Keeper's Dolly Duds Simplicity Pattern 1179: Pattern Review

I have admired Keeper's Dolly Duds for years, since she was selling doll outfits on ebay. I could only look and admire, as her outfits sold for far more than I could afford. Her doll clothes are beautiful, professional, and historically accurate. You can visit her website at this link.

I was very excited when her patterns became available to purchase. They are now available both on Etsy and through Simplicity. I have bought many of her patterns, although I have not used them all yet! When a new one becomes available, I just have to run out and get it.

Well, my friend's daughter getting Rebecca gave me an excuse to make Simplicity pattern 1179 for the first time. Once more I am sewing in pink and purple, and then I think I am going to need a break from these colors!

I decided to make View B because it seemed to be the simplest of the dress patterns, and has short sleeves. It is too hot to think about long sleeves!

Once I had carefully cut out the pattern pieces that I needed, I carefully ironed each one to a piece of interfacing. This is a tip I got from Keeper's Dolly Duds. It makes the pattern pieces easier to handle. Those tissue pieces will just float away. This also helps to prevent the pattern pieces from ripping.

There were so many small pattern pieces that I decided to put them in a Tupperware container so that I wouldn't lose any of them. I kept the pattern pieces pinned to the fabric pieces so I could tell which was which.

I really had trouble with the instructions for the tabs and the "welt," which is apparently the little purple shapes on the skirt. I use quotation marks because normally in my world, the word Welt is German for "world." I have never seen this word used in connection with fashion before. Anyway, I still have no idea whether I did these decorations correctly or not. However, that is due to my own extreme difficulty in reading sewing instructions.

The dress turned out well. I did not make the collar because I am pretty sure it would just get lost, as it is not attached to the dress.

By the way, the directions for the pattern require that interfacing be used twice. If you do not keep interfacing on hand, this would be a good thing to know when you are shopping for supplies. You could probably get away without using it, but it adds stability to the fabric.

What do you think of the buttons? I thought that the dress needed a bit more color. It looked a little washed out, especially next to the Bluebell dress.

I am proud that I successfully tackled this pattern!