I don’t think there’s anything worse than a summer cold, and I’ve had a whopper of one this past week. Ugh. I shared it with the mister, so this is officially The House of Misery. I think we’re starting to improve, though – at least today, I did some crafting that I can show you.
I made another wardrobe for the girls, given that their selection of clothes is constantly increasing. This time, I’ll show you the process a little more.
First up, I started with a storage trunk from Michaels. This series had a nice big size, and the outside pattern didn’t have a direction – when I stand it on end, nothing is sideways. (Always a bonus.) This one is 16’5″ tall, not tall enough for the girls but perfect for their clothes.
I took the handle off one end – the left side, which will become the bottom. Again, this particular trunk was an excellent choice as it had tied cords for handles. I undid a knot and pulled out the cord on the left side. I added some felt feet, too.
Next, I added that cord to the top, doubling up the handle.
Stand it on end and open sesame!
I papered the inside with gift wrap – this is from Hallmark. I cut a pair of 6mm bamboo needles from the dollar store to the right length and secured them in blocks of foam board (covered with the gift wrap) for the clothing bars. (That little block is necessary on the door to hold up the organizer so that the box will close. Trust me. You’ll see.) I also glued in some ribbons.
The ribbons are to hold two organizers from the dollar store. The large one is in with tools in my dollar store, not in craft supplies and organizers. The little cabinet with the pair of drawers is in the make-up section.
The large one is perfect for shoes and jewellery, while the drawers hold hats and purses. (See why we needed the lift?)
I tied them into the carrier, then hung up the clothes.
This particular wardrobe holds the original clothes that came with my Tonner girls. I label them (with tags from the dollar store) so I remember what came with each doll. The clothes are pretty easy to remember – the accessories, less so. One of my girls had a wig so I made a stand for it and it’s in here, too. (I bought her a different wig, which she wears most of the time.)
I buy these hangers for the wardrobes. You can find them on Etsy or at I sew for doll in several colours and sizes. (That link will take you to the product page. I have no affiliation but have had good experience with this site.) These are the large ones in bronze. They’re about 4.25″ wide and perfect for the 16″ girls (although they might push out the shoulders on a snug sweater). I hang hats with my homemade hat hangers – this is made from a mini-clothespin and a piece of wire. You can find mini-clothespins in packs of 50 or so in various colours at the dollar store or craft outlet. When I make more, I’ll make the hook a little longer, as they tend to jump off the rack.
I also add thread loops to skirts and trousers to keep them on the hangers. I use buttonhole twist and don’t fasten it in too securely – it will hold the garment on the hanger, but anyone could remove it easily to return the garment to its original state.
Voilà! The girls are organized!
I also have a new Instagram account, which is as yet quite sparse, but you can follow me there and watch things shape up.
It appears that when I’m stressed, I buy dolls. Who would have guessed that my comfort-indulgence would have no calories at all?
Here are the two newest girls who have joined the party.
First up is Alexandra Fairchild Ford, a doll from 2000. On the left is a pic of this doll still in the box. On the right, mine is unboxed and in all her splendor.
Alexandra Fairchild Ford 2000 Museum Gala
This is from the first year of Alexandra Fairchild Ford dolls. She has no articulation in arms or legs, but I think she’s pretty. Since this one had been in the box all these years, her taffeta skirt was a bit creased – it’s longer than the doll is tall, so it covers the stand. It also has to get jammed into the box a bit when she’s packed up. The humid weather we’ve had lately has helped the taffeta to relax.
The AFF dolls have particularly nice clothes, IMO. This taffeta skirt has beads and a bit of embroidery on it, as well as having a tulle underskirt to make it stand out. It’s worth an attempt to copy. The knitted sweater opens at the back, and I’ll be taking it off the doll to figure out how to replicate it. The jewellery was packed separately – a necklace and a wire bracelet – so I put them on. She also has a purse with a beaded handle but since her wrists don’t bend, she doesn’t hold onto it well.
The AFF dolls also have eyelashes, which is kind of neat, and this one has a bellybutton stud. You can see her eyelashes a little better in the right picture.
She also has thigh-high black stockings with a back seam, and a pair of shoes. I’ve seen a lot of people trying to make shoes for their 16″ dolls on social media lately, and these have a design that could be copied if you had the shoe bases. It’s a bias tube pressed flat (although you might be able to use a 1/4″ ribbon) and there’s a metal snap on the strap under the shiny bead.
The trick, of course, is finding the shoe forms.
Another interesting detail in that shot. You can see that the skirt is lined in a contrasting taffeta. It’s shot taffeta, with the mauve in one direction and a pewter similar to the outer skirt in the other direction. All the little details. 🙂
2004 Daphne Black & White Ball
Next up, a Tonner doll. This is the first nude doll I’ve purchased. Here’s her official photo, although I don’t have any of her clothes or accessories. She’s Daphne Dimples Black & White Ball from 2004.
I’ve always thought she had a beautiful face sculpt, but she’s hard to find in the wild and often pricey.
So, this time, I bought a nude doll. I’ve been wanting a girl with long blonde hair – my two blonde Tylers have updos – and I like the vintage look of her make-up. This character is a rival reporter to Brenda Starr and a lot of her outfits are wonderfully retro. You can see them on the Dreamcastle site right here – mine is the first Daphne.
Here’s her picture from the listing:
She is taking the US tour typical of packages shipped under ebay’s international shipping program, but I’m hoping she turns up soon. I immediately thought that she needed a cheongsam, maybe because she does reminds me a bit of Kate Capshaw in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. When I work out the cheongsam (and she arrives) I’ll show you both. (Let’s hope she doesn’t start singing Anything Goes in Mandarin.)
I told you about my new addition to the collection of dolls, Amazing Grace #3. (That link takes you to the Dreamcastle Dolls site detail page for her. All of the Grace dolls are on this page of the reference site. They are 16.5″ Tonner dolls with the RTB-101 body.)
Since Grace is half an inch taller than the Tyler and Sydney dolls, she needs her own clothes. Her proportions are different, too – her feet are a lot bigger! – so the other girls will be able to wear some of Grace’s clothes but not the other way around. I finished a raincoat, for example, in black pleather and it just looks too short on Grace. (Sydney loves it, though!)
Around the same time that Grace arrived, I noticed a new doll being released by Integrity Toys. This is a 12″ Fashion Royalty doll, which I don’t want, but I love her outfit. I decided to use it as inspiration for Grace’s first clothes of her own.
This is Evelyn Weaverton Traveling in Style:
How great is this 1950’s ensemble?
I started with the jacket and used the riding jacket from Designs by Jude’s Equestrian pattern, which is sized for Grace.
I cut this of an olive green crepe, with the pocket flaps and collar cut of black velveteen. Mine is lined in rayon Bemberg. I fiddled around with the construction to sew more of it on the machine, and also sewed down the pocket flaps invisibly to keep them in place. It’s a nice little jacket and fits Tyler, too.
I wanted a straight skirt on my first variation, so used the dress from Designs by Jude’s Noteworthy Style, again, sized for Grace.
I split the dress into two pieces at the waist, adding a seam allowance on each half. I cut the top of a silk print and the bottom of the dark green so it looked like a blouse and skirt. I also added long sleeves with a cuff, but ending up taking them off as they didn’t fit well under the jacket. Lots of ripping and handstitching on this one! The dress is lined and it has an invisible zipper at the center back.
Here’s Grace in her new suit:
I’m not so fussed about dress, so no detail pix of it. It’s fine, but I did a lot of ripping (thanks to those sleeves) and that adversely influenced my joy in both the process and the result.
Another variable is the zipper down the center back of the dress. I couldn’t find a doll zipper long enough – the high collar makes that seam longer – so I used a 7″ invisible skirt zipper. The tab feels huge and out of scale, plus there’s a lot of bulk at the back of the neck with the zipper tab and the turndown velvet collar of the jacket. I also wish the skirt was maybe 1/4″ longer to hide her knee joints. (Sadly, I have no stockings for Grace as yet. She didn’t come with any, and I haven’t found a place to order them. They need to be longer than Tyler’s.)
The buttons are lovely little gold roses which I ordered from I Sew For Doll.
Instead of the turban in the inspiration photo, I made her a little hat.
You might remember that I bought the pattern for sunhats from DBDolls last year to go with their sundresses. For this one, I played around with making the hat from felt – the pattern uses linen. This is just polyester felt but I could do it again in wool felt. I played with the depth of the crown and of the brim, as well as cutting the top as an oval instead of a circle. My big new trick is adding that pleat at the top – I turned down 3/8″ on the top edge of the piece that goes around the doll head, then hand-stitched the oval crown to it, slightly below the stitching line. That gives a nicer definition to the top of the hat, IMO. The embroidery stitch on the outer edge of the brim was an experiment and a technique I’ll use again. The feather is from a pack of zillions of different coloured craft feathers that I got for a couple of bucks at Michaels – and there’s another rose button on the band.
The hat might be my favorite part of the outfit. 🙂
She reminds me of the ladies in Munich heading out in their loden suits. I probably shouldn’t have used that shade of green. I do have a black belt I need to finish and am still scheming for the swing coat. I’m going to tray another jacket in a small wool check, probably with a pleated skirt. I’ll show you that when it’s done, maybe with a coat, too.
Happy new year! I’ve been really busy so far this year and have fallen behind on my weekly posting. There were also a lot of projects not-quite-done, but I’ll try to get back on track now.
First up, some sewing for Tyler.
I stumbled across these in my search for sewing patterns for Tyler Wentworth. They were published in 1999, so they would have originally been printed patterns. They’re pretty tough to find in that format now.
This is a picture from the archive at Dreamcastle Dolls, a fantastic resource for identifying and dating Tonner Dolls, accessories etc. These patterns are shown as available accessories from 1999 and these are the three that you can find as digital downloads on Etsy.
From the listing at Dreamcastle, it looks as if there were two more patterns at least in the planning. I’ve never seen these elsewhere, so it’s possible they were never actually published. (??) Too bad – that blazer and raincoat at the far right look just about perfect to me!
Today, we’ll talk about TW 3522, the Weekend Wardrobe. This pattern includes a peacoat, pants, a turtleneck, skirt, tights, socks and a tote bag. In that way, it reminds me of those Vogue Wardrobe patterns, which I like a lot, the ones that give you enough pieces to make a little capsule wardrobe.
As usual, I printed it out at 100% and sewed a muslin of the coat and the trousers. They fit, so I was off to the races.
I made a few changes right away. This pattern has a 3/8″ seam allowance – usually doll patterns have 1/4″ seam allowances, so that left a lot of extra fabric, especially around the curves. Also, the cutting line is drawn thick, so if you cut on the outside of it, the seam allowance gets close to 1/2″. After a battle royale to get the sleeves inserted in the coat without tucks on the muslin, I decided to trim all seam allowances to 1/4″ on my pattern pieces.
There are a lot of nice touches in these patterns. The trousers have a faux slash pocket at the front. The jacket has welts for faux pockets (the doll can’t put her hand in the pocket like the drawn model…although that could be changed. Hmm.) and there are bands on the sleeve cuffs. (I think they’re drawn backward in the illustration and did mine the other way, so the tab goes over the sleeve.)
Here’s Tyler in the whole ensemble.
I cut the good version of the pants from a very thin pleather in mauve. This came from I Sew For Doll and is the thinnest fake leather I’ve ever found – there are thickness variations between colours and the black is the thinnest of all. Each piece is 30 x 45cm – I used just over half to cut these pants for Tyler. There’s enough left to make pants for Silkstone B and maybe a bit after that. This is #12 purple.
Pleather doesn’t fray since it’s a woven base with the leather surface fused to it, so there’s no need to finish the seam allowances. I used a slightly longer stitch length than I would have otherwise, as the pleather surface tends to drag on both the presser foot and the feed dog plate of the machine – if it drags too much, the fused surface separates from the woven base. (Ask me how I know.) I tried a lighter embroidery foot but it made no difference.
I top-stitched the outside leg seam to keep the seam allowances to one side and to give the pants the look of jeans. The pants have a back opening, which looks fine when the doll is standing, but gapes open when she sits—as I so often do, I added a tab to one trouser back for a little extra discretion. These went together really well and I’m pleased with them. The waistband looks loose, but the pleather doesn’t stretch so the doll can be posed better this way.
The turtleneck is sewn of knit fabric and the entire back opens, closing with snaps. While I understand the practicality of this, it’s not my favorite solution. The one shown here is the third attempt – the other two are in the trash. My concern was finishing the seam allowances as jersey will fray and run. I tried to serge the first version, which is what I would do for a human-sized top like this, but the curves were too tight. I’m just not that accurate on the serger, so that was a fail. I did, though, learn that having the back entirely open meant that the top gaped open below the waist – it’s a knit fabric, after all, so it pulled open over the hips. On subsequent versions, I sewed a partial back seam, from the hem almost to the waist.
Here’s Tyler doing some push-ups so you can see the back modification to the top.
For my second attempt, I used the overlock stitch on my machine, but wasn’t any happier with that result. It was just too bulky. Number three was the winner – I remembered that I fuse knit interfacing to the hems on my t-shirts to stabilize the seam allowance, so I cut fusible knit interfacing into 1/4″ wide strips. I fused it to the seam allowances all around the pieces of the top – not the sleeve cap or armscye, since they need to be stretched to fit – then assembled the top using straight stitches. I stitched a second row 1/8″ inside the sleeve seam, then trimmed it. All the other seam allowances could be trimmed down to 1/8″ because they were fused. This worked brilliantly, and I used clear snaps to close the back of the top.
I extended the top for a dress cut of a different knit fabric, which Sydney is wearing here. I made Sydney a little belt, too. The center back seam on the dress is sewn from hem to the widest point of the hips, but I’m thinking it could have been sewn almost to the waist. Because the fabric stretches, that would still have worked.
The one detail I don’t love is the thickness of the turtleneck, especially where it overlaps to fasten in the back, but I don’t see a way around that. There’s a lot of layered fabric in a small area with the seam allowances. I trimmed them right down, but it’s still bulky.
I cut the peacoat of a fabric that looks like chalk-stripe wool in scale. (It’s probably polyester.) The collar is cut on the bias, so I seamed it at the center back to make it symmetrical at the front, as one would do with a human-size coat. That gave the collar a bit more bulk at the center-back, so I cut the undercollar of lining instead of the main fabric. This coat is lined with Bemberg rayon, which I think is perfect for the girls.
I also added a half-belt at the back to draw in the coat a bit. This makes an interesting problem since doll buttons are usually sold in packs of ten – I had to use only six on the front of the coat instead of the eight specified, because there are two on the cuff and I added two to the belt.
The buttons are adorable, IMO. They’re 6mm buttons with little anchors ordered from I Sew for Doll.
The tote bag is like a big LL Bean tote. I cut this one of grey pleather and lined it with a coordinating cotton print. (The pattern doesn’t include a lining, but it’s simple to add.) I even thought about adding a zipper since I dislike open totes when travelling, but gave up that idea (for the moment). The handles are satin ribbon, which snags a bit, and there are four beads on the bottom for feet. I added a charm, just for fun.
Finally, I knit a coordinating scarf in Kidsilk Haze Stripe, and Tyler’s ready for her weekend away. I still need to make the skirt.
I really like this pattern and am sewing some different colour combinations for the other girls. Weekend trips are more fun with friends!
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.
100%
110%
115%
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.)
Double Breasted Suit
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…
Remember this sewing pattern for Tyler Wentworth dolls, McCalls 3845? Well, I didn’t just make the purse from it. 🙂
The outfit on the left is a sleeveless dress with a jacket – they show the jacket with fur or feather trim. I used velveteen on mine.
Here’s the finished dinner suit. Red crepe, lined with black polyester with red polka dots. The collar and cuffs are black velveteen and I used two black rose beads on the fronts. I like a black purse with this one.
There were issues with this little suit. The first jacket I made was too small—the sleeves were too short and the fronts didn’t meet. I redrafted the pattern with longer sleeves and bigger front pieces so that they met up at the center-front. Since the pattern was a digital download, it’s possible that I didn’t print the pattern at the right % size originally. This is a tricky bit with digital downloads that don’t have any scale on them. I printed the pattern at 100% but that wasn’t right. At any rate, it’s mostly right now. (The sleeves are a bit too wide in this version.)
The red crepe wasn’t the best choice of fabric, since it’s pretty thick. That’s why the bolero doesn’t close when she has the dress on. It’s just bulky. (Without the dress, the jacket closes, but it’s a bit of a bold look.) The fabric was also stretchy in the crosswise direction, which made accuracy a challenge. I thought the fabric was the reason why the bodice didn’t fit as well as I would have liked. It’s just too wide at the top.
But no. I realized that there is a teensy mistake in the pattern.
This is the center piece for the bodice front. Usually, the printing on the pattern indicates the top and bottom by its direction – here, it looks like the larger edge should be the top. But the bodice doesn’t fit well into the top of the skirt this way, and the top gapes open on the final dress as you can see on the red dress above. On a whim, I turned it upside down for my second version of the dress and voilà! It’s PERFECT. So, the label on the pattern piece is upside down. Now, it has my handwritten labels on it. 🙂
Here’s the variation of the dress made by flaring the skirt, with the middle bodice piece the other way around. I cut it of the polka-dot polyester, lined with solid black. The plan was to give our girl an easy change of look with the jacket when she’s travelling. (You know how keen dolls are about globetrotting…)
Here’s the finished dress.
It fits MUCH better at the top front. The ruffle at the hem of the flared skirt is actually lingerie elastic trim, so it stretches, but it’s the perfect scale and it won’t be able to stretch now.
Of course, she needs a different purse for this outfit and I like the red one. 🙂
I also added a zipper to the back instead of the dress closing with snaps, which was bulky in the red version. There were a few tweaks to making that change – because the original closure with the snaps overlaps in the back, while the zipper means the back pieces just meet but don’t overlap. We’ll talk about that in a minute.
I ordered doll-sized invisible zippers online. The zipper has to be long enough to open over the widest point of the doll’s body – that’s her bum. 🙂 For a strapless dress for Tyler, I use a 10cm zipper. If the zipper went all the way to the nape, I’d use a 12cm one. Doll zippers tend to not have stops at the top – or maybe it’s just the ones I have – so it’s easy to zip them up with enthusiasm and end up with three pieces that won’t go back together. The first thing I do now before using a doll zipper is overcast a few stitches at the top of the teeth on each tape.
Because the pieces overlap in the original design, the seam allowances need to be reduced for the zipper. If the center back was marked on the pattern, this would be easy—you’d just make a new seam allowance from that. But the CB isn’t marked on this pattern and I didn’t want to guess since tiny increments can make a big difference with doll clothes. There’s a kind of a tab on the right back so I removed that, making both backs the same (mirror images of each other).
For the zippered back, I also changed the order of construction. The pattern instructions are to sew together all of the bodice pieces, then all of the skirt pieces, then sew them together at the waist and end up having only the center back seam open. Instead, I sewed all the front bodice pieces, then the front skirt, then sewed them together to complete the front. I sewed both back bodice pieces to their respective back skirt pieces, then inserted the zipper. It’s an invisible zipper, so it’s easier to set in when the back is flat. Once the zipper was in, I basted the side seams and tried the dress on the doll. I had to take a little bit extra out of the back to make it fit properly (that would be the seam allowance that I hadn’t already reduced), so I took it out of the side seams.
Here are the backs of the two dresses:
And yes, the red one should lap the other way. I realized I’d done it backwards after I’d wrestled the base of the slit into place (to minimize the gap). In fact, this exercise is what pushed me to trying the zipper – getting the overlap in place was frustrating and I don’t love the result. If the doll bends at the waist, the back gapes open, and there’s a lot of bulk at the center back with all those layers. The metal zipper stop on the black dress is still visible, a sign that I need to refine my invisible zipper installation technique.
As far as using the jacket with the flared dress, I ended up with a small problem – the red purse is an orange-red and the jacket is a cherry red. They don’t go together. (Fortunately, I had shoes in the right shade of red to match the purse!) I’ll cut out another jacket to go with the second dress. I finally found some fake fur that has a short enough nap for the dolls, so I’ll use that in black for the collar and cuffs, but am waffling about the fabric. Should it be solid black lined with polka dots, or polka dots lined with black? The polka dot polyester just feels a bit light for a jacket to me. Hmm.
A well-dressed doll needs accessories, but those little finishing details add up. I’ve yet to figure out what to do about shoes for my dolls – other than buying them for $$$ – but something fun happened recently with purses.
I bought a digital edition of this sewing pattern for Tyler Wentworth dolls, McCalls 3845. It’s out of print – I think it’s about 20 years old – so you can hunt down an old print copy or buy a digital download on Etsy which is (alas) unlikely to be a licensed and legal copy. I wish rights holders would make this older content available again but that seems unlikely to happen soon.
You can see that both dolls are carrying purses. You can’t really see the purse carried by the doll on the left in the dinner suit, beyond it being more square than the drawstring one.
Well, lo and behold, it’s kind of a Birkin bag.
Here’s the line drawing from the pattern instructions:
Hmm. You cut the bag from faux leather and add a buckle to the strap across the front that holds the flap closed.
I cut one from a square of fake leather. These came in a package at the dollar store – there are two each of five colours (black, brown, navy, caramel and red) for a couple of dollars. The squares are about 7.5″ x 7.5″. (20cm by 20cm) It took less than half of one to cut out a purse – you can see that I could cut at least one more from the same square. I used a rotary cutter and ruler, btw, to get the straps perfectly straight.
And here’s my first purse:
I think it’s adorable!
It was careful sewing – I slowed down the machine speed – but not that difficult. The toughest part was the corner of each side at the bottom front. I backtacked each stitching line, but I think next time, I’ll pull the theads to the inside of the bag and knot them.
The buckle is one I bought online from China so it’s probably the most expensive element. I ordered 40 more in mixed colours on Etsy for about $16 CA including shipping ($11CA plus $5 for shipping), since I’m using a lot of them. That makes them about 40 cents each. Individually, they’re more like 70 cents each plus shipping. It’s a necessary touch, though.
I’m thinking also that I could use a Sharpie to color the white edges that peek out, or even do one with a contrasting color. Hmm. I put a rolled Kleenex tissue in the bottom to support the shape. Overall, I’m pretty pleased by it.
I’ll be making some more purses from the squares with this pattern since those buckles have arrived. The girls need brown and caramel purses and I’ll try the navy with contrast cream stitching, too.
Next week, I’ll show you the little dinner suit finished. 🙂
I’ve been sewing for my Tyler Wentworth dolls again. This is the halter dress from Fashion Doll Clothing by Rosemarie Ionker. It’s fully lined and I’ve made three. Here are the first two:
The first is a quilting cotton floral in pink with a pink cotton voile lining. The second is a green quilting cotton with a green cotton voile lining.
Here are the backs:
They have a pair of snaps at the center back, then buttons just for show. You can see the difference in body types – Tyler on the left is the original SA body type (2002 Opera Gala Raven), while Tyler on the right is the BW body type, with more joints and pose-ability (2006 Look of the Season with a different wig). It’s interesting to me that one seems to suit more classic clothes and colours, while the other seems a little bolder. (Her raincoat isn’t quite done, but it’s faux-leather, which will give her a kind of Matrix look.)
These dolls looked like this in their original outfits:
2002 – Opera Gala Raven
2006 – Look of the Season
The third halter dress is made of a black floral rayon print and has a cotton voile lining in pink. It’s modelled here by another Tyler – 2001 Masquerade.
As you can see, a sundress requires a hat, so I bought this pattern from DBD for Brimmed Hat. (The link here and on the image will take you to their Etsy store.) I was really happy with their raincoat pattern, so went back for more.
The pattern calls for linen and I made this first one in black. I mucked up the directions a bit so the edging is a bit wider than it should be but it came out pretty well despite that. I also didn’t cut back the brim as instructed because a wanted a big glamorous hat.
Here’s the floral decoration on that first one.
2001 – Masquerade
And here’s Masquerade in her original dress. I thought it was red, but when she arrived, the dress proved to be coral.
I have another black hat and a white one cut out, as the girls seem to like them. I’m also going to try one in a light canvas, just to see. And I suspect we’ll need some tote bags, or everyone will be fighting over that red purse. 🙂
I have some new girls and have started to sew for them. They’re 16″ fashion dolls – I have three Tyler Wentworth dolls and two Alexandra Fairchild Ford dolls. (No doubt there will be more.) Here’s the first one who arrived – she’s Tyler Wentworth Opera Gala and she’s standing in front of the first of two wardrobes I’m building for the clothes of these girls:
The wardrobe is a chest from Michaels, which is standing on one side. (It’s the Large Gold Polka Dot Trunk from Ashland. That’s a Michaels Canada link, which will probably go 404 once they’ve sold out of this box, so I’ve included a screen shot of it here.) It has rope handles that knot inside – easy-peasy, I untied one and threaded it through the top eyelets to double the handle there. The eyelets on the bottom are covered by the paper lining. I put felt feet on the bottom, too.
This one was much easier to change to a wardrobe than the one I used for Barbie – and even better, the exterior print is just dots, so it doesn’t look like I turned it sideways. (If you remember the wardrobe for Barbie, the Eiffel Tower on the lid ended up on its side, so I had to paper the front, too.) Inside is one of those cosmetic storage drawer units from the dollar store, which is perfect for purses and belts. In this pic, I haven’t hung the bars for the hangers yet.
Here’s the pattern I’ve been sewing. It’s a DBDoll pattern called April Showers: Modern Trenchcoat, which has ruffled sleeves. That link is to Etsy, where I bought the pattern. (The hat, purse, and dress patterns are also available but are sold separately, which diminishes the chance of my buying them. I wish they offered a bundle of all four, but they don’t.)
It’s a very good pattern with lots of helpful suggestions for the construction. I learned some new tricks from it!
Below are my first two raincoats. The navy one on the left was made with the pattern as is. The interesting thing about 16″ dolls is that their proportions aren’t all the same (of course not!) and you can see that this coat is a bit short in the sleeves and the length for Tyler. It still needs the hem sewn in this picture, btw. (Yup, those are pins.) The fabric is a mystery-content that seems like outerwear in scale. It must have a lot of polyester because it was miserable to iron. The lining, which you can’t see, is a floral Liberty Tana Lawn.
I made some modifications for the coat on the right, cut of another mystery fabric which has a perfect pattern in scale. It’s black and white, literally one thread in each color alternating, and looks like a tiny check. It wonks out my eyes a bit to topstitch on this fabric, but it looks great in scale. (I made a suit for Barbie of it, too.) I made some modifications for this coat: I lengthened the coat by 1/2″ and moved the pocket flaps down 1/2″. I also made the lapels and collar pointed instead of rounded and changed out the ruffled sleeve for a plain one.
For that, I used the basic sleeve from Fashion Doll Clothing by Rosemarie Ionker. (That’s an Amazon link.) I traced the sleeve cap from the raincoat pattern, then used the basic sleeve from the book to draw the sleeve down to the cuff. This is a book I bought a few years ago, thinking it would have patterns for Barbie and other 11.5″ fashion dolls. Most of the patterns are actually for 16″ dolls, and the book was my first discovery of them. The patterns for smaller dolls are for Tonner dolls, like Tiny Kitty Collier, so the proportions are different than for Barbie etc. This sleeve turned out to be a teeny tiny bit too long on the raincoat, so I’ll trim it back for the next version.
This book also includes two different blocks for 16″ dolls. One fits the body sculpt of Alexandra Fairchild Ford and the other fits Tyler Wentworth. Comparing these shows that Tyler is almost 1/2″ longer in the torso, arms and legs than Alexandra Fairchild Ford. Their feet are also different sizes (AFF’s are smaller) so they can’t share shoes. Once again, people refer to 16″ dolls as if they’re all the same (like 11.5″ dolls) while in reality, there is a lot of variation.
As anticipated, the navy raincoat fits Alex perfectly. Here are the two finished raincoats, with Alexandra Fairchild Ford on the left and Tyler on the right. (AFF has a tendency to be tippy on her stand, which makes me wonder whether its proportions might be better for a doll with longer legs, like Tyler. It is her stand, though, with the AFF logo, so that’s odd.) I added thread loops for the belts at the side seams so they don’t go missing.
The raincoat has a pleat in the back and a lot of topstitching on the seams, which results in a very elegant coat. I’m not fussed about the hemming, but used fusible interfacing to stabilize the edge of the grey one and that came out better. I’ll play with some other finishes.
Because, of course, there will be more raincoats. I have a longer pink one with the rounded lapels and ruffled sleeves – so my blonde Tyler can have her own raincoat – and plan to make an even longer fake-leather one for my third Tyler doll, who is going to dress with a bit more verve. I’ll show you those when they’re done, and we’ll see what happens after that. It’s easy to look at my fabric stash and imagine even more combinations!
Here’s another picture of the wardrobe in progress. It’s good that I bought them BOGO as clearly Tyler and Alex need their own stashes of clothes and shoes. It’ll be good to keep them separated, though the girls will probably borrow each other’s purses.
I have to replace the hanger bar in this one – I used a bamboo skewer (painted with marker) just the way I did with the Barbie wardrobe, but it’s too flimsy. I’ll replace it with a wooden dowel. Tied inside the lid (or door) is an organizer from the dollar store which is perfect for shoes etc. The dividers can be removed when I need a larger space. I thought of gluing it in, but Mr. Math was skeptical that any glue would hold that hard plastic, especially with a lot of opening and closing. I glued in the ribbon instead, then covered a little block at the bottom in the interior wallpaper. That raises the organizer so the lid/door of the case closes more easily. This solution works very well.
Alive & Knitting 