Wearables Sewing Project: Comfy-wear/Sleepwear/Delicate Underpinnings [ Round 146 ]

I'm in! I'd like to make Amadis (Thel by Bardo Research) some comfy clothes that can be mixed and matched into several looks. Here are a couple sets of materials:
Comfy spring - materials by helgie, on Flickr
Style will be active leasure (sports bra, stretchy shirt and shortened leggings), lounging tops (light cardigan, haori-style robe) and various wide trousers (I hope), with some Japanese/Asian vibes. And springtime colors and patterns.
I'm starting with the pink/green set and will be making a sports bra out of the pink knitted cotton, "samurai" trousers out of white "patchwork" cotton with poppy pattern in dark green and a cardigan out of the light green synthetic material.

 

I set up to do last round, got my patterns...and promptly forgot. However, half of what I intended to make last round works for this round, so here's hoping Trym finally gets at least her undergarments.

Spoiler: My nekky girl spoilered; same photo because I'm not where I can take a new one right now.

So! I'll be using the Littlefee bloomers and fantasy overdress torso patters from Ithilear, tweaked to fit her POPO 30cm body, to make underthings for my girl. I have done practically zero research on what would be period-appropriate, but these should approximate underwear and a binder well enough for a medieval high fantasy setting, right?

 

Hmmm... Last time I participated in this round I did a bunch of ruffled and tucked petticoats... perhaps, if i get aroou d tyo starti ng this time, it'll have to be long drawers.

Teddy

 

I sit there to see the projects. ^^ Can't wait. =)

 

I’m feeling better, “finally” and I’d love to try this round with my DZ Nana. She needs clothes and a face up but clothes first most importantly. She’s a msd size.

I’m going to sew something delicate, I’ll be sewing from scratch and my pattern is my imagination. If I have time and complete this ideas in my head I’d love to make a complete comfortable lounging type outfit for her. I don’t have any inspirations or patterns I hope that’s ok.

 

My project from last round (that I forgot about and started a few days before round-end) fits pretty well into this theme too -- it's a slip/lounge dress type of thing -- so I think I'll just migrate it to this theme since it's still unfinished

I'm currently practicing doing a fray-containment seam that I'm planning to use for the dress since the fabric frays if you even just look at it funny.

I found out about a seam called a faux-french seam after some users here suggested an actual french seam. I couldn't really wrap my head around french seams even after looking at tutorials with pictures, but apparently for a faux-french seam you just sew the seam and then fold both seam edges in and sew them together.

 

That's basically a French seam done the hard way.
With an actual French seam you do the sewing-in of the seam edges first, then sew the seam itself.

But whatever works for you (and your annoyingly fray-frone fabric) is all good. I've had some horrible fights with fraying fabric myself over the years.

Have you tried drawing out the shapes of your pieces on the fabric before you cut it, going over the lines with a thin line of fray-check and waiting for it to dry, and THEN cutting them out? That's how I was taught to work on really really tiny dolls clothes many years ago, and there's no reason it shouldn't work for larger dolls too.

Teddy

 

Holiday+cold rainy weather mean that I started sewing yesterday afternoon and just kept at it till bedtime, finishing the sports bra/top and cardigan:
comfy spring - top+cardigan finished by helgie, on Flickr
I even washed out the blue liner and let them dry overnight.
The tucks on the front of the top are made with the sewing machine, the rest by hand. The top was too small, it was just easier to sew by hand, and the sewing machine noped out of making a straight seam on the more stretchy green fabric. I made a paper pattern for the front of the top an free-styled the rest using pins and tacking. The pink material is just stretchy enough that the top can be put on over the head with the faceplate off, so no closure, though I had to use elastic thread to gather the bottom of the back for a closer fit.
I like how the cardigan turned out, the fabric is soft and comfy and drapes well. It is semi-translucent, adding to a lazy summer look.
The panties are the first item I sewed for Amadis upon her arrival last year, made of the same fabric as the top, I guess this can be counted as adding to the underwear set.
Next are trousers.

 

Yay! New project. I'm keeping it more simple this time. Even though Avery already has an outfit waiting for him. I want to do something special for his arrival. He just made it home recently, as you can tell by the state of him in this picture. He came with the boxer briefs so those are fine, but I am thinking some kind of little jogging outfit lounge wear thing for when he is at home with his foster parents. I bought the material yesterday thinking about this, it's good fabric for joggers, although I'm not sure of what kind of pattern I want to make for the outfit. I want to try something new and challenge myself a bit, but not sure what I'm going to do. I also have his wig in the mail right now, he needs a bit more sanding and a faceup, maybe some accessories as well.

This is Avery, he is a Dollmore Kara Klum, on a Youth Adam body.

IMG_9278 by Rabbid Bunnies, on Flickr

 

I'm joining with Amalyssa, a Maskcat Joy who is a bit of a veteran in these threads.
I'm going to work on an outfit that fits in with Ting and Konstantin from the last round and, of course, she needs underwear for that.

I'll post more as soon as I've got something of a plan and materials picked out.

 

Wow the inspiration is amazing, who’s dolls are those? Very colorful!

Looking forward to see what you make this round.

 

I pulled an ADHD hyperfocus last night and got her bloomers done! I may redo them a little tighter in the hips once I've got her binder done, but I really like how the fabric I pulled works with them. I couldn't find my standard white quilting cotton, so I pulled a double gauze cotton muslin and the gauze lays really well in the gathers.

 

Wow! Fast work

Teddy

 

they are amazing, what an amazing inspiration as well! thank you

 

Time for underthings!!

Technically the whole crew needs more underpants in particular, they keep having to play musical briefs based on who's wearing what The nice thing is that underpants are quick to make and I can cajole my brain into hand-sewing 'em while watching things instead of going and working on the sewing machine (for better or worse). I'm gonna be watching a virtual conference at the end of the month, too, so that'll be plenty of time to hand-sew. Or maybe knit more socks, too.

The project I want to tackle first, though, is making Chandra (MDR Fang) some underwear. Nobody in the SD size range has any underwear, but I want to make her a pair that's both lacy and feminine without being see-through. I'm starting to think I'll need to dig through my stash and see if there's any more stretch lace hidden in there that I can use as a trim on more standard knit fabric - the one I know I have is wide enough that when you sew a repeat together, it works as slim MSD underwear!

 

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's projects!

I decided what I'm going to do! Big loose baggy overalls with lots of pockets and a t-shirt to go underneath with more pockets, also I tossed in some long boy shorts to go with the t-shirt, so it can be changed up a bit. A pair of socks as well, because socks are comfy.

It took my about a day to draft this pattern. The first attempt would have fit a human toddler. He has a chest/hip circumference of 24cm, and ¼ of that for the four segments of the garment would be 6cm, of course I want it baggy, so I went for 10cm and if it's too much I can take it in. But, the first pattern for some reason I only cut it the 24cm half to 12cm then made that baggy to 15cm across all so that would have been for a 60cm circumference. I'm an idiot, it's a doll not a toddler. I'm still laughing at myself over this one.

Anyway, I put the pattern up to Avery, and it seems to fit him well, at least length wise. It also feels like the right amount of baggy to me, but I won't know until I start sewing. At least taking something in is easier then letting it out. So, I'll see how this goes.

IMG_9279 by Rabbid Bunnies, on Flickr

 

Welcome to my AHDH... It's still day three in my time zone and I'm done with the goal I set already



So! Stretch goal: Should I remake her stuff to try to make it a bit better, or should I pick a second doll and make them something? Or should I just luxuriate in my first ever finishing a project during the month?

 

This is adorable!! I love how soft the material looks! Awesome work finishing so quickly! If you feel up to it, sure make something else. If not just enjoy the finished product and how cute she looks in it!

 

@dm_sof Oh, that's some fast progress. Loosely woven fabrics are a life saver when sewing small, aren't they? Considering how early we are in the month, you could easily relax for a bit, just feeling pleased about your project and then still have time to change your mind and make something more later if you feel like it.

My project for this month is the continuation of the project I have been working of in previous rounds.

Spoiler: Recap.

I'm going for historically inspired with a lot of room for anacronism and personal preference. The era of inspiration is super loosely 1600-1900 and the area is southern rural Sweden. It's a place and time when fashion certainly moved and trends could be super local, but where some older things clung on for way longer than you'd see in the cities and during most of that era, very few major shifts in fashion happened.

Here is Amalyssa in an vaguely similar outfit to those of Ting and Konstantin. The skirt is her own, but Tings old cast off bodice does not fit her very well.
It's funny, really. Their measurements are very similar, but their shape is very different, so fitted things can't really be shared.


So, if this was real life, this is the list of underthings and "white clothes" she'd need:
*Shift
*Blouse
*Collar
*Drawers
*Petticoats
*Under apron (yes, those were a thing here)
*Pockets
*More socks, because Ting has stolen some of hers.

In dolly land, scaled roughly 1:6 however, I am probably going to have to omit some layers.
For Ting I opted to make a shift that could double as blouse and petticoat as well and it does work, but I kind of love layers, so I'll see if I can't find a way to fit more under there.
Another thing I will do differently for Amalyssa is pockets. For Ting I just decided it was too much trouble and didn't make any slits in her skirt and now I regret it, so for Amalyssa's skirt I did make slits and so of course I need to make pockets to go under them. Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious, we are talking about separate pocket bags worn under the skirt, not sewn in pockets.

So a more realistic list looks something like this:
*Long sleeve shift that also does the job of the blouse.
*Petticoats
*Pockets
*Socks
*Maybe drawers
*Maybe an under apron

Here are some materials that may be good candidates:

I have a few different thin white fabrics that I think is going to work just fine.
For the shift I intend to use the printed cotton. I shoved a paper bag behind it at the lower left so that you can see the print. It's quite subtle and I hope it will give the vibe of white work embroidery.
The laces pictured are fine enough, but as you can see, non of them are white, so that is where I either have to play the fantasy card or find some workaround. I may have some small scraps that can be used for collars and similar, at least, but I'll have to check.

Not part of this round, but I am also working on lasts so that I can make shoes for the girls. They have such tiny feet, it's going to be quite a challenge.

This is going to be fun!

 

I haven't thought of this but it sounds like a good idea, I might try it!

 

Pieces for the shift starched, cut and fraychecked.


I have finished all the major seams and everything that can be done on the machine, left to do is cuffs and closures. And wash out the starch, of course. The fabric I use for the lower part is incredibly floppy. Great for the drape of the finished garment but a pain to sew. Luckily it takes starch quite well. At it's current stage it has the approximate stiffness of printer paper.

 

Well done! And they're so cute!!

Which would bring you the most joy...?

Yay! Good luck getting through it all!

Teddy

 

The shift is finished!


One down, lots to go.

 

I love this so much, your doll looks so adorable, you do such a nice job sewing for her! ❤️

Wow that was fast lol, those are so adorable! Perfect!

I can’t wait to see these, I’m a huge fan of baggy overalls for myself and my dolls.

What perfection for her, that’s so cute!

My favorite to use for small doll clothes is starch! Almost thought that was paper you posted as it made it so perfectly flat! Very nice!

That’s very lovely on her, I’ve not started yet, I face planted two Saturdays ago and it caught up and now it’s hard to sit and I’m in severe pain. Aging is not fun but was when I was a teen! LoL

I always look forward to seeing your projects come together.

 

@PoeticSoul Thanks! The puffy sleeves is an artifact from how the clothes historically were cut, utilizing the full width of the fabric. Home woven linen usually have a width around 55-65cm because of ergonomics when sitting at a loom. Half of that is not quite enough for a sleeve to fit comfortably on most adults (unless you do some very cleaver piecing, witch of course also happened sometimes) and so the full width was often used, utilizing the selvages to save from having to finish the seam allowances.

In this case, a finer fabric would often be used for the upper part and the bodice and sleeves are cut in one piece, again wasting very little as almost nothing is cut away. The lower part could be made from a much coarser fabric, because under the bodice, it will never show.

You can see a similar artifact in how the shirt and shift for Konstantin and Ting is cut. This mimics a style where the full width was used for the bodice of the garment. Instead of cutting away a lot of fabric to form the curved and fitted arm holes we are used to today, the excess fabric it was allowed to remain, creating a dropped shoulder seam. The sleeve is the gathered to that, giving the very characteristic shape.

Uhm, sorry for the infodump... Let sleeping nerds lie, I guess.

@mydaffer Oh, yes! Starch and fray check are amazing. It's not right for every project, but when it works it makes all the difference!

I have finished a petticoat.


I chickened out and didn't use any of the lovely lace. I am the first to get behind the advice to "use the good stuff" but I couldn't quite figure out a good design for it, so I defaulted to sewn details instead.
So, some pin tucks and a scalloped hem later, this is what I've got.
To be fair, this is probably more in line with what her character would actually own, rather than what she would like to own. But I think there may still be room for a bit of lace in her wardrobe in the future.

 

Ooooh! I like that scalloped hem.

Teddy

 

@Lillith what a really nice petticoat. Love the pin tucks, do you mind I ask how you made them, I love sewing pin tucks, curious if I actually make them properly.

 

Not @Lillith , obviously, but jumping in to answer this one...

Basically you fold the fabric along the line where you want the fold of the tuck to be (pressig n the fold in place can help), and sew the folded piece together a set distance from the folded edge.

I use a "stitch-in-the-ditch" foot on my sewing machine to keep the stitching an even distance from the edge all the way around, but beofre I got one, I would just try my best to keep the stitch line even. For deeper tucks, I ise a seam guide or a piece of masking tape on my sewing machine bed to give m e a lin e to follow with the folded edgw t o keep the stich line even. If I want quarter-inch tucks I use the quarter-inch foot that quilters u se to get even seam-allowa nces on their patchwork piecing.

If you're hand sewing and are worried about keeping your stitch line even , you could craw it on with tailor's chalk, pencil, or an erasable pen.

Teddy

 

@Teddy thank you so much. I looked up on YouTube stitch in a ditch and that’s clever, I love the quarter inch foot is ideal I may have one I need to look, I looked that up on YouTube as well. The tape is also very clever. I really appreciate the information, I obviously was not making them correctly. I used a double needle years ago when I made them, lol what are these called?

 

@PoeticSoul and @Teddy Thank you both. I love this kind of sewn detail. It adds enough interest without really costing me anything but time.

@mydaffer Pretty much what Teddy said. Mark, fold, press if necessary, sew an even distance from the fold.
The only thing I will add is that when making tucks this small, it's a good idea to watch the spacing. If the last tuck made ends up right at the edge of the presser foot it can be used as an extra guide when making the next one. It you want to space closer than that, it may be worth trying another presser foot. There are feet that are specially made for this that have a number of grooves in the under side to help with this (I own one, but didn't use it this time, just a regular standard foot for thin fabrics). Some machines may have trouble feeding evenly when the presser foot is walking on top of a previous tuck, so a bit of experimentation may be needed.

The method described above gives a very sharp tuck and can only be made in a straight line.
The twin needle method gives a softer result. Depending on you bobbin thread tension it can be anything from a fully folded tuck to just a raised soft ridge. You can even use a cord on the wrong side of the fabric to get even more dimension. The only word I've learned for it is "bisé" or "bisen", but I suspect that is a bastardization of some french term and I have no idea if that helps. I don't know what it's called in english.
The advantages of the twin needle method is that you have control over how far you want the tuck to close and the fact that you can make curved tucks if you want to. The downside is that it can be tricky to get all the settings right and the fact that twin needles are fragile and expensive.

 

@Lillith Great information from you and @Teddy I appreciate it because I absolutely love making dresses with pin tucks and I used to make them a lot for my dolls but since getting back into sewing and following this thread I’m following a theme more then doing random dresses.

Also, I even used fray check on a dress I did the double needle pin tucks and tea / coffee dyed the dress, the fray checked areas got dark and added an old antique dress feel to it, lesson learned but I left it that way lol. It’s all fun for me.

 

Yeah, if you're using fray check in a place where it might show on the outside, then dye the fabric before you start.

Teddy

 

I've been working on it for the past few days. I had to modify the original pattern of the overalls that I made. The shoulder straps were too long as were the pant legs, and I had to take the back in a bit, and also adjust the crotch area.

I really like the way the clothing came out. It looks much better in life then in pictures, but I tried to get some okay pictures of it. I wanted to get his new socks an t-shirt that I just made in the picture as well. So, I did that under the cut. He is just so cuddly I want to keep squishing him. I never saw BJD's as particularly cuddlesome but this outfit makes all of him soft and fluffy.

IMG_9305 by Rabbid Bunnies, on Flickr

Spoiler: Just a couple more pictures of Avery.

IMG_9304 by Rabbid Bunnies, on Flickr

IMG_9306 by Rabbid Bunnies, on Flickr

 

@RabbidBunnies Oh, nice! That does look super comfortable.

 

@RabbidBunnies those do make him look so cuddly, I’d wear them myself, very nice work on them and the material is perfect. Very unique! ❤️ The socks look great with the overalls.

 

It's so soft too! He's super cuddly in the outfit!

Thank you!! It would be comfortable to hang out around the house in! The material is very soft.

 

I made a plastic wrap of my dolls torso because she’s a skinny msd not like the chunky Volks or Dimdolls I’m used to sewing for and cut out a pattern for her, I added seam allowance and sewed it all together. I was just wanting to see if it would fit. It did fit quite nicely but I really messed up (as usual oops) I used a straight stitch on knit and it didn’t work well at all. All and all I learned the hard way to sew knits.

I’m going to make this out of different material with something over the top of it, I’d like to add short sleeve if I can figure out how to add that to the next top I make, maybe but doubtful, only because she is so small. I think in the future I’m sticking with my bigger dolls to sew for . If I sew for the small ones it may need to be by hand.

This would have been adorable if I would have used the correct stitch but it was a trial so I can’t be to picky.

 

Awwww.....

It does look cute. Shame about the stitch choice but, as you say, it was a trial run.

That's my approach - that nor I save up an commission the smaller stuff from someone who is better at it than I am.

Teddy

 

I think it looks adorable! Small dolls can be difficult to sew for. My ⅛ and ⅒ dolls only have about two outfits each that I made for them. They can also sometimes wear Chelsea Clothes (Barbie's little sister) and those can be cute on them. But when sewing on a machine I tend to go very slow with tiny clothes!

I'm looking forward to seeing your finished outfit!

 

I whipped this up at the beginning of the month and keep forgetting to post it

Nebula got some new jammies!

I've been planning to make some loungewear for my crew, so we'll see how much I get done. Worst case scenario, there's always the unfinished business round!

 

@kaschan502 looks very fitting for your doll, I really love the pant material, nice work, the top is nice as well!

 

@kaschan502 I love the jammies!! These are so cute!

 

Yeah, I perpetually have more of that than I e ver get around to.... {GRIN!}

They look comfy. Love the colour of the top - one of my favourite shaes of green.

Teddy

 

Put it on a pretty doll and pretend it's a style choice and who would know any different?
The fabric is really cute, too. I wouldn't be surprised if you can find a way to style it so that it works.

That looks great!

 

@Lillith that is a great idea, I’m certain I have a doll it will fit a bit better and stretch out the mistakes. I can add to it to pretty it up a bit for them.

 

Ok I added to the outfit I made mistakes on, I think it’s cute and my doll after wearing the same white dress I made her 10 plus years or so ago, is happy for sure.

 

@mydaffer Sweet! She totally owns it. And it looks very comfy too.

 

Thank you, I actually like it a lot. Now I’m looking at it thinking it needs large side pockets and I already made a head scarf for her to wear. I probably won’t sew the pockets but I think it would add to the charm.

Now I need to try to sew (again) for the Dollzone msd that is more like a very small yosd with long arms and legs.

 

This is so cute!! I love the drop waist shorts part of the outfit. The toy unicorn is adorable!!

 

@RabbidBunnies thank you so much, its not exactly what I envisioned and not on the doll it intentionally was made for but I’m super happy it was able to be used for a different doll. Thanks to Lillith for the inspiration.

 

Oh even more insights into the loving details ^_^ I love the creation
Thanks for sharing

 

@JL_The_Lion thank you very much, I appreciate the feedback so much! ❤️

It was a cute mistake that’s how I sew pretty much.