At the start of July, we shared our summer sewing goals and summer doll projects in this blog post.

At that time, I was hoping to make some of the doll clothes from the McCall’s 4716 Sunshine Family pattern set (the purple arrow in the image above points to it), and I was planning to make a few things for Barbie too.

However, I got hung up on a Simplicity 5861 vintage Skipper doll clothes pattern, that I just absolutely fell in love with!

At the start of the summer (once I’d gotten over my West Nile virus illness) I had been thinking in grand terms, that I’d have enough time to sew one or two outfits from each of the vintage patterns I had bought recently, but…

My grand plans were unrealistic, of course. Do you ever have “grand sewing plans” that go awry?

In my July 5th blog post, I had been thinking I’d make a pair of matching dresses for vintage Skipper and vintage Barbie, using this gingham fabric:

But instead, my youngest daughter took a liking to the gingham fabric, and asked me to make her a set of tea towels out of black and white gingham. So I compromised. I’ve made the tea towels plus a Skipper dress.

There may or may not be enough black and white gingham fabric for a Barbie dress to match Skipper’s. We’ll see.

I can’t say as I blame my daughter. Who doesn’t love gingham? 😉

Anyhow, I’m very happy with how my black gingham Skipper dress turned out! It was the View 2 dress in Simplicity 5861, from 1964 (scroll up a bit to see the pattern envelope).

In a later blog post, I’d like to show you another summer project of mine in which I actually made a skirt-length alteration for this View 2 dress from Simplicity 5861, and we’ll see what all of you think of that change to the pattern.

When I first blogged about my summer projects, back in July, I had already made these cute ankle pants for my vintage 1963 Skipper:

Since then, I’ve also completed two shirts for my vintage Skipper and altered the above pants pattern to make a pair of shorts.

I plan to do a few more blog posts, down the road, sharing the lessons I learned from Simplicity 5861. There’s always something new to learn, when you sew vintage patterns!

But for now, I’d like to hear from you… What sewing projects did you complete over the summer months?

Did you have any sewing struggles? And if so, what were they? Were you able to overcome the setbacks?

Please comment! I love to hear your thoughts!

Sometimes when you leave a detailed comment, it gives me ideas for future blog posts. So feel free to share!

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Do you wish you could afford to buy more doll clothes patterns, but your budget just doesn’t allow you to? If so, my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” may be just what you need to make my free doll clothes patterns into the patterns you’d like to buy.

I also have a class called “Design Your Own Doll Pants Patterns from Scratch.” In this class, which costs only $19.99, you will learn how to create your own pants patterns, including leggings, fly-front jeans, elastic-waist pants, and overalls.

With 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. You’re welcome to share any of the images from today’s blog post on social media.

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

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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.