Summer Sewing 2/5 (with free patterns)

It's not summer without some aggressively patriotic prints.  These were actually made last year, only I forgot to photograph them until now.

Nora's dress is made from a free pattern by PACountryCrafts (twirly lace doll dress)

Sam's dress is made from a free pattern by Wren*Feathers (halter sundress).  The pattern needs a good 1/2" to the center back for it to fit.

Late summer in Vermont

This is Shepard.  In late August, the humans took me up to Vermont for a weekend of sightseeing and general relaxation.  We stayed in Montpelier, at the Capitol Plaza hotel across the street from the statehouse.

It was an amazingly nice weekend, though we got there too late to visit the museum.  We did get to wander the streets and do a bit of shopping.  I did not come home with a quidditch set, much as I wanted one.

 We also visited Bragg Farm while on our way to the Caledonia Distillery.  The human was too busy eating her maple creamie to take pictures of it.  I, on the other hand, enjoyed the rural Vermont scenery.

For this trip, I did get the new button down shirt with real buttons with a resized pattern from Jenwrenne (original here).  The shirt has a nice loose fit for layering over tshirts.  There's no instructions but it makes up like a human shirt would.

AG Buttondown Shirt Pattern

For Science!

Kana here.

The good news:  the human has a real job and a real paycheck, so we get more toys.  YAY!
The bad news: the human has much less time to actually spend with us...  BOO.

And that is why it's been so quiet over here for the last month or so.  That said, the human is still making things for us.  It just takes longer.

What happened this time was that the human discovered a source of science themed novelty prints  And then inflicted them on us.  (OK, so at least half of that was Lily begging for a Ms. Frizzle cosplay, but that shouldn't involve the rest of us.)  There will be a proper photoshoot as we set up a massive doll-scale science fair in the coming weeks, but for now, the quick and dirty photoshoot in the parlor will do.

Most of us are wearing periodic table applique t-shirts with somewhat coordinating skirts or shorts.  Cauthrien's shorts have contrast cuffs, which are super cute.  I got the nice black-and-white dress, which despite having rather large-and-out-of-scale print, looks pretty darn good on me.  Also, Shep and I match.  Kind of.

Take chances!  Make mistakes!  Get messy!

And of course Lily got what she wanted.  Except the actual frizzy hair.

Because we're feeling super generous (and because misery loves company), we're providing the pattern for what I'm generously calling 'The Frizzle Dress'.

The Frizzle Dress

The pattern has the bodice, collar, and placket pieces.  The waistband is 1.25" wide by however long the waist is (about 12.5", but cut 13" to be sure and trim it back.)  The skirt is a straight skirt 7" long by the width of the fabric.  The human used the sleeve piece from Molly's blouse pattern (here) for Lily's dress and the sleeve from a free BunnyBear pattern (here) for mine.  The cuff is from Samantha's patterns.

I think we're all assuming that if you're using the human's patterns, you kinda-sorta know how to sew already.  The hardest part with this dress is the placket.  Just make a faux one if you want.  Just follow any of the Kirsten or Samantha dress patterns for how this should go together.

See you at the science fair!

Now with lightsabers (Free Star Wars doll clothes patterns)

Lily and Shepard here.  We're evil twins.  Or evil clones.  Or something of that sort.  (Only since Shepard is such a renegade, I think I might be the good twin by definition.)  But we're both persuasive, and in this case, we convinced the human to finally do something with the giant pile of old clothing in her sewing room.

With all the talk about the latest Star Wars movie, and the fact we *already* own a droid, it was only fair that the human should make us Star Wars costumes.  I'm dressed as Rey, and Shepard is dressed as Luke from 'A New Hope' (desert planets are pretty much the same, right?)

 Shepard is wearing a modified Japanese hippari and monpe made from an old gi.  Turns out there's no better way to get the weathered and worn look than actually using weathered and worn fabric.  The leg wraps are a pieces of woven brown ribbon, and the belt is a piece of nylon strapping with a buckle.

And I'm wearing a tunic and a pair of shorter monpe made from the same gi fabric.  It's a lightweight twill.  The sash is a piece of vintage Japanese cotton 3" wide by about 45" long.  The belt is all one piece with two buckles.  The arm wraps are the same woven ribbon as Shepard's leg wraps.

Download the patterns here!

These is a modified and resized version of the Little Darling in Japan patterns offered by JenWrenne.  Her instructions for making a hippari and monpe are here.  The pants have elastic waists.  Rey's tunic closes in the back with velcro.

Also, you can buy the lightsabers at the Museum of Science store here.

And now for some more pictures! (Yes, the lightsabers actually light up when we hold them.)

Dual wielding!

LIGHTSABER DUEL!

This should be a book cover pose.

Fun with Chirimen Crepe (plus FREE jeans/pants pattern)

The human bought a small collection of Japanese chirimen crepe when she and Shepard were off at Seattle last year.  (Wow.  2015 is now 'last year.)  This would normally not result in clothing for us except that the human has also acquired a large stash of free patterns she hasn't tried before and some ever elusive free time.

And so I was pressed into service as a model for the latest batch of creations.  The ultra-bright colors looked best on me.

Each piece of chirimen was slightly bigger than a fat eighth (so about 11" x 19"), and the human had two each of 5 different prints.  The fun was trying to figure out just how to get a two full outfits from each print.

 First off:  a red drop waist dress and a peasant blouse with a pair of jeans.

The human has been playing with the free patterns offered by Phoebe&Egg, and the pattern for the peasant top and the dress came from there.  The top is about an inch too short to really look good, I think.  And chirimen drapes well, but does not gather well at all.

The pattern for the jeans came from a pattern the human modified.  We have yet to find a good free pattern for non-elastic pants, so the human finally lost her temper and made her own.  This was the first revision, and the legs were way too wide.

 Next up: the Oliver and S popover sundress, which only took half an hour to make up, and the 'Inspired by Zooey' dress by Matilda Jo patterns.  This is where the human learned just how slippery chirimen is, and how she can screw up the cutting if she didn't pin everything down first.  (There was, suffice to say, a large amount of 'language inappropriate for young ladies', but I was the thesis buddy, so I've heard much much worse.)  You can't see it in the picture, but part of the skirt is actually patched together to make up for the bad cutting.  The human managed to get the print to match perfectly, so you can't tell unless you're looking for it.

Finally, a retro pink dress (Phoebe&Egg) and a LJC bandeau top with white jeans.  The jeans are the second version the human made, and fit much better.  I'm not swimming in the legs, for instance.  It could probably be refined more for more styles, but I actually like plain straight-leg jeans.

 And now, for that elusive free pants pattern:

Pants Pattern Download

What this pattern has:  variations for both jeans (with pockets and a back yoke) and a plain pair of pants.  This was based off of the shorts pattern from the Lee and Pearl Paris pattern set.

Instructions:
(Follow the instructions from the Lee and Pearl Paris set if you have them.  I'm giving just the bare minimum to work with.)

1.  Sew front and back of each leg together.
2.  Finish seams and hem leg.
3.  Sew up inner leg seam of each pants leg.
4.  Place legs one inside the other, right sides facing.  Sew back seam and about 1/3 of the front seam.  Go from 1/4" seam to 3/8" in the front.
5.  Attach waistband and line.
6.  Zigzag stitch or serge front opening.
7.  Attach velcro in front.

1960s Dresses and other projects

Wren*Feathers has been offering free 1960s dress patterns for AG dolls based on old Chatty Cathy outfits for the last few weeks, and if you make one or more outfits from those patterns before January 1, you can get two more free patterns.  So of course the human had to do this.  And so Sam and I are suffering through the latest bout of sewing.  Because you see, when the human tries out new patterns, she uses random remnants from the stash instead of the nice fabric that we know she has.

I'm wearing the Chatty Cathy smock dress (free pattern here) made in a lightweight turquoise corduroy.  The pattern came together really easily.  For the sleeve cuff, the human used the sleeve cuff from Samantha's Pleasant Company patterns.

 And Sam is wearing a pink cotton blouse (vintage Japanese cottons) and a floral stripe corduroy jumper (free pattern here).   think I got the better deal, honestly.

The human was busy doing other things instead of throwing us a Christmas party, but we got our fair share of loot.  Those are all the new books we got in the last week. 

From left to right:

• Jane Eyre
• Pride and Prejudice
• Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, Return of the King, The Hobbit
• A Little Princess, The Secret Garden
• A Girl of the Limberlost
• The Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Road to Oz, the Emerald City of Oz
• Peter and Wendy
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
• Robin Hood
• The Boxcar Children
• Little Women
• The Baby's Opera, The Baby's Own Aesop, The Baby's Bouquet (we got them for the wonderful illustrations by Walter Crane)
• A Floral Fantasy (another volume of Walter Crane illustrations that doubles as an herbal)

At this point I can safely say that we have every book that Pleasant Company/Mattel ever made for us historical girls.  And then some.  A good number of these books will show up on Etsy come the new year.

And R2-D2 is holding onto my new lunchbox for me.  I think he'll give it back.  Maybe.  Droids don't need food.

End of summer sewing (Free Tea Dress pattern)

Hi!  Sam here, up in a very nice tree.  It's much easier to climb trees when you're not wearing a dress.  Though I suppose next time I'll also remember to not wear anything white...

This is the last batch of new outfits we'll have before the dreaded seasonal fabrics attack, but I think they're rather nice ones.

Kana and Anora are showing off the semi-formal robin's egg blue and white dresses.  Both dresses were made with patterns from JenWrenne.  The human resized the tea dress to fit us.  The original pattern was for a much smaller doll.

You can get the patterns here: 

Anora's one-shoulder dress:  

Pattern and Instructions

Kana's tea dress:

Pattern

Instructions

Nellie and I have coordinating outfits made from Lee and Pearl's Bonjour Paris wardrobe.  The shorts have real working pockets.

So that's it for now!  Come watch the hilarity when we get our Halloween outfits.

Samantha's fantasy adventure dress and accessories (Free dress pattern)

Out in the woods

I thought other people with geeky dolls might want to make their dolls similar outfits and accessories, so I've made up a quick pattern for this outfit, including the dress, belt, and belt pouch.

Fantasy Adventure Dress and Accessories

The dress is a modified pattern from the original 1912 Mary Frances Sewing book.  If you want more explicit instructions, look at the morning dress pattern instructions from the book.  (The Mary Frances Sewing Book).  I didn't use the extended placket to close the back, but just slit it down all the way, sewed about 1/3 of the way up, and closed it with velcro.

Let me know what you think of this pattern.  I'd love to see anything you make from it.

Sunshine and Daisies Summer Outfits (Links to Free Doll Clothes Patterns)

 One pack of 6 fat quarters, one pack of 20 2.5" x 44" coordinating strips, eight summer outfits.

Outfit 1:  Lee and Pearl Bonjour Dress
Outfit 2:  Lee and Pearl Bonjour Tunic and Shorts
Paris Mini Wardrobe Free Pattern from Lee and Pearl:  These patterns came together really easily.  The dress would have looked better without the ruffles on the sleeves, I think.

Outfit 3:  LJC Bandeau top and mini skirt
Outfit 4:  LJC Peplum top and ruffled capris
Discoveries:  I actually hate the peplum top pattern and will probably put that out of my pattern rotation for the time being.  And the capris...I'm pretty sure that front leg pieces are upside down, but somehow the pattern still worked.  The bandeau top and mini skirt were quick and easy to make.

Outfit 5:  Carpatina sundress with patchwork maxi skirt
Carpatina Sundress Pattern:  This is the third time I've played with this bodice pattern, and as it turns out, I dislike the look of it and won't use it again for sundresses.

Outfit 6:  Peasant blouse and tiered broomstick maxi skirt
Gathers are a pain in the arse.  Enough said.

Outfit 7:  JenWrenne's 1930s embroidered dress
JenWrenne's 1930s Dress Pattern:  I decided to use some daisy applique trim I had on hand instead of embroidery.  The background fabric clashes a bit too much for my liking, but it's still cute overall.

Outfit 8:  JenWrenne's Pointed yoke dress
JenWrenne's Pointed yoke dress:  This came out better than it had any right to given the fabric.  I used contrasting strips to make the pleats.  When using this pattern, extend the bodice by 0.5" to fit AG dolls.  Otherwise it's too short and you can't set in the sleeves.  Sleeves are from the BunnyBear 1940s tiered dress pattern (here).