Another Wardrobe

Posted on August 28, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

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!

inside the Michaels box, as it becomes a doll wardrobe

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?)

organizer in the doll wardrobe, full of shoes etc.

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.

Another Sticka-till-Barbie Dress

Posted on June 24, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

When you need a quick project, a doll garment can provide that almost-instant gratification – and a free pattern from Sticka-till-Barbie might be just the thing.

This is #87 Gold Dress. Here’s the pattern listing on Ravelry.

Here’s the Internet Archive backup of the Sticka till Barbie patterns. There is no longer the option of downloading individual patterns at the Wayback Machine, but the Internet Archive offers a zip file of the entire catalogue. I’d grab it now.

This is a straight dress knitted top down with ribbing at the waist. The original pattern is seamed down the back, but I joined the cast-on stitches in the round.

I think they allowed two stitches for the CB seam, as the first dress was a bit broad in the back for Barbie (who is bigger in the front than the back). I knit that first dress, then modified the pattern and knit the second. I liked it much better so I frogged the first and reknit it following the modified instructions.

This one fits vintage B best. The yarn is Koigu KPPPM and it used 10g on 2mm needles.

A dress knitted for vintage Barbie in Koigu KPPPM by Deborah Cooke

My modifications:
Instead of casting on 52 and knitting flat, I cast on 50 and knit in the round.

Row 1 in the pattern says:
K9, cast off 8, K7, k2tog, K2tog, K7, cast of 8, K9 (34 sts)

My revised Row 1 is:
K7, cast off 8, K20, cast off 8, K7 (32 sts)

I tried the dress on my skinnier girl and it was too big, especially in the shoulders. I could have diminished the stitch counts again, but remembered the differing results I had with different yarns when knitting sweaters for the girls. Mad Tosh Merino Light is still a fingering yarn, but it’s much thinner than Koigu KPPPM – Koigu KPPPM has 160m per 50g, or 320 m per 100g, while MadTosh Merino Light has 384 m in 100g. It’s thinner.

I followed the same instructions and used the same needles, and look at the size difference:

two dresses knit for Barbie by Deborah Cooke, one in MadTosh Merino Light and one in Koigu KPPPM

Purple is Koigu KPPPM and the brown is MadTosh Merino Light. I may have added a row or two more to the length, but it’s amazing how much skinnier the second dress is. (It also took 10g of yarn.)

And here’s the brown dress on a MTM Barbie with the regular body sculpt:

A dress knitted for Barbie in MadTosh Merino Light by Deborah Cooke

She’s the 2025 Barbie Basics #2, and yes, her hair does have a bit of a violet cast to it. Here she is for sale at the big river. (Interesting that it notes this product is often returned. All of the boxes on my 2025 Barbie Basics dolls were damaged. The dolls were fine, but for those who keep their dolls boxed, that would be an unacceptable situation.)

A Knitted Party Dress for the 12″ Girls

Posted on December 4, 2024 by Deborah Cooke

I seem to be finding a lot of ways to avoid setting in the sleeves of my black cardigan in Kidsilk Haze. That’s certainly not a job for the evening or even one particularly suited to the dark days we’ve been having. I need to turn on a bright light, buckle down and get it done.

But in the meantime, I’ve been knitting dresses for the girls. I saw a picture on social media of someone’s knitted dresses for fashion dolls. They were unspeakably cute with fluffy skirts, knit of novelty yarn. She said she was using a free pattern, so off I went to hunt down options. I chose #146 from Sticka till Barbie as my base pattern, then made a bunch of modifications. Mine needed to fit vintage Barbie with her curves and the existing pattern had pretty much a straight bodice. I added decreases and increases. I also modified the instructions to knit the dress in the round, and made the increases/decreases mirror each other because that makes me happy.

Here’s the listing for the Sticka till Barbie pattern on Ravelry.

You can find the site on the Wayback Machine – here’s the page with patterns 101 to 150.

And here are the girls, posing in a diorama-in-progress that I’m making for the 16″ girls:

Party dresses for Barbie knit by Deborah Cooke

The diorama, of course, is another timesink, but a lot of fun. I like working in the foamboard – it’s easy to cut and light, and the gratification is almost instant.

The gift boxes are from an Etsy vendor who sells printables. It’s right here. They are a bit fiddly to assemble, which is why I’ve put together just two even though I bought this almost four years ago. So cute, though, and they fold up so precisely.

Here’s a better look at the dresses.

For these skirts, I used an eyelash yarn called Bernat Boa. (That’s a Ravelry link.) This yarn is discontinued, but I found my little stash at the thrift store. The bodices are knit of fingering yarns – the black is an acrylic baby yarn, the purple is leftover MadTosh. I made the skirt longer for the purple one (15 rows before decreasing instead of 12). The bodice looks longer on that one because the articulated Silkstone is thinner and taller than vintage B.

It’s interesting how the same yarn can feel different in different colours. That always mystifies me. The purple Boa doesn’t feel as silky as the black and red. I remember a lot of colours of this yarn, so will keep checking the thrift store for more. (I also have some variegated pink, but no fingering weight to match.)

I think the original pattern was knit of something more like a fringe yarn than this eyelash yarn, because the skirt isn’t as puffy in the pattern picture. I have some Lion Brand Fun Fur (also a thrift store find) so will try that out next.

That’s a link to the Lion Brand website – how lovely for a manufacturer keeps the link live after the yarn is discontinued! Here’s a Ravelry link so you can see what other knitters have made with it. I hopped into the advance search and sorted for doll clothes – sure enough, there are a few versions of this dress.

These are also like potato chips. It’s hard to knit just one. I need to find something to go with that pink, and try out the other yarn…

A Cabled Cardigan for Tyler

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Deborah Cooke

Another post about the girls this week. I’m knitting for myself, too, but it takes a lot longer to finish up a project. Right now, I’m knitting the sleeves for a cardigan in black Kidsilk Haze, using the Hebrides pattern. I’ve knit it twice before, and it’s a gem. These little jewel-necked cardis aren’t terribly exciting, but I do get a lot of wear out of them. I’ve wanted a black one for a while, though this may be the last time for black Kidsilk Haze to jump onto my needles. I have the fronts and backs done, and will pick up the buttonbands in daylight on those 2.75mm needles.

I also finished the Storm at Sea quilt, which feels like a huge accomplishment. It’s been a finished top and unfinished quilt for so long. I’m working on the hand quilting for the Pineapple Star – just two corners to go, then I can bind it. It’s time to get all these unfinished tops done.

In the meantime, I finished a little top-down cabled cardigan for the girls and that’s what we’ll look at today. Here’s Tyler modelling it, along with the top from McCalls 3701 and pants from Tyler Wentworth 3522.

Cabled cardigan knit by Deborah Cooke for Tyler Wentworth

I didn’t have a pattern for this, just cast on with sock yarn and made it up as I went. I kept notes so I can do it again. I also kept the cables simple on this one – it’s a two-stitch cable with a purl stitch in between each one – so I could keep track of the counts better. Now that I’ve figured them out, the plan is to make another with more elaborate cables. Those are working buttons with buttonholes, though the small holes are tricky to find.

My favorite detail is the pockets in the fronts. You can just see the one on the left side (the doll’s right). I put the stitches on a holder where the pocket should go, then cast on the same number in the next row. That gave me a slit. I continued to the hem and finished the body of the sweater, then went back to those held stitches. I knit down to make a square, then sewed its edges to the inside of the sweater. Pockets!

You can see the cables better on the back of the sweater, as well as the single stitch on the raglan lines. I worked purl-knit-purl on each raglan line, and increased before and after it. As soon as I had two stitches for a new cable, I started one. The cables are turned in opposite directions on the left and right, then the center back cable is four stitches on each side of the central purl stitch.

The wool is some leftover sock yarn and I worked on 2mm needles. The only change I’ll make when I knit it again is to add a few rows to the collar – it wants to curl up – and I’ll play with the cable patterns, too.

These are the patterns for the sewn garments.

Tyler Wentworth sewing pattern 3522 Weekend Wardrobe — Tyler Wentworth 3522

The pink shirt is made of French shirting cotton, which is really lovely and fine. The weft is a slightly different colour, so it changes in the light. (Yes, I made a shirt for myself of this fabric once upon a time.) It’s actually a bodysuit but made of woven instead of knit. It was a little tricky to turn those collar points but a nice little project. Those buttons don’t work – there are snaps behind them to close the fronts.

The pants from 3522 are the ones I’ve made multiple times in pleather for the girls. This pair look a bit like jeans thanks to the fabric choice, but I’ll need to add pockets to the back of the next pair to complete that illusion. They are quick basic pants to sew.

McCalls 8532 Instant Wardrobe

Posted on March 27, 2024 by Deborah Cooke

This is an older sewing pattern for dolls that I found on Etsy as a digital download. Once upon a time, my grandmother made pantsuits with palazzo pants for my dolls and I wondered whether this might have been the pattern she used.

After downloading it, though, I realized there was a very neat feature about the designs – the suit and the coat are made of felt, so there are no edges to finish. In scale, it’s as if they’re made of boiled wool. Hmm.

One thing that is good about this download is that there’s a tape measure on each page of the PDF. This should make it easier to ensure that the pattern pieces are printed to scale. More about that in a minute.

Here’s my first attempt at the suit. The jacket is great as is (and very clever, too) but the skirt is meh, IMO. It’s just a tube with a paperbag waist and the same kind of belt-and-slits finish as the jacket. The result is quite bulky around her waist. I’m not showing you the paperbag waist because, well, meh. We can do better. 🙂

McCalls 8532 for Barbie sewn by Deborah Cooke

I’m a little concerned about how well the felt belt will wear. (There’s another one on the skirt.) With a lot of play, I could see it just shredding apart. I may make a fake leather belt next time.

The hat was enormous, probably to go over those early 60’s bubble cuts, so I cut it way down for the version on the right.

It’s still a bucket hat, so not the most flattering option possible. I like the felt, though, and it’s got me thinking about tweaking it to a more vintage style.

The dress had a lined skirt but an unlined bodice. I chose to do it the other way around since lining the bodice makes it easier to finish the neck and sleeve edges in this scale. I also modified the back to have an overlap in my usual way. I like it in this Kaffe Fasset cotton print.

There’s a triangular kerchief to match the dress that irked me a bit. I made two and hemmed hemmed them in two different ways – one with the edges turned under twice, as per the pattern, and one with fusible interfacing on the edges, then turned under once and zigzagged – but I don’t like either particularly. Maybe it needs a snap – there’s not much fabric to tie it in place. Hmm.

The knit top that is supposed to be sewn into the skirt came out so big that it fit Tyler instead of Barbie. Again, the construction is interesting so I’ll modify it a bit to make a t-shirt pattern for both Tyler and Barbie. I printed the pattern page so that the included tape measure is exactly right, but this makes me wonder whether the tape measure image was added later than the scan of the pattern piece – and is actually wrong. Hmm.

I still have to sew up the pantsuit, which I cut of a woven rayon jungle print, just for fun.

This pattern also made me aware of a lack in my doll accessories – I don’t have any white go-go boots for B. I have tall white boots for her, but am now on the hunt for those mid-calf ones. They’d look great with that dress.

Like most doll patterns, this one needs a few tweaks to bring me joy, but there are details I like about it as it is. I really like the felt for a jacket that resembles boiled wool, so I cut out another one. Inspired by a Simplicity pattern for women, I all add darts to the waist of the jacket to give it some shaping. I’m also going to modify the paperbag waist on the skirt – there’s too much bulk with it under the jacket as is. I’ll show you that and the pantsuit when they’re done. I’ll probably make the coat, too, and another hat. It really is an instant wardrobe!

Tights for the Monster High Dolls – and a New DIY Wardrobe

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Deborah Cooke

My Monster High and Ever After dolls are mostly thrift-store finds, which means they usualy come to me naked or close to it. I buy shoes for them online, but make clothes for them otherwise. I had written a post about a dress I made for my dolls from a free downloadable pattern – I also made a cloak to go with it that I figured out on my own. – but realized this week that I hadn’t published it. (I sent the dress and cloak to Astro Jen as a gift for her girls and didn’t want her to see them before they arrived – then I forgot to queue up the post. Gah. That’s why it published yesterday.) It’s right here. I need to finish the variations of that dress and cloak that I’d cut out for my own girls, but will show you both when they’re done.

Today, we’ll have a look at some tights I made for the girls last weekend.

Leg-cessories pattern from DG Requiem for MH and EA doll stockings and tights

The pattern is Leg-cessories from DGRequiem – here’s the pattern on Etsy. It’s a PDF download that you print out.

Here’s the designer’s Etsy store, and here’s her website and store. She offers a lot (a lot, a LOT!) of cute patterns for different dolls.

So, yes, this is a paid pattern, but it offers many options. There are socks and stockings/pantihose, plus tights in four lengths. (I want to make knee socks with lace tops still. They’ll look great with those little knitted dresses.) Even better, the instructions are really good and filled with tips for getting good results. It includes instructions for both machine and hand-sewing, and also there’s a sizing chart for the dolls. I only made tights so far, but I think this pattern is a good deal.

These two pair are my favorites.

tights for MOnster High Dolls sewn by Deborah Cooke using DGRequiem's Leg-cessories pattern

The girls seem to like them, too.

Mirri dress from Wardrobe by Me knit by Deborah Cooke

They’re both cut from scraps of a cotton knit with a really large-scale pattern and repeat, but lots of teensy detail. The repeat is about 45″ in length. Here’s the Mirri dress I made from this print (it’s also at left) and here’s the link to the product page of the online shop where I bought it. The product page is still live, even though the fabric is sold out. You can see better detail of the fabric there.

I did some strategic cutting from my scraps, to end up with two legs from the same area of the print. They don’t even look like they’re from the same fabric, and I could make a dozen more unique pair. (And, yes, I just might.) This was also the easiest fabric to sew. It’s a cotton with lycra and a bit thicker than the others.

Did you notice that the girls have cardigans, too? I’m writing out that pattern to share it with you as a free download. Frankie also has one of the purses from a 5-Surprise Mini Fashion by Zuru (That’s a Chapters link.) because yes, after Astro Jen sent me the two pink purses, I surrendered to temptation and bought a pair of surprises myself. This green bag was in one of them, and the homage Louis Vuitton tote that I was coveting was in the other, so that worked out well.

But back to those tights. Here are a few more pair that I made last weekend:

These are like potato chips: I can always go for one more pair. I could have fitted them tighter (there are instructions for that) but the girls like to share and the EverAfter High girls aren’t quite as thin as the Monster High ones. The pair on the left were fussy-cut from a knit with wide bands of patterned stripes. The repeat on it is about 18″ so it was possible to cut several (many!) pair, all of which came out differently. (My naked Skeleta is coveting these.) The purple pair were also fussy-cut from a large scale paisley print. (Clawdeen wants those.) The next two were the obvious choices, cut from small-scale prints that are closer to being in scale for the girls. (Although, again, the brown print has areas that are predominantly teal, which would give a different look.) The last pair were also fussy-cut – that starry pattern has a lot of variation over the repeat and some “suns” that could fill half a piece. I chose places with smaller stars and similarly coloured background. Lots of tights for the girls!

And they have a space to keep them, too. Look at those empty clothes racks.

DIY wardrobe for Monster High and Ever After High dolls made by Deborah Cooke

This is another of my DIY wardrobes for dolls. (That link is to my first one, for Barbie.) I used a paper box with magnets on the lid flap, and stood it on end. The back wall of the wardrobe should be the bottom, and the box top lifts. Now it drops down to be the dressing room floor. This box has a floral print on the outside and gold foil on the inside, which I like a lot. For this one, I made a U-shaped insert of bookbinders’ board and “wallpapered” it with a pretty print paper. It’s held in the U shape by the two clothing rods, which are bamboo skewers glued in place. They have bamboo beads at each end as escutcheons and all the bamboo was coloured black with a Sharpie marker. There are some hooks on the right wall, too, made of bent headpins. The mirror is a bevelled one from Michaels, framed with beads and backed with gold paper. The dresser is a make-up organizer from the dollar store. The rugs are screenshots of carpets printed on cardstock and cut out. (The front one is glued down.) I didn’t make a handle for this one and might not bother. (I’ll be busy sewing more clothes.)

Back to the leggings pattern review – this is a good pattern with lots of customizable options, clearly written with great instructions. I’ve bought several more patterns from this designer and will show you the results soon. (The girls are excited.)

Alive & Knitting

Knitting and other tangled webs we weave

Tag Archives: doll clothes