EASTER Dress Haul!

Hello Doll Friends.

In my last two posts I shared some vintage 

doll clothes I found in an antique shop.

Vintage Doll Clothes

While I was sharing these finds and explaining 

my usual method of searching for vintage

doll items online, I also found...

This adorable 1950s era doll dress.

I just loved the fabric pattern!

Next I found this Madame Alexander apron dress

for my Elise doll.

I also found this vintage style dress that I hope

will fit Elise as well.

Then I found this Miss Revlon Pink Stripe dress.

Lastly, I found this little lot. The dresses are rough made

for an 8 - 9 inch doll.  What I really wanted was 

the little quilt top in the corner!

While I was waiting for all these purchases to

arrive I started to get to work resizing this 

skirt and top.

When I resize something, I put it on inside

out and pin.  The pin will be my stitch line.

Before I reseam this blouse, I opened the

bottom hem so my repair will look

correct.

OK! Seam sewn, excess trimmed and now I 

am ready to re-hem the bottom. 

You will see the finished outfit at the end!

I next started working on this 1930s doll quilt.

Using the fabric from these little dresses

 and adding the blue and white fabric 

that came from...

this vintage baby dress that 

I refitted to my Sally Ann doll,...

I was able to make another eight quilt squares

using some linen fabric I had in my stash.

Here they are all stitched together.

I will finish this quilt at a later time.

Back to this dress. VERY cute fabric, but

I believe it may have been a first time

sewing project? 

On the left waistline hem there is this

folded over section.

On the right side it is smooth.

On the front of the bodice there is

a fold at the waist and it is

smooth at the neckline.

It is not obvious in my photo, but the neckline

does not lie properly either.

I love this fabric and I think I can

remake this doll outfit, but it

will have to wait til a later time.

The pink apron dress had some troubles as well.

This button hole was an obvious problem.

I used Fray Check all around the opening and

restitched the hole.

I thought this was all until I started 

pressing the dress.

Someone tried to hand stitch the left shoulder.

And the armhole.

The same thing on the right side.

I was sad to see how much work this

dress needed.  I will repair it 

at a later time, but not today.

 I decided to try and take some nice 

photos with the dress as-is.

This is me thinking about all the projects

I now have! Hehehe.

Looks like I will have a 

"Fix it" post in the future.

This dress had these floppy buttons.

I took them off and will add some other

decorative touch to this dress.

I put the dress on inside out and pin it.

The pins are my sewing line.

Here it is with a bit better fit.

All the dresses got a good pressing.

I know a couple of these dresses need some work

but overall I am very pleased with them all!

AND NOW THEY ARE READY!

 

HERE

THEY 

ARE!

This is very sweet, even with some issues.

I love how this came out. The embroidered

flowers add some much needed detail.

They also hide some stubborn stains!

Not too bad.  The black belt and bow

gives this dress a more vintage feel.

Now both my Miss Revlons have a pink stripe.

Here are Elise and Cissy in their matching

apron dresses by Madame alexander.

Everyone is pleased with their new dresses!

HAPPY EASTER 

From

THE SAVAGE PEA

Sand Suit Tutorial and Pattern

This Sand Suit came with a lot

of other vintage doll clothes

that I revealed in my last post.

It wraps around, criss-crosses in back

 and ties in front.

Here is the back.

I think this would be an easy and fun

sewing project, so I wanted to make 

a pattern from it.

I had to open up the darts to trace a pattern.

Here is the pattern.  

This is made to fit a 14" doll like

my Effanbee Patsykin, 'Daisy'.

Print it out on

8.5 x 11" paper.

Here we go! 

Cut on the fold.

Sew lace on the right side of your 

fabric facing inward.

This will be folded, and top sewn.

Here is how your lace should look.

Make 3 - 4 tiny snips in the inner curves.

Turn and press the lace flat.

The sandsuit should look like this.

Top stitch all the lace.

OK, this next part was new for me.

SEWING A BUTTONHOLE!

I had gone through all the buttonhole steps, 

months ago, in my Bernina sewing machine 

class, but I couldn't remember how it was done!

I did a quick search and found this video:

Bernina 570 Buttonhole Video Tutorial

Yes! The buttonhole foot was in my Bernina box!

Here it is. I watched the video again.

I selected buttonholes under my stitching file.

Then I select buttonhole 51.

After that I select this 'i' button that

the arrow is pointing to.

That brings up this screen.

This is so cool! You hold your button to the screen

and turn the stitch length knob until it

fits your button and VOILA!

It's automatically set for the size of your button.

I used a piece of practice fabric because

I am not 100 percent sure this will work.

This is the automatic stitching button.

You press it when you are using a 

programmed stitch. It just sews 

automatically until you stop it.

LOOK AT THAT!

I have spent years avoiding buttonholes.

I would use snaps, or hooks or velcro

everytime, to avoid making buttonholes!

but this is just AMAZING!!

I'm still learning how to use this 

machine, so this is a big deal for me.

OK, ok, enough of my gushing.

Uh oh, problem.  

I need tear-away sizing paper before

sewing on one layer of cotton fabric.

Did another quick search online and found

that parchment paper or a coffee filter

would work!

Here we go with the coffee filter 

underneath my fabric.

The coffee fillter worked great! 

Look at that buttonhole!

For the front button holes I marked the 

placement of my holes while

the sandsuit was on Daisy.

A couple more button holes and it's ready...

Oops, almost forgot!

SNAPS!  and...

14 inch ribbons!

NOW it's ready.

want to see Daisy in her new sandsuit?

HERE

SHE

IS!

Not bad. I'm pleased with this first try.

I think next time, I will make the

front buttonholes further apart.

I wound up only making one dart in the center

due to Daisy's shape.

"Mommy, Biscuit and me's been good and 

not wiggled. Can we go to the lake now?"

"Hurry up Mommy!"

Sand Hollow State Park