How to Make Ribbon Bows Simple with Simplicity 5861 for Skipper #Ribbons #Bows

A vintage Skipper doll with brown hair and bangs (fringes) models a red and white dress embellished with red one-eighth inch ribbons and bows. She stands beside Simplicity 5861, where we see a nearly identical dress in View 6 on the image drawn on the pattern's envelope. The other doll clothes pictured on the envelope for Simplicity 5861 for Skipper include (view 1) a jumper with collared shirt; (view 2) a sleeveless black and white gingham dress with a circle skirt and a bolero; (view 3) a green pleated skirt with matching green knee-high socks and a yellow V-neck shirt; (view 4) a pair of yellow pants with a button-up-the-front floral shirt; (view 5) a pretty blue swing coat with scarf; (view 6) a long ball gown with red bodice that uses ribbons (appearing to tie in bows at the shoulders) for straps and having a long white skirt that's also embellished with ribbons and bows. This Simplicity 5861 pattern is from 1964, and the fashions suit that era. It sold for fifty cents, when new. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

In this lengthy series of blog posts, I’m sharing what I’ve learned by sewing all of the outfits offered in Simplicity 5861, a very extensive and well-designed pattern for vintage Skipper dolls.

Today’s blog post explains how I made the bows that you see on my Skipper doll’s evening dress in the images above and below. I followed the instructions for making this dress — with few changes — as provided in the Simplicity 5861 original vintage pattern, and I’m going to share the technique for these ribbons and bows, along with complications I ran across while making this project.

A vintage Skipper doll models a handmade ball gown with a long white skirt and a red bodice. Ribbons trim the skirt at the calf length and at the thigh length. Ribbons are tied at he shoulders as well. All the ribbons on the dress are red, as is the bodice. — 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.

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Today’s project comes from View 6 in the Simplicity 5861 doll clothes pattern for vintage Skipper, and it’s a floor length ball gown, embellished with tiny one-eighth inch wide satin ribbons and bows.

This vintage Skipper doll clothes pattern includes (view 1) a red jumper-dress with a dropped-waist that's belted, under which is worn a red and white striped collared shirt with 3/4 length sleeves; (views 2 and 3) a black and white gingham check dress with a circle skirt (that's primarily view 3) over which is worn a red bolero with 3/4 length sleeves (view 2); a yellow V-neck shirt worn over a green pleated mini-skirt worn just above the knee (view 3); a pair of yellow ankle pants with a 3/4 length collarless floral print shirt that has buttons running down the front (view 4); a blue winter coat with a scarf (view 5); and a red and white ball gown with ribbon trim, having a red bodice and white cotton extra long skirt (view 6). — 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 how did I make those teeny-tiny bows? Well on the pattern envelope it looks like the ribbon straps tie in bows at the top of Skipper’s shoulders, but that’s not the case, actually.

In View 1 below, you’ll see that I followed the guidelines in the instruction sheet that came with my Simplicity 5861 patterns, to cut out the four tiny one-eighth inch wide satin ribbons that I used for my tiny bows.

In figure one, a woman's hand holds a cut piece of one-eighth inch red ribbon. The strip of ribbon rests in the palm of her hand. In figure two, the ribbon is held between the woman's thumb and index finger, and we can see that it has been folded in thirds. Figure three shows thread being wrapped around the center of the accordion-folded one-eighth inch wide glistening red ribbon. As the red thread wraps around the ribbon, it seems to form a bow, with the thread at the center of the ribbon simulating a knot of ribbon around a bow. In figure four, the thread-wrapped bow rests alongside a ruler, showing that the finalized bow is seven-eighths of an inch long. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

The images above show you the basic instructions that came with Simplicity 5861, for making the bows. Once I had cut the ribbons, I folded each one into thirds, as you’ll see in view 2 above.

Then, as shown in view 3, I wound some thread (attached to a needle) around the center of the folded-in-thirds ribbon, to tighten the false “bow” at the center, like a fake knot in the tiny bow. My bow was about seven eighths of an inch from tip to tip when almost finished.

Finally, as shown in view 5 below, I tied a knot in the tiny bow with my needle and thread, but I didn’t cut the thread free at all. Just wait… You’ll see why.

In figure 5, a woman has stuck her needle through the center of the ribbon bow, and the red thread she used to form the false knot will now become an actual knot in the ribbon's bow. In figure 6, a vintage Skipper doll wears her red bodice inside-out, with a straight pin holding it shut at the back. In figure seven, the seamstress has pinned two one-eighth inch wide red ribbons to the front of the red bodice of the long dress from view 6 of Simplicity 5861 Skipper doll clothes sewing patterns. In figure eight, the same straps made of one-eighth inch wide red ribbon are pinned to the back of the doll's bodice, while Skipper is still wearing the dress inside-out. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Now views 6, 7, and 8 above show how to add ribbon straps to the bodice of any formal dress of a similar design. In fact, I have made tutorials like this for dresses I’ve designed that are essentially strapless, until you add a pair of ribbons for straps.

In brief, you put the dress on the doll inside-out, pin the ribbon straps to the bodice, and then sew the straps on.

Now let’s go back to the bows. How are they attached?

The red bodice of the Skipper dress is out of focus in the foreground, while the ribbon tie is in focus on the white background surface. A needle and thread is attached to the ribbon bow, and the needle pierces one of the out-of-focus ribbon straps on the red bodice. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

For the bodice, it seems simple enough. Remember how the thread we’d used to wrap up the center of the bow remained attached to the needle even after we tied a knot? That’s so you can sew the bow onto the ribbon strap, as shown above.

Now you’d think you could just sew the little bow to the very center of the one-eighth inch wide strap, and it would look perfect, right? Yeah…. Umm… Nope.

In Figure nine, we see a close-up of the two ribbons attached to the front of the skirt for the View 6 gown for Skipper from Simplicity 5861. There are two ribbon bows pictured here; the top one along the horizontally-attached ribbon trim sits neatly against the decorative ribbon that is closest to the bodice, along the skirt. However the second ribbon bow is turned at a nearly ninety degree angle against the horizontally-sewn-on ribbon trim at the lower third of the dress's skirt. In figure 10, a woman's thumb is turning the askew ribbon bow so it's aligned with the horizontal embellishment ribbon that's sewn into the lower third of the dress's white skirt. In figure eleven, we see that one of the ribbon straps has a bow that's tucked a bit behind skipper's shoulder. In figure twelve, the ribbon bow rests atop Skipper's shoulder, but it looks less like a bow and more like a little red bird perching on her shoulder. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

It wasn’t too hard to get the ribbon bows to sit horizontally against the ribbon I’d sewn onto the dress’s skirt. When one of them went askew, as you can see in figure 9 above, I just re-positioned it and sewed it on a little bit more.

But as you can see in figure 11 above, one of my bows was positioned too far back on the strap because I sewed it into what I estimated was the middle of the ribbon strap. The other bow seems to be perching oddly atop the strap on Skipper’s right shoulder, but it definitely looks better than the bow on her left shoulder.

It’s even more noticeable in the front view image below:

Skipper looks especially elegant in her red and white ball gown. Her hair is twisted into a knot-bun at the top of her head and tied with a similar red ribbon and bow, like those displayed on the red and white ball gown. Her dress is made of red cotton (for the bodice), white cotton (for the skirt) and satin one-eighth inch wide ribbons tied in bows at the top of each shoulder strap and at the front of each embellishment ribbon which has been sewn to the skirt horizontally, marking each one-third section 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.

See how one of the bows is visible on her shoulder but the other one is sort of back behind her shoulder? Yeah. That’s the problem.

So although the method for making tiny ribbon bows demonstrated in the instructions for Simplicity 5861 for vintage Skipper dolls can create a very tiny little bow for your doll’s dress, I’m not convinced it’s the best way to embellish a dress like that.

If I were to make the project over again, I would put the dress on my doll inside-out; then I would mark the position for the bows at the top of each already-sewn-on strap, using a fabric pencil.

Black Stacie (the modern Mattel Stacie doll in an African American version) models a red and white ball gown. The strappy bodice is made of red cotton fabric with little red ribbons that appear to tie at the shoulder. The gathered skirt is made of white cotton, and it's floor length. There are two red ribbons running horizontally across the skirt fabric about 1 and a half inches from the hem of the dress and again one inch down from the bodice of the dress. The doll has natural African American hair pulled up into a pony tail on top of her head, and she wears a matching red ribbon at the base of her pony tail-style bun. The ribbon is tied in a bow. the doll smiles with bright eyes looking slightly to the left of the photographer. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

On second thought, I don’t think I’d bother making the tiny ribbon bows from scratch. Why not?

Well, these days you can just buy pre-made miniature ribbon bows at some fabric and craft stores, and it might save you a lot of trouble if you do! They make tiny pre-made ribbon roses for doll dress embellishments too.

But if you’re trying to save a buck, this is one method for making tiny ribbon bows for your doll dresses.

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