I made Keepers Dolly Duds Tea with the Governess!
My goodness, this pattern is so elegant and fancy, and it was so easy to make!
I was especially intimidated by the pleats o the bodice. It turned out not to be that bad.
I also did the fancy ruched sleeves, and that was also easy to do!
Honestly, I had more trouble trying to get a picture that would clearly show the pleated bodice than I did sewing it.
I love this pattern! Caroline is going to have such a great wardrobe!
This is my first time making the pattern Keepers Dolly Duds 1850s jacket and bonnet.
It came out beautifully!
I used wool pants from the thrift store for the jacket and bonnet. This is the third jacket that I have gotten from the same pair of pants.
In this context, they were giving me real Jane Eyre vibes.
I decided to leave the ruching off the outside of the bonnet because of the Jane Eyre vibes.
What I wanted to make was a nice but plain jacket and bonnet that could be used with a variety of dresses.
I used snaps instead of making buttonholes. The nice thing was that if I had made a buttonhole and messed it up, I could have easily replaced the tab with the buttonhole on it instead of ruining the whole garment.
I am so happy that I have conquered this pattern! I won't hesitate to make it again.
I also made matching blue dresses for the little girl who has an 18 inch Madame Alexander doll and a Disney Animator Tiana.
These dresses are roughly inspired by Tiana's Evening Star dress.
The Disney Animator doll dress was made using a Requiem Art Designs pattern.
The 18 inch doll dress didn't really follow a pattern. I used the bodice from the Joan Hinds Sailor dress, because that was what I had out. Any basic doll dress bodice pattern would work.
I lined it in cotton for more stability.
I think I made the skirt about 40 inches wide by 8 inches long.
I bought a new spool of ribbon for the sasses on these dresses, and it was all used up. There is maybe enough left to make a matching headband.
I actually like the smaller blue dress better than the 18 inch one. The proportions look better. But it's all just meant to be fun to play with. I think I achieved that.
I made the Keepers Dolly Duds Buttoned Belle pattern.
I am giving this dress to Kit because I don't have Ruthie. I admit that it is more of a Ruthie dress because of the color scheme. Hey, it was free fabric. I will turn down free feedsack print fabric when I am dead.
This is another asymmetrical bodice.
It is a very cute pattern with very cute details.
I think that I may have made one or two mistakes, because it just doesn't have that nice A-line look to it.
After a day, I thought, aha! I did not do the darts! But no, this pattern has no darts. It's the Side Tie Collar Dress that I forgot to do darts on. And that one looks great.
I was pleased with the green fabric that I found to coordinate. I just had a long skinny, scrap of it left from another project, and it was perfect. And it matches her compass necklace!
The pattern has two sleeve options. I went with the long sleeves. Kit lives in Ohio, she needs some long sleeved dresses for winter!
I made the Keepers Dolly Duds Side Tie Collar.
This dress has an asymmetrical bodice. I remember hearing people complaining about it when it came out.
However, I didn't have any problems with it.
It was quite tricky turning the ends of the collar inside out. I also found it hard to get the collar tie to lie nicely, and I can't tack it down because that's where the dress opens.
It has the option to add sleeves or sleeveless. I always prefer sleeves!
I made matching yellow dresses for the little girl that I know. One is for her 18 inch Madame Alexander doll, and one is for her Disney Animators Tiana.
The Disney Animators doll dress is made with a Requiem Art Designs pattern.
The dresses aren't exact matches, but I think it's cute. It's harder to do the really fancy details on the smaller dolls, especially if you don't have an exact pattern.
This dress is inspired by Tiana's yellow work dress. It is sized for the Disney Animator dolls.
It's not really a sailor dress collar.
I kind of felt like, at this smaller size, this was close enough for a play dress for a Tiana doll.
I used the pattern Requiem Art Designs Disney Animator Toddler Basic Dress.
I made the sleeves longer and used the dropped waist.
It's a cute little dress!
Snow White is my model, because I bought her at the thrift store for modelling purposes.
Seeing Snow White in this dress with her hair in braids makes me want to sew her a Wednesday Addams dress, haha.
The dress will be going to a little girl that I know who owns the Disney Animator Tiana.
I made a rough version of Tiana's Evening Star blue dress for the Disney Animator dolls.
Mine is not as fancy as the American Girl version. I knew it would be different, but I thought that this is a good play dress version.
I used the Requiem art Designs Disney Animator Toddler Basic Dress pattern.
The pattern has different lengths for the bodice. I felt that either the natural waist or the dropped waist would work. I used the dropped waist because it's the 1920s and it would provide for room for the wide ribbon sash.
I made the skirt longer than the pattern- I think I cut it at 6.5 inches by 30 inches.
I even had the perfect blue satin in my stash! I just bought some glittery blue ribbon for the sash.
The satin is challenging to work with. I lined the dress with white cotton to provide stability, and did a zig zag stitch around the edges of the skirt before I started sewing with it.
Snow White is my model, because I bought her at the thrift store for modelling purposes.
The dress will be going to a little girl that I know who owns the Disney Animator Tiana.
I did a lot of sewing this weekend!
I was inspired by the new Disney release to make some Tiana inspired dresses. These are not exact matches for the AG versions. It was much more fun to use what I had in the house and see different combinations come together!
I was lucky that I went to the thrift store on Friday and found a big piece of plain yellow fabric that I used for two of the dresses. It was only $2!
The pattern that I used was the sailor dress from Joan Hinds Heritage Doll Clothes.
I bought this book used. The pattern pieces were not in the book, they were on a CD. I was able to get the patterns off the CD with the help of the library, but a lot of laptops no longer have a CD player, so be aware of that if buying the book used.
I made the skirt 1.5 inches longer than the pattern because it looked to me like Tiana's work dress skirt hits her at mid-thigh.
I also added a sleeve cuff by cutting strips of fabric 1.25 by 5.25 inches.
Other changes that you could do to make the pattern closet to the work dress would be shortening the top a little bit and shortening the sleeves about 1.5 inches so that they are 3/4 length.
The collar is only on the front of the dress and does not extend around to the back of the dress.
I had so much fun picking out different color combinations from my stash. It was hard to stop!
I like all of the combinations.
Claudie is my model for Tiana. She is so cute, and so is the Tiana doll.
I made two pioneer ensembles using Kirsten's patterns from the Pleasant Company.
I have used these patterns before.
This time, I made sets with her school dress, birthday apron and bonnet. I did use the bodice for the apron dress to make it a bit easier.
I am going to send one of these sets to a friends who just did a homeschooling unit on Little House on the Prairie. One of the dresses is read because we know that in Little House on Plum Creek, Ma dressed Laura in red.
I am very happy with how this turned out!
You can see a dress that I made before from this pattern at this blog link.
I made two new dresses with Keepers Dolly Duds Forties Fashion.
This is a pattern that I have used before. I felt tired and did not feel like interpreting a new-to-me pattern.
Also, this pattern makes a very pretty dress.
One of these dresses will be sent to a friend who has a Molly. The other one is going to a friend's granddaughter.
You can see at this blog link the dress that I sewed before by using this pattern.
I decided that Nanea needed a Christmas dress. I am surprised that AG hasn't made one for her. I wanted to make a green one to go with ...
