…or how reprinting a pattern in different sizes helped me dress my little dolls for the holidays…
The felt outfit sewing project for the November 21st article on Patchwork Pansy proved to be more fun to make than I expected! As a result, I thought about how perfect felt is for a small doll project; it doesn’t unravel and the material can be decorated in so many ways. The pattern I used, A Touch of Fall, was originally created for a Kish Riley doll. After consulting with the pattern’s designer Adeline, I decided to play around with one of the easiest parts of the pattern, the jumper, and re-size it to fit different dolls in my collection. This pattern is very simple, and I felt it would be easy to adjust for a variety of immature – bodied small dolls. (Other pattern pieces could be re-sized as well, but due to time constraints, only one article of clothing was selected for my project.)
First I experimented with shrinking the pattern page to different sizes. This is very easy with a PDF file pattern and a computer printer. After printing the page in different sizes, I cut out the jumper front pattern piece and tested out the size against different dolls. Taking into account the seam allowance, I found that I had two dolls that would fit into the outfit for the pattern when it was shrunk to 80%. I used that size to make a shift for a Bo Bergemann Sugar doll and a top for my DollZone Leo. I lengthened the hemline of the shift by 1/4″ (.06 cm) for Sugar.
At a 75% reduction, I had a pattern that fit my new Asleep Eidolon Peppermint Mint on Card-exclusive doll perfectly. I found out that a 66 2/3 % reduction made an outfit that would fit my Doll Leaves babies Milk and Cherry. I cut out Milk’s outfit to the original size and decided to make Cherry’s longer on the bottom by approximately 3/4″ (1.9 cm).
The final doll I hoped to dress was my tiny Dream High Studio Mimi (from Luxour Academy ). Unfortunately, her curvy body would not easily fit into the pattern I was using without significant changes. As a result, I searched for an alternative outfit and stumbled upon a website with free patterns for 1970’s tiny fashion doll Dawn. (The patterns can be found HERE.) I decided to choose something simple that I was sure would not need altering in order to fit Mimi. I chose the 1 piece mini-halter dress (pattern page C.) which took only a single pattern piece. Shrunk down to 66 2/3 % I had a perfect fit!
I decided to make all the outfits in off-white wool felt. The decoration on the outfits is created with embroidery stitching, lace, and ribbon roses. All of the outfits were hand-sewn with a back-stitch. All of the seams were embroidered using a blanket stitch. (To see these stitches illustrated go HERE.)
Based on my success with this simple project, I may consider playing with re-sizing in the future to create outfits for dolls in somewhat unusual sizes. The easiest projects to re-size would likely be fairly simple patterns designed for a doll with similar build.
All of the completed outfits can be seen below.
