Some of you may recall seeing a fun little stop-motion video short that I did, in which my “Chelly doll” is wearing a lovely gown with a red satin bodice, tulle skirting, and miniature satin roses. That short was a video I created for a contest at the school where I work.
That doll dress was actually designed to fit Ideal Tammy dolls (not Spin Master Liv dolls), and today I’m going to share with you where I got all the tiny satin roses that you see on the tulle over-skirting.
So today’s blog post is actually about one of my favorite resources for craft supplies! — It provides a simple substitute for those of us who used to regularly visit our local JoAnn’s Fabric and Crafts stores.
*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s Privacy Policy page.
First of all, what do we mean by “satin roses“? These little rose-like flowers are made by curling a satin ribbon around and around in a spiral.
Two tiny green ribbons are then affixed to the bottom of each rose, to form a leaf-like structure.
As you can see in the image above, the roses are very, very small. In fact, they’re the ideal size for making a bouquet of flowers to go with a doll’s wedding dress.
This is, of course, one of the ways I’ve used these miniature flowers in the past. Here’s the look-like-the-bride wedding dress that I made for my best friend’s grandmother, for example, and I used these little satin flowers to cascade off the bridal bouquet, just like the original bride’s bouquet did.
(For that project, by the way, I used my vintage Simplicity 8281 doll clothes pattern, with a variation on the skirt that used my own three-tier skirt pattern, adding an additional fourth tier, to make the wedding dress that look’s like my best friend’s aunt’s lovely 1970’s or early 1980’s wedding gown.)
But I digress. Today we’re talking about the View 2 prom dress for Ideal Tammy from vintage Simplicity 4883, yet another wonderful pattern and one of my all-time favorites!
For this project, you really need to use miniature satin roses. In fact, the instructions suggest that you first pin them in place on the tulle that overlaps the cotton floor-length circle skirt, before you tack them onto the tulle with tiny stitches.
As you can see in the image below, that’s exactly what I’ve done.
Then you overlap the tulle, with all its little roses sewn in place, over the top of the cotton skirt.
Now the instructions suggest that you baste the tulle to the cotton skirt before you gather, but I’ll admit I was lazy. I just pinned the two together and gathered from right to left, without having first basted the tulle in place.
But where did I buy all these tiny satin roses, if not at JoAnn’s? Well my local JoAnn’s store, while a wonderful place to shop, was relatively small, so they only offered the multi-colored roses (like the ones I used in my best friend’s grandma’s miniature look-alike wedding dress).
So I bought my collection of all red roses on Etsy.
Some of you have commented in the past, that you don’t want to use Etsy. “It’s just one more website that has my credit card information!” one follower told me in the comments.
True. I get it.
But as an Etsy seller myself, I can honestly tell you that I’ve never seen any of my customers’ credit card numbers. The website is as secure as the Target website, the Walmart website, and JoAnn’s online (used to be).
And yet your sales go to small business owners. How nice is that?! I love that!
Of course there has recently been some push-back from small business owners on Etsy who are competing with bigger foreign companies that are on Etsy too. The key is to pay attention to who you’re buying from.
Here are some questions I ask myself before buying a craft product like my miniature roses from one of the Etsy sellers:
- Does the business have a goofy name that doesn’t make sense in any language (like Vsprdrcklle Dolls)? If so, I don’t buy from them.
- Does the listing say “Ad by Etsy Seller”? I usually skip over those too, unless it’s someone I’ve done business with before and I liked them.
- Scroll down to see where it’s being shipped from. Is it super cheap while also coming from China or Bangladesh or another country where people are being used as slave labor? If so, I don’t buy from them. (Click here if you don’t know what I mean by this.)
Okay, so I’ve told you where I plan to do my shopping now that JoAnn’s is closed. But what about my rose-covered prom dress?
In the image above, I’m showing you how I have altered the original dress from View 2 of Simplicity 4883, my vintage sewing pattern for Ideal Tammy dolls. I’ve created a lining for this dress’s bodice, the same way I’ve created a similar lining for this dress which is one of my free patterns here on ChellyWood.com.
If you’d like to learn how to make alterations to your patterns, scroll down past the image of a sewing needle followed by a row of cross stitches. I do teach a class about alterations, which you may find helpful.
In closing, I’m not too worried about my local JoAnn’s Fabric and Crafts store closing. I do feel badly for the ladies and gentleman who were working there, but in recent years, I’ve found myself using online resources and recycled fabrics more and more.
In fact, although the red roses came from Etsy, the bodice of Tammy‘s prom dress in the image above is made entirely from second-hand store (AKA recycled) fabrics — including the lining, the satin outer fabric, and even the ribbon straps! All of these came from pre-used materials, and I’m really proud of that because re-using materials is better for the environment.
And Tammy looks absolutely stunning in her red and white prom dress with tiny satin ribbon roses all around!
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.
For more of my free tutorials, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1.
If you would like to make a donation to this free doll clothes pattern website, please click here. There’s also a “Donate” button in the main menu.
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.
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 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.
To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.
Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:
*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s 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.