Making Dolls Clothes

Have you ever bought a doll and promised you would make it clothes? I did.....how I kept putting it off  all that dolly sewing.......Firstly I couldn't find a pattern for the doll, then I couldn't find material. Then I finally settled for a remnant and a pattern, Simplicity 2458 (one size 18" or 45.5cm).......I chose this one because it had a kimono like outfit and I thought it might look like a Japanese style outfit suiting the Asian doll I had bought.

Well I must say this was a real experience for me trying to make dolls clothes....There was cotton everywhere and I kept making mistakes....It took me three days to get it right. Who tries to overlock tiny seams with a wide 4 thread?....me! That was my first mistake, my second was not knowing the right or wrong side of the material and the third was not being able to follow instructions........There was a lot of unpicking........The fourth biggy mistake was I clipped a curve and it went too far into the seam and it was too late to unrip it all,  I had made the whole jacket........I darned it (sort of) but I was so annoyed with myself for not seeing my mistake before I overlocked the seams!

My next problem was I didn't have the doll to gauge the fit. I had to rummage around through the garage to find my daughters old doll which I hoped was a close fit. I must admit she looks quite smart in the Kimono outfit, it matches her blue dolly eyes!

Overall the Simplicity pattern is fairly easy.......Of course you just have to be able to follow written instructions which I must say is not my strong point......The material I used is pure cotton and I sewed the outfit on my Bernina. I managed to finally fix the stitches and it stitched okay. Oh.......but was it so so tiny to sew, I kept thinking 'this is not going to fit that doll'..... I was all fingers and thumbs sewing the outfit.......But in the end I  got there and was happy with how it looked, only I will notice my mistakes a little two year old won't........ Now that I have had experience of sewing something so small I'd like to make it the outfit again and hopefully not repeat my silly mistakes!

She looks so cute with clothes on.......
Simplicity 2458 view D

The ribbons are just bits I had in my ribbon jar.....
I sewed the bows down so they don't sit as well as they should
I also lined the jacket with the same material

Another version of Simplicity view D......
This one was made a bit better and was much  easier to
sew this time around.....the fabric is cotton