiny cotton labels.

In this image, an Ever After High doll with blue eyes and straw-blond hair tips her chin slightly down as she models a handmade A-line sleeveless dress with a pretty, flared skirt. The doll stands in front of a turquoise blue background, and she's posed on a white surface. The dress's fabric is decorated with teeny-tiny holly leaves and even smaller holly berries. It's an off-white background to the fabric, with these Christmas holly leaves printed all over the fabric in tiny speckles of green and red. The bottom of the dress has a red rickrack trim. She also wears handmade red elf shoes, which are made of felt. The Chelly Wood dot com logo appears in one corner.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Today’s pattern will fit these dolls:

Here are your free, printable PDF sewing patterns and links to some helpful tutorial videos:

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Is this pattern close to what you were looking for, but maybe you’re wishing the pattern was slightly different? If so, my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” may be just what you need to make these patterns into the pattern you see in your imagination.

For any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to follow a schedule. Just sign up when you’re ready.

It’s a one-time fee for the course, and there’s no specific time limit to finish your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. So go check out my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

As always, 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:

The image shows an A-line dress pattern designed by ChellyWood.com which shows three different dolls modeling the handmade doll dress. A 9-inch Mattel Stacie doll is shown wearing a handmade sleeveless version of the A-line dress. A 10" Disney Princess (Merida) doll is shown wearing a hand-made version of the A-line dress which has cuffs and puff sleeves. A Monster High / Ever After High doll is shown wearing a flutter-sleeve A-line dress. All three of these styles use the patterns provided on this pattern page. You can download the free printable PDF sewing pattern for making this dolls' dress (and many other doll clothes) at ChellyWood.com -- and the patterns are all FREE.
Visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns for doll clothes that will fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.

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*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.

Stacie, Ginny Weasley, Monster High, Ever After High, Kuu Kuu Harajuku, 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.

World of Love is a product that was once owned and distributed by Hasbro, which holds the registered trademark for these retired toys (™). Please visit the Hasbro Toy website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.

Snapstar dolls are produced by Yulu International Limited of Hong Kong, and that company holds the registered trademark for them (™). Please visit the Yulu Toys website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.

Project MC Squared dolls are made by MGA Entertainment, which holds the trademark rights to these dolls. If you’d like to learn more about the Project MC2 show and the dolls that go with it, please click here.

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