Let's Sew Doll Clothes part 4

Watch the video here.

This week we are continuing with our first sewing project, the doll shorts. In fact we are finishing the shorts! So if you are following along give yourself a big pat on the back for finishing your first sewing project!

Again I do apologize for the horrible camera angles. I will figure out where to put the camera for decent angles one of these days.

Our first step today is to add the casing for the elastic and then add the elastic. I did decide to use 3/8” elastic instead of the 1/2” that the pattern calls for. For one I was out of the correct size but also I do prefer the narrower for this scale. It is a small change but I think it does make a difference.

We also did the top-stitching for the “fly” front. I showed you my favorite way of transferring the markings for these types of situations. You can use any thin clean paper, even some of the excess pattern paper from between the pattern pieces.

Here is a photo of how I had the needle/ fabric set up for this stitching.

And here is one showing how close I was to the edge to sew the extra line of stitching on the edge.

 

 

 

The last step is to sew a button onto the waistband to close them up. I like to knot the thread between the pairs of holes because that way if the thread breaks you won't loose the button.

Next week we will be starting the t-shirt.

 

Let's Sew Doll Clothes part 3

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

This week I start off by trying to show the basic parts of my sewing machine and how to thread it. I do apologize for the bad angles. I actually filmed the first part multiple times trying to get a better angle.

Then we move on to the sewing of our shorts. The first step is to do some basic marking on the fabric. I used this marking chalk, I love mine and have had it for at least 20 years.

Then on to the sewing we only do a couple of seams and I did struggle with where to put the camera. If anyone has any ideas for me to try for camera placement let me know. I know the angle this week is not great, just the best I could come up with. Remember I live alone so no helper to hold the camera and my tripod only has certain angles and heights it can be set at.

For hem we did a very simple folded up hem with no edge finish. This will work fine on this garment and has the advantage that it won't add any bulk. On later projects we will do some more “proper” hems.

Because of the camera in my way I did make a bit of a mistake on the crotch seam but that allowed me to show you how to fix it. So it was all good in the end.

If you have any questions be sure to ask me.

See you next week.

Let's Sew Doll Clothes part 2

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

This week we are going to open up our pattern envelope and look at all the contents. I spend some time going over both the instruction page and the pattern pieces. We talk about the meaning of some terms and where to find information on the sheets.

Then we end this week's video by cutting out the pieces for our first project.

I am sorry I kind of forgot to take any pictures I will try to do that better in the future.

If you have any questions be sure to ask me either in the comments here or on Youtube or on the Facebook page.

Let's Sew Doll Clothes part 1

 

Watch the video here.

I am back and doing videos again and I want to finally get the series on sewing doll clothes to you. I know I started a series on this topic a couple of years ago, life kind of got in the way. If you want to learn a bit more about what happened I wrote a blog post on my miniature blog a while back. You can find that here if you are interested in that.

Now on to sewing doll clothes.

Today we are just looking at the pattern envelopes and at some of the tools you will need to sew some doll clothes.

I know there is a lot of information on the pattern envelop and sometimes it is hard to know what is important and what isn't. Hopefully by the time this series is under way you will feel confident in looking at the envelope and understand all of the information.

As for tools/supplies, You will need access to a sewing machine, it doesn't have to be a fancy one. There are a lot of inexpensive machines out there that are fine to learn on. My machine is not an expensive one and it does just fine.

I will go over the basics of how to use the machine as we go along.

You will also need access to an iron and ironing surface (usually an ironing board). If you want your clothes to look nice you will need to be able to iron them, especially the ones made of woven fabrics.

You will also need- fabric scissors, paper scissors, pins, tape measure, seam ripper, thread to match your project and bobbins for your machine. I forgot to get out a marking pencil but we will also need that.

If you have any questions be sure to ask me. I will do my best to stay on top of answering all the questions.

Sewing Doll Clothes 101 pt 2

Watch the video here.

This is part 2 of the new series, if you haven't watched part 1 it can be found here.

I do want to start by apologizing for the awful paper crinkling noise during part of the video. I didn't catch it in time to do much about it. I was so short on time this week and my computer was struggling so that made everything take way longer. I made the decision to just leave it and go ahead with the video as was. In order to do a voice over the video would have been way later getting posted. Next time I will be more aware of the paper and do any moving of the large sheets off camera.

So this week we look at the stuff that comes inside the pattern envelope. Those items being mostly the instruction sheets and the pattern itself.

We also did a quick bit of fitting the pattern, I decided that overall the top was going to fit okay on my doll but I wanted it to be longer. So minimal adjustments were made.

I have decided to do the series as a 2 section series and show how to adjust the same patterns (I hope, providing I can get the same patterns again) to fit a skinnier doll like the Journey Girl line.

I had found a really cute “fat quarter” at the fabric store recently and decided to use that to make the top this time.

Next time we will move on to the sewing, starting by making any adjustments to the machine and we'll also talk about seam allowances.

Sewing Doll Clothes 101 pt 1

Watchthe video here.

This week we are starting a new series on the channel/blog. I have actually wanted to do a sewing series since before I started the YouTube channel but I just never got around to it.

I know I have been absent from here for a while, the last several months have been very stressful. I am hoping the stuff that was causing the stress is starting to be fixed so I can devote some time to getting back on track with the things I love to do, this channel and blog is definitely a part of what I love to do.

For those of you that love the polymer clay foods, don't worry there are plenty more of those in the future. I just still need a break from the clay for a while. And sewing is something I have been doing for most of my life. It really makes me feel good to sew things so I want to share that love with some of you that want to learn also.

I actually started sewing before I was old enough to go to school. My let me hand sew from before I can remember as long as either she or one of my grandma's was there to supervise. I started sewing on a sewing machine when I was around 8 or 9 and I have been sewing ever since.

There was a time that I sewed pretty much everything I wore. Then I had kids and sewed for them. If it can be made of fabric I have probably sewn it at least once over the years and there have been a lot of years in the time since I first sat down at a sewing machine.

So back to this series. My idea for this series is to make sure that even a total novice at sewing can follow along. Hopefully, those of you that have been sewing for a while will pick up a few tricks along the way too.

I decided to start the series out by explaining the pattern envelope and the information that is on the outside of it. I also touched a bit on fabric types and some of the tools you will need to be able to follow along with the tutorial.

Simplicity 1178

Simplicity 8042

To follow along you can either use the same patterns I do or pick one (or a few) that are similar. I hope to be able to explain the steps so that you can use them for any pattern you pick up.

basic tools

If you run into problems or have questions be sure to ask me.

Missing in Action

I know I have been absent for a while again. I had some stuff going on in my life and took some time off from all my blogs and youtube for a while. Oh, in case you didn't realize I have multiple blogs and Youtube channels. The links for all my blogs are at the top of this blog so if you are interested you can go check out the rest if you haven't before. Anyway, I had taken some time off them started posting on most of them again. I had been writing and filming for all the blogs/channels then my computer crashed. I had somewhere between 10 and 15 blog posts/videos in process. Since I normally don't backup posts or videos until they are complete I lost all of the ones I was working on along with all the photos to go with them. YIKES!!

I am still without my main computer. My son, Erik, (my IT guy) says he is fairly sure he can get my files off my old hard drive later. In the meantime he is working on putting together a new system for me. But because he is working full time and trying to keep the price as low as he can it will take a while. Currently I am using my old (previously) retired laptop, it is really slow and not terribly reliable (it tends to shut off randomly)

I am doing my best to get back up to where I can post on all my blogs and channels but it might take a while yet before I get back on any kind of “normal” schedule. Please be patient I should be back soon. In the meantime I will be posting when I can with what I can.