Have you ever read a pattern incorrectly? And how did it turn out? #SewingChat #SewingPatterns

Image one shows the Tammy doll on the cover of the Simplicity 4883 doll clothes pattern, modeling a beautiful 1960's style three-quarter-length-sleeve red coat for figure 1 on the cover of the Simplicity 4883 pattern envelope. Figure two shows a close up with purple arrows pointing at the top stitching that goes in a single circular row around the collar and a pair of parallel line stitches the encircle the waist of the coat like a belt. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Once again, I’ve been working with vintage Simplicity pattern 4883 for Ideal Tammy dolls. This time I was making the little red coat in View 1.

As you can see in Figure 2 above, the image on the envelope shows little black stitches at the neckline and waistline of the finished coat. I saw this and thought, “Oh goodie-goodie gumdrops! I can do some embroidery!”

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A row of shiny silver snaps graces the front of a coat which is made of blue cotton for the exterior fabric and red, white, and blue pinwheel printed fabric for the interior lining of the coat. — 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.

Back in December, I had used a lovely retro-style pinwheel print cotton fabric for the lining of a similar Skipper coat (see image above), and I really liked the way that had turned out. So I opted to use the same fabric for this Tammy/Sindy dolls‘ coat from Simplicity 4883.

After cutting out the garment pieces, I got out my lightbox and a fabric pencil, so I could draw the embroidery lines directly onto the red fabric.

There's a lightbox in a dark room which takes up most of the frame. On the platform of the lightbox, a red doll-sized coat lays flat against the full light so that we can see a cut-on-fold half-a-coat pattern behind the red fabric. A fabric pencil rests at an angle across the top of the red coat garment piece. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

You would think this would be easy enough to do… It’s just a couple of lines after all.

However I had been distracted by the fact that whoever owned the Simplicity 4883 doll clothes pattern before me had used pinking shears to cut out the coat pattern pieces.

So when I went to cut mine from red fabric and pinwheel-print fabric, it left this array of tiny tissue shavings all along the edges of my garment. Ugh.

On the left, figure three shows where fabric has been cut away from the pattern, and little tiny shavings of tissue paper dot the red fabric as it's being pulled away from the cut garment piece that has the pattern pinned to it. On the right, Figure four shows the following: a big purple arrow points to the two parallel drawn lines around the neckline of a red doll coat's upper back area, indicating both the seam line and the embroidery line in white colored pencil. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Furthermore, I planned to take this coat on a road trip, and my husband was in a rush to get going. (He can’t do road trips without anxiety, the poor fellow.) Needless to say, I cut my garment pieces out in a hurry and marked them with my fabric pencil while under pressure.

And so I ended up marking the neck’s seam line as one of the embroidery lines. Whoopsie! (Have a look at the big purple arrow in Figure 4 above.)

I did all the embroidery first, while riding shotgun in my husband’s truck during the road trip, and it wasn’t until I tried to sew the coat together at the neckline, that I discovered my error. It didn’t matter that I’d brought the Simplicity 4883 instruction booklet along with me on the road trip.

Figure five shows the seamline being embroidered with white thread stitches. Figure six offers a close-up look at the pattern, so we can tell that where the white embroidery stitches are being stitched in figure five, there should actually be a seam. This is part of the Coat Pattern for Simplicity 4883 for Ideal Tammy dolls. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

At that point, I had already embroidered all along what was supposed to be the neckline seam. So…

Of course I had to make an alteration. It was a simple alteration. I just stitched the coat together a little higher up from the embroidery stitches.

But I think it turned out pretty good, as you can see in this image:

Figure seven shows Ideal Tammy with strawberry blond hair cut shoulder length and curled at the ends dressed in a blue denim skirt under a long red coat that has three-quarter-length sleeves and is trimmed in white embroidery with two parallel rows of embroidery top stitching at the neckline as well as two more parallel horizontal stitch lines just below the waist of the doll. Her shoes are black Mary Janes. In Figure eight, Pedigree Sindy wears the same red coat with a little more overlap, so we can't tell what she's wearing beneath the coat. In her hair is a red check handkerchief, and she's wearing a pair of red galoshes (rubber boots) which go nicely with the red coat trimmed in white embroidery stitches. The coat was made using Simplicity 4883 doll clothes patterns for Ideal Tammy. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

That’s Ideal Tammy on the left and Pedigree Sindy on the right.

And as you can see, this little 1960’s style coat with its three-quarter-length sleeves fits both Pedigree Sindy dolls and vintage Ideal Tammy dolls. YAY!

In the image above, Tammy is wearing the little denim skirt with suspenders that you see illustrated on the instruction sheet below. That’s what she’s wearing under her coat anyway. And I have another blog post showing that project and the alterations I made to it as well.

This is a photo of the instructions for making the wrap skirt with suspenders and front pockets, offered in the Simplicity 4883 doll clothes sewing pattern set for Ideal Tammy or Pedigree Sindy dolls. These instructions show an image of the skirt, in which the suspenders have been fully sewn onto the skirt, but two snaps are used to close the skirt at the back. Instructions read as follows: "Lap right back over left, matching centers. Fasten each edge with a snap at waistline, as shown." — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

If you’d like to learn more about how alterations work, you’re in luck! I teach an online class on that very topic. Just scroll down a bit to learn more…

But please don’t go just yet! Please take a moment to leave a comment!

Have you ever read a pattern or its instruction sheet incorrectly? And if so, how did it turn out? I look forward to hearing your stories!

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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.

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For anyone who would like to expand their dolls’ wardrobes, you should really check out my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” course and my “Design Your Own Doll Pants Patterns from Scratch” classes on the Creative Spark online learning platform. Here’s my bio page on their website, where you can learn more.

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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.

2 thoughts on “Have you ever read a pattern incorrectly? And how did it turn out? #SewingChat #SewingPatterns”

Marco says:

June 26, 2024 at 11:22 AM

Obviously yes!
Pattern Simplicity dress 2. I spent 2 hours thinking how to cut the gown and finished to cut and sew it specular on the other side.

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1. Chelly Wood says:
  
  June 26, 2024 at 11:38 AM
  
  Well, it may sound kind of mean, but I’m glad I’m not alone! 😉 LOL! They say misery loves company!
  
  In spite of some of the complicated aspects of the Simplicity 4883 pattern, I still love it to this day. It was my first real pattern!
  
  When I was a kid, I really struggled to get my ruffle to look right on the View 2 dress, but at the time, I lived with my dad and brother, neither of whom sewed. Nobody was there to answer my questions and help me understand what I was doing wrong.
  
  The weird thing about the ruffle on the Dress View 2 is that you fold it lengthwise before you gather. I didn’t have access to an iron as a child, so my folded fabric was sort of off-kilter when I attached it to the dress. The two sides of the fold would inevitably become uneven, leaving lumps in my ruffle. It frustrated me to no end!
  
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