Do you think you will have a go at the design for the Faux Blouse Accessories?
I think I will be making the bow neck tie lots of times. Maybe not the wrist ruffles so much because they are a bit tricky to put on the doll.
The Bow neck tie just closes in the back with the velcro and I think I will be adding it to all sorts of tops and blouses.
It might be more robust if I add a few stitches to the bow to make sure it doesn’t come undone.
The sweater I made to fit the wrist ruffles is so quick and easy to make. My original thought was to make faux blouse shirt tails that are made up of shirt tails and elastic around the waist. It fits under the sweater and adds to the illusion of wearing a blouse. I already have the shirt tails from the sweater shirt pattern. I just need to make them a bit longer and make the waist casing for the elastic.
When make a sweater for the faux blouse accessories I chose the uneven hem sweater that I already had a pattern for in my Bulky Knits collection. (I haven’t actually published the Bulky Knits collection yet.) I made some variations to the pattern by:
keeping it the length of the front piece for the back as well,
widening the sleeve at the wrist to make it easier to put the wrist ruffles underneath, and
raising the neckline so I could just do a hem instead of ribbing.
I do a lot of variations on existing patterns and sometimes variations on variations.
I hope you have a go at adding this simple sweater design to your doll’s garments. If you haven’t done much with knits, bulky double knits like track suit knits and fleecy knits are pretty easy to work with.
I worked out years ago that I could sew knits with a normal needle and a narrow zig zag stitch with hardly any problems.
To sew knits:
Use a regular machine needle
Dial down to a 1mm zig zag
Use your zig zag machine foot
Use the zig zag for any seams that go across the stretch like sleeve hems
You can use a straight stitch to sew parallel to the stretch such as down the back facings
It is possible to do the hems with hardly any pins. Especially the tight curves like the neck or sleeve heads
The cute factor of knits can hide a lot of mistakes
I consider myself to be skilled and confident at sewing doll clothes but that doesn’t mean I get it perfect every time. I can also be a bit slapdash but I don’t let it hold me back. I made a real mess of the neck and hem turnings on this pink top so I made sure I took more care with the grey top. It doesn’t mean I won’t keep this top and use it for outfits. I hadn’t sewn any knits for a while so it just took a few goes to get back in the swing.
I’ve been having fun sewing a few things lately. You will see the patterns over the next weeks.
I have made these wide leg trousers.
And a fuzzy vest.
And a raglan sleeve skivvy top.
They quickly came together. Can’t wait to get them into the pattern collection.
This week paid subscribers can download the simple sweater that works well with the Faux Blouse Accessories.
Cheers,
Val
