What can you do if you cut a neckline too large for your doll? #SewingTips #DollClothesPatterns

A dark African or African American Barbie doll stands beside the McCall's Crafts doll clothes pattern number 5462, displaying 10 different fashions for Barbie and similar sized dolls. The Barbie who holds up this envelope of McCall's patterns wears a handmade peach-colored long-sleeved or three-quarter-length sleeved shirt with a pair of white cotton shorts that have pastel polka dots decorating the shorts' fabric. She has a pair of white sneakers on. — 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.

I’ve been doing a series of blog posts about McCall’s Barbie pattern 5462, and specifically, I’ve been focused on the shirt pattern found in view B.

I made all of these garments from the View B pattern, and as you can see, they are each just a little bit different:

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.

Today I’m going to focus on the one in the upper right corner of the photo above.

This shirt has a long-ish 3/4 length sleeve, but look at that unusual neckline:

A pretty Barbie with long, straight, black hair and hoop earrings stands in a room with a purple wall and wooden floor. She has long, thin legs. Her arms are outstretched. She has a deep, dark, chocolate complexion and hazel eyes. She models a handmade shirt with a gathered-looking boat neck and a pair of handmade summer shorts. — 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.

When I cut this shirt out to sew it, I wasn’t feeling very well. I had been making silly mistakes all day long, and when I was cutting the shirt’s neckline, I cut way too deep!

How does one fix a problem like this?

Elastic!

A Black Barbie doll models a handmade shirt with a boat neck collar that has been gathered at the front of the collar's neckline. She stands with her arms outstretched, drawing attention to the almond-shape of the collar. Her shorts are visible under the bottom hem of the long-sleeved 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.

Yes, by adding elastic to the inside of the shirt, I was able to create a gathered look to the front of the garment.

You have to sew the elastic over the top of the garment’s edge, while stretching the elastic, to get this effect:

A beautiful Barbie with black hair, hazel eyes, and deep, dark chocolate skin tone models a handmade shirt with a boatneck collar and long sleeves. The shirt's collar has been cut too long (shoulder to shoulder), and in response, the seamstress making the shirt has gathered elastic at the edge of the collar, along the front. We see the collar as an almond-shaped opening, from above the doll's head. The doll wears silver hoop earrings and pink lipstick. — 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.

Perhaps you’re wondering what I mean by that.

Have a look at the images below. After fully sewing the garment, I opened up the back (figure one), pinned one end of the elastic to the shoulder seam (figure 2), and placed the shoulder seam under my sewing machine’s presser foot.

There are four images of the same shirt in this segmented picture. The photo in Figure 1 shows a shirt from above, with the snap-back-closure wide open and the arms of the shirt splayed out. Figure 2 is a close-up of the collar from the first photo. We can easily see that the fabric at the front of the shirt is gathered here. In the photo labeled "figure 3," we can see a line of peach-colored thread running through the elastic at the front of the shirt, along the collar or neckline. In figure 4, we see the shirt (still open at the back) from the front. We can see that the fabric is a peach color, and the gathered front of the shirt is not actually gathered, but rather, stretched elastic has been sewn into the front neckline on the inside. — 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.

Then I tugged at the elastic, keeping it stretched as I sewed it onto the inside of the garment front (see figure 3).

By creating a “sewing machine knot” (going back and forth over the seam) at the start and end of my stitch, I was able to secure my stitches in place, so when I pulled the garment out of the sewing machine, it puckered, like you see in figure 4.

This creates a nice puffy front for the garment, as if a gathered front was the intended outcome.

In this photo, a beautiful Black Barbie takes little strides across a wooden floor toward the photographer. Her shirt has a gathered boat-neck collar with longish, three-quarter-length sleeves. The shirt she wears is made of peach colored cotton. The shorts are made of white cotton with pastel polka dots. She has a pair of white sneakers on her little feet. — 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.

It looks nice from the side view too.

Here we see a side view of a Black or African Barbie wearing a handmade peach colored shirt with 3/4 length sleeves and a gathered front, which accentuates her bust. The shorts she wears nicely compliment her peach-colored top because the shorts are white with pastel polka dots in a variety of sizes. She also wears white plastic sneakers. From the side the elastic that gathers the font of her shirt really makes the top look poofy at the bustline. — 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.

Once again, I used McCall’s Barbie pattern 5462 to make this shirt. The pattern’s design is for a stretchy-fabric sporty top with three-quarter length sleeves, and a boat-neck-style (see image below).

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.

Most of the commercial patterns I display and talk about here on ChellyWood.com are also available for sale on eBay. However, if you’ve never purchased a pattern on eBay before, it’s a good idea to read the article I wrote called, “Tips for Buying Used Doll Clothes Patterns on eBay.” It will save you time, money, and will likely prevent buyer’s remorse.

And by the way, if you use the links I’ve provided to make your eBay purchase, this website will receive a small commission, which helps fund the ChellyWood.com website, so I can continue to provide you with all the free patterns and tutorial videos offered here.

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

For my free doll clothes sewing tutorial videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1.

Maybe you already own some great commercial patterns, but you really wish you could alter them to look just a little different. If so, my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” may be just what you need to make your commercially designed patterns into the pattern you see in your imagination.

Are you worried that you won’t have time to take a course in doll clothes pattern alteration? You’ll be happy to learn that, 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 please go have a look at my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

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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.