Too Too

In yesterday's post, the new doll is wearing a jumper and tutu. Yep, that's Stitch's dress for her amigurumi doll. Again, I crocheted it awhile ago, but I didn't like the buttons I had. I found these the other day when I was at the fabric store. They're the perfect green post buttons.

The tutu was simple to make. I bought a roll of 6" wide tulle from the wedding/floral section of the local craft store. I picked yellow to go with her dress. I just sewed a long basting thread for a while and gathered it up. When I stopped gathering, the edge was too long to wrap around her waist just once, so I loosened the gathers until they wrapped around her twice. Then I pinned the skirt and marked it in quarters. I cut an elastic the size of the doll's waist, overlapped the ends and sewed it, then marked that in quarters. I pinned the elastic to the tulle at the marked points and found that I needed to pin more to keep it in place as I sewed. Then I used a 3 step zigzag (wavy line on my machine) and stitched the elastic in. My basting thread didn't want to come out, so I just stretched the waistband till it popped and voila: super quick tutu.

Polka Dot Frock

When my MIL was here, she'd let the girls pick a new pattern each. MissB chose McCall M5554. I managed to cut it out while Grandma was here, and now the girls have a new doll dress.

Dora Needs a Mend

Every so often I shop for old patterns. Once I found an adorable size 2T dress. It had a scalloped neck edge with a few buttons, and it seemed to be a crossover bodice that continued onto just the front of the skirt. The sides and back were gathered for fullness. In the Great Craftroom Gutting, the pattern pieces were lost. How? I have no clue!! The instruction sheet remained neatly in its special tomb-like bag, but the pieces are gone.

On many of the older patterns, the pieces are drawn nearly to scale. So, off to the scanner I went and enlarged the page 200%. Our victim? Dora!!





She needs a new shirt, apparently. First order of business: mend the shirt!

Okay, so the pieces aren't perfectly to scale, but they're close enough. I tossed the facings after noticing they were quite ill sized for this. Facings patterns are easy enough: just trace the pattern piece that needs facing, but just leave off what would be a couple/few inches from the edge. In this case, about a quarter to half inch. :)





Oh no! I've put the sleeve on the wrong way! No loss without gain: there's one of the facings we just discussed.

I fumbled through the pattern, looking at directions only when completely muddled. I should have read step 3. It's made to be a pullover dress with ties for sizing. I thought it was buttoned closed, so I hadn't entertained the idea of connecting the bodice halves before sewing the skirt together. Dress makers in the day were clever!!

For Dora, I shortened the skirt by about a third, and could have shortened the waist by a scallop. I think it worked out nice, and I'd like to make it another 200% bigger for the doll I recently made.





when MissC saw Dora in her fancy new dress, she decided Boots needed a new shirt, so he was given Dora's hand-me-down. :) That's a little sister.