After making my material purchases, the next step to this process was figuring out a pattern. I sketched out the existing dress along with the doll’s measurements. The proportions are definitely different, so it will probably look weird but honestly, it was going to anyway. I did not pre-wash the fabrics I bought for this project like I do for masks and anything else made with cotton because they did not have to shrink. Plus, I am not worried about any manufacturing residue irritating Sally’s skin because she is a doll and does not actually have skin. Anyway, I will try to chronicle this in (more or less) real time as I figure out how to put this whole thing together.
I added 3/8″ for a seam allowance, hopefully in every necessary direction. I labeled the pattern pieces as if it was something I bought and will use again, which is silly because I probably will not need to duplicate this dress any more but I guess only time will really tell. I am not sure whether the sleeve will work out right. They seem sort of ruffly so I wanted the outside edge to be longer than the inside. In order to make it look like that, I decided on most of a circle, which I drew using a ruler because I do not know where my compass is. I have a whole nice set of drafting tools somewhere and honestly, this is what I am most likely to use them for anyway but instead I improvised. I also printed a five petal flower in a few different sizes but apparently did not take a photo of it.
I decided that my first task should be creating my iron-ons. The princess flannel that I bought does have three of the same princesses as the original dress but instead of Jasmine has Snow White, so I am making that swap. Weirdly enough, the princesses do not seem to be evenly distributed on the flannel and I only have three Snow Whites total in my 10″. Fortunately, she is the odd one out, so if Sally ends up with a three-princess dress, I will not sweat it too much. This is a danger because I quickly ruined the first set of princesses by attaching them to the Wonder-Under face down. The second set, I got right and I was very impressed with myself for cutting them out so well too. They almost looked like commercially produced iron-ons sitting there ready to be attached! Okay, they are not perfect, but I thought they looked pretty good.
I cut out a couple of smaller flowers from my lining fabric (with Wonder-Under) and, after removing the backing paper, lined everything up on the front bodice, putting the princesses in the same order as the original even though their clothes and views and everything are totally different. Then, I laid my iron across it. I thought to put a piece of paper on top to protect from any stray adhesive but did not think to turn the heat down. The Wonder-Under instructions just say “a hot dry iron” but I did not think about the fact that I have been using that iron to press cotton masks, which requires a much higher heat than the very non-natural fiber satin I was using for this doll dress. It is probably usable but does not look awesome. I will likely start again, using my very last Snow White, and try to remember to lower the heat. If that trial doesn’t work, I guess I will keep working but with a princess trio. I know that what I came up with is pretty clumsy but I do not know that I can really get a better result with what I can get at JoAnn and do myself with limited skills.
Putting together the dress was not exactly hard but it it was a bit of a challenge. I had no idea how to sew that mesh so I treated it just like any other fabric, which was awkward but do-able. I like how the sleeves worked out even though it was difficult to pin them onto the bodice. The satin really wants to shred / unravel so I probably should have done more than just leave the raw edges inside the dress but honestly, what is expected here? I mean, this is a dress for a baby doll. I am pretty sure that the neck hole will be large enough to fit the doll’s head but honestly, I am not super confident about that and am considering ways to fix the problem. Maybe some sort of slit in the back? I do wish I had a sample doll to test it on. Anyway, another difficult thing was attaching the furry trim to the mesh overskirt. That was just a hot mess but I eventually managed it with messy zig zag stitching. I was planning to put a bit of elastic at the waist under or in the ribbon (which I made with the red satin and sewed to the top of the overskirt) but I do not think it works, so I will be removing it and sewing the ribbon down flat, I think.
So, with the overskirt held onto it, the dress looks far from perfect but passable. After staring at this for about a day, I determined that the elastic was silly and ripped out the stitches holding it in place. Of course, this caused me to lose the elastic inside the waistband (if you can call it that) but after a few tries to retrieve it, I decided it was not worth the trouble and moved along with it inside. Of course the dress did not fit around my sewing machine so I was not able to sew the overskirt on by machine as would be reasonable. Instead I did sort of a modified running stitch on both the top and bottom of the band to hold it in place and decided that was fine.
Also, before starting on that process, I had shown off the dress in a Thanksgiving Zoom meeting where my niece asked me to try it on my various stuffed friends, none of whom could get their heads through the neck hole. Of course, none of them are the same dimensions as her baby doll (and why would Pikachu need to wear a dress anyway?) but it still made me concerned. Although the measurements theoretically worked out, I was not at all confident that the dress would actually be wearable for the dolly, so I started to think about what I could do given that I had already put it all together. I definitely did not want to tear it apart and start again. So, I squirted probably too much fray-chek on the back of the neck and let it dry. Once it was a little stiff, I made a slice to open up the neck hole then folded the flaps down and hand-sewed them to the inside. Again – far from perfect but hopefully it will do the trick.
The final step, as always, was ironing in my “made by” label. After that, I sat back to admire my creation and send it to a few friends who I knew would give me positive feedback. (Crafters feed on praise, of course, even when we do not accept it well.) Finally, I put it in the mail along with a note requesting a photo if the dress fits (and offering to try again if it does not). Time will tell which outcome will prevail.
KalyKnits 