Alterations on the fold line with McCall’s Crafts pattern number 5462 #Sewing #DollClothesPatterns

This is a photo of McCall's Crafts doll clothes pattern number 5462. There's a purple arrow pointing at the outfit in View B, which includes a striped T-shirt with three-quarter-length sleeves and a full-length body suit-style pair of leggings (like a dancer from the 1980's might have worn, with straps that go above the leggings to cover the shirt's shoulders, sort of like overalls). The shirt is made of white jersey-style fabric with a black pin stripe. The leggings or dancer's bodysuit is made of black stretchy fabric that fits the fashion doll with a skin-tight fit. At the bottom of the bodysuit, there are stirrups for the leggings, and the doll wears black heels. The doll has auburn hair. There are nine other outfits pictured on McCalls 5462: (top row) a gold prom dress, a black V-neck dress, a fur coat, a pair of loose fitting pants with a tank top, and a pink strapless dress with a short, layered pink skirt; (bottom row) a short-sleeved T-shirt with bike shorts and a twirly skirt, the dancer's bodysuit with three-quarter-length sleeves, a male fashion doll's shirts with tank top, a male fashion doll's baggy pants with tank top, and a poodle skirt with a long-sleeved shirt and neck handkerchief. Learn more about how Chelly Wood taught her followers how to create variations on the shirt pictured in view B (the tee shirt with three-quarter length sleeves) by going to ChellyWood.com and using her search tool to find McCalls doll clothes pattern 5462.
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.

See that T-shirt in View B with the three-quarter-length sleeves? I’m going to focus today on how to make alterations to that shirt, which is found in the McCall’s Crafts pattern number 5462.

In fact, I’ve spent much of the month of April fiddling around with that View B 3/4 sleeve length shirt pattern as well as the regular-sleeve T-shirt in View G, so I can teach you how to alter dolls’ tee shirts in ways that will apply to dolls of many shapes and sizes.

Over a series of blog posts that are yet to come, we’ll look at this T-shirt from different angles and in different ways. But today, I’m going to show you how you can turn this T-shirt into a jacket or stretchy-fabric sweater, just by altering the way you cut it on the fold.

A woman's fingers lift up a piece of off-white fabric which has a T-shirt pattern pinned to it. She's showing that along one of the T-shirt pattern's edges, where it says, "cut on fold," the fabric she's using has been folded in half, and the edge of the pattern has been scooted out to the very edge of the fabric's fold.
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.

In the image above, you can see what’s meant by “cut on the fold.” We first fold the fabric. Sometimes I’ll even press the fold, to make sure my pattern sidles up to the very sharply folded edge of the fabric. Then we pin the shirt to the fabric, leaving its “cut on fold” edge right up against that pressed fold.

This T-shirt is kind of a weird one though because it’s all one piece, but you cut the back of it open after you cut it out. So first, you cut out the garment on the fold, like you see me doing here:

In this image, a pair of scissors are cutting around a doll's T-shirt pattern (McCall's crafts 5462) which has been pinned to the fabric along the fold.
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.

You may have noticed, in the photo above, that I’m not actually cutting right up against the fold, like I should be. I’m going to talk about that alteration in a moment, so hold that thought!

Okay. So next, after the shirt is all cut out, you would then open it up to its full size and cut an opening at the back, where you’ll run snaps down the back for a closure:

This photo shows a blue cutting mat. On top of it, we see a shirt pattern laying flat, with sleeves pointing northwest and southeast. The shirt's front points southwest. The shirt's back has been cut down the middle and a neck has been cut to form a sort of t-shape where the blue of the cutting mat shows through the cut portions of the shirt. A pair of scissors with a pink and white handle sit on the cutting mat beside the shirt.
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 let’s return to the elephant in the room. Why did I cut it out with extra room along the fold? I had an alteration in mind when I made this cut.

I’m planning to change this three-quarters length sleeve T-shirt into a three-quarters length sleeve jacket. The jacket you’ll see on the doll below is one such jacket, but I also altered the sleeves’ lengths in this version:

Here we see a Barbie with hoop earrings, long straight black hair, pink lipstick, and dark chocolate complexion modeling a pair of white cotton shorts with a tank top and white sneakers (trainers). Over her tank top, she wears a coral-colored jacket with wrist-length sleeves and an open area at the front of the jersey-style jacket (no snaps or Velcro is used for a closure, but rather, the jacket just hangs open). The ChellyWood.com logo appears in one corner.
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.

You’ll also notice that instead of having the shirt open in back (like the pattern suggested), my jacket opens in front. Also, I chose a stretchy fabric that sort of looks and feels like jersey fabric on the outside, but in the inside, it has an almost terry cloth texture to it.

Have a look:

Here we see a close-up of a black Barbie modeling a white shorts outfit (which has pastel polka dots) under a coral colored jacket made of stretchy fabric. In this close-up, the doll's jacket is open at the front, exposing the texture of the underside of the garment. It has a texture similar to jersey fabric on the outside but on the inside, the jacket's texture is more loopy like terry cloth.
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.

For this T-shirt project, the McCall’s Crafts 5462 pattern envelope does suggest using jersey fabric, but let’s face it; a lot of us who sew mostly doll clothes own as many hand-me-down scraps as we do fabrics we bought in a store.

And the tale behind my coral-colored fabric also points to the use of a second-hand fabric for this jacket. I bought it from a lady on Etsy who goes shopping at thrift stores, cuts up the garments she buys at the thrift stores, and then sells the garment pieces as remnants on Etsy. As you can see in the image below, the fabric is still a vibrant color, even though this fabric was once used for a different, human-sized garment:

Here we see another close-up of the coral-colored fabric that has been used to make a long-sleeved T-shirt for Chelly's Barbie, using an alteration on the McCall's crafts 5462 pattern. The fabric is a lovely shade of coral with no stains or dulling of the fabric. It matches the coral-colored polka dots in the shorts outfit the doll's wearing beneath the 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.

In case you’re not aware, there’s an eco-friendly movement to re-use old garment fabrics this way, and I actually do a lot of that type of recycling myself. By re-purposing old, previously worn fabrics, less fabric will go into our landfills, and that’s a good thing!

Okay, so let’s go back to why I cut the fabric on the fold with extra room to spare:

A Barbie doll T-shirt pattern from View B in the McCall's craft 5462 pattern has been pinned to a cream-colored cotton fabric or muslin. But it has been pinned about half a centimeter too far away from the folded edge, even though the pattern says, "cut on fold" along that folded edge area. There's ruler being held up to the neckline area as well. And it shows half a centimeter of the neckline is being measured.
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.

Cutting the shirt’s torso area half a cm too wide is part of my necessary alterations. A T-shirt fits tightly, and a jacket needs to fit more loosely. So I deliberately chose to cut the garment on the fold with a little extra room. But do you see that ruler I’ve got sitting next to the neck opening above?

When you make an alteration, it’s usually not enough to make one adjustment to the pattern. Usually you have to make other adjustments too.

I’m holding the ruler there to show how far in I’ll have to cut the neckline. Normally, we would cut the neckline all the way in, but since I have a half centimeter of extra fabric on the fold, I need to make an accommodation for that in the neckline.

A black Barbie doll with lovely pink lipstick models a coral colored jacket. We're viewing it from above, so we can see that the neckline has been cut to fit nicely along the doll's halter top's shoulder straps, encircling the exposed skin of her neck and collar area with a perfect fit.
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.

Had I cut the neckline all the way to the edge, this jacket would have been falling off the doll’s shoulders too much. Instead, the neck fits her nicely.

Also, this pattern is actually for a three-quarter-length sleeve, but as you can see in my photos, I’ve created a full-length sleeve. How did I do that?

A Barbie doll models a pair of white shorts with pastel-colored polka dots and a matching tank top. She wears these under a coral colored jacket. She spreads out her little doll arms, so we can see that her sleeves are the perfect length for her arms, with the sleeves ending exactly at the doll's wrists.
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.

Measurements have a lot to do with these types of alterations. Tomorrow (at the request of many of my followers) I’ll be bringing back my #TapeMeasureTuesday feature, and from that blog post, you will get some idea of the types of measurements that are needed for these garment alterations.

And in the next couple of weeks, I’ll teach you even more about how to alter doll clothes patterns, as we look at the variations I’ve made to McCall’s Crafts Pattern #5462. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that all three of the garments shown below were made using different variations on that exact same T-shirt pattern:

On a wooden surface, we see three garments. On the left in toward the top is a shiny blue long-sleeved shirt with a back closure and something of a U-shaped neckline. At the top and somewhat to the right, laying flat on the wooden surface, is a peach colored shirt with three-quarter length sleeves. This shirt has a gathered neckline and we can see that inside it, this cotton shirt has a paler peach colored lining. Then, below these other two garments, we see a coral-colored jacket made of very fine terry-cloth-like fabric. It hangs open at the front but has an oval neckline.
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.

Who would have thought that making a couple of changes to the cutting directions and flipping that long-sleeved T-shirt around so the back creates the front opening and the original front to the jacket becomes the back, was all it would take to completely transform this shirt pattern into a jacket pattern?

In this photo, a black Barbie has her back to us and her arms spread out wide, so we can see that the back of her coral-colored jacket has no openings, but the neck, shoulders, and even the arms' length fits the doll perfectly, even from the back view!
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, I know you’ve probably already heard about it, but my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” course on the Creative Spark online learning platform will give you all the ins and outs of not only T-shirt alterations, but you’ll learn how to alter pants, skirts, dresses, and cotton shirts too. If you haven’t looked into it yet, you can click here to learn more.

Are you worried that you won’t have time to take a course in doll clothes pattern alteration? Well, 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. 

In this image, we see a woman's hands making an alteration to a pants pattern for a little 8 inch plush doll with jointed arms and legs. She works on a cutting mat with a pen, a pencil, a ruler, and two different paper patterns; one for pants and the other is a shorts pattern. The words say, "how to alter doll clothes patterns" and the URL for the class is also offered as follows: https://creativespark.ctpub.com/courses/alter-doll-clothes
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.

And the lessons you’ll learn will apply to any doll: 18 inch American Girl dolls, 15 inch vintage dolls, soft-bodied dolls, plastic dolls, and of course, fashion dolls. I’ll even give you tips for pattern alteration as it applies to the teeny-tiny dollhouse dolls.

We start the course with an extensive doll measurement guide and build from there. So please go have a look at my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:

*ChellyWood.com earns money by linking to JoAnn Fabrics, Amazon, eBay, 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.

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.

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