Sewing What are you currently sewing for your BJD Vol 13

That explains why the dress didn't look quite right. I designed and made the prototype for the Franklin Mint version way back, many years ago.

 

WOW! Just WOW! Stunning!

 

Thanks. Now that I'm done his outfit, I can finally make e new Fantasy/Renaissance outfit for one of my tiny dolls...

 

Nami's dress is done, and now I have to make her a short little fur-edged jacket and hat to go over it....

 

You work so fast!

Teddy

 

Nami looks lovely in blue!

I’m actually making a little dress for my Peekaboo Manon from one of your patterns!

I have grown frustrated with wigs being kind of out of scale on her so I’m working on a little coif that I’m going to attach some hair to, I’m also working on that.

 

Here is Lobelia in teal silk. This is just pinned, the challenge is to figure out a foundation that is strong and translucent. I like seeing her legs, and the soft folds of the fabric. Hopefully it will not be necessary to stitch the folds in, but it probably will.

 

Some silk organza should work.

 

She looks so elegant, she needs to join the feast you previously made. I love her sapphire necklace. I enjoy all the details. Do you bead or embroider slippers for them

 

Wow i cannot even imagine the patience that went into matching the already done beading. This is truly fantastic!!

 

@Teddy - Well, it's not like there's much else to do these days, other than housework, and who enjoys that?
@hyssop - Thanks. The dress will belong to another doll once she arrives, but Nami gets to wear it in an upcoming story. Good luck with your dress!
@jhiggi - I do have five pairs of shoes under construction for some bigger dolls, and some of those do have beading. But Nami will just wear some standard commercial black shoes, and boots when she goes out in the snow.
@MarvinRed - Thanks. It's part of the challenge (and fun) of making doll clothes.

I ran into issues with Nami's little coat. It ended up being too small, and way too tight in the sleeves, so I've had to start all over...

 

Maybe Willie would like that beautiful coat.

 

It's way too big for Willie. It would fit a BID with tighter-fitting sleeves underneath, but I'm not going to waste my time finishing it. In fact I'm almost finished the new one, which fits way better.

 

Great, but maybe a long vest without the sleeves? It's a shame to waste your beautiful work!

 

Well, I've always enjoyed ironing, especially shirts... but we've pared it down to only ironing sewing projects these days.

What a shame the jacket was too small after all that work on it! Would it fit one of your smaller or thinner dolls, such as Sage...?

Teddy

 

. It would still fit a BID, just not over the dress I made it to go with, because of the puffs on the sleeves. So I redesigned the patterns with wider sleeves and armhole so it would fit over. I don't know what I'll do with the first one. I don't really feel like finishing it at this point.

 

Perhaps you'll feel like working on it another time - you could add a skirt and turn it into a dress, or a pair of trunk hose and use it as a doublet for a boy...

Teddy

 

I’ve been experimenting with slits in long dresses but am not too sure how it works here:

So happy with the sparkly fabric though

 

I love the sparkle. The dress fits her well, but a slit on such a full skirt that is not full length... well lucky she is a doll and not a human or it would lead to mishaps. It is hard to get it to hang properly in smaller scale. Maybe try sewing a small chain on the hem.

 

@jhiggi thank you so much for the feedback! Indeed thank goodness she doesn’t have to walk around in it sometimes I’m making a pattern and think: “but wait, that’s not practical” and then I remember I’m sewing for dolls hehe.

Having slept on it I agree, I’m actually going to swap the full skirt for a fitted one and see how a slit would work there. I think it’ll be much better. Wish me luck

 

@ittybittykittyz
Personally, I love the slit on that full skirt. It means you can make a bunch of lace underpinnings -skirts, stretchy stockings or capris. I’d jazz a bunch of layers that could be switched out depending on our moods! maybe even have the underskirt split to show off a third layer of lace legs.

 

Good luck, may the sewing gods smile on you.

 

@Frillseeker ooof what a clever idea!!! I love it, that would certainly jazz up the whole outfit! Always looking for excuses to work with lace

And yes! Skirt inception could be a thing haha!

 

Took my little girl with her new jacket for some photos in the snow today....

 

@MB Lilac she’s adorable! I love the setting, wish we’d get snow down in Texas

 

Thanks. I love snow and had wanted to photograph her in it, but was rather disappointed with yesterday's 'snowstorm' when we didn't get much, and most of it melted. So we drove north a bit to where it was a winter wonderland.

 

Adorable!

The only time I like snow is if there is enough of it to stop everything dead in it's tracks and I don't have to go out in it. Otherwise, it's more of a pain in the posterior padding than anything else, especially to commuters.

Teddy

 

I've finally started sewing out of the Dollfie Dream "Hajimete no Maid-fuku" book, I'm making my vinyl girls matching dresses with a focus on tailoring that emphasizes their different body types. I don't like the super large antigrav bust the Dynamite body comes with on its own aesthetic merits, but it's FUN to tailor for!

The Dynamite-size bodice pattern, cut 1 of lining and 1 of fabric. I come from cosplay and like making stuff look exactly like the illustration, so to get the "cartoony" anime bust definition, I added an additional horizontal dart across the center front where the bib hides it. The bib pattern itself was cut and rotated so that it forces the underlying shirt fabric into a concave, and then I stay-stitched the center front.


Look at it holding its own shape!!! You'd have to use cups or a full canvas to get fabric to do this at human size.


The bib will get additional lace embellishment. That's not Haruna's wig, I just threw it on for 30 seconds to admire her lol

 

@ChilmarkGryphon Oh, that's just... I don't even know the word.
Impressive? Hilarious?
In any case, that's some serious shaping. Very well handled.

 

Impressivehilarious sounds about right

Teddy

 

@ChilmarkGryphon I would never say this shape is fun to tailor for, go you! I have the hardest time coming up with clothes for this shape.

Huge boobies are no joke to sew for, congrats on a great start!!!

 

@ChilmarkGryphon IMPRESSIVE tailoring! Well done!

 

Verily, her cups runneth over.

 

@Victoria Victrix LOL. wish I'd said that!
@ittybittykittyz yep, big jabongas are not my favorite to sew for, but i do have a couple of well-endowed girls that are a healthy challenge. Wonder why people go for them? Both of mine were second-hand that I could get immediately. Waiting 4 months when you are hot to create is hard...as we all complained in the waiting rooms.
@ChilmarkGryphon Hoping, hoping to see tutorials by you, especially on pattern cutting. That is such a weak area for me.

Here is Sartoriaj Lobelia, fair and frail. She is so soft and romantic that she has to have that sort of clothing. I'm working on bodice patterns for her. The darts are where they should be and are flattering. This is a Dutch-inspired frock. You have to use old-fashioned language on a dress like this. It's almost finished.

 

Lovely frock for a lovely lady.

 

I like the use of the strip of striped fabric as the skirt trim. Nice touch

Teddy

 

@ChilmarkGryphon Nice tailoring, and no gaping armhole well done!

 

@Frillseeker I really, really like the way you tied everything together with the striped fabric as insets and underskirt.

 

I'm finally picking back up a project I set aside when I moved a couple of years ago! Three of my OCs get to wear this particular robe, so I've been doing all three together to keep them matching, but it's fiddly work and I misplaced my basting thread for a while. I've finally finished off all their sleeve cuffs, though, which means all that's left is to do the collars and hemming.

My only issue is that I'm not sure how to actually do the collar; I'm replicating a full-scale robe that I made ~20 years ago (so I don't have the pattern and my only reference of what I did is to go look at it and piece it back together), and I'm not sure the way I did the collar there is going to work at a smaller scale. I'll have to study it a bit more and play around with some pieces before assembly. (On the upside, the way I altered the cuffs worked better than the original, so hopefully I have the same stroke of luck with the collar!)

Cuffs Complete! by vicemage, on Flickr

 

I've found that (much as I hate hand sewing) the best way to get collars to work (whether on full size or doll-size garments) is to finish the neckline, make the collar as a separate finished piece and ladder-stitch or whip stich the two finished edges together by hand.

Good luck getting it figured out, whatever method you end up using

Teddy

 

Oh good idea @Teddy, I hadn't thought of that one. (Whip it, whip it good, lol.)

 

@Teddy oh I hate it myself, but I'll do it (x 3!) if it's the best way. On the full-size version, I did a collar that folds back, and I want at least a similar look, if not a similar construction... Some hand sewing will be involved in experimenting, to be sure!

 

All the best of luck!

Teddy

 

Finally forced myself back to the work table to hand stitch the trim, and whip on the collars, and sort out the front blouson fit, and hand stitch the sleeves in place. Have I mentioned how much I don't enjoy hand sewing?!?!? I swear there is a curse upon any thread I'm trying to sew with. >///<
But at last Ailionora's dress is finished & pretty much as I'd hoped!


Thanks for all the advice here, the bodice pattern really had me confounded to begin with. In the end I ended up drafting my own, based on the lining pattern I'd made from a sloper I knew fit her. Added length to give it the poof, then cut most of that off as it was too much and the fabric was too robust to drape plus it seemed too excessive. The sleeves in the illustration were much fuller than the sleeves included with the pattern. But that is fine with me as these seem just full enough for her this time.

 

@cthulhu That dress turned out beautiful! Your trims and fabric, in addition to the styling all work together amazing well. Wow that was a real challenge!

 

Props to you! Your dress came out perfect, love the collar and the poofy-ness!

 

I've just enjoyed going thru the last few pages of this thread and catching up on all the projects-- lots of cool stuff happening!
I finally finished the dress that I was making for the October edition of the monthly "Sewing Project" thread-- October got way too busy, and I also underestimated just how long it was going to take me to do all the embroidery! I also ended up having to redo the bodice-- I wasn't happy with the fit on the first try, especially in the sleeves. Overall I was surprised at how much of a challenge it turned out to be, since it looks like a fairly straightforward design when it's all done. I'm just glad to have completed it. Here's the dress on Cassie, my Supia Muriel--

 

My girls are envious, Kathel.

I'm so glad to see you finally managed to finish all that embroidery and get the dress together - well done!

Teddy

 

Love the embroidery! D'you have a close shot of it? Is that blackwork?

@cthulhu - congrats on finishing the dress, it looks great!

 

thedarkstar13, I can totally relate!
And it looks great now that you've finished.
Thanks everyone.

 

@Girrl thank you! It is black embroidery on brown gingham-- when I learned this stitch pattern ages ago it was taught to me as "chickenscratch". I took a quick detail pic--

I finished off the edges of the embroidered sections with French knots; they're kind of hard to see since they're black on brown, but it needed something at the ends.

@Teddy thank you! I'm trying really hard to not add to the pile of unfinished projects these days.

@cthulhu thanks! your dress turned out great, definitely worth pushing through all the difficulties for.

 

It is wonderful to see the latest projects going to completion!
I made a dress for a soft bjd doll and put it on my Amanda so you can see it. It does not fit her but I wanted to thank @MB Lilac for her free patterns posted on her site. This dress pattern is so fun to sew!
Dress made for a soft doll but just wanted to see it on Amanda by Linda, on Flickr

 

Beautifully done - and I really do admire your perseverance in getting it done.

Nice! Lovely to see that you've really gone to town on the combining of colours and patterns too.

I'm a fan of that particular pattern myself, having adapted it to a separate dress and pinafore for one of my girls a few years back

Teddy

 

Beautiful dress! @cthulhu , could you please tell how you finished the hem of the skirt? It almost looks like it's glued up. Is there a hidden seam?

 

Thank you! I had a 5 pack of fat quarters with mini prints that I wanted to use so it worked out with a wild combo. I love how the dress looks like a pinafore with a faux dress underneath when the colors match on the sleeves and lower ruffle.

 

Helgie, I lined the skirt with a very thin cotton, with a very narrow seam along the bottom edge so it would press nice & flat. As a circle skirt, I didn't want the hem stitches to distract. The thin cotton also worked as lining for the collars and waist sash as well. Made it much easier to turn the velveteen right side out as I finished them.

 

Making a simple casual doll outfit for when Lukas arrives in a few months. Just jeans, a sweater, and maybe a couple more T-shirts.

Then, since there's demand, I'll see what sort of fantasy garb ideas I can come up with for Yo-sized boys.

 

Many... maaanyyyy..... beads later, I can finally say - done, time for something new

 

Wow! That's some amazing craftsmanship @Amuk, I can't get over the tininess of the beads :O

 

absolutely AMAZING! I can't get over how phenomenal that looks