Today’s blog post answers the question, “Are there any ‘ugly Christmas sweater’ patterns for Barbie?” And, yes, in fact, there are. See the image above? In the upper left-hand corner and the upper right-hand corner, you can see examples of cotton fabrics that imitate sweater fabric. So for starters, you could us ANY of my free Barbie shirt patterns that recommend cotton fabric, and just … Continue reading Are there any “ugly Christmas sweater” patterns for Barbie dolls? Why yes, there are!

See that image? That’s a thing that happened to me over the weekend. Every time my husband tells me to go buy him a “Whatsit-whoozit” at the hardware store, I always come home with the WRONG item. Then he yells at me, as if I should have known exactly which “Whatsit-whoozit” he meant. So over the weekend, when he had his truck all taken apart, … Continue reading Is being a rebel a good thing? #SillyMemes #SewingHack

Before I started typing today’s blog post, I googled the same question: “What can you do if you’ve lost the instructions for a commercial sewing pattern?” And let me just say that yes, AI can make mistakes. It became very obvious to me that Google doesn’t know how to correctly respond to this question. Granted, Google AI offered links to their sources. So that’s good. … Continue reading What can you do if you’ve lost the instructions for a commercial sewing pattern? #MeMadeMonday #SewingHack

As I type this first sentence, the ground outside my sewing room window is wet with early morning rain. It smells lovely out there! But this means fall is underway, here in the northern hemisphere, so it might be a good time to do a blog post on cape-making. Specifically, today’s post will show you how I made a welted opening in a cape, so … Continue reading How to Sew a Welted Arm Opening in a Cape

Today’s topic is near and dear to my heart. If you’re a regular follower of my blog, you’ll know that I own quite a collection of old doll clothes sewing patterns. Many of them are featured in my Monday sewing lessons, all of which can be found on this page. Over the years, I’ve gotten better and better at preserving my vintage sewing patterns, and … Continue reading How to Store and Preserve Vintage Sewing Patterns

As you can see in the image above, the McCall’s 2970 miniature fashion doll wardrobe pattern was designed to fit a number of different six to seven inch fashion dolls. But this pattern came out in the early 1970’s. A lot of dolls have been made since then that may very well fit the clothes in this pattern. Today’s blog post addresses how well the … Continue reading Can Strawberry Shortcake dolls and Lottie dolls fit in McCall’s 2970 sewing patterns? #MeMadeMonday #VintageToys

When people talk about the 1970’s, they usually reference a time when everyone dressed like hippies, went to Woodstock, and lived at ashrams. I was a little girl in the 1970’s, yet I don’t remember any of that hippie-dippie stuff. Not really. I mean, my cousins grew their hair out long and played guitar, but that was about it. What I remember is this: every … Continue reading Little House on the Prairie and Holly Hobbie – are they related? #HistoricalFiction #LittleHouse

Before I write a blog post like this one, I usually go to the internet to see if other people have already written on this topic. I do this to make sure I know my facts, and frankly, it’s a good idea to do a little pre-research on what has already been said so that my content adds to the conversation. It surprised me to … Continue reading Why do so many doll clothes patterns include a cape? Here’s why… #barbiestyle #barbiecollector