January 13, 2008

Doll clothes (SFW, I think). Plus recycling dolls for charity.

Note: I wasn't much for dolls even when I was little, but all the fiddly careful work on the clothes is...impressive. Found the second link somewhere in that first page, and I swear I found that first link while trying to find out how best to hem a piece of curved cloth, so if any of y'all can tell me that, please do. Do you just cut the cloth differently in the first place, or what?

posted by dilettante 16 years ago
  • Cute clothes--too fiddly for me, but lovely, in their own way. Sewing. *sighs* Love to make things, hate to sew. Figger that out if you will. Hemming a circular hem is easiest if you give yourself a goodly bit of fabric to work with--say 3/4 inch. Cut the cloth to fit the curve you want. I usually turn my hem under 1/4 inch and zig-zag stitch it in place. Then the trick part: Take the hem and pin it in two places. For a simple curve, that would be at the beginning and end. Pin in the middle. Pin in at the place where it would be 1/4 and 3/4 the length. (middle of the middles) so you'd have five pins at this point. Depending on how long it is, you may want to pin it again. Hope that makes sense. You're spacing your pins equidistant from each other. Eventually you'll see that you have to start making small pleats in the hem to make it lay flat. This is called "easing." When you have it all pinned, you want to spritz it with water(if the fabric will be OK with that) and "hand press" it, smoothing the hem. Check that it looks even and the way you want it. For a skirt, pin it front and back, then side to side, then again, etc. If this is a project that you're being all fiddly with, you'll probably baste the hem--stitching it by hand loosely with fairly large stitches using a contrasting color thread. Stitch it with your sewing machine, making sure to "ease" the inside part of the hem in. Pull your basting stitch if you've done one, and wallah!* your curved hem. That's how I'd do it. You might want to wait and see if any other sewmeisters post and contradict me, because I'm no pro. Just a gederdone kind of sewer. *Yes, wallah is not a word. Neither is fiddly. Deal.
  • Actually, both of those are words.
  • I cannot conceive of a just universe where "fiddly" is not a word. Your hemming advice is sound. I've also done curved hems with bias tape, especially for armhomes and flounced or godeted skirts.
  • Oh, and I forgot to add that it warms my heart to think of the webmaster's "little sister" doing this project. It sounds like they both get a lot of heartstring currency out of it.
  • First link: "Sorry, but the page or the file that you're looking for is not here."
  • There's an extra http that sneaked into the link. It's really this. Oh, and BlueHorse, I must have just not pinned often enough. I hate pins. I may try again. Thanks!
  • I'm really enjoying the first link. That woman is a riot!
  • That DorrieBelle is hardcore.