On the back of this Simplicity 5861 vintage sewing pattern for Skipper dolls, the View 2 line drawing of the dress shows the ideal drape of a circle skirt, after the doll’s dress has been made.

With dolls, though, the circle skirt doesn’t usually drape like that! Scroll down to the next image, and you’ll see that after I made the View 2 dress for my vintage Skipper dolls (shown below on my modern Mattel Stacie doll), it was much more “swirly” than the line drawing shows.

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I mean, yes, it turned out super cute! I have no regrets! But a 100% cotton circle skirt doesn’t drape on a little doll the same way it would drape on a person.

It can help soften the drape of the circle skirt if you use a polyester blend fabric instead of using 100% cotton.

Have a look at the differences between my vintage Skipper’s cotton/poly blend circle skirt (pictured on the left below) and the 100% cotton circle skirt (pictured on the right):

It should be noted that the skirt on the left was cut longer than the pattern, and I accidentally cut the skirt’s waist too wide for that green dress too. So I ended up gathering the waist a bit before attaching the skirt to the bodice.

That can make a difference in how a skirt drapes too.

For my Butterick 6664 pattern, lightweight jersey fabric is recommended for the circle skirt that’s part of the ice skater’s outfit designed to fit a vintage Marie Osmond doll.

Jersey fabric would definitely make the skirt drape more gently than the skirt I made from 100% cotton (the black gingham one shown earlier) from my Simplicity 5861 pattern.

So a person needs to be aware, when choosing fabrics, that 100% cotton, some satin fabrics, and other “crisp” fabrics, are going to be stiff, causing the circle skirt to stick up; whereas lightweight jersey fabrics don’t do that. Jersey naturally lays flatter.

Let’s look at two upper-body garments made using the Butterick 6664 pattern. The first one shows a 100% cotton dress:

You can see how the crispness of the cotton makes the fabric stiff in the image above.

But the tunic from Butterick 6664 was made from a lightweight jersey fabric, so although the design is very similar to the full-length dress, this tunic lays much more naturally against the doll’s body:

Even when I lift her arm up, it doesn’t look as stiff:

That’s because jersey fabric isn’t as rigid, on the whole. It’s a softer, more pliable fabric.

So let’s say I’m making the poodle skirt from my McCall’s Crafts 5462 doll clothes sewing pattern, what type of fabric do I want to use? Jersey? Cotton? A poly-cotton blend?

It really depends upon how you want the skirt to look when it’s on the doll.

Do you want it to drape softly against her hips? If so, then I’d use jersey fabric.

Do you want it to look like your fashion doll is mid-swirl when you take her picture? Then I’d use 100% cotton.

Before you even start to cut out your fabric, you might gather the fabric in your hand and watch how it drapes as it hangs down from your hand.

Is it stiff? Does it flow more? This is how you determine the drape of a fabric.

If I wanted it to drape like the picture on the cover of the McCall’s 5462 pattern, then I’d probably choose a polyester/cotton blend.

But if I wanted it to stick out in an obvious swirl, I’d go with the stiffest 100% cotton fabric I can find, like you see pictured here on my Stacie doll below. (By the way, this is one of my own, free patterns!)

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*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.

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.