making clothes

[bratling]

My favorite hobby currently is restoring My Child dolls from the 1980s, and that includes sewing clothes for them. mrgreen Problem is, they're a bit of an odd size, so I find myself cutting down patterns from eighteen inch Americal Girl clothes patterns to fit.

Does anyone else do this kind of thing? I mean, I've gotten my hands on a few patterns that do work, and well, I just kind of use tracing paper to adapt bigger patterns. Any suggestions to make this easier?

[margarita salt]

I used to have a book that had patterns for all kinds of dolls clothes and in all different sizes. Wish I could remember what it was called so I could pass it on to ya. It would be worth looking in your local book store though as there are some around.

I used to do it when I was younger but now I've moved on to full size clothes. It great fun though and a great way to learn about garment construction without using a whole lot of fabric.

[bratling]

Oh, I started on full-sized clothes. smile I've been sewing forever, and in dressing dolls, I've finally found a way to use up all those bits of fabric that were too big to throw away, but too small to make more clothes out of.

[tsuyako]

try putting muslin onto the doll and tracing all of the seams. going around the armhole and necklines. after which add the seamallowances and make the pattern.

[ForestGreen]

Have you checked online for a fan base for the doll? I found some neat patterns for one type of doll in a web ring focused on that particular doll. Have you tried the library for patterns books? Just trying to brainstorm ideas for you.

[bratling]

I've got a few patterns that some enterprising person made from the original clothes. So far, my solution is to trace the too-big pattern, then trace the smaller pattern over top of it and make a combo of the two...