I've a mountain of patterns amassed somehow (she said disingenuously) so I need to get on.

To celebrate the better bank holiday weather, we've branched out to swimwear. It's the free Liberty Jane pattern downloaded from Pixie Faire. Designed for American Girl dolls it's not a bad fit for my Our Generation doll. There's a tiny fold just above the back leg binding but I'm in two minds whether it's worth reducing the length a smidge. I suspect not, it'll likely only create another further up the body. The large plastic rings where the legs go into the body create a hurdle for the lycra to stretch over one way or another.


The original pattern uses 7/8" fold-over elastic for all the binding – I've never used it but I've heard enough things in dance wear circles to put me off buying it (some can be a bit rough or stiff, does sew particularly nicely etc) and my stingy ways reinforce that saying, "why bother when you've lots of lycra to snip off binding strips?" That's a really good argument if I forget about the extra fiddle of sewing it so I went with it - 1" lengthwise strip with a bit more limited stretch to hold it in place better.

I had intended to draft the patterns for dolls clothes - has to be easier, doesn't it? Well, yes in principle but I don't have the scale of ease so was rather disappointed with the results. Adjusting by 2 or 3mm increments was just too frustrating at this stage. I wanted to get something made!

There's a good variety of free download patterns so I thought I'd give those a go to start me off. I thought I could fit them to my sample doll, make the alterations and use them as a block from which to cut a variety of styles. This was my first, made from an old T-shirt but the original neckband rib wasn't stretchy enough so the neckline was rather puckered and it was generally oversized for this doll.



I'd joined an fb group for 18" dolls clothes making and couldn't resist getting the odd pattern to start me off after seeing the astonishing variety of styles out there...but then there was no going back! The fine blue stripe trousers above were from Simplicity 8576 view E . The dark wine ones below were the first I made from that pattern.



Easy to sew, including the basic fly. The pattern had a fully elasticated waist which seemed odd with a fly opening so I changed it to just elastic in the back waist and much prefer the smooth front look. Should have given them another press before taking the photograph!

This happened trying to preview a new post just now on my tablet and phone (both Android). The preview box was blank with an error message saying my message is empty. When I pressed post it worked without problem though.

Apologies that it's the last day of this sale (31 March in US, probably to 7am on Thursday in UK) but with Butterick's, Kwik Sew and McCalls patterns at £2.19 ($2.99) and Vogue patterns at £4.36 ($5.99) I thought those patient folk who don't mind cutting and pasting would still want to know or those only after baby clothes (or doll's clothes like me).

The link takes you to a search selection for digital  only but you're in the US it's worth looking at the whole pattern offering as there are twice as many printed paper ones to choose from (109 pages rather than 53!).

 

I've got a few patterns now and some suitable cotton stash fabrics (mostly dance fabrics!) but they're very much an uncoordinated mix. Fine for early garments but it won't satisfy me for long so I've been looking online but really don't want to spend too much as gathering never used stash is one of my many failings. I've found several here and there but the postage adds up too so some suggestions would be fab!

I've found several budget polycottons with nice prints and dolly doesn't mind of course but even in the photos you can see the image of the print from the layer below which puts me off.

Does anyone know anything about the courses offered by Domestika?

I was thinking about getting one on bookbinding for my DD who started making hand sewn books last March.

I'd love the advice of you regular buyers of quilting cotton. I'm looking at buying more fqs and half metres in lovely prints for mask making so ideally wanting the better qualities with a good thread count but in sales wherever I can.

I've found some lovely designs in a sale:
-- Dashwood & Dashwood Studio (unsure of the differentiation)
-- Lewis & Irene
-- Makower

How do you rate these names quality-wise?