Designer Clothing for Fashionable Dolls
Sometimes, you just don’t know where to put stuff. So, I decided to have a page which will be the place to look for my favorite links and sewing information.
This is my favorite doll shop. With a whole slew of wonderful BJD and traditional dolls. They have a great selection of clothing and accessories for the dolls including hard to find BJD shoes. Their service is excellent and they have a yahoo group Dollenews where you can chat and get great information on dolls.
Cynthia Berrier is the owner of this great knitting site for your dolls. She creates beautiful knitting patterns for BJD as well as fashion dolls. I only wish I could knit that tiny. Hand knits are the perfect compliment to your dolls wardrobe.
Bitstobuy Helen Cox designs miniture knits for doll house dolls, and has many cute patterns for tiny sized BJD. These really are the tiniest sweaters I have seen. She also has kits and a book.
Leeke World I buy shoes for my BJD here also, I the MSD selection fits my Soul Kids.
Dollmore Here is another Asian site for BJD accessories. I have purchased shoes and wigs here. Good service.
This is the place to buy tiny zippers to use in some of my doll dresses, the zippers are not only short, but the teeth and pulls are extra small. They come in 4 and 7 inch, plus they have mini separating zippers for your hoodies or parkas. They also have a great selection of tiny buttons in 2 hole and shank. They offer great service and fast delivery.
Did you wonder where I get all the really mini buckles from? Well here is my source. They make the smallest metal buckles and matching leather strips I have seen. These are perfect for the smallest dolls. I use them for belts, bags and trim on jackets. I am sure you will love their products.
I am just crazy about my Asian ball jointed dolls, but being new to these I didn’t know that there were so many body shapes even within the same doll line and size doll. Companies keep improving the bodies and the same doll may have two or three different body types. On this note, I have added the fit doll I used and her measurements to the page, I will also try and include pictures of the other dolls the clothing fits. I have included the measurements of the doll the garments were fitted on.
I just wanted to say that I fit my sample garments for Tyler on the basic doll, which if you didn’t realize has longer arms than the bendy wrist dolls. You will need to shorten the sleeves 1/4" if you want a perfect fit. Also note that the 14" Patsy has one arm that is longer than the other. On Patsy patterns I will have two sleeves to accommodate the difference.
I have had some requests for the impossible, a good looking pant that Tyler can also sit in. I wish I could find a way to do this. I like posing my dolls sitting too. They look so realistic, and it is fun to find little furniture for them, but alas there is no way to have slim fit pants and let them sit, without the pants looking awful when they are standing. For those of you want to pose your dolls sitting, I suggest you look at the patterns I have with a baggy leg as these will allow your girls to sit.
I would also like to mention the equipment I use in my studio. I have several sergers, which I keep set up to do different operations. One is set to roll hem only, the other does the small serge and one other is set to do small coverstitch hemming. All other sewing is done on an industrial single needle machine, with the stitches set to about 10 per inch. I set the stitches larger on some top stitching when I want it to show and use a large stitch when sewing knits.
I do a lot of hand sewing, I find if you want to set a sleeve in the round as you would a large garment, then the only way is to sew it in with a tiny back stitch. I also sew in my zippers by hand, I find I can make a better looking garment this way. When it comes to linings I usually don't line the sleeves on the fashion doll jackets, instead I use fusible to put the hem in the sleeve (so the dolls hands don’t get caught), then finish sewing the sleeve up. For larger dolls I do line the sleeves on jackets because it allows the hand to go through the sleeve easily. I also use fray check to make sure the fabric doesn’t fray on small doll garments.I haven’t found a way to serge the crotch of small pants so fray check is used here. This is really important when trimming back seams. This method makes the crotch and sleeves less bulky, which I find the most important thing when making small clothing. To get the most realistic look use soft lightweight fabrics with patterns and prints scaled to your doll.
After listening to you for a couple years now, I decided to add to my sewing tips. Be warned this is a long page, but I have tried to cover a lot questions I have been asked.
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