Dolls and Doll-related Items for Sale

Friday, April 4, 2014

J-Doll in Another Stacie Outfit

Still working on a J-Doll pattern! The biggest issue I'm having is with the sleeves. The biggest issue I have is usually always the sleeves. However, I suspect I'm not alone in this judging by the number of seamstresses I see who either make things that don't have sleeves, or make the bodice and the sleeve all one piece. That's not the look for what I want, so my war with sleeves continues.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of my J-Doll Adelheid wearing another Stacie size dress from the When I Read, I Dream series. This one belonged to young Jo March. It's not particularly period correct, but it's a cute dress, and again, it fits Adelheid like a dream. Only the bottom snap will just barely not stay closed.



It was gray and raining when I took these pictures, and just when I sat down at my computer to upload these, the sun came out. Isn't that just the way it works?

10 comments:

  1. That outfit suits Adelheid fine.

    Argh, it's been rainy and/or gray when I have had my camera. So I've neglected my photo-taking duties ;-P

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  2. She looks adorable! :) Hmm, I'm going to have to keep my eye out for these. :)

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  3. Yeah, now that we're heading into spring I think we're going to see a lot of gray/rainy, D7ana.

    Beastsbelle, if you're talking about the Stacie dolls, they don't seem to be very desirable to general collecting population, so you might be able to pick up one or two inexpensively.

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  4. I suspected J-dolls can borrow something from some of Barbie's sisters! I just didn't have any to test. I'm pretty sure the pattern you are working on will be even better. What kind of problem exactly are you having with the sleeves?

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    1. I'm trying to get the sleeve to fit into the armseye in a smooth enough curve that I can sew it on my machine after I baste sleeve and bodice together. Even sewing the sleeve on in two passes (which I normally have to do for those mini sleeves) the sleeve doesn't fit in well enough to make a nice curve. My latest problem is the sleeve head is getting caught in the sewing machine. I kind of went back to the drawing board and re-drafted a little so we'll see how that works. I hope this all made sense!

      In my first J-Doll review from October, I put her in a dress from one of the versions of Skipper, but I'm not sure if every Skipper body is compatible with the J-Doll as far as clothes.

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    2. Oh, I see! I often kick myself in the head for not being able to control a sewing machine, but the truth is that for everything other than hems a sewing machine is more of a nuisance than a help where doll clothes are concerned. I bought a machine-sewn lined MH outfit a year ago and I still have no idea how the lady made it. Everyone who even tries that is already a hero to me! But if everything fails, just sew it by hand - it's so far inside, nobody will know ;)

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    3. You do have a point about using the sewing machine with little clothes. I tell myself sometimes that the doll manufacturers can do it, but they probably have specialized sewing machines. On the other hand, I've made machine sewn doll clothing even for small dolls, so I haven't given up entirely.

      I'll tell you a secret: someday in the not so distant future, I would love to make doll clothes and sell them. Machine sewing would be more useful for stuff I sold. But I also doubt the durability of my hand sewing.

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    4. That's awesome! Of course, nobody wants to buy clothes with crooked hand-stitched seams. I have never heard of anyone using different machines. I know they use miniature irons, but the sewing machines are regular. They also leave generous seam allowances that they trim after sewing everything together. But you should know that already :) Good luck! I can't wait to see the dress.

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  5. I guess when I was thinking of special machines I was thinking of something like this. This is a vintage machine, but still, it would be a lot easier to make something like a doll sleeve, for example, on a machine that didn't have as big of an arm as mine, so the sleeve curved around the arm.

    I tried the larger seam allowance with the sleeves. The problem is the curve is just so darn tight. But I'm making progress, so that's something.

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    1. Now THAT's a nice sewing machine! I thought you were talking about those battery-operated ones that people who've tried them say are a waste of money.

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