For your free pattern and tutorial video, please scroll down to the second set of bullets.
Yesterday we talked about how I was able to use a weirdly-shaped scrap of fabric to create a lining for the holiday holly dress that my Ever After High doll was wearing. Along the same lines, today I’m going to share how I used an unwanted quilt square to make the adorable A-line dress you see at the top of today’s blog post.
Have you ever had someone give you old quilt squares as scraps? Can you use those swatches of tiny fabric bits?
Most likely, yes you can, as long as you’re sewing for a very small doll. That’s one of the things like I like about sewing for Monster High and Ever After High dolls. Their bodies are so small, that you can literally use tiny two-inch-by-two-inch scraps of fabric to make something for them.
In fact, the outer part of today’s A-line holiday dress was made from a rather oddly shaped scrap that was less than nine inches square, as you’ll see in Figure 1 below:
And then the bodice lining, which you see in Figure 2, was made from that tiny square of 3 inch by 3 inch quilt block bits.
Of course it helped that the flowers in that tan fabric were almost the same shade of burgundy as the nine inch segment of burgundy fabric, so when you opened up the dress to put it on the doll, you would see that pretty floral tan fabric underneath. What a nice surprise!
So when quilters offer to give you fabric scraps that have already been made into quilt squares, don’t turn them down! You never know what you can make from even the tiniest pieces of scrap fabric!
To make today’s pretty A-line dress, you’ll need a few Dritz size 3/0 or 4/0 snaps, sew-on Velcro, 1/8 inch wide rickrack, and some 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!
For the burgundy colored A-line dress, I used sew-on Velcro in addition to snaps for the back closure, but in the tutorial video, you’ll see that I only used snaps down the skirt’s closure area. If you’d like to use sew-on Velcro too, here’s an image of my holly-themed A-line dress, so you can see how I attached Velcro to the skirt portion of both dresses:
Today’s pattern will fit these dolls:
- Monster High female dolls
- 8 inch Bratz dolls
- Ever After High dolls
- 8 inch Breyer Rider dolls
- Kuu Kuu Harajuku dolls (9 and a half inch)
- Spin Master La Dee Da dolls
- Disney 9 and a half inch fairy dolls like Tinkerbell
- Hasbro World of Love vintage dolls
- vintage Sunshine Family adult female dolls
- Mego 8-inch female action figures
- 7 inch Lottie dolls
- 9 and 3/4 inch (25 cm) Ginny Weasley dolls
Here are your free, printable PDF sewing patterns and links to some helpful tutorial videos:
- Pattern for A-line dress
- Tutorial video showing how to make the A-line dress
- How to do a whipstitch
- How to sew snaps on fabric
- How to do a backstitch
- How to gather fabric
- How to choose fabric
- How to sew rickrack
For more of my free tutorials, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1.
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.
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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.