My post is a bit late today, because it took me a bit to get all the pictures taken and edited this morning! But here we go.

McCalls 3701 is another out-of-print pattern for Tyler Wentworth and other 16″ dolls. It includes a straight skirt, a jacket and a blouse that’s actually a bodysuit.

Here’s the line drawing for the jacket, which is the part that interests me.

But argh. It’s another digital download without a scale for reference. This time, I had a plan. I printed, cut and quickly assembled a test jacket from scrap fabric. Actually, I ended up doing this three times – printing the pattern at 100%, at 110% and at 115%. I sewed the samples out of plain cotton and cut off the hems. I also left off the collar since it was the main proportions I wanted to get right.

You can see that the 100% version is just too small. The 110% one is a better fit, even though the shoulders are starting to get wide. (Maybe that was a 90’s thing.) The sleeves are still too short and the center front line can’t be brought together over the bust. At 115%, we have a much better fit over the bust – the CF can be brought together until just below the bust, which might be a design choice. The sleeves are still too short. I sewed a mock-up of the skirt at 115%, which she’s wearing in all three images. It was snug through the hips but otherwise fit okay, so I added 1/8″ to the side seams of each front and back piece for the final garment.

You might remember that in McCalls 3845, the sleeves were too short, too, AND they were too short on the DBDoll raincoat as well. This sent me down a rabbit hole, trying to establish whether the original dolls had slightly shorter arms. These are older patterns, after all, and show the original straight arm (SA) doll modelling the garments. Those dolls did have shorter arms, but not enough to explain this difference. The patterns were 1/4″ too short and the difference between the straight arm Tyler body sculpt (SA) and the bendable elbow Tyler body sculpt (BA) is maybe 1/8″. The bendable wrist Tyler body sculpt (BW) has arms the same length as the BA type. That ball joint at the elbow adds a bit of length but not enough to explain the issue with the patterns.

I still had to manually lengthen the sleeves and went with 3/8″. Here’s Sydney in the final suit:

There are buttons on the cuffs, too, which makes me happy. (I’m even happier that I had buttons of this design and colour in two sizes.)

You can see that it still tugs a little bit over the bust – that snap is visible. I think turn-of-cloth might have emphasized this more over the muslin, as the check fabric is thicker than the cotton used for the muslin—plus this final jacket is lined as well.

The skirt gave me some issues, the same issues as with this skirt for B, with a similar pleat design. The picture on the left is my version on B: the one on the right is the picture from the book. (Here’s the blog post about this suit for B.)

The pleat in the skirt is a reverse box pleat (on the suit for B, there are two of them), so if you line the skirt and sew the hem, then the center back seam, the lining and fabric will be together for the pleat. This is fine, but both of these patterns want the waistline turned into the inside – you can’t do that if the pleat is sewn from the top of the pleat to the waist. Hmm.

There are several possible solutions. The easiest one would be NOT to line the skirt. The second is to add a waistband to the skirt, which encases the seam allowances at the waist from both the lining and the main fabric. That’s what I did on Sydney’s suit. I cut a piece of fabric 1″ wide and 7″ long, then trimmed the ends. I think it’s a bit wide, finishing out at 1/4″, so would cut it at 7/8″ if I used this solution again.

The third option, which I thought of later, would be to add a facing at the waist, probably cut on the bias of the main fabric, that would be sewn to the top then turned to the inside. I’d have to sew the bottom edge of it to the lining by hand, but it would also make a nice edge and would retain the waistband-less design of the skirt. Next time. 🙂

You can also see a peek of cream silk in the first photo of Sydney and have a better view of the bodice in this one. I decided that she needed something under the jacket, so made a strapless blouse using the basic bodice pattern from the Fashion Doll Clothing book. I cut it of silk, then lined it – it has a pair of snaps on the back. It also fit perfectly the first time, which was awesome. Next time, I’ll make it a smidge longer. Ah, you can see the cuff buttons on this one!

It’s funny that I chose the same black and cream check for both double-breasted suits, but I do like how it finishes out with the black buttons. Sydney also has the perfect shoes. The one for Sydney has a better back closure on the skirt, too, because I added a tab of fabric to one back piece. Hmm. Methinks Sydney needs some black stockings. All the ones I have are nude (although she’s not wearing any in these pics.)

Phew. I have some silk chosen to make this suit again and will show you when that’s done. In the meantime, that bodice pattern – which has princess seams – has me thinking about ballgowns…