Dreaming of Dolls: 1864

Showing posts with label 1864. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Pattern Review: KayandMay Civil War Dress

I saw a dress made from the Kay and May 1860s Civil War Dress pattern made by someone in a Facebook group.

I thought it was really cute. I really liked the sleeves and the square bodice. The belt was also unique among doll patterns that I have seen.

The pattern was affordable, so I was happy to buy it and give it a try.

I ended up not being very happy with the skirt. I felt that the skirt was the right length for a 1950s dress, but too short for a 1860s dress.

I also felt that the way the hem was curved made it harder to hem it neatly.

I think that the skirt should be about two inches longer than it is. You can see the dress sewn to the original pattern in the picture above.

I made a second, longer skirt, that could be worn under the dress that I had made. This gave the skirt three tiers.

I wasn't really happy the way it looked. It didn't look like it was planned, because it wasn't.

I did not give up on this pattern.

I have made two more dresses, in which I used the bodice pattern and a skirt that I just cut as a rectangle about 25 inches wide by 8 inches long. I gave up on making the skirt tiered.

I will share the other dresses I made from this pattern when I have a picture of them. I still think it's a cute pattern, but I am annoyed by the skirt debacle.

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Pattern Review: Keepers Dolly Duds Beth pattern

I have made the Keepers Dolly Duds Beth pattern.

This is one of four Civil War Era patterns by this designer that are named after the sisters in Little Women.

It's kind of fun for me to be making a pattern named Beth- because that's my name!

Ironically, I guess, it is the last of the four Little Women themed patterns that I have completed.

My version of Jo's Writing Dress

My version of Meg's Ball Gown

My version of Amy's School Jumper

This is a very pretty pattern. No complaints about my namesake!

It does need buttons down the front still.

It has a lot of pretty details, including tucks on the skirt.

I saw a post on Instagram that historical people wore more brown than we give them credit for in our AG collections. So I'm like, okay, here's a brown dress!

I found both fabrics at a thrift store. I think that they go well together, and that the tiny print is perfect for dolls clothes.

This fabric would also work for a 1970s outfit, I think. The 1970s were very brown.

I'm really happy with this outfit, and it also nudged me into changing Addy out of her Christmas dress.

It would be fun to make all four Little Women dresses in coordinating fabric. That would be a project for the future!

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Pattern Review: Keeper's Dolly Duds Amy's Jumper

I was gifted some beautiful Christmas fabric. I have been using it to make many different doll dresses.

I am posting the dress made from Keepers Dolly Duds Amy's School Jumper first, because it is the first time that I made this pattern.

The colors in the fabric made me think of Addy's American Girl Christmas dress. Of course, that is a classic that can never be replaced- but this dress is lovely too.

I was so intimidated to make this pattern! It looks so complicated!

But it was beautifully easy to make.

Unusually for KDD patterns, the blouse and the jumper are two separate pieces.

I love this!

This means that you can reuse the same blouse and match it with lots of different jumpers.

It also means, if you are low on energy, that you can make half of the outfit and still have a finished piece to show for your effort.

I actually ended up hating the red embroidery that I used on this blouse. It reminded me of a mariachi band, which is just not the look that I was looking for.

So I will be making another, plainer blouse to use with this jumper. I didn't put buttons on the front of the blouse because I disliked it so much. It is so hard to find buttons in the right scale.

It would be easier to make this pattern with fabric that isn't striped. I went to great effort to get the stripes to match up on the front of the jumper.

I really loved this pattern, and now I want to make lots of different outfits using this!

Friday, September 1, 2023

Caddie Woodlawn

I recently re-read the Caddie Woodlawn books by Carol Ryrie Brink.

I also got to visit the Caddie Woodlawn House in Wisconsin! It was amazing!

It's a real house, it's free, and there is free admission. It's 35 minutes from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Wayside Cabin in Pepin. I highly recommend it!

I am itching to make Caddie's white Fourth of July dress with a red, white and blue sash.

The book illustration shows the dress looking a lot like Meg's Ball Gown By Keeper Dolly Duds.

Caddie is in the center. The dress on the left looks more 1850s to me.

I bet that the real dress was much simpler, especially since Caddie's mother knew that there was a good dress that the dress would be ruined.

I think that I might make more than one version of the dress. A book illustration one and a more practical one.

I am itching for a day to sew!

I also want to make a a 1830s doll wardrobe like Mrs. Nightingale's doll Adelaide.

Monday, April 17, 2023

Thrift Store Find: Addy Walker

This weekend, I had my best thrift store find yet.

The store has three places where I sometimes find AG: a shelf where more expensive items are displayed, a shelf where porcelain dolls are piled, and a shelf where play dolls like Cabbage Patch and Our Generation are piled.

The porcelain doll shelf was really full, so I was pulling dolls out and looking at them just to be thorough.

On the bottom of the pile was this beautiful Addy, and she was marked as $3.99.

I grabbed her and I ran straight to the checkout. I did not breathe until she was stored safely in my trunk.

I think that the collection of an adult doll collector was donated to the Goodwill. Most of them were porcelain. Addy was on a stand like the porcelain dolls and was priced as though she was one of them.

Addy is a Pleasant Company doll. I think from the way that her wig is made that she is a first edition. I think she has been sitting on a shelf untouched for all these years. The elastic in her pantaloons gave out, but that's normal with age.

A Tale of Two Addys

One of my friends found a Pleasant Company Addy for $25 earlier this year. She lives further south than I do, so when we found out that it was snowing here today, she suggested that we take pictures of our Addys enjoying different weather on the same day.

Here is my Addy:

Here is hers:

I think hers looks like she has sunburn across her nose!

I am really in love with my Addy and so happy. Now I have two Addys, Beforever Addy and Pleasant Company Addy!

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Pattern Review: Keepers Dolly Duds Civil War Dress

My Addy has a very nice wardrobe, but she needs more clothes with long sleeves.

Winter is long and cold!

I was very happy to make the Keepers Dolly Duds Civil War Dress.

This dress looks so lush and complicated.

It is a one piece dress, but it looks like it is made of two or three different pieces.

The dress was actually easy to sew. It takes a lot of steps, but everything came together beautifully.

I would say the most difficult part for me was the sleeve cuffs. It just needed patience.

I am really happy with this dress. I want to make it in lots of different colors!

I think Addy is happy too.

I will also make the apron some day.

I would definitely recommend this pattern for sewing for Addy.

Friday, May 8, 2020

Pattern Review: Thimbles and Acorns A Piece of History Dress

I was so excited about the Thimbles and Acorns A Piece of History Dress pattern.

I am a big fan of Thimbles and Acorns. I have always enjoyed her patterns.

And this pattern had so many cool variations!

I wanted to make the Civil War dress for my seven year old cousin, who has an Addy.
I wanted her Addy to have some clothes, but Civil War dress patterns are so complicated, as opposed to the 1960s patterns for her sister's Melody.

I was excited that this pattern seemed to offer a simpler path to making a nice time-appropriate dress.

The dress pattern is all in four pieces- two pieces for the dress and two for the lining. Sleeves and skirts are all part of the same piece.

There are drawstrings at the neck and waist to create the look.

I had one problem with this pattern- I drew the waistline on the front and the back of the fabric pieces, and I sewed a buttonhole at the back of the dress's waist for the ribbon to go through.

However, when I sewed the pieces together, the waist I had drawn on the front was higher than the waist I had drawn on the back. I had to go with the height of the waist on the back, because I had already made the button hole.

Then, when I put the dress on the doll, I just didn't like it. It just looks very awkwardly bunched at the neck and the waist. It just doesn't look right.

I tried washing the dress, and that helped a little bit with the awkward bunching..

I am debating whether to give this to my cousin at all, or just throw it away.

It's been a long time since I have disliked something that I sewed this much.

It makes me hesitate to try any of the other pattern variations.

I just don't get how mine looks close to the dress pictured on the pattern, but that one looks right and mine does not.

Here is a view of the back, with the drawstrings visible:

The lining of the dress is white, and it is deliberately visible at the sleeves, to easily create a more complicated look.

It is of course entirely possible that the waist of my dress is lower than it should be, but that really wouldn't make a difference in the problem with the bunched up seams.

I just don't get it.