Sewing Drafting freesewing.org patterns for dolls (guide/tutorial)

A few months ago I stumbled across freesewing.org, which makes free, open-source patterns custom-drafted for your measurements. They’re mostly fairly basic patterns, but as someone who mostly collects dolls with uncommon sizes, I jumped on the opportunity to have some good patterns. I quickly realized that the program doesn’t play well with doll measurements since they’re so much smaller than what it’s designed to handle, so I’d have to improvise. I figured out this method after a little trial and error, and thought others might like to know too!


1. Create a model. Name it after your doll, choose whether your model has breasts are not, and the units you use. This will be your “doll-size” model, which you won’t actually be using to draft any patterns. I like to make a model vs just noting the measurements so that they’re all in one place that I can easily refer to later.


2. Take all required measurements and input them into the model. Ignore the “estimate” column, since those equations go crazy when you put in doll-size measurements. No matter what that column says, it’ll be fine.

3. Calculate how much you need to scale up your doll’s measurements to make them “human-sized.” This may require some trial and error to get right, but here’s how to do it:

3a. Find a standard measurement chart (like from McCall’s or Simplicity) to use as reference. Determine where on the chart your doll will probably fall — ie, if they’re a thin female doll, you know her size will be on the lower side, and if they’re a bulky male doll, you know they’ll probably be on the higher side. You don’t have to be exact, just need a general range.

3b. Take your doll’s chest, waist, and hip measurements and multiply them by a number so that the measurements fall into the range you figured out in the previous step. For my 1/4 scale realistic dolls, I use 4.5, since neither 4 nor 5 worked (one made the measurements too small, and the other made the patterns look out-of-scale). Good news is that you don't need to do this for every doll: all your dolls in that scale/size should be able to use that number too.
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4. Create another model, and note in the name that this is the “scaled-up” version of your doll’s measurements.


5. Take your doll’s original measurements, multiply them by the number you found in step 3b, and input these into the new model. This will be the model you use to draft patterns.


6. When drafting patterns, remove all seam allowances so you can add them back after the patterns have been scaled-down again. I also increase the margins between pieces so it’s easier for me to cut out (the default margin is 5/64”, and I bump it up to 1/2” since once I scale the pattern back down for printing the margins will be closer to 1/8”).


7. Download the PDF under the “Export for editing” header when you’re done, since it will keep it as a whole pattern (vs divided up for printing).


8. Divide 100 by the number you found in step 3b. (For me, 100 / 4.5 = 22.) That’s the scale you’ll want to print your patterns at. Either import the PDF into your editing software and scale it down there, or scale it down through your system’s print menu.

8a. Note that especially for the longer patterns like the pants and coat, pieces may get cut off when you try to print. If that happens, open the PDF in your image editing software and scale it down to the appropriate size. Create a new image the size of your printing paper, and copy-and-paste the pattern pieces onto that image until they all fit.​

Go forth and make custom patterns! I hope this is a useful guide, and if anything is unclear please let me know!

 

Thanks ! And my math isn't fantastic either, but percentages and scaling are some of the few things I'm pretty good at, haha