A Collection of Liberty Doll Dress Sets

After the holidays I was in NYC and of course also in Purl Soho. And lets just say I bought a few pieces of Liberty Fabric.

Flash forward a month or two and in between other things, i started sewing these little Liberty dress sets. It went from an experiment, to smitten, to well..a collection is what I will call it.

Introducing the Phoebe&Egg Liberty Collection. Four or five of the sets are already in my Etsy shop and more are coming. 

Matching bloomers

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Dress sets come with leggings, sweaters, shoes, peasant blouses and of course the Liberty Dress and bloomers. All right here.

I'm the featured shop on Etsy!

I'm not a selfie taker. I don't like being in pictures, I'm more about taking pictures of my kids and my work. But I could not pass up the opportunity when Etsy asked me last November to be their Featured Shop.

The preparation, photoshoot with Cynthia August, who is fabulous, and I mean fabulous, and the interview were all fun and helped me see my business in new ways.

Here's my story on the Esty site:

Featured Shop: Phoebe&Egg

The Phoebe&Egg Studio, photo by Cynthia August

Behind the scenes at Phoebe&Egg, photo by Cynthia August

The Phoebe&Egg Studio, photo by Cynthia August

Doll Dressmaking Series: Long Sleeves

Sleeves are an easy way to switch up a dress and completely change the look.

So far in this series we have covered basic shorts sleeves, short puffed sleeves and a ruffle sleeve.  But there are quite a few more sleeve options that are easy to make on a small scale.

This tutorial will focus on the basic doll long sleeve. Most long sleeves on doll clothes have elastic at the wrist 9this pattern does). That is because dolls hands are big and that makes it hard to get them through a long sleeve with a narrow end. Plastic dolls hands cant's squeeze in. The hands and arms of cloth dolls are hard to push through the tunnel of a long straight sleeve. So the elastic at the end solves both of these problems. It allows the wrist to stretch out and the sleeve itself to be a bit wider.

The pattern for this dress and all of the others in the series is available through my newsletter. Sign up form is at the end of this post.

I used the basic dress pattern and the retro collar, all have been part of past tutorials and are available through my newsletter. The dress is lined. 

1. Until the sleeves I am basically following the directions of the retro collar tutorial. This starts with sewing the shoulder seams together and then the collar pieces  together and sewing them onto the dress neckline.

2. Sew the lining should seams together.

3. Place the dress with the collar on top of the lining with right sides together. Pin or wonderclip up one back edge around the neck and down the other back edge. Sew the lining to the dress making sure you sew deeper than the collar attachment seam so it does not show. Tirn right side out.

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Sew the sleeve edge of the dress to the sleeve edge of the lining. This is to keep them in place and together when you sew the sleeve on.

Hemming the sleeves and making a casing:

1. Turn the ends of the sleeves up 1/4 inch and stitch.

2. Turn the bottoms up 1/2 inch and stitch again. this is the casing for your elastic for the "cuff" at the wrist.

Making the sleeve casings

Easing for the Sleeve Cap

The next few steps are similar to the gathering of the sleeve cap done on the puffed sleeve dress. Except this is called easing.  Easing is step down from gathering. it is done to get the sleeve to curve slightly better at the shoulder of the armhole, which makes more of a shoulder shape. it is also done to obtain a better fit in the armhole.

1. Stitch about two inches of long stitches at the cap of each sleeve. As in gathering, leave one end without reverse stitching and leave the threads long, so you can pull one.

2. Pull one of the threads slightly to puff the cap of the sleeve slightly.

3. measure the sleeve cap to the armhole, when it seems the right length, secure the thread by wrapping around a pin.

4. Fit and pin into the armhole, adjusting the ease if needed.

Sew sleeves in. make sure you've put your stitch length back to regular.

You are almost done. Next is the sleeve casing for the wrist.

1. Cut two pieces of elastic, each approximately the width of the bottom of the sleeve.

2. You will need to use something to thread the elastic. I use this tool, but a safety pin works fine.

3. Thread the elastic through the casing, securing it at the starting end with a few machine stitches.

4. Pull to desired length. I pull to 4 inches for Phoebe. For Sasha, 3.5 should do. For AG and Waldorf, 4.5-5 inches. stitch done the other end of the elastic to secure.

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Sew up the side seams, hem and you are done!

The pattern pieces for this dress and all other dresses are available through my newsletter. When you sign up, you will receive a second email asking you to confirm, after you do that you will receive another email with the base pattern downloads and a link to pattern pieces that came through previous newsletters.

Please check your spam first before emailing me if you do not receive this.

The long sleeve pattern piece will be available in this Friday's newsletter.

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A Cute Little Boy for A Cute Little Boy

Henry waits for a face and a haircut

Three things I really enjoy are Instagram, making boy dolls and making custom dolls.  So you can image how happy I was when all three of these things came together. 

A customer from Instagram asked me to make a custom boy doll for her little boy. How lucky am I?

Her little boy Liam loves the Henry and Mudge books. henry is a little redheaded boy and Mudge is his not so little dog.

Henry's hair, look and clothing were just my style. 

The best part, the photos of Henry's new life with Liam in Alaska. Both Henry and I couldn't be happier.

Henry's clothes

As you can see Henry is enjoying his new life with Liam which includes bedtime stories, snuggles and a birthday card with a cake and Henry's name written perfectly .

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Good night Henry and Liam, sleep tight!

A fox comes to the rescue

Since I started making the dolls for the children in need, I have been making puppies for the boys. They looked like this:

They were very cute, but tiny and too many little pieces for something I need to make lots of. I had been searching for a pattern that would have the same appeal for a boy, but be more fun to sew up.

I think I found it.

Enter the fox. From this pattern that I found a while back on Etsy.

The fox so far seems to meet all of the requirements: sturdy, fun to make, materials are easy to find, appealing to little boys and not scary. He's cute, but not too cute.

This past weekend, with the help of an assistant,  a skulk of foxes got made. Soon they will go out with a bunch of other dolls, some to Family Promise in central Massachusetts and some to foster children in Connecticut.

Don't Be Afraid of Buttonholes

For years I was afraid of making buttonholes.  They made me nervous. A bad buttonhole can ruin a good coat.

 When you are making doll clothing you can deftly avoid them. You can use snaps with decorative buttons on things that open in the front. Faux is fine for dolls.

But if you master buttonholes, they can become easier than the substitutions. And real buttoning buttons are just charming on doll clothing. Practical with a retro charm.

Over the last year each time I've done a series of buttonholes I've discovered or made up a new trick. They are close to mistake proof. Now I love doing them.

And don't be daunted by the number of steps. they are all very quick and designed to eliminate mistakes.

First gather a few supplies: 

Pieces of tissue paper or stabilizer

A pen

A ruler, quilting ruler or a Simflex expanding gauge (pictured below)

Your buttons

Buttonhole thread

A bright contrasting thread

An Xacto knife and pad to cut on

Scrap fabric

A Simflex expanding gauge, if you don't have one of these a ruler will do just fine.

Step one, I use a machine long basting stitch to baste a piece of stabilizer (or tissue paper) to the garment along the edge where the buttonholes will go with bright contrasting thread. I go about 1/4 inch in from the edge as shown below. I am basting on the outside of the coat edge. 

Basting the paper to the coat edge accomplished several things.

1. You have stabilizer or tissue on the bottom side of your fabric. This helps a button hole foot glide more smoothly and not jam.

2. The line of basting can serve as a guide.

3. You can make measured marks on the paper to tell you where to start each buttonhole.

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The Simflex expanding gauge can be pulled to figure out how to best evenly distribute your buttonholes.  A ruler will also work. I then mark the paper where the top of each button will start.

However, full disclosure here, I have an automatic butttonhole foot. So once I determine the correct size, I can set it to make that exact size over and over. If you cannot repeat the size, you will also need to mark the paper for the when to stop, ie the bottom of each button hole. The nice part about the marks on the side of the paper is that you can easily see them whilke you are sewing with a great big buttonhole foot.

A buttonhole foot allows you to measure your button.

Attach your buttonhole foot and measure your buttonhole with the red marker on your foot. After you have an approximate idea of buttonhole size. Sew one on some scrap fabric. Yoiu will want to try this with your button to see if it fits. I use an Xacto knife and a mat to cut the slit in the hole. There is such a thing as a buttonhole cutter. However, it may be too big for some buttonholes.

If the buttonhole is too small or too big tweak your size.

Too small

Once you get the correct size, sew several before starting on the real garment. This helps make sure your machine is behaving consistently and you are confident.

Now you are ready for the real thing. 

Line the top of the buttonhole up with your first mark. Line the basting to be just underneath the right inside edge of the foot. 

If you have an automatic buttonholer it will stop and turn and you can just move onto the next buttonhole and repeat. if it is not automatic you will need to pay attention to your end mark.

When you are done:

Take out the basting

Tear off the paper or stabilizer

Cut the holes

Sew on your buttons.

Try it, it is probably quicker than reading this tutorial.

Playing with Babies

One of my goals for 2016 is to give Baby Egg a little more attention. And as luck would have it, my first few orders this year were for Eggs. One escaped photography, but the rest did not.

Although they are a lot more work, I've been focusing on fluffy haired Baby Eggs (those of you who have ever threaded hair in a crocheted wig cap know what I'm talking about). But the fluffy hair is just so...Eggy ...so cute and cuddly.

Here's a sneak peek at what will soon be listed. If you've been dreaming of Baby Egg, let me know and I can help you design your own.

Resizing Doll Dress Patterns

A number of you have contacted me asking for me if I had patterns for certain dolls. In addition, although I sized the pattern sets for Phoebe, AG doll, 16 inch Waldorf dolls and Sasha, each of those dolls' sizes vary.

In other words inevitably it is useful to know how to resize a pattern to fit your doll.

There are number of easy steps to resizing a pattern.

If the dolls is overall bigger or smaller, start with copying or printing the pattern at a larger or smaller percentage.

If the doll has the same proportions this step may get you there. You can start by taking a chest measurement of your doll and searching online for the chest measurement of the doll the pattern was created for. If your doll is 8" and the doll the pattern was created for is 12", then 8/12 or 75% is what you should print at.

If that gets you closer, but the pattern size still needs to be tweaked. Here are some next steps.

Dress is the right size but the neck if tight.

If it is more than the neck that is narrow, you may want to widen the dress without making it over all bigger, ie the armholes and shoulders and length stay the same. this can be done by splitting the pattern down the middle and separating the two sides by the amount you need to make it wider.

Once you've done this, take tracing paper and trace over to make a new pattern piece.

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Be sure to also add some onto each back piece. I usually add half of the front increase to each side of the back.

If the dress is torso is too short, especially in the armhole area, you can cut the pattern horizontally and divide and make a new pattern piece.

If a dress is the correct length but overall too wide, the pattern can be narrowed by cutting down the middle and pushing the two pieces together.

Be sure to also trim a bit off the center back edges too. If the neck is too narrow you may need to redraw the neck.

Although any one of these steps may get you straight to the a doll dress that perfectly fits your doll, it make take a combination of these steps. If you don't feel like using lots of fabric to sew the size trials, use paper towel.

Hope this helps! Happy sewing (and resizing)!

Doll Dressmaking Series: My Favorite Suppliers

I am frequently asked where I buy supplies for doll dressmaking. Although I buy from a wide range of places, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. Some day I'll make a comprehensive list.

There are SOOO many great fabrics out there and so many great places to buy fabric.

I frequently shop at Hawthorne Threads, they have a great selection and ship almost immediately.

Fabricworm also has a great selection and often have sales.

For Liberty or other heirloom quality fabric and amazing customer service, Farmhouse Fabrics.

I also love Harts Fabrics. They have a nice selection of cotton knits.

For a discontinued fabric, which I somehow find myself needing frequently, Etsy and Quiltshops searches often find what I want.

For basics with a bit of a discount, Fabric.com

For trims:

I buy my trims by the roll which is why I love Create For Less. 

For those buying by the yard: Farmhouse Fabrics has a great selection. Also check their ribbon section.

For buttons, I like eBay. The button hunting on eBay is so fun, the variety is a bit overwhelming.

And for snaps, I suggest Create for Less, they have a huge variety and offer bulk discounts.

Handmade Toymakers: Skippity Hop Creatures

I’m not a big user of social media. I occasionally post on Facebook and check Twitter even less. But I love Instagram. Not only do I enjoy posting behind the scenes photos from Phoebe&Egg, but through Instagram I have met a lot of cool dollmakers from all over the world.

Following dollmakers can lead you to some other interesting makers. A few months ago I stumbled upon Skippity Hop Creatures. The owner Kim Sinclair-McNally designs the cutest tiny plush creatures.

Kim began designing the creatures that eventually became Skippity Hop Creatures in 2010 in her home outside of Edinburg, Scotland, when her youngest child started school.

Her creations, which include badgers, mice and pigs are small, 6 to 12 inches, but with plenty of sweet details, like little shoes, handbags, knit sweaters, scarves and pixie hats. Kim says she loves working at this scale, but a good lamp is essential because the days are short for many months of the year in Scotland.

The creatures are made from woolens and felt. Kim looks to use wool from recycled sweaters and she finds fabrics at a local recycle yard.

Kim said her creatures are more older children and adults and she designs more for display and decoration than play. However, Kim has designed for younger children in the past and is open to custom orders.

Her work can be found

Here,

 And

Here.