Sewing YOSD Fantasy/Medieval Dress

My little MYOU Silvia, Rilyë is an elf and needed appropriately elf-y attire. I couldn't find any good patterns for fantasy clothing in about the right size. I really liked the look of Simplicity 9891, but it's (a) the wrong proportions and (b) out of print. So I re-drafted it myself using paper and tape.

I should note that this is for the MYOU 30cm pear-shaped body and I don't own any other YOSD dolls. It's quite fitted for my girl through the torso and falls to about ankle length. Your milage may vary.

Miscellaneous information:

• When I made my version, I discovered that the back pieces are too long and I couldn't be bothered to fix them (level the hem yourself or otherwise cut the extra bit in a smooth arc before hemming).
• Pin the front and side pieces starting from the bottom and the back and side pieces starting from the armpit.
• The little vest/collar piece is very fitted and closes in the back with a hook-and-eye. It's labelled "yoke". I no longer remember why I did this, since it's entirely separate from the dress. My suggestion is to sew the two sides like separate pieces to the lining fabric along all edges except the underarm seams, clip curves, fray-check everything within an inch of its life, turn, and press. Sew the underarm seams then whip stitch the two halves together at the center front/add hook and eye closures to the back.
• There are two sleeve variations: Bell and fitted-with-ruffle. I haven't made up the second and don't know for sure if the ruffle draft works. You may need to re-draft that part if you run into problems.
• All seam allowances are .5cm.
• My doll's belt is just a length of ribbon looped twice around her waist and tied in front.
• Make a mockup of everything before cutting into your nice fabric!!
• I'm not anything resembling a professional seamstress.

The pattern pieces are on A4 sized paper and the grid squares are .5cm x .5cm. If you're an American, be very careful when printing and measure the squares to make sure your printer didn't do anything weird.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.


(Bell sleeve variation)

Get the pattern here (3 pages)

 

Some diagrams to help with the little vest piece (labelled "yoke")



This is designed to fit my doll *very* tightly. It closes with a hook and eye in the back and the back edges don't meet.

If you, like me, use a slippery fabric as the fashion fabric, don't cut the piece out and pin it to the lining! Pin the lining to an uncut rectangle of fashion fabric and cut it after you've sewn the lining down. That way it can't shift or stretch out of shape and generally make a nuisance of itself.

Once you sew the lining to the fashion fabric, clip all seam allowances to be more like .2 - .3cm. The fray check should keep anything from disintegrating on you, and it'll help the collar points be nice and pointy. A perfect point probably isn't possible at this scale, but you can get pretty close.

It helped to totally soak the whole piece in water to make the fabric a little more flexible before turning.

 

Oh boy, been a while since I made this... let's see if this clears anything up!

1. Okay, the "yoke" piece -- it's designed to fit this doll, in particular, very nearly skin tight. It doesn't really need alignment and I didn't name it well: it's more of a vest. It doesn't actually attach to the dress at all, or doesn't need to. Mine does because... I'm an idiot. Sew it like in my little cartoon above.
2. Sew the front and side pieces together first, pinning from the bottom. The front doesn't include the shoulder seams and it's a pain to make it without the front/sides as one piece.
3. Sew the shoulder seams.
4. Sew the top of the sleeve to the bottom of the sleeves, whichever option you prefer. If you're making bell sleeves, save the lining of the bell for later.
5. Sew the sleeves into the armscyes. Use as many pins as you need. Go slow. Maybe do it by hand. This wouldn't be fun to do by machine, I suspect.
6. Sew the side seams and the sleeves in one go. Make sure to pin starting from the sleeves: like I say in my first post, the back piece is actually a bit too long and will need to be corrected when you hem the dress. You may want to cut the dress into a smooth arc and hem at this point; up to you, doesn't really matter.
7. If you're using sleeves with a lining, sew the sleeve lining right sides together along the side seam. Pin it, right sides together, over the sleeve. Sew around the edges then invert it so the lining is on the inside of the sleeve and no seams are visible. Tack it into place (if desired) so the sleeve won't revert when you try to stuff a doll hand through it. If your thread isn't a perfect match or you'd like to avoid visible stitches from the outside of the sleeve, try to only sew through the seam allowances from where you assembled the sleeves in step 4.
8. Try the dress on the doll and pin in the back to figure out where you'll need to sew that back seam to get the dress on/off. I didn't mark it because, as I say, I am an idiot. Sew that part up to wherever you pin. Press that seam open. (The rest, do as you please, but this one matters.)
9. Using the seam you just pressed open as a guide, hem the back slit and neckline. Add closures of your choice. Lacing would look nice, but I used a hook-and-eye.
10. Hem the dress if you haven't already.

The belt is a ribbon, looped around the waist, crossed in back, and then tied over the hips in the prettiest knot I could manage. I think I used 1/4" ribbon, but 3/8" would also look nice. Try both!

 

Oh wow! I’ve only got relatively flat chested girls, so the bustier ones ought to use stretchy fabric with any of my drafts

You did a great job, thanks for sharing!!

If you’re looking for a more adult version, look up/hunt down the original simplicity pattern I referenced. There’s a thread about resizing human patterns around here somewhere. The adult version might be a little more accommodating for someone with curves...