Talking to Ally of Ally Sews

May 9, 2016 Lisa Press

I've said it a few times, I love Instagram. It's where I find incredible and inspiring makers. Like Alexandra Yount of Ally Sews.

Alexandra, who goes by Ally, sews gorgeous vibrant doll clothes. She currently sews and sells a lot of American Girl dresses, but she only recently added the American Girl line.

Ally opened her store two years ago and began by making and selling Waldorf doll clothes.

"I opened my store at the very end of 2014 when I was 16, I didn't have that much fabric, just a few different prints, I liked cutting up clearance clothing from stores and using them for fabrics. I had shopped on Etsy for a while and researched selling handmade on there, I wanted to try opening a shop because I didn't have a job yet, I struggled finding one because I left school earlier than most.

"I made 20 or so Waldorf doll outfits to start and sat down one day and listed them all, I was so excited. I waited 2 months for my first sale which was a long time for me, then I started making Barbie clothes and that's when it all went crazy.

"Two months with no sales and then 12 months with over 700.

Ally now sells both on Etsy and on her website.

"Earlier this year I started making American girl doll clothes and that was a whole new craziness because there's such a huge fandom around that doll. It's been so fun, sewing and designing is my life now.

"I started out sewing for Waldorf and Barbie dolls, but I've made clothes for American Girl, Skipper, Chelsea, Stacie, Lammily, Lalaloopsy, Gotz dolls and a few others. The smaller the doll, the more difficult it is but I think the difficulty is just how fiddly it gets when you're trying to maneuver something so tiny around the sewing machine!

"I read and follow a lot of children's/baby clothing blogs and I love the styles little girl's clothes are made in, its so hard to find patterns that are like that so I started trying to make the patterns that I loved in doll size. It took quite a few tries but it gets easier, it helps to have a model right next to you to measure and make adjustments with :)

My favorite things to sew are dresses! I love dresses. My least favorite is anything made out of knit fabric, I prefer working with non-stretchy materials....too bad, I love t-shirts, so I have to cope.

Three tips for sewing doll clothes. Can be for beginners. My top 3 tips would be:

1. Use pinking shears to clip curves, it saves time rather than snipping little triangles out by hand. I use them for trimming Peter Pan collar seams!

2. Buy a mini iron for ironing hard to reach places, especially for Barbie clothes. My normal sized iron is so much bigger than the things I make so it's hard to only iron part of it without squashing it.

3. Get a serger that has a narrow over locking stitch for finishing seam edges, it'll save so much time!

You can find Ally her doll clothes:

On Instagram

On Etsy

And at allysews.com

Zamora Moon Update

May 9, 2016 Lisa Press

Last week Zamora Moon traveled with her family to Bristol, England to undergo CED treatment for her brain tumor. My earlier post about her journey and her doll is here.

Today I received an update from her mother, Marisa. Zamora has braved the eleven hour surgery that inserted the catheter directly into her tumor, so that her chemotherapy can bypass the blood brain barrier. You can read more about the treatment here. She will have her first infusion in a couple of days.

For more information on DIPG brain tumors or to donate to continued and increased research, you can visit the Defeat DIPG website.

Also Zamora's fund raising site is here.

And in addition, please keep Zamora and her family in your thoughts.

Looking for Five People to Sew

May 5, 2016 Lisa Press

As most of you know, for every doll sold I make and donate a doll to a child in need. So far it has been either a child in foster care or in the Family Promise program. Above are the dolls I make for girls ages 3-10.

Last week I received an amazing donation from Purl Soho. They sent me six packets of fabrics and trims to be used in sewing for the foster children. Of course, the packets are amazing!

I actually don't need any fabric (a bit of an understatement), but I'd love to give the packets to Phoebe&Egg friends who would love to sew for these dolls and children.

I was sent six packets, but one is spoken for. For five interested people who sew, I'll send a packet, my pattern and an envelope to send the dresses back. You can keep the pattern and the remaining fabric and trim, but must send the dresses you make to me to be donated with a doll.

I will take photos of the dolls with the dresses.

If you are interested I'd love to hear from you.

Name

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

A bit about your experience

How long it would take you to sew four dresses, ie when I could realistically expect them back.

The Zamora Moon bag

April 30, 2016 Lisa Press

Marisa Martinez is both a Phoebe&Egg customer and the mother to eight year old Zamora Martinez Lusinchi (Zamora Moon). Zamora is battling a rare form of childhood brain cancer called Diffuse intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). The tumor grows near the brain stem--the area of the brain that controls are most basic and necessary functions. About 200-400 children are diagnosed with this form of cancer each year.

You can read more about DIPG here. And you can read more about Zamora right here.

Zamora named her much loved Phoebe doll "Forget" because she wants to forget she has cancer. And her family and team are doing everything possible to try and make that a reality. She has travelled to Germany twice for immunotherapy and will be leaving this week for England for a chemo treatment that injects the treatment directly into her tumor.

Zamora's doll and her younger sister and her sister's Phoebe doll will all be accompanying Zamora to England, so I designed travel bags for them to make the trip easier and maybe a bit more fun.

The bag is made from a soft but sturdy brushed twill and lined in a bright cotton print.

Inside there is a button up elasticized seatbelt for securely fastening your Phoebe doll in for trips. She won't fall out, but she can peek out over the top.

Phoebe is fastened in with an elasticized seatbelt.

Inside there is a pocket that closes with a button. It can hold her clothes and shoes for the trip.

Each girl has their own color scheme.

I am hoping Zamora, her family and the dolls have a safe trip and that this is the treatment that cures her.

To support Zamora’s treatment, which will not be covered by insurance, please visit her Go Fund Me page.

To read more about Zamora, visit her FB page.

Doll Dressmaking Series: Long Sleeves for the Peasant Blouse

April 26, 2016 Lisa Press

First apologies for the scant amount of blogging these last two months. I've been focusing on the ExtraSmalls and a number of custom orders and kind of neglected the blog and doll dressmaking. But I'm back. And I'm getting back to sleeves, which is where I left off.

My last tutorial was for long sleeves for the dresses. This tutorial is for long sleeves for the raglan peasant blouse (or dress). The short sleeve tutorial for the blouse is here. And the dress is here.

I am not going to repeat all of the instructions. Just skim over the making of the peasant blouse as discussed in the original tutorial, but with long sleeves.

And of course the long sleeve pattern will be in the upcoming newsletter.

Cut out your pattern pieces, front and back (both the same) and the two sleeves.

Sew three of the four "shoulder" seams. Make sure you are attaching a sleeve to a body and a body edge to a sleeve.

On the bottom of each sleeve, fold under (to the wrong side of the fabric) 5/8 of an inch, press and stitch. This is the sleeve casing, meaning you will guide elastic through here.

Do the same along the neck edge for the neck casing and elastic.

Run elastic through the neck casing and then each of the sleeve casings. Directions for elastic and casings are here in the original tutorial. Finished wrist lengths (with the elastic) should measure as follows:

Phoebe: 3.5 inches, Sasha Dolls, 3 inches, American Girl and Waldorf: 4 inches. Neck length for Phoebe: 8.5 inches, Sasha 8 inches and AG and Waldorf 9-9.5 inches. Neck length is a bit of personal preference depending on how you like the neckline.

Stitch up the remaining "shoulder seam.

Stitch up only one of the two side seams. Leaving one open makes it easier to add a trim on the bottom if one side is still open.

Stitch trim onto bottom edge right sides together. Fold under and stitch down.

Stitch the other side seam and you are down. Make the body a few inches longer and you have a dress.

Phoebe is a bit camera shy in this photo, but you can see the sleeve at least : )

My love of custom dolls

April 15, 2016 Lisa Press

This past week, I took the custom listings down from my site. Not because I don't love customs, but because I would like to refine the process, so that customers and I can more clearly mix and match all of the options and to make the process easier for both myself and most of all my customers.

But while I'm working on the customization worksheet I was also working on a few custom dolls. And well, as often happens, my customers come up with ideas that I love and would not have thought of.

Such as this girl. An artist Phoebe in her smock.

How lucky was I to have such an amazing request.

And soon I will have the customization work sheet.

More of the ExtraSmall Phoebe

April 6, 2016 Lisa Press

It's been a little over a week since the first extraSmall Phoebe was listed in my shop. A number of ExtraSmalls are now in their new homes. Some even have their own Instagram accounts. I love peeking into their lives.

I will continue to list ExtraSmall Phoebes and a few clothing sets over the next few weeks.

I have been asked by several people if there are custom ExtraSmalls. There are. I'm not a magician, but please send me your ideas and I am happy to let you know if it is possible.

ExtraSmall Phoebe before she flew off to her new home

Three winners of the Spoonflower Dollmaking Fabric

March 28, 2016 Lisa Press

Thank you everyone for commenting and entering

As promised, but definitely a week late, I have entered the names of everyone who commented (with an email address) into a random name generator and I have three winners. The winners are (winners were changed because the first two did not leave email addresses):

Linda Badurek

Julie Wiesler

and Bekki.

I will get in touch with each of you for an address.

A Preview of the New ExtraSmall Phoebes

March 21, 2016 Lisa Press

If you follow me on Instagram this may be old news. But after many requests, I have finally developed a small doll. A smaller line of Phoebes.

And that there will be an ExtraSmall Phoebe giveaway on Instagram.

New ExtraSmall Phoebe is a tiny bit over half of the size of regular sized Phoebe. She is just over a foot and weighs only a few ounces and one hand can fit easily around her tiny waist. Even a child sized hand.

Each doll will come with two outfits, and a playful trench coat and the tiniest little pair of shoes just like the regular sized Phoebe's shoes--100% wool felt Mary Janes with little buttons.

ExtraSmall phoebe Sets will be in my Etsy shop at the end of the week.

And...

The Giveaway will be one ExtraSmall Phoebe set. How to enter will appear on Instagram on Thursday. Contest will close Sunday morning. Exact times to be announced later.

Click here to find me on Instagram.