Doll Measurement Comparison

One the questions I see the most often when we are discussing the various 18” dolls is “do you know if she is the same size as ***”

Just like when we get a group of 10 or 12 year old girls together these 18” dolls vary in size and shape a lot. I like that though and as I have stated on other posts on my blog I like variety. I think that having dolls from different sources makes the group look more interesting. This can however be a problem when I go to dress them. Just like that group of real girls these girls wear slightly different sizes.

Since I have recently added 3 new girls to my little family I decided it was time to sit down and actually measure all of them. (I didn't include the boys in this little adventure although I probably should measure them too)

I chose one doll from each manufacturer/ line of dolls to compare. I left out one one my American Girl dolls and one of the Our Generation dolls I got the other day.

Included in this little adventure were:

Jazmin (she had another name but I could never remember it) who is a Journey Girl (available at Toys R Us)

Ashley-Rose- from the Our Generation collection (available at Target)- made by the Battat company

Molly – retired American Girl

Jennifer- made by the Madame Alexander company

Kati- from the My Life collection (available at Walmart) made by the Madame Alexander company

I had intended to take more pictures as I did the measuring but my camera battery was almost dead so I got the ones I could.

First I lined all the girls up next to each other in their clothes so we could get an idea of how they look together. 

From left to right: Ashley-Rose, Jennifer, Jazmin, Kati, Molly

Next I fastened my tape measure to my backdrop so I could measure heights of the dolls. They do vary a bit as we could see when they were lined up together. It isn't a lot but in scale it does make the group look nice together. The shortest of these dolls was either Molly or Ashley-Rose; they are very close to 18” even. Tallest at first appeared to be Jazmin but I think that is mostly her hair, I do believe Kati is actually a bit taller if we don't include the puffy hair. 

Molly

Ashley-Rose

Jazmin

Kati

Jennifer

Next I took off all their clothes so we could see body shape and construction. There is a mix of styles of construction with 3 of the 5 having plastic chests. I haven't decided which of these styles I like better. I do like the finished look of the chest area on these girls when there is a dropped neckline. On the other hand you almost always see the ridge where the cloth body meets the plastic part and on some of the dolls it appears to cave in a bit there.

The body measurements I took were the following:

chest (around the body just under the arms)

 
waist (around the body approximately half way down- this was where most of them had a tag sewn on)

 
hip (around the body where the body and legs come together- I tried to make sure I hit the fullest part of the tush.

 thigh (if there was a fuller area that is where I tried to measure)





 inseam (from where the leg attached to the body to the bottom of the foot- on the inside of the leg




 

 wrist (just like it sounds)

I tried to get these as close as I could without squeezing the soft bodies. Also I only went to the nearest ¼” on these measurements.

For the foot I measured the length from the tip of the toe to the heel. The width across just below where the toes should be or the widest point of the foot. These I measured to the nearest 1/8”.

(Sorry at this point my camera battery was completely dead)

Jazmin (Journey Girl)

    chest 10”

    waist 10”

    hip 10 ½”

    thigh 5 ¼”

    inseam 7”

    wrist 3”

    foot length- 2 ½”

    width 1 1/8”

Ashley-Rose (Our Generation)

    chest 10 ¾”

    waist 11 ¾”

    hip 11 ¼”

    thigh 5 ½”

    inseam 6 ½”

    wrist 3 ¾”

    foot length- 2 ½”

    width 1 3/8”

Molly (American Girl)

    chest 11”

    waist 11”

    hip 12”

    thigh 6”

    inseam 6 ¾”

    wrist 3 ½”

    foot length- 2 ½”

    width 1 3/8”

Jennifer (Madame Alexander)

    chest 10”

    waist 10”

    hip 11”

    thigh 6”

    inseam 7”

    wrist 3 ¼”

    foot length- 2 5/8”

    width 1 3/8”

Kati (My Life)

    chest 11”

    waist 11”

    hip 12”

    thigh 6”

    inseam 7”

    wrist 3 ½”

    foot length- 2 ¾”

    width 1 ¼”

At first glance these measurements don't seem all that different but we have to look at it in scale. In our size an inch one way or the other is not such a big deal. When we are looking at doll size it can get huge. In the scale of these 18” dolls it would be about the same as 3” or 4" on us. A waist that is 3” or 4" too big or too small would certainly look bad on a real person.

I am hoping that you will find this information helpful either in sewing for dolls or if you are looking to pick out a new doll.

Are there more measurements I should have included? Let me know and I could do another post with additional measurements.