Dollies Dress-Up for Easter in Botanic Garden Ensembles

Greetings fabric lovers! To finish out my trio of projects from the Botanic Garden fabric project pack, I decided to outfit two of my dolls in cute little Easter outfits.

These dolls are Dal and Yeollume models from the Pullip line.

When you sew for dolls of any size, a good rule of thumb is to keep the pattern size about the size of the doll's hand--that way you'll keep the scale correct and it'll help the illusion along. If you hold your hand up to most of the patterns in your own clothes they'll probably follow the hand-size or smaller rule. There are exceptions, of course, and Poppy (my Yeolume Podo) is wearing overalls of the floral print, obviously over-scale, but not in a way that is distracting.

The sweet little sundress pattern is from Kerria Rosette (printed at 85% to scale it down for this "petite slimline" doll compared the original, which is more comparable to a standard fashion doll) while the overalls pattern is one I found a few years ago but, sadly, does not seem to be available online anymore. Any Blythe-sized overall pattern would do, though, for these dolls.

The wrap-around bib and pants leg for the overall set.

The bodice and skirt (I cut mine on the fold for an extra-full skirt) for the sundress.

 When working on small pieces like these doll clothes, always do whatever you can flat--like hems and darts--before you start to shape and assemble the garment to save yourself some frustration. Here I've folded over a very narrow hem on the outside edges (clipping the curves of the arm hole on the overall bib) and just finger-pressed and pinned them into place. Sometimes handsewing is easier for doll clothes, or even manually turning the wheel on your machine instead of using the presser foot.

Assembling the sundress is as simple as a running stitch along the top edge of the skirt to form the gathers and then easing it along the bodice. A seam up the back of the skirt and a few snaps and that's it! (Though I did opt to add some beading along the top edge for interest.)

After joining the overall legs together at the front seam, I gathered them to the bodice just the way I did the sundress skirt.

Then I gathered the hems of each pant leg separately, sewed the gathers in place, and folded the raw edge up at that seam line, attaching a length of ribbon for the leg band instead of using a tiny strip of fabric. Once each leg is hemmed, sew the inseams for each pant leg and about halfway up the rear seam--leaving enough open to easily dress the dolls.

The overalls are finished with a hook-and-loop tape closure at the back, ribbons for the shoulder straps, and a couple of pretty beads as buttons.

Happy Easter!

Wishing you creative days,

Jennifer "Scraps" Vanderbeek