A dress for Abigail (and some pretty cute bloomers!)

This is Abigail. Abigail is the sweet, special, very first dolly created by The Plush Plum, custom dolls and animal friends for the sweet, special little ones in your life. I fortuitously came in contact with Lani, the owner, after buying some of her destash fabric (gorgeous stuff, too!) on Facebook, and we've been working out a business relationship of sorts for about a month now. All those dollies need clothes - that's where I come in!

Very exciting for me, as I've been planning and plotting (haha) a doll clothing business of sorts for some time. This is a big break for me!

Abigail needed a dress, and Lani had a special request for a denim jumper for her. Since Abigail has no shoulders, I couldn't use typical doll clothing patterns that I would use for 18 inch dolls. Her dress is more of a shift. The fabric that I was given was a bit too narrow, though, so she ended up with an open back...

abigail's doing some funky yoga here

so of course, she needed some little bloomers to go with it! (Those are teeny tiny embroidery scissors, to show you just how small we're talking!)

I drew a little pattern using the skirt that Abigail came to me wearing, and just traced around it a shape that looked a little like a pair of boy shorts. I added on a little piece of that beautiful embroidered ribbon, to match the dress, and the green fabric pulls out the leaves and stems of the flowers on it.

ignore those notes about the elastic. i ended up using WAY different measurements, but you gotta start somewhere!

I attached the trim first, then sewing the pieces right sides together on the sides and middle (where those nice red lines are, thank you, Paint program! I know. I'm such a techie.)

that close up option shows the dust on my walking foot a little too well...

Attaching the elastic was really a labor of love. I used 1/4" elastic on the waistband, and 1/8" - sooo tiny! - on the legs. I folded the hems over once and stitched them down, then stretched and stitched the elastic right over the fold (on the inside, of course) rather than using a casing method. Why? I don't know, laziness probably. But if you can ignore the way the inside looks, I love how it looks on the outside! You get the most perfect little gathers, and such a neat looking waistband - almost like those "paper bag" pants/skirts that are so popular.

ignore my big ol' fingertips in there ;) just gives you a scale of how TINY that elastic is, especially when stretched!

But oh, does it look messy on the inside! When you roll a hem over like that to the inside of the bloomers, it twists and curls, which isn't a problem if you're using elastic and it's going to get all scrunched up anyway. But this method, it's a little more obvious, at least on the inside. If I were making these to sell, I'd definitely reconsider that casing method!

I think Abigail likes them anyway, though. :) They sure look cute on her, peeking out from underneath her little tunic!

wonky stitching courtesy of sewing-while-tired

And of course we have to finish it off with my special twill label, courtesy of Inked Papers etsy shop!

Love them! They're oh-so-tiny labels, to fit perfectly on oh-so-tiny clothes!