A tutorial....of sorts

The dress that I make for dolls is designed in such a way that it fits many different types of dolls, for example, it fits my My Child doll, my daughters Miss Corolle doll and it also fits Baby Born and Baby Annabel dolls.


I need to be able to display the dresses to their full potential without labelling them to any one brand of doll.  I have some beautiful hangers which I use but I thought a mannequin or dressform would be perfect.  However such things are not readily available here in the UK,  so I made my own!

Reading on the interent I discovered a macabre idea to use an old mug tree and a decapitated and limbless doll!  Not liking that idea too much, I compromised and used a mug tree and made a body using fabric and wool.  It was quite simple to do, remove all of the bottom and one of the top cup holders, cut down two of the top ones and then sew the body in place.

Navy and Liberty pinafore with capped sleeves

Red cord sleeveless pinafore

I am happy with the results and while cord is difficult to photograph I think the stand looks much better dressed!  What do you think?


The Dolls Dressmaker

A sneak peek

I am fairly confident that my 2 year old daughter does not read this blog, so I think it will be safe to show you some photos of her Christmas present which I have nearly finished!

It is the aforementioned Kiki doll!  My mum had found this suitcase some time ago and thought I would find a use for it.

Soft pink wool felt, lined with a little bit of Liberty fabric

Very soft pyjamas!

Kiki has a pillow, a mattress, duvet and lavender sachet.  As well as a party dress, tutu, socks and shoes she also has some pyjamas made from this pattern.  I am so pleased with the way she has turned out, I can now only hope that my daughter does too!

The Dolls Dressmaker

Quite a big bit of inspiration

This time last year I was unaware of this lady, frokenskicklig.blogspot.com, then over Christmas 2010 I saw this amazing doll and was hooked.  I found time over the busy Xmas period to read her blog and her wonderful stories that she used to bring her creations to life, serious inspiration!  Bowled over by these wonderful dolls I wanted to make one of my own and I was so lucky to be able to do just that this summer.  Via an e-class, 20 of us from all over the world spent four weeks making a doll or dolls using Juliane's methods.

My finished doll

 It was a joy to make her and I am now attempting to make two of these for Christmas!

The Dolls Dressmaker

* A special thankyou to my mum who crocheted the shoes, I ran out of time and patience with them!

A commission

A little while ago a dear friend asked me to make three dresses for her My Child doll which is now enjoying new found freedom as her daughters new best friend. 

Holly and Berries

My friend looked through some fabrics and made some wise choices!  What do you think?

Strawberries

Purple flowers

All three dresses are fully lined and reversable.  The use of velcro means that they fit a wide range of dolls which means my friends daughter can use these dresses for her Baby Born and Baby Annabel dolls too!

Shoes!

As a little surprise I made some underwear and a pair of shoes, I hope my friends daughter likes them!

Tha Dolls Dressmaker



I would rather....

This weekend some great friends are coming to stay.  With children in similar age to my own this is good news for our household!  However, for me it means right now I need to be cleaning when I would much rather be playing with this little lot....

A very productive day spent a the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show.  Now I need to be creative with my time and hiding skills and then maybe, just maybe I can squeeze some crafting time into the day?

The Dolls Dressmaker

Inspiration

For a long time I have been in love with the joy that is playing with dolls.  It started with A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the vivid memory of all the finery that her new doll had, and imagine going into a shop and having clothes made specifically for a doll! 

As a child I played with dolls and was particularly taken with a My Child doll, it being, in my humble opinion, a prettier doll than the Cabbage Patch, which I wasn't allowed anyway!  But joy of joys it was possible to buy additional clothes for the My Child doll, fond memories and now my daughter happily plays with the doll too.

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My lovely doll, name forgotton though!

Now as an adult and a mother of a daughter my dolly interests have piqued again.  At a young age it is already important for my daughter to be able to dress and undress her doll and being able to sew I could provide her doll with a selection of clothes appropriate for that days play. 

My intention is that this blog will be full of dolly goodness and give a little insight into my fledgling Etsy shop!

Thank you for stopping by,

The Dolls Dressmaker x

The First

The first blog post of many I hope.  Chronicling my attempts to set up an Etsy shop selling clothing for dolls.


It's all a steep learning curve, learning how to blog just being one element of it all.


Hope to be back here soon!