Wearables My Sewing Desk 2026

Out with the old, in with the new.
This new year I'd like to start a fresh sewing journal and retire (remove) last year's. I hope you will join me as I continue on my never ending process of expressing myself and reminiscing on what joys I can think of through the sewing of many doll clothes.

We're starting off the year with a hearty collection of dolls who I've mostly had many years, who mostly have enough clothes already to be honest. I would like to keep working on whoever I feel inspired by until each has their pile of things I can look at with contentment and satisfaction.

I have some dolls I feel happy thinking about who do not have their own wardrobes really started yet:

Paloma (LR hachi on Aria doll 14yr d cup body)
Bebe(?) or maybe Mia (I'm not certain what I want to call her) who is Volks f-20 on SQ lab sg53 body

I'm still hobbled by the loss of my gigantic collection of self-made sewing patterns I accidentally left in a move... But I now have a beautiful helpful expanding file folder which means now I can store my progress safely into categories for different dolls like I did before and my pattern drafting mission can take off again!

Another sewing goal for 2026 is simply to get more characters comfy in their intended styles, and looking as much like I imagined as they will allow, because achieving this with my hard work in sewing and making use of what I already have is generally pretty cost effective and encourages my sense of gratitude, something I often have an extra difficult time maintaining.

If you come by to look please feel free to chat with me about your own projects if anything I'm making reminds you of one, or about general fashion ideas and enthusiasm, color combos, themes, and so on. I am kind of awkward and forever lonely... keeping these threads going is one of my only reliable social outlets, so I enjoy that.

Here's to a happy and prosperous 2026, to learning from our mistakes and taking with us some good memories along the way.

 

Thank you both so much
Happy new year @Lillith !
I'll be excited to see what you make this year too @cobaltconduct !

 

Thank you @Valdemagra

I'm having a crabby start to the new year but a dinner of fried chicken, collard greens and black eyed peas was exactly what I needed so I'm ready to talk dresses

Two new dresses for Marina. I'm really excited about them. this is only part cheating because yes I began them on December 30th but I didn't sew snaps on yet so they are officially made in 2026.

Objectives were:
1: draft a new halter top bust
2: make more great sitting down outfits

(My dolls are almost always sitting. I don't blame them, and I have come to accept this.)

So I have two dresses to show and I think I'm happy with this sewing pattern in the end, though I need to do one final dress to make sure I actually know the pattern and am not still messing something up. The first dress was easy and wonderful I was just not 100% happy with the bust fit (tiny gapping near front center instead of a perfect fit along her chest) so I was tweaking that on the second dress when I messed everything up left right and backwards several times (this is why only one dress is the maximum per day to sew). I eventually had to use trim on dress #2 to cover the fact that I wasn't able to do the clean finish like on dress #1. (Gosh I don't know how to describe anything.) The intention is that I can attach the bust to the waist in between layers while attaching the waist inside to waist outside at the upper seam then turn it right side out and everything is beautiful. I did that on dress one but has mutilated dress #2. Anyway I should now have a pattern where that works as long as I'm not sewing too sleepy.

Skirts: I almost never do circle skirts because firstly they must be very precise and I am not precise, ever. I risk disaster if I cut wrong, secondly I seldom have enough fabric, but dress #1 got a circle skirt because I had probably a full 1/2 yard of fabric and it's nice to change things up. It turned out so glamorous and summery. I love it.

I'm happy I used blue.

One moving forward goal is to buy more blue fabrics I like and put them on the dolls.

(Blue is my most hated color. Green, orange and purple are my favorites and they are Marina's favorites which is why she is the best and the only doll I probably ever needed.)

Ok so we'll look at dress #1 first, blue halter with full circle skirt. I just took the quick snapshot. It's ankle length and I just love it.


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I'll post dress two in a following post because I wrote too much.

 

Dress number two was a hilarious fight for my life. But I eventually wrangled it and was determined to just keep on trying until I ideally ended up with something I really liked. I think I did!

So for the skirt I wanted to draft a paneled skirt to mimic that flattering circle skirt silhouette (well, mimic it vs. the gathered skirts I make way too often, but it's really it's own type of skirt). I couldn't be happier with this dress style on the whole and would like to make her another in another fabric with exactly this cut to be certain I've got it down.

The funny part of this dress is the black trim. My partner said to me "I love the trim, it's so elegant...... Wait are those skulls?!"

Yes my dear, yes they are lazer cut Jolly Rogers from Walmart circa 2016 that I have had in my stash this whole time. Nice to use that up!

Anyway, I think I truly adore this pain in the rump dress with its ridiculous skull trim, vintage silhouette and kind of an oddball print. I like Marina in dresses that seem like modern made alt-girl takes on vintage style and this dress is exactly that to me.

I took a few pictures because I was proud. (The necklace is a part of the dress too).


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Thanks for looking!

 

Thank you @Giallo_Gatta yeah, Marina started wearing some rockabilly type things a few years ago. I didn't really expect it because I'm not a big fan of rockabilly myself, (or maybe just the rockabilly scene I experienced at a weird time in my life) even though I like its relatives: punk, goth and vintage. (I also didn't expect it because previously she was always very tropical/casual/vacation wear...) But that's how my dolls are sometimes. I really like opportunities to challenge some of my usual preferences.

 

Thank you @cobaltconduct Yeah, Marina back in the red hair is always easy to flatter. (She was never supposed to have this hair but we make use of what we have and it always looks so beautiful on her so I accept that there will always be many alternate possibilities of Marina) I like to use colors that make me happy and certain blues are doing that for me. I have another blue fabric picked out that I'll probably use on omega and I agree that I really like maybe a bright aqua blue on Paloma. I'd also like to try something darker. With Paloma I've never bought her a wig and not actually planning to yet so I'm just taking her out at times and looking at her complexion with the two cool tone blonde wigs she's using currently and I brainstorm.

@Lillith I really love a fabric print you can get lost in. (In a positive daydreamy way) And I'm still not painting which makes me feel sad, so I like the fabrics that are very painterly too.
I do think you can do so much with mixtures of bold prints and simpler prints, bright solids and confident neutrals. I'm not very strong with outerwear tbh. I realize that I dress all my dolls more for the subtropical climate of my heart, and I'm comfortable with that. But marina has a lot of earrings and the dolls have pounds of other jewelry. So I definitely think about accessories. I think halter tops look good with big earrings.

I liked the heart print a lot because it's kind of weird to me. Weird mixtures of textures, weird colors for hearts. I found it stimulating so I'm glad it became something. And I'm glad for the dress design which is great for prints. (Though wouldn't dress #2 be beautiful in solid satin or velvet?) Thanks for your compliments I really appreciate them!

 

My project journals turn into double post nightmares and I talk so much. I'm sorry!

Anyway I'm probably not supposed to sew today. I need to do laundry and get cat food and Ugh cook people food if I want to have a proper dinner and take a break from sewing because I get a tad extra cranky when I spend too much time absorbed in projects and forget to balance with other stuff...
So I'm not sewing but I have this dress I started new year's day that I will get back to finishing next session. Still pattern drafting though for reasons I don't feel like explaining this draft is not really helpful, but the dress should come out cool and wearable anyway. I have honestly been cutting loose and just throwing random fragments of trim on it until it works which it does now, I love it.

I'm not sure which final embellishment I want on the bodice. Probably the vintage enamel bird buttons (down the front laces?) but the key idea is also really charming so I just thought I'd show both, for educational purposes, and think it over.

This is Flora again... In a very different wig she snatched off someone's head. I've definitely caught myself still feeling sad that she just hasn't ended up being the grail I envisioned now that she's home. I want to keep trying to make her feel right. I really wanted her to seem very core-bjd, very classic, nostalgic to me of other people's old photos from the years I admired her but goodness gracious not generic or uninspired, so still with some kind of my own personal whimsy.

I guess here we're channeling some 00s lolita adjacent dolly fashion and I am really interested in seeing her in the finished look.


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I'm back and will reply to both of you thank you for the nice comments, always. @quilleth like most people I have more than I need and it overwhelms me, but it's satisfying to find the perfect little bits. I would like to plan better so I could sometimes get very cool trim that would not work for as many projects but be perfect for one thing. But I am terrible at creative planning.
@babezoid I love the bird buttons! I haven't finished that dress yet but it's definitely going to be amazing with the birds on it. Hopefully in time for Valentine's now maybe.

Ugh I have had a really really difficult January. Nothing else worth saying about it except I guess, hey, I'm still here afterall.

I got the itch to do some tiny things and so I cracked open the anthro ark (it's a shoebox) and got to work on a new pattern for my coco tribe ruby, Bilbo!

It's important for you to know that I have this love hate thing with strung vs magnetic anthro parts and Bilbo is perfect because he's all strung, ears, tail, no parts to come flying off, but the tail makes pants or other clothes just really annoying to engineer. He does have some clothes already but this pattern came out great and I'm so thrilled because it's cute, fun to make, and it has an opening for the tail!

The little obi or belt just snaps in the back above his tail.


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Lots of good odds and ends went into decorating this one for a whimsical summery feel I think.

Anyway of course I made another one with the successful pattern! This one is a bit more serious and masculine. I really love it on him!


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I am at this weird point mentally/emotionally where I am so afraid of disappointment and lacking faith in myself where I feel like every time I've made something I come here and I'm like "so I made something cool out of this weird fabric I already decided I was never going to use for anything!" It's kind of a strange process happening but the good thing is that I am challenging myself in a way I guess I can handle and I tend to be proud of how it turns out.

Anyway, after making these I was curious if they might also fit my Dear mine Picasso classic, Green Bean..and guess what!!

Here's Green Bean nestled on the curio shelf where she lives with the many odd figurines and pottery animals.


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The garment only fits them both because it is loose and because I did not cut straight rectangular panels like you would a kimono, the whole thing flares from shoulder to hem to accomodate for their short animal bodies and movements of sitting etc.

 

Thank you @Follow-the-Wind please don't be ashamed -- I'm unemployed again and so I just spend nearly 12 hrs a day alone at home. Doing all the cooking and cleaning still leaves important downtime. You have been doing other things anyway that look really great!

Thanks @cobaltconduct I do think it's a great remedy for creative boredom to do things like you would usually do them but with a different element, like a kind of weird fabric in different colors or whatever. Everyone should try to sometimes.
Thank you for liking Bilbo's nose! I wish I had two of them so I could paint another faceup on the second one and see how that looks too! Bilbo's animal faceup is one of my favorites and the sculpt is so adorable.
The winter is just a horrible time for me. From the moment clocks change in the fall I feel like I'm on the Odyssey of constantly trying to cheer up or just make it through to the next day. By late January I can't remember a time when it wasn't dark. After February things will start to improve more quickly. I think February is the worst month of the entire year.

 

Thanks so much @quilleth and @Lillith

Feeling so crummy and sad today but I wanted to share this mostly finished blouse because it was only a success through perseverence. I'm relatively glad I stuck with my mission to make one more thing with this really pretty orange fabric which is all used up (or wasted) now because orange is my favorite color and I almost never use it on the dolls. It looks so nice on them. I'd like to do more orange things in the future.


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It was such a struggle, this pattern draft. Its not perfect and I know the dark Secrets of what a toil it was to get it finished but that's ok. Well I say finished but I still need to sew a snap. I'm also in a terrible snap drought and desperately need to get more so I can finish all these things I was working on.

This shirt is modeled by Bebe but I haven't really debuted her as a character yet and am still thinking if maybe I want a different name, maybe Marisol. I hope I'm going to be really happy with her once she finally gets a direction set because I have found myself thinking about her a lot the last months. I just have to find her style by trial and error.

I would like to finish an outfit with Flora's pretty red blouse I started earlier but I'm struggling to decide on exactly the right kind of fabric for a skirt. I went out hunting for fabric on Saturday and that didn't go very well unfortunately. I'll start ordering some things I like on Etsy soon I guess.

 

@Lillith it's very true! I'm glad I got something from the orange fabric for her at all and if I had given up earlier that wouldn't be the case.

Thank you again @quilleth

And thanks @Valdemagra -- I have spent the majority of my leisure time sewing since about 2012 so... It certainly took a while to get here especially since I refused to ever learn anything with much formal help because I like the figuring it out process. I have better times and worse too. So keep sewing because it's fun!! Year after year you'll remember the successes more than failures! (That's why we throw away the failures )

I really like this orange top style because it feels like many different things. Fabric influences it; this cheerful bright one lends to a summer top/swimsuit look but the structure of it reminds me of some Corset Story styles. It could definitely turn more gothic or vintage. Such a versatile pattern if I ever wanted to make it again lol.

I made something to go with the orange top yesterday and it's so good I am so pumped but I will not spoil it!! I'll show it later.

Today will be a big sewing snaps on things day! Including the orange outfit and also all this because I sucked it up and made Flora the skirt I was thinking of for a while that might pair with her red top. You can see the current state of those:


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(Man, what if I was just finally brave enough to use my automatic buttonhole function... I am so scared to learn it, arg!!)

Anyway I realized that the nyid and volks sd10 are a very similar waist size so I used my skirt pattern from Marina's last a-line panelled dress to make this one. It's a nice three panels and I even put pockets into the side seams! Used up some great trim too.

I'm so proud of myself for feeling up to these more time consuming and complicated projects lately, that's really a good sign.

I think Flora's outfit would be really nicely finished by a big cozy cardigan and pretty socks. I wonder if I have any possible means to make those happen. I'll have to think about fabric...

 

Alright I'm back and very pleased because I have a whole finished outfit for Flora! And I didn't even buy any new materials!

First of all I decided I was finally brave enough to use a button hole function on my machine. It was.... Not hard at all, but it's also not surprising I was terrified of it all those years because it was just a weird different thing and I didn't understand it. I can use a lot more practice on getting nice looking consistently sized holes but right now I I'm feeling so jazzed about this future of buttons on all kinds of things!

Here's the skirt finished!

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I really love this piece. I am feeling like there might be real potential for a themed capsule wardrobe if I'm starting over for Flora again and this skirt can go with all sorts of different color tops!

So it's 76 degrees today but when I was trying to polish off this outfit over the weekend I was thinking she probably ought to not wear only a tank top in February and I brainstormed what might complete the set from here. I made a doodle:


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And I set off to make that cardigan and socks I had mentioned. I had a heavy weight off white cotton knit shirt I recently thrifted that I figured I could use to make a good open cardigan like those really 90s sewn not knitted granny cardigans from department stores or mail catalogs.

Spoiler: Fashion tangent

Ok this is a definite tangent- I think making dynamic fashion is about challenging your own standards of ugly and asking yourself how can you combine different things in an unexpected way to arrive at something wonderful. I'm a firm believer in fashion about concept and statement and in this case I guess it's about self reflection and challenging myself to reflect on my biases and inject an openness to the unknown or different. There are a lot of late 80s early 90s staples I just find atrocious and I'm thinking about that this year in my doll fashion. Those sweatshirts with cottagey kind of big prints on them like birds and birdhouses and sunflowers and teddy bears. That is not my thing at all. But the last place I was working there were a lot of young people just obsessed with that look. Even when I don't agree I just love witnessing people into things I truly do not like and thinking about why they like them. So here we are, sampling from stuff I dislike and recombining it to see what happens.

So anyway I got the cardigan sewn and very much what I wanted structure wise, and while I did want to keep it versatile to go with other outfits like I figured her skirt could I also thought it could be elevated with some crazy over the top something...

Here's the flat lay of everything done!

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I made the socks too! I actually think they take the whole look right into cringe for me but that's ok I was dying to figure out how to make that kind of sock and I did it. Even if I can't handle her wearing them with this outfit they look good in the picture.

So I opted out of the bird buttons on the blouse after all and put vintage buttons on the cardigan instead along with bows made of that weird ribbon I just had to have and am really proud I've thought of ways to use after all. I have to show you a close up of the buttons before I go because they are just so cool.


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I got them from one of the extremely nice vendors when I was working at the antique mall for $2 and they are too incredible. I'm so glad to use them after they waited so long for someone's project. I'd like to use the other two as working buttons on a doll jacket maybe!

Anyway sorry for talking a lot again. I honestly hope you all enjoy my storytelling! I'm too sick right now to feel like even trying to take pics of Flora in her outfit but she's dressed and looking so cool.

Also happy birthday Flora! I've had her for about a year now since sometime in January so this is a celebration outfit for her.

I'm sure I'll be back again soon with more updates including on the orange outfit for Bebe/Marisol.

 

Thanks so much everyone Flora looks so darn cute in her outfit I hope I might take some outdoor pictures with it... I want to say soon but there is a lot going on right now.

@MayBea although I was always hoping to use the buttons in some kind of project I was very charmed by the written note as well, so I wanted to share it

@babezoid oh yes, never underestimate the power of looking bad on purpose! So bad its good makes a bold statement.

@cobaltconduct I'm glad you like the socks! I definitely wore Bobby socks occasionally as a really small child. But I think they are still cute on anyone who likes them.

@Valdemagra I always say I don't like the 50s but then I make 50s dress cuts and socks so what do I know. I am thrilled to have button-holed! These buttons aren't exactly tiny like you'd imagine doll buttons being. I think they are a pretty common shirt button size. I can handle practicing with ones like this.

Well I've already talked everyone to death and I'm back with morw updates. No, I didn't sew snaps on a single thing yet. I am trying to tell myself maybe this afternoon...

But I did some other things! I added more embellishments to a big funky sweater in 70cm boy size. Previously there was nothing in the center because I just didn't think out my placement well. I added the heart with beads and two sequined flowers:


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I love it so much. I keep wanting to make a list of things im excited about fashion wise for this year and big crazy embellished sweaters is definitely one of them.

In the spirit of modifying what I already have I decided to fit this dress from around 2021/22 to someone in the current collection because it's one of my favorite pieces to look at.

Here's the fit on a customhouse v2 body before altering:


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I removed the cups from the waistband and moved them into a position closer together that suited her shape and size. I took apart the skirt at the back and sewed the whole thing back together again with a smaller band size so that it would fit correctly.

Here it is:

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I'm really excited about this doll who you'll meet in the faceup journal soon enough and this seems like a grand welcome home outfit now. I hope she is very happy.

Alright so back to Bebe (who is also named Marisol because I refuse to choose and sometimes my dolls are just like that) who is apparently a gigantic fan of the color orange, I made her this dress which finally works after 3 tries my goodness I was a tragedy that day!

I really like lettuce edges, but don't have a serger for them. Honestly, I don't mind them at all done this way with a straight stitch on the knit fabric. It will depend on each individual fabric how it works I suppose, but I got what I wanted from the orange one in the end. I'd love to try this more on some pieces for other characters.


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The reason this one was so tricky was because of needing it to fit exactly and relying on the level of stretch of the fabric. Also sewing for the sq lab is often a bit extra weird because her back is just so narrow compared to her chest. Actually she has crazy proportions all around. I didn't take a picture of it but I sewed a fake tag into the back of this dress so I could remember which side was the front, as the upper back of this dress needed to be sewn so much narrower to avoid gapping and slipping.

Here she is wearing it:

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Please don't look at her slightly wonky eyes in this picture! It's terrible! I know now everyone will look but I must call it out before someone else does!