Doll Dressmaking Series: A Retro Collar

Doll clothes are often retro. Or classic. Or both. I thought a longer sharper collar is both retro and classic. It's also simple to sew. The pattern pieces will be in my next newlsetter.

I am basically following the instructions for my beginner's sleeve dress, which are here. But I'm including complete instructions here too.

From your main fabric cut:

1. Dress front and back
2. Sleeves

From the lining fabric (I used cotton lawn which is lighter in weight):

1. Just the front and back

And then cut the collar fabric cut 4 collar pieces.

Sew shoulder seams of dress together.

Sew shoulder seams of the lining pieces together.

Sew collar pieces together. Clip corners and edges of collars. 

Turon collar pieces right side out and push out corners with a point turner or blunt knitting needle. I use a Dritz Point turner,

Press.

Attach the two collar pieces to the dress fabric neckline making sure they are centered. I baste the centers on first. As shown here. 

Stitch lining to main dress fabric, by starting at the bottom of the back opening, go up to the neckline, around the neckline and back down the back opening. When going around the neckline make sure you are stitching through the lining, the dress fabric AND the collar pieces.

Sew dress fabric to lining at each armhole. This is to make sure they stay together when you attach the sleeves.

Attach sleeves. See my easy sleeve tutorial if you are unsure how. These sleeves do not need gathering or easing.

1. Hem sleeves

2. Pin or clip sleevces to armhole edge. If you are feeling confident you can just sew and adjust while you are sewing.

3. Turn over and check that it looks okay.

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Sew side seams and hem.

I'd love the pattern pieces! Sign up for my newlsetter and receive the base pattern set and keep up with all future pieces. This will be in the upcoming issue.

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Now in the shop

This week I'll be adding a few more dolls and clothing sets to my Etsy shop. A few new things are already there.  One is the Fancy Nancy rag doll and she comes with an extra Fancy extra outfit.

Also if you want to buy a Harry Potter doll for the holidays contact me (form for contacting me at the end of this post). I am taking one or two more orders. The sweaters take a long time to make and I am close to my limit.

In addition to Fancy Nancy, I've added a African American doll with a new darker skin tone. And a new clothing set.

I'm interested in Harry, Luna or Hermione for the Holidays. Let's talk schedule

A tale of two lambs

Remember Thing One and Thing Two from The Cat in the Hat?  I have Lamb One and Lamb Two. 

The two lambs have challenged my abilities to replicate--something I've been fairly good at. I've recreated many many many dolls, many many many times, quite easily. 

But it was a lamb that challenged me. 

Lamb One, pictured above, was made over a year ago. He modelled in a number of photographs for me. He was a great model, you've probably seen him in chairs, or with pajamas or on a doll bed or quilt. He was quite dutiful.

Until he was sold and went off to his new home.

This past week, I needed to make a new lamb. I did not imagine he would be hard to replicate.

He was. 

I started with velvet, which was the original fabric, but it frayed so badly, it made working on such a small scale nearly impossible. I switched to organic velour, which was lovely to work with, but it has a slight stretch. This made his shape a bit more, well, flexible, which was good and not so good.

My finished lamb, was cute, but not exactly the same. I realized that so much time had elapsed bewteen lambs, that whatever tricks I developed for making the first one, had been forgotten.

My lesson, which seems rather obvious: it easier to replicate something you have done recently or often. 

Below is Lamb Two. He is cute and I like him, but he is not Lamb One.

Lamb Three will probably be somewhere in between, maybe more like a Lamb One and a Half.

Lamb Two

The Series Continues

All of my storybook characters began with a custom request. Early in my business, I had a request for a Fancy Nancy. And many Fancy Nancys have followed.

Last November I had a request for a Luna Lovegood doll. Soon after she shipped, there was a request for Hermione. Since then there have been several Lunas and many Hermiones. I imagined a Harry, but was too busy to make that real. Until a few weeks ago, I recieved a custom request for Harry.

It was so much fun to create my first Harry. In the past month, I have had requests for three Hermiones, a Luna and a Harry. The only problem is that there little sweater takes time. It is knit on size 2 needles and there is really no way to speed up its creation. Nor do I want to.

Thankfully, I have patient customers.

Below are a few recent shots of Harry, Luna and their clothes.

A few new dolls and clothes and the holidays

I've been busy. Really busy. I have lots of new orders, but also in between I have been trying to make a few new dolls to add to the collection.

They should be in my Etsy shop by the end of next Tuesday.

And speaking of my Etsy shop... if you are interested in a Phoebe&Egg doll for the holidays, please contact me, so we can talk schedule. I am already into October. There's is a contact form at the end of this post.

So here's a sneak peek:

More about him in my next post

Doll Dressmaking Series: A Wrap Dress

Wrap dresses are wonderful. They are easy to make. There are many ways they can be adapted. They are great if you only have a small amount of fabric, you can just use it for the bodice, like I did.

But best of all, they are very forgiving as far as sizing goes. If your doll is wider, the bodice wraps less. If your doll is narrow, the bodice wraps more. If your doll is short, just make a shorter skirt.

The pattern pieces for all four dolls will be in my next newsletter. At the bottom of this post I will include a sign up form.

1. Cut out two bodice sets and one skirt. The dress can be all one fabric or two like I've done.

2. Sew both sets of shoulder seams.

3. Sew two bodices together, right sides together. Sew at armhole and around the neckline.

4. Next you need to sew the side seams. Start by pinning the armhole seam to the other armhole seam, right sides together on one side of the bodice. This is similar to how you sewed the side seams in the reversible dress.

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Click to enlarge

Press and your bodice should look like this (below).

5. Finish vertical edges of the skirt.

6. Run two rows of gathering stitches along the top edge of the skirt.

7. Gather skirt to fit bodice. Have less gathers on the side of the front that will be underneath (one side will wrap over the other). Pin the skirt to one layer of the bodice as shown below.

See below how the right side has less gathers.

8. Slip stitch lining to top of the skirt seam.

Have fun with trim.

Add snaps. Hem. Enjoy!

Sign up for my newsletter. It includes these pattern pieces and all of the base patterns. If you have already signed up, the newsletter with the pattern and other goodies should be in your inbox by the end of the week.

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Family Promise Auction Doll and Wardrobe

This fall Family Promise Metro West (as in Natick, MA), will be hosting a fundraising auction. This organization has been wonderful in helping me make, give and match dolls for children in their program. Their program shelters homeless families in local churches, along with a lot of other wonderful services.

The auction is November 7, 2015 and in case you are local, the details are here. Tickets go on sale next week.

I have donated a Phoebe doll and wardrobe to the fundraiser (another good reason to go). 

The doll set will include:

• A Phoebe doll (as shown above)
• Her school outfit, dress, undershorts and shoes
• Play outfit, T-shirt and capris
• Beach attire, bathing suit, beach bag and sunglasses
• Pajamas and slippers
• Winter coat and scarf
• Sewing Pattern set: Phoebe Gets Dressed
• Phoebe's lovely box to store all of this in

I am thrilled to play a role in this wonderful fund raiser and to help such an amazing non-profit.

Beach set

Winter set

Play set

Pajama set

Phoebe's sewing patterns

And the winner is...

Thank you for all who entered to win Big Little Felt Universe.

The winner is April P., who I will contact to get your snail mail address.

Sewing Machine Maintenance

I'm feeling a bit discombobulated today. I could blame it on coming back from nine days of a great vacation. Or the end of summer with no camp or school or routine for Egg yet.

But I know those are not the reasons. 

I don't have my sewing machine today. I imagine this is how many people feel without their car. My Bernina is at its annual check up. Or what should be an annual check up, I often let it go a bit longer. I want to sew, I have lots to sew, but I need to patient. Sewing machine maintenance is critical to smooth happy sewing.

A lot of regular sewing machine maintenance you can do yourself. 

1. You can change your needle regularly. Dull or bent needles can have a big impact on your stitching.
2. Keeping your machine covered when you are not regularly using it. This prevents dust from creeping in to all exposed parts.
3. Clean out dust bunnies from under the throat plate. Depending on what type of fabric you use and how often you sew, these can accumulate quickly.
4. Clean dust bunnies out of your bobbin area.
5. Oil your machine. 

Steps three through five depend on what kind of machine you own. Machines with bobbins that load from the top need to be cleaned differently from machines that have front loading bobbins.

Here is how I recommend proceeding:

1. Find your machine's manual. If you cannot find it, Google most likely can produce it.
2. Find the lint brush, little packet of oil and tiny screw driver your machine came with. If those are also gone, sewing machine oil is available at Joann's, Amazon and Walmart. Tiny screw drivers are easy to find and instead of a lint brush I have used a little paint brush. Sometimes I use tweezers to carefully pluck dust bunnies out.
3. Go on Youtube and search "Clean your sewing machine [brand name goes here]" There are some great tutorials. Here are a few I recommend:

For top loading machines

Also for top loading machines

For Berninas and front loading machines

These five steps will result in less thread breaking, better tension and a machine that just behaves better.

For those of you who sew often, I recommend a yearly service. I have a Bernina and have mine serviced regularly at the store that sold me the machine. The regular service re-calibrates tension and checks and cleans the parts I can't get to and would be too scared to touch anyway. 

I also have a cute little finger duster from the Container store for dusting the outside of my machine.

Tomorrow morning I can drive up to Portsmouth to pick up my machine, but until then I will spend my time doing all of the things I don't do when I'm sewing (like post on my blog).

Making More Babies

Two pink haired Baby Eggs left for the new homes this week. Each had their very own personality. And their home lives might also be different. One flew off to Africa and the other went to the Mid West.

The smocked dress did not fly off with Baby Egg. I am listing it in my Etsy shop. It is made from the very last little bit of a favorite fabric.

This Baby Egg is on her way to Africa and we may be hearing about her new life soon.

Now in my Etsy shop.