Antique Doll Dresses

Reproduction Clothes for Antique Dolls

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About the Lace I Am Putting On….

Because of illness, I am liquidating  a 70 year accumulation of fabrics, trims and goodies in my sewing room. I am unable to sell by the yard as there is simply too much of it!  So all items will be by the “piece” listed. Because there will be BARGAINS,  I have to  have a minimum order! It takes just as long to pack and ship a $3 item as it does a $30 item, and because there is so much to photograph and put on the site, I have to conserve time as much as I can.  Thank you for understanding!

  If you like this kind of stuff, put the site on your favorites and keep checking in, I am spending every day photographing and  listing  things. Eventually there will be great doll size trims , fabric and lace among other things on the site! Thanks for looking.

The Same Pattern

This dress is made from the same pattern as the one I just put on for sale a couple of weeks ago for Sweet Sue or Toni. The back and front are cut from the pattern, then I cut another front, and cut it down to show the fabric underneath, and finished the cut with rick rack, which I also used to finish the neck and sleeve. I lengthened the same sleeve by taking the sleeve pattern in the pattern and adding length to it. I made the bodice, then held the sleeve pattern up to see how much longer I would need to make it for a three quarter sleeve, then cut out a new sleeve pattern with the new length. It is put on exactly like the short sleeve. After I made the bodice, I put it on the doll and measured how long I had to cut the skirt. Because  a long skirt needs to have more width than a short skirt, I added 8 more inches to the width of the skirt as well as the length needed for each doll.  I  hope this will help you experiment with patterns!

Feel free to leave a question or comment below!

More About Fabric Scale

Here is another picture of more fabrics suitable in scale for doll clothes. In case you missed the last post, if it says something is suitable for PJ it means the 11″ Patsy Junior of the Effanbee Patsy family. They are only examples, it is the height of the doll you are sewing for that matters when choosing the right print. Click on the picture to enlarge and see the scale of the print better. feel free to leave questions or comments below.

More About Print Size for Dolls

 I will do two posts on this, as I have too many pictures for one post. The picture shows the scale ( size) of the print with the tape across it. The scale involves not just the size of the flowers or print, but the distance between the flowers. If you remember that a bodice for a 14″ doll, for example, is only about 3-4″ from sleeve seam to sleeve seam, you can see that if the major design or flowers are 2″ or more apart– the bodice will look pretty blank, and the skirt won’t have very many flowers either. For an 8 or 9″ doll, you need a pretty small print to get more than one item on the bodice!  Check out the picture, each fabric  has comments printed on it. The dolls referred to on some of the prints are Patsy Family dolls, Patsyette is 9″ and PJ–Patsy Junior—is 11″ There will be another set of fabrics in the next post. Please feel free to leave comments or questions. You will NOT recieve unwanted emails– comments are answered on the Blog, and your information is confidential.

The New Pattern is Ready!

 

 

 

 

And  the patterns are now on the website, ready for purchase. There are two sizes of Toni and two sizes of Sweet Sue! I can add more sizes soon if there is demand.

I was able to keep the price down and still include free shipping. If you have questions or comments, I am always happy to reply, just comment below. Thanks for your  patience! A pattern takes quite a while to develop.

Straight Grain of Fabric

I can’t tell you strongly enough how important the grain of the fabric is on doll dresses. Cutting the skirt across the grain, instead of on the grain, for example, will make the gathers or pleats “pouf” unpleasantly instead of draping gracefully. One of the pictures I chose to illustrate this is the pink silk dupioni, because on that particular fabric it is easy to see the “grain” of the fabric in the weave, so you can see what I am talking about. If the pieces had been cut across instead of on the straight of the fabric, the pleats would have twisted and bulged instead of lying flat.
On people clothes the grain is not as critical, as the weight of the fabric in a skirt will help pull it down to lie smoothly. On a doll dress there are only a few inches– no weight. 

The grain is important on the bodice too, as the pieces are SMALL and if you get into the bias, you will have difficulty sewing it as well as even fabric that usually does not fray will often fray with a bias cut.

Eventually I will get a video made illustrating these points, but for now I am just finishing up the new pattern and will be busy with that for a while, and must get back to some orders for doll dresses!

Please feel free to leave questions or comments  below. Your questions will be answered here, you will NOT get unwanted emails from us, ever!  Happy Halloween to all of you, the scariest part is—having to give away all your candy!

New Pattern for Toni and Sweet Sue–Dress, Slip, Panty

The new pattern is not quite done, but is getting close– I hope to have it ready to go to press by the end of next week, and ready for sale the following week.

Patterns take a long time to do when you take the time to do detailed instructions.Since the new pattern will be a basic dress, slip and panty,  I want the instructions to be detailed enough for it to be easy for even beginners, as well as simple enough so it will be easy to modify into a variety of styles. This post has a picture of the slips, the last one has a picture of the dress that will go on the pattern cover.

I am hoping everyone will like it. As soon as it is done I will make some more dresses from it showing a variation in the sleeve and/or trim.

I will post as soon at it is read to go and is on the site for sale. Hope you are all having a lovely fall!

Feel free to leave comments below!

 

The Perfect Pleater-A Must Have For Heirloom Quality Doll Dresses

Another item I have been using since it was first offered for sale about 30 years ago– I own all sizes, and have worn out several. Pleats add a special touch to your heirloom quality dresses and have never gone out of style.   I use the pleater to pleat skirts, but also bodice fronts, sleeves, and anything else that needs pleats. If you click here you will find a wonderful demo of how to use the pleater and some ideas for some of the many things it is useful for.

The only thing I might do a little differently than the video is that when I have the pleats pressed in, I take the piece to the sewing machine and sew a double row of long basting stitches across the top edge. By pulling these threads evenly, you can adjust the fit of the pleats to the bodice, or other piece they are to be attached to, and have a little fuller skirt or whatever. You don’t pull them enough to actually gather– just enough to snug them in to give a more relaxed fit with a little flair to the pleats, not so stiff looking. Click here to see an example of the pleats being a little fuller. To do pleats on a bodice, you cut a piece of fabric twice as wide as the bodice, and pleat it , press the pleats in place and stitch across the top and bottom to anchor them, then cut out the pleated bodice. Once the bodice is cut out, stitch across the shoulder seam and bottom of the bodice to anchor in place before proceeding, so it will look like this (click here) .

If you still have questions about how to do this, please feel free to ask  . Your question will be answered here, you will not receive unwanted emails! We do not spam our readers.

a Most Important Tool I Could Not Work Without-Tracing Paper

Great tracing paper! Great tracing paper has to be sturdy enough to pin without tearing, to use over and over, yet you must be able to see through it easily for tracing patterns. It also needs to be wide enough ( for me) to cut or trace patterns for even long skirts for dolls, or big circle skirts for dolls. It also has to be handy– on a roll, not in sheets or a tablet — so I can reel out just what  need, and either use right off the roll, or cut a piece the size I want to work with. I seldom have any use for commercial patterns, but when I do, I never cut them– I trace them  so they are ready to use in tissue form that won’t easily tear when I am working with it. Many of the great old doll dress patterns you buy on eBay and such are photo copies of the old patterns and are not on tissue. By tracing them off in stead of cutting them,  you not only have a pattern that is much easier to use, you have the original intact in case you need it again– or want to resell it. 

I of course make most of my own patterns, which is why I need the large roll of white tracing paper…. I use it to make all my patterns. It is soft and easy to fit on the dolls, but is also sturdy enough and crisp enough to be easy to work with. It is ideal if you want to alter a pattern, too– making it a little larger or smaller for a better fit on a doll.

The tracing paper shown here is the kind I use. I wanted to be sure and have it on the blog, because I will soon be offering more patterns you may want to use, and if you do, I recommend that you trace them off. This tracing paper comes in several sizes so you don’t have to buy the size I do–the 50 yard roll. You can also get it in much smaller amounts. Click on the picture or here to see where to buy at a great price!

The craft stores sell 5″ x 7″ ziplock clear plastic bags that are just the right size and shape to easily store and access your traced patterns. With a heavy felt pen you can write what it is right on the bag. These are perfect and will lie almost flat in a small drawer.

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Tweezers– Another Absolute Essential for Sewing Doll Clothes

Click picture to  enlarge

When sewing doll clothes, you can be dealing with very small pieces– for example the sleeve for a Patsyette may be only 1 1/4″ by 2 1/2″.  The sleeve has to be sewn into the curved sleeve opening on a dress bodice that is around 3″ wide over all– so that curved opening is hard to grasp and guide under the needle with your fingers.

Even sewing the sides of the bodice, where you want to guide it to a 1/4″ seam, can be difficult to grasp with your fingers and guide under the presser foot. Tweezers are the answer. I have both curved and straight heavy duty tweezers near each of my machines, two regular sewing machines, the sergers, and the machine used for ruffling lace. They are excellent for guiding narrow lace through the ruffler too.

Acommpanying this text is picture is of the tweezers I use, one picture the serger, the other my main machine.  If you have ever struggled to guide a little piece of cloth beneath a wide sewing machine foot, you will love having the tweezers. Here is a link to the heavy duty type, in the handy 6″ size, at a good price! And I also have the larger size, the 8″, which come in handy when I need more reach to grasp something, click here

And here is a link to a nice sized curved tweezer that even in titled, “sewing machine tweezers”  just click here

I hope you enjoy having the tweezers to ease you guiding the little bodices, sleeves, lace and trims as you sew.

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One More Book for Learning About Period Dolls

Are you a fan, or collector, or just asked to sew heirloom quality dresses for early 20th century antique bisque dolls? Kammer and Reinhardt ( K*R) Dolls were among the most popular as well as some of the most exquisite dolls of that era. A super resource for seeing how they were dressed And all the varieties offered in 1927 is another catalog reprint, “My Darling Dolls”

This is very inexpensive in paper back, but all you need to view hundreds of doll offered by this company in 1927. Keep in mind that while new costumes were offered on some of the dolls each year, there were standards, like the baby dolls, that didn’t change much in either appearance or costume, so this will give you a good idea of the dolls made during the early part of the century. If your grandmother got a K*R Baby Doll for Christmas in 1919, bor instance, it would have been dressed pretty much the same as those in this catalog. The dolls were NOT unique every year– they evolved slowly just like children’s fashions did. Since baby clothes really did not change very fast, it is safe to assume that a K*R baby doll ( often referred to as a “character baby” ) made in 1915 would be dressed very much like the baby dolls in this catalog reprint.

The Flapper era had arrived, though, so the little girl dolls would have been dressed differently from those offered, say, in 1910. But they would not have changed much from those shown in this bookwell into the 1930s., for that era of dress continued.

It is a wonderful, inexpensive way to learn about the bisque dolls of the era of 1920 into the 1930s. The doll companies then, as now, tended to copy each other– success is always imitated! And since the K*R dolls were among the finest of the times, the other doll makers copied their style and clothes, so if you have a doll of the same era, it would be safe to use this as a resource to learn how to dress your doll in heirloom quality clothes!

Don’t forget you can leave a comment or question below!

Important Machine for Beautiful Doll Dresses

I hope you are not bored with the machines I describe. Without the serger with the tiny rolled hem, I would simply have to spend so much more time finishing dresses and underwear that I would have to add to the price.

I have my sergers set on the rolled hem and leave them there– for doll dresses, I never need them for anything else. I do have two of them — one has white thread always, the other I change threads on occasionally when doing dark colored clothing that the white doesn’t work well on. If I am not putting on matching thread, this serger always has off-white.

I bought the Janome serger only for the rolled hem—and it was the easiest to thread and use of all I tried, plus– the price as you can see is very reasonable. Before you buy any serger, I highly recommend  you first go to s sewing machine store that offers many brands, and try several hands on. Take with a  couple of pieces of light weight cotton to try it on. I specifically recommend this one. Read the reviews as well before you decide.

I am adding this serger as a suggestion today because I will soon be putting some things on the blog that have instructions to do some finishing with the tiny rolled hem on the serger, and want you to know what I am talking about when I mention it. The picture with this text shows the tinish on a small doll teddy. This is for a 9″ doll, and any other kind of finish would be difficult and probably bulky ( like adding lace or just a folded hem.) I know this for a fact because for more than 50 years I was left with no choice but to do it the hard way! If you will click on the picture to enlarge it you can see the neat little finish.

I also use this same serger with the rolled hem stitch to finish inside seams on the dresses.

A friend who makes reproduction dolls ( and therefore reproduction clothes) said of this finish, “but that is not authentic ( meaning it was not the way an original would have been done) so how can it be heirloom?” Here is your answer: heirloom sewing is NOT the same things as exact reproductions of antique items. Heirloom doll clothes are clothes that are expertly sewn and finished beautifully. As a matter of factual interest— much of the  underwear on antique dolls was NOT beautifully finished, in fact it was often left with unfinished raw edges. Would you really want to buy– or sell for that matter– garments cut out and left with raw edges?  What if you told your customers, “but this is AUTHENTIC, exactly like the factory ones were!  Do you think they would then want the underwear ( or even dress) with unfinished raw edges?  What we strive for here are dresses that look like the pictures of beautiful dolls new in the box— not dresses that replicate the unfinished underwear or  visible sewn hem.

I am happy to answer any questions you may have. You will NOT receive emails, all comments or questions will be answered right her on the blog.

 

More Dolls’ Clothes Research

Collector’s Book of Dolls’ Clothes: Costumes in Miniature, 1700-1929

This book (the title is a link to where you can buy) is another must have if you are going to sew heirloom doll clothes. It has more than just pictures of the clothes, it has different  kinds of information about the dolls and how they were dressed in the time period of the title, 1700-1929. Dorothy Coleman is one of the worlds experts on dolls and has put together many books to leave for future generations to become  educated about them.

While this book is somewhat more expensive than some I recommend, it is also  such a wealth of information that to get the same thing you would have to buy several other books– and I doubt if even then you could get all the information Ms.Coleman put together here. If you want a book to use, not for show, then don’t hesitate to buy a used copy and save some money.

If you are sewing clothes for old dolls, this is an absolute must have book for your shelf. Like most encyclopedias full of information, it is a large heavy book. The book was first published in 1975, and the original price was high– I think I paid close to $100 for it when I bought it, but I knew that she had done all the research that would take me an equal number of years to do– or more. I was happy to pay her for her work. Remember, we did not have the internet then!  But even with the internet, it would take a long time to find on your won all the information that is consolidated in this book.

Feel free to post questions or comments!

Another Great Research Resource Especially for Composition Dolls

Collectible Dolls and Accessories  of the Twenties and Thirties from Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalog

If you are just getting into dressing old dolls and want to do it right,  this reprint of dolls from the catalogs of the era is a super resource. While most of the illustrations are drawings, the descriptions give lots of information on what materials are used and what accessories the dolls might have come with. There are some name brand dolls ( such as Shirley Temple-Ideal) but also  many “catalog dolls”. The catalogs of the era liked to buy unmarked dolls ( and sometimes even marked) and give them their own unique catalog name such as  “Sunshine” . Doll makers such as Effanbee, Ideal, Horseman sold dolls in the department stores like Sears and Monygomery Ward, but this book is from the Sears catalogs. It has dolls such as Tickle Toes, Patsy Family, and others. You may be able to find the identity of your unmarked doll here, or you may find one with the same style and description and year it was sold, to help you know what the original clothes looked like.

There are dexcriptions of unnamed dolls that may fit the “mystery doll” you are trying to dress– such as a celluloid or metal head doll. The pictures and descriptions can help you figure out when your doll was made, and how it came dressed, so you can dress it in appropriate heirloom quality clothes.

I love the description of the fabrics and styles of the clothing! It is like a journey back in time— when the Christmas catalogs would come, and my sisters and I would sit down and look at them for hours,  dreaming of what we might find under the tree. If you want to make beautiful, authentic doll dresses for dolls of this era, you will love it too. When I did doll clothes sewing seminars, this was one of the books I gave to the students.

 

 

 

How Should My Antique Doll be Dressed?

To do Heirloom quality doll clothes, the first thing you need to know is how your doll should be dressed for her era.  There are many books to help you understand the different fashion periods.

There are basically two kinds of dolls to dress: lady dolls ( fashion dolls) and child dolls, which can mean anything from newborn to pre-teen. Remember that dolls at any given period in time were dressed in the fashions of their time, whether the dolls represented children ( of any age) or adults.

It is interesting to note that the earliest “infant dolls” did not look like infants; they were simply dressed as infants and put in cradles or cribs. Today dolls representing infants LOOK like infants– and this trend began with the Bye-Lo baby doll. This doll was by Grace Storey Putnam, and was the first doll truly looking like an infant. Grace Storey Putnam  was a sculptor born in 1877 who had to support herself and her family after a divorce in the  1920s. She sculpted the doll while actually looking at a three day old baby. This at the time was revolutionary–It  had not been done before, but was the beginning of dolls that looked like real babies, that are still popular today– although the soft materials of today’s dolls make far more realistic babies than the porcelain, composition. paper mache, celluloid and other hard materials of Putnam’s times.

Here is an example of a very old doll dressed as an infant, but the doll does not look like a baby. You will often find these dolls dressed even as “ladies” when people find them stripped of original clothing, because they do not “look like babies”. This is why research is so important if you want to do heirloom quality doll dresses.

To get back to the fashions— whether infants, children or ladies–the dresses on your heirloom antique dolls should be authentic to the times of their introduction and manufacture. Research today is easy– we have the internet. If you are seriously costuming dolls, though, there are books you should have at your fingertips.

For an overview of  the fashions of the different time periods, I have never found a book that is better than one called the Evolution of Fashion. This wonderful book not only shows drawings of the fashions, but shows the shapes of the pattern pieces to make them, and information –very important– on the fabrics used as well as what was worn from the skin out. The book  can be expensive but you can still find bargains on it. Mine is soft cover which I find easier to use than hard cover, as well as it being less expensive.  Don’y hesitate to buy a good used one. Mine is extremely used, and it still is just fine!

Whether you are making dolls or dressing antique ones, you will find this book a necessity, it covers fashions from 1066– 1930. Enjoy!

Silk Ribbons for Your Antique Doll Dresses

I never use anything but pure silk ribbon on doll dresses for dolls made before 1940– unless I get lucky and find some 1930s rayon double faced rayon ribbon, which I haven’t found for years now.

There is nothing worse that wonderful vintage fabrics being ruined because they are trimmed with polyester— whether it is ribbons or lace, it just takes away the quality and period correctness of the dress.

Silk ribbon is, however, expensive for top quality double faced ribbon, although you can buy cheaper single faced silk ribbon elsewhere for cheaper. I have a wonderful source for the silk ribbon I use. She carries the best colors and you could not ask for better service. She also  carries french and other cotton laces, if you are in need of just a small amount to finish your doll dress. She has been so helpful to me for several years I highly recommend her site to everyone– and she also carries other things, in case you are wanting or making heirloom baby things, christening dresses, etc.

Her shipping is  more than reasonable too.  For your silk ribbon needs, go to Simply Wonderful Things.  Tell her JoAnn Morgan sent you!

Please leave questions or comments below, you will NOT be spammed with emails! We hate sites that do that!

Patterns for Doll Dresses

Pretty basic, right? You want to make a dress for Patsy and you look and find a pattern that is for Patsy, Shirley Temple and others— Oops! How can a pattern fit Patsy, who has a watermelon belly  and  bent arm, and a Shirley Temple doll, who has an entirely different shaped body? Truth is, the pattern doesn’t really fit well on either doll, unless you know how to make the adjustments to get a perfect fit on either one. As long as you realize this, you can buy these patterns, and carefully fit them to whichever doll you are making a dress for, before  you cut the fabric.

To fit a pattern, you cut out the bodice pattern pieces, front and back, and lay the bodice front piece on the front of the doll. Check to see if the neck opening is too large or too small, and if the width of the shoulder is correct. Check to see if the side seam will fall where it should in the center of the side under the arm. Check to see if the waist line on the pattern falls on the natural waist line of whichever doll you are sewing for. Make adjustments where needed.

Now pin the seam lines together at the side seam and shoulder seam– slip on the doll.See if the pattern will be too loose or too small anyplace, and adjust accordingly.

It is best to trace off the original pattern, and use your traced copy for adjustments, that way the original can be saved  for perhaps another doll.

On generic patterns, look for pattern that fit ONE SIZE DOLL, if you want a well fitting dress. If you buy a pattern that fits a 12 to 14″ doll, it will generally not really fit either one!  Two inches in a doll dress of that size is  like TWO SIZES  of person clothes. For example, if you go to the store you would never buy a dress that fits a size 12 or size 14″— if you are a size 12 you would certainly not look good in a dress that would fit a size 14!  So find patterns made for specific size dolls, for example a 14″ Toni doll.  A 14″ Toni dress is baggy on a 14″ Sweet Sue from the same era! And a 14″ Shirley Temple pattern or Patsy pattern would fit neither Sweet Sue or Toni of the same height.

Hope this makes your pattern buying easier and your dresses better fitting!

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Loop Turner for Sewing

If you are doing a lot of doll clothes, you will wish you had this tool  over and over again if you don’t have one in your sewing room. It is another tool I put in the tool kit my students get. It is called a loop turner, but on doll clothes you will turn other things, things that would be big enough to easily turn in person size, but become impossible in doll size. Yep, If you have turned a little apron band, skirt strap or other such for a doll dress, and used the same old difficult and old fashioned saftey pin– after searching around for one the right size– you will fall in  love with this tool!  Use this tool to:

Turn spaghetti or skirt straps, button loops, frog closures, string belts and much more

Latch-hook end catches fabric to pull it through bias tubing

Made of wire, hooked end grabs and hangs on to fabric as you pull

You will love it.

I do find that one of these is adequate, I don’t turn that many tubes— but boy, when I need this, I REALLY need it! It is such a time-and-stress saver.

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The Cording Foot

The cording foot is another tool I use a lot.
The Cording Foot allows you to attach thin cording, yarn, or ribbon neatly and precisely to sewing projects. Use a tricot stitch and decorative thread for a truly unique look.  The Janome type makes it possible to do one or more cords, but most of the cording feet  are for doing one at a time. Because the small trim is so wonderful for doll dresses, this foot is  a must have if you are sewing  a lot of dresses. If you have a different brand of machine, just run a search for “cording foot for (your machine).

I have used this foot in the past to put on strings of tiny beads. It gives a beautifully even trim. 

When sewing trim on, be sure to draw a line with your disappearing ink pen on the exact place you want to sew the cording or other decoration, so it lays exactly where you want it!  I used it to sew the cording at the top of the lace on this voile dress for Patsy Ann.

I will in a later post put on a video of  this foot in action!

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A Bodkin— Do You Need One?

I didn’t have one for many, many years. Half a century or more. Who needs that? I can do it the old fashioned way to thread ribbon or elastic or something else— just use a safety pin. Then when I got into sewing for antique dolls, and started using a bunch of insert lace, I bought one. I used it the first time and thought, “how in the world did I ever get along without this?”

I had purchased the Dritz ballpoint bodkin and it works like a dream for threading the ribbons, wide or narrow, through the lace. It works well for threading elastic through a casing,  a draw string through a casing, and a bunch of other things. Now it goes into the tool pack I give to students. They mostly have had the attitude that I once did, “don’t need that”— until I demonstrate it in class. They see how easily it accomplishes things and are glad to have it. Opens up a whole new world to those who have never used one.

I will in a later post do a video demonstration of this one tool  Here are a couple of examples of the insert lace with the ribbon threaded through it, click here   where the insert lace is used on the bodice and at the waist, with the ribbon threaded through it, and here  where a wider lace is used around the waist only.

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Measuring Tools

I know your sewing room is just full of all kinds of measuring tapes– retractables, two sided ones, cloth ones–even that cutting board  has 36″ measuring markings on the side of it. and of course the sewing guage. I have all these things too. My industrial ruffler has the measuring strip built right into the front– incredibly handy.

But there is one more tool I use the most, and nearly every day I am sewing. I have one by the ironing board, by each sewing machine and a couple on the cutting table because things can “get lost” there. ( Sound familiar?)

 

This great tool is  a clear plastic 12″ ruler.   I use them for measuring to press in hems,  measure sleeves, hats, the facing allowance,  the width the collar needs to be, and a whole bunch of other things. It is handy because I can see the edge of the fabric , any markings on the fabric or pattern, and a bunch of other things through it.  These I used to pick up at Office Depot and they are very inexpensive, but now like for many other things, I just look on line to buy. They do get kind of scratched up and marked up and sometimes lost. Or carried to another room to measure something and forgotten. I also have one 18″ clear plastic ruler, for the rare skirts for larger dolls that are a little wider.

I have only named a few of the things I use these rulers for! When I do a seminar, there is always one in the packet of tools I give to the student– I do this because I want to be sure when the student gets home, they will have the basics to work with.

In case you don’t have an Office Depot or are like me and love the convenience of shopping on line, click on the picture and you can get these  from Amazon!

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A Great Source for Doll Wigs, Stands, and More

I am often asked if I sell doll stands, wigs, repair supplies and so forth. For many years Dollspart Supply has been my favorite source for these and other needs. They also carry clothing and patterns for dolls that I don’t sew for, including shoes and socks, as well as blank hats in various sizes that you can decorate to match your doll’s outfit, at reasonable prices. They can always be counted on for good and courteous and helpful service.  Just click on the link to visit their site and see all they have to offer.

 Recently one of my dress customers needed a mohair wig for her antique doll. I recommended Dollspart, and she went there and found just the color and style she wanted— unhappily it did not come in the size she needed.

She called Dollspart and they were most kind and said they would do a special order of the wig for her in the size she needed– at no extra charge! For a company to go to that much trouble to be helpful is rare and wonderful. It is not surprising they have stayed in business for so many years even with the ever-changing doll market.

I can’t recommend them highly enough. They have always given me, and anyone I have recommended them to, excellent service and assistance.  Here is the link again: Dollspart Supply  

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Piping Presser Foot

Many of you will say “what the heck is a piping foot?” — for a couple of reasons. Number one, piping is not commonly used anymore. Number two, if people do use it, they usually just go buy some piping ( comes in a package like bias tape does). I use it quite a bit on heirloom quality doll dresses— but the commercially made  is too heavy and thick for most doll dresses, so I make my own. See a sample of piping on a dress here.  

Piping, if you are not familiar with it, is bias fabric folded over, ( similar to bias tape) encasing a cord or string. The size of the cord/string determines how heavy, light or delicate the piping is. I have a ball of plain white  cotton string that is just the right thickness for doll dress piping that I have used for years. You also have to use a lightweight fabric to cut your bias strips to avoid making it too bulky.

I usually use the piping on the waist line although it also makes a nice finish on the neck on a dress with a lined bodice as in the Cissy dress pictured here.I have usedpiping the same way to finish the bottom edges of straight sleeves. It can be a very effective and charming embellishment on your doll dresses.

In a later post I will have a video demonstrating this foot,  but in the picture above you can get an idea.

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Blind Hemstitch Foot

Another attachment I couldn’t work without!  The blind hem in an heirloom quality dress is important to the appearance.  A hand stitched hem is nice, but there is no way anyone sewing for a living could take the time for that! The blind hem replaces it.

You may say, but all old doll dresses have regular machine-sewn hems! A blind hem would not be authentic! You have to remember, we are sewing heirloom quality, NOT exact copies of the old clothes! We want them to look the same at a glance, but be of top quality. The very finest antique dresses — pre-1900– may have had  hand sewn hems, but keep this in mind– once the sewing machine was in common use, no factory would pay women to sit around and sew clothing by hand. Most of the work was machine done! Things that could not be done by machine at the time–sewing on buttons or hooks, blind hems– were done by hand. As soon as machines and attachments were available to do so , it was done on the machine.

Our goal in sewing heirloom quality dresses is to make them beautiful, looking like the finest old ones, but with superb sewing.on dresses that will still be beautiful in 100 years.

The picture of the hemmer I have included is the one for MY machine– if you buy one, be sure you get the one for YOUR  machine, if you run a search you will easily find it.

In a later post I will be showing a video of how this foot is used and how easy it is!

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In loving memory: JoAnn Morgan

Gone but not forgotten

We have disabled the shopping feature of this site until I can get Mom’s book “Through the Eyes of Gretchen” Published.

I am sorry for any inconvenience.

Harmony (daughter and webmaster)

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Doll Repair & Restoration Seminars

Doll Repair and Restoration Seminars — not a hobby, a lifetime career!

Now offering  more than one kind of seminar - Call Rubie at 1-214-403-7077 to decide which seminar is best for your goals. Full seminar, antique dolls to modern, including china and bisque dolls, includes cloth, papier Mache, and other

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