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!