How to use old quilt squares for tiny doll clothes @ ChellyWood.com #AmSewing #DollClothesPatterns

A Draculaura doll from Monster High holds one hand out in front of her and the other hand is running fingers through her long black and pink hair. She wears a handmade cotton A-line dress in a holiday print fabric in two different shades of wine or burgundy swirls. Under the dress, she wears velvet boots that have gold buckles. 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.

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?

A Caucasian woman's hand holds a very tiny piece of scrap fabric. The fabric has vertical stripes in the following colors: khaki, purple, lime green. These stripes are only about 5 millimeters thick, making a very tiny stripe on the fabric. The ChellyWood.com logo appears in one corner of the photo. This fabric comes from the FabScrap website and will be featured in a future video all about how FabScrap is a modern alternative for sustainable fabric re-use in the United States.
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 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:

In Figure 1, four pattern pieces are laying on top of a swatch of fabric that's not even 6 inches by 6 inches square. There's a bit of extra, exposed fabric, even after laying these tiny pattern pieces over top. In figure 2, we see that the bodice "cut on fold" piece was used to cut out a burgundy bodice and a tan bodice. The tan bodice is dotted with green stems and leaves and some gold flowers and some burgundy colored flowers. In figure 3, we see that the tan bodice was cut from a tiny quilt square that had been prepared to be a part of a quilt, but for whatever reason, that quilt was never made (or at least this piece of the quilt was never added to the quilt). The square chunks from which the bodice was cut are shown beside a ruler, and the bits of tan fabric measure about 3 and a half inches by 3 and a half inches square.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

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!

This photo shows the burgundy dress under construction. There's a needle and thread being used to seal the bodice lining to the "wrong side" of the dress's skirt. We can clearly see how nicely the tan lining with its tiny burgundy flowers contrasts with, yet also compliments, the burgundy fabric of the skirt.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

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:

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:

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.

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.

Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:

*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.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.