Month: September 2022

Every doll needs something the wear. This is a simple and versatile little dress that can be made up very quickly. It’s a great way to get something to put on your doll, it works for many different styles and it even has pockets.

Tutorial: A Very Basic Dress (with pockets)
Fit: Lillim Tiny
Difficulty: Easy

Materials and tools:
Pattern
Thin plain weave cotton (quilters cotton or similar)
Sewing thread matching the fabric
One 2-3mm button
Fray Check
Sewing machine
Pins
Needle for hand sewing
Tailors chalk or some other way to mark the fabric that won’t risk staining the doll
Craft scissors for cutting the paper pattern,
Fabric shears
Something to cut threads and clip allowances with
Measuring tape and/or a ruler
Iron

Preparations
Prewash and iron the fabric.
Download and print out the dress pattern. If you need to find it again later it’s the “Basic dress with pockets” on our pattern page. Set it to print to actual size and measure the ruler on the pattern to make sure it turned out right. The ruler is marked in millimeters.
Cut out the pattern, making sure to cut the printed line away. Prick the markings for the pocket openings.
Read through the tutorial.

Marking and cutting
Place the pattern on the back of the fabric. Draw around the pattern and make marks through the holes. These are seam lines and fold lines, not cutting lines.

Add a suitable seam allowance and hem allowance. In the example 5mm is used all around, but you may need to adjust this depending on your machine and your fabric.
Do a few tests on scraps to make sure that you and your machine are both in agreement on what can be done and what is needed to make things work. These hems are narrow and the pieces are small, some sewing machines may need some workarounds to make things run smoothly. Take the time to work these out beforehand to save yourself a lot of frustration later on and to optimize you chances for a successful project.
Cut the entire piece out. Fray check all the cut edges and allow to dry.

Sewing
All the seams are done with a straight stitch at a length of about 2mm.
Finish the edges of the back opening like this: Fold in your seam allowance and then fold the entire edge in. You will need to clip the seam allowance where the back edge meets the back seam. The folded edge should line up with the center back seam. Sew the edge down.

Hem the neck opening. This is a single fold hem. Clip into the corners of the hem allowance to let the hem fold in nice and flat. Don’t worry; the fray check will keep it from fraying.

Hem the arm holes. This is a single fold hem. Clip as needed to get a smooth curve.

Sew the side seams as the diagram shows:

Start from the arm opening at 1. Follow the seam line, pass by three and aim for 2. Stop with the needle down right at the mark at 2, raise the foot and pivot the piece 180 degree, lower the foot again and aim straight for 3 backtracking over the seam you just made. At 3, again stop with the needle down and pivot so that you aim for 4. At 4 you do the same thing, now aiming at 5. Same thing again to 6, pivot, backtrack and aim for 7; where you finish the seam at the edge of the dress.

Clip into the seam allowance at 6. Press the pocket and upper part of the allowance towards the front and the lower part of the allowance open.

Hem the bottom edge. This is a double fold hem. Keeping it narrow will help navigating the curve of the edge without distorting it.

Fold the garment, right sides together and match up the back seams.
Sew the back seam, pay attention to where the seam meets the back opening. Press open if needed.

Closure
At the top of the back opening, add a button on the left side of the garment and a thread loop on the right side.

And with that the dress is finished!

A word on the use of pins when sewing.
Pins are a great tool for keeping things in place while sewing, but every pin introduces a risk of distortion as well. Therefore, use them sparingly. A good rule of thumb is: As many as you need and not a single one more.

This is a tutorial for how to make a pair of very simple doll shoes. The tutorial assumes an adult crafter with basic crafting experience and does use solvent based glues that requires care and proper ventilation.

Tutorial: Simple Slippers
Fit: Any doll with flat feet (the example uses Lillim Milly)
Difficulty: Easy
Materials and tools
Printer paper
Stiff cardboard
Plain weave cotton fabric (quilters cotton or similar)
Craft foam
Thin ribbon (the ribbon in the example is 14mm wide)
Craft glue for gluing fabric to cardboard.
Contact cement
Craft scissors
Mechanical pencil
Fine permanent marker or ballpoint pen
Optional: acrylic paint and a fine brush (#00 or similar)

Preparations
Test both types of glue on scraps of the intended materials. Specifically, make sure you can glue the fabric to cardboard without the craft glue bleeding through and make sure the contact cement doesn’t have a reaction with the craft foam.
Glue the fabric onto the cardboard using craft glue. Make sure to cover a surface large enough to fit both soles with some margin. This is what will be used for the insoles. Set it aside to dry while making the pattern.

Pattern
To make the pattern, set the doll’s foot down flat on a piece of printer paper. Trace around the foot. Use a mechanical pencil for this and make sure that as little of the lead as possible is exposed, this minimizes the risk of getting any on the doll.
Using the traced line as a guide, draw a sole shape and refine the line.

Cut the pattern out and flip it over, double check that it fits both of the dolls feet and that you like the shape you’ve got.

Insoles
Check that the glue is thoroughly dry, then lay the cardboard fabric side down and trace around the pattern onto the cardboard twice, making sure to flip the pattern the second time.

Cut out both soles.

Uppers
Cut two pieces of the ribbon, both just long enough to reach around the dolls foot.
Hold the insole to the sole of the dolls foot and wrap the ribbon over the foot. Check to see that the ribbon is in the correct position. Hold the ribbon in place while marking where the edges of the ribbons go on the cardboard.

Now it’s time to start assembling the shoe itself. From here on the contact cement will be used. This step requires a little bit of care as it is easy to make a mess. Work in a well ventilated area.
Put some glue between the markings on the outer side of each sole. Do the same on one side of one end of each ribbon piece.

When the glue is dry enough, carefully place the ribbon, using the markings as a guide for both position and angle and press it down.

Place the sole back against the dolls foot and wrap the free end of the ribbon into position. Mark the ribbon where it meets the sole. Note if the ribbon overlaps under the sole, if so; trim off the excess now.

Put glue on the inner side of the sole and the free end of the ribbon, using the markings as guide. Pay attention to where the glue goes; it’s ok if there is some surplus on the cardboard since this will soon be covered by the outsole, but you don’t want too much on the ribbon as that can show on the finished shoe.

When dry, place the ribbon on the sole using the markings as a guide and press down.

Outer sole
Trace around the pattern onto the craft foam twice, making sure to flip the pattern the second time.

Cut the soles out carefully.
Put a layer of glue on both the outsole and the underside of the shoe. Use a pencil or similar to hold the shoe while the glue dries.

Once dry, place the outer sole on the shoe and press them together firmly.

Do the same to the other shoe.

Finishing touches
This step is optional, but it does give a nicer finish to the shoe.
Paint the cut edges on the cardboard with acrylic paint in a color similar to the craft foam, using a thin brush and a steady hand.

Whether you are waiting for the perfect wig to arrive or are still looking for the perfect color or style to fit your doll, a hat wig is a quick and easy solution to tide you over. All it takes is a scrap of fabric and a little bit of yarn. The example does use a sewing machine, but the seams are short enough that even if you do it all by hand it’s still a fairly quick little project.

Tutorial: Hat wig
Fit: Lillim Tiny
Difficulty: Easy

Materials and tools:
Thin jersey fabric.
Acrylic yarn
Sewing thread matching the fabric
Sewing machine equipped with a suitable needle for the fabric
Needle for hand sewing
Tailors chalk or some other way to mark the fabric that won’t risk staining the doll
Scissors
Measuring tape and/or a ruler
Iron
Comb

Preparing the fabric
Cut a piece of jersey 11x7cm with the larger measurement in main direction of stretch.
Using a well sharpened chalk and a light hand, mark the right side of the fabric as follows:
Draw a line 1cm away from the long edge on one side of the fabric.
Along this line, make a mark 1cm in from each end. This is the seam allowance for the back seam.
Mark off a 2cm in the middle of the line. This is where the doll’s face will be.

Preparing the yarn
Wind the yarn around two or three fingers (depending on the desired hair length). Don’t overdo it, 20-30 laps are enough for a doll this size.
Cut through the loops on one side to create a bunch of short lengths.

Sewing
Set the machine to a sig-sag stitch about 2mm long and 3-4mm wide. Do any additional adjustments that are needed for you machine to sew stretchy materials. Refer to the manual if needed and do a test or two on scraps before moving forward.

Start sewing along the line marked on the fabric.
When you reach the first mark, stop with the needle down and raise the presser foot. Grab a piece of yarn and slip it under the foot, making sure it’s all the way up against the needle. Aim to center the piece on the seam line, but don’t worry about perfection, this will be trimmed later.

Add more pieces of yarn and start to slowly sew over it. Add more as you go. Don’t place it too densely; this kind of hair can easily get too bulky. Keep going until you reach the marked off 2cm in the middle (here marked with pins for clarity).

Keep sewing along the line without adding any yarn until the next mark.
Start adding yarn again until you reach the last mark. Trim the threads.

Fold the yarn over the seam, away from the edge of the fabric.
Sew a new seam over the fold. This will lock the hair in place.

Fold in the edge with the hair about 1,5cm towards to the back of the fabric.
Stitch the fold in place like a single fold hem. This is the only seam that will be seen from the outside of the finished hat wig, so make it neat. If you are not happy with the look of a sig-sag, see what else your machine can do. Test it out on scraps before you commit and make sure the seam can stretch.

Start to unravel the yarn.
I find the easiest way to simply grab one piece of the yarn at the time, using something like a dull needle to separate the strands of the yarn.

If you like the crimped look you can move on to combing. If you want to straighten the hair; set you iron to a low temperature and gently iron the hair to get some of the crimped look out. Iron both the front and the back.

Gently comb out the hair. Some loose fibers will come out, that is normal.

To get the hair as smooth as possible you may need to go back and forth a few times, between ironing and combing.

Fold the fabric right sides together, making sure to match up the back edges of the hat carefully. Sew up the back seam with a 1cm allowance. You may want a narrower stitch for this, something like 1-1,5mm.

Thread a needle with double thread and do a running stitch along the top edge.

Pull the thread tight to gather the edge and close the cap. Fasten the thread thoroughly.

Turn the finished hat wig right side out.

Finishing
Put the hat wig on the doll. You will likely need to do some trimming and styling to make it look it’s best.
The hair will tend to be longer in the back since the yarn was cut to equal lengths while the hat is worn lower in the back. The space allowed for the dolls face may be too narrow. Trim a little at the time, you can always trim more, but it’s difficult to fix if you take off too much, so check often to see if you are getting close to where you want to be.
If the hat wants to slip off the dolls head, try wrapping an elastic band around the dolls head before you put the hat on. This provides a little bit of extra friction. All the other common tricks for keeping doll wigs on will work as well, such as wig stoppers and silicone wig caps.

Anyone who has been into BJD for while will be familiar with this situation. After a long wait your doll has finally arrived and she is beautiful… She is also bald and naked.
Maybe you are still waiting for things you have ordered to arrive, maybe the things you bought ahead of time didn’t work out or maybe you have no idea on how to style her yet. Regardless of why, sometimes we just want something to put on our doll right now.
This series is in three parts and will cover how to make a hat with attached hair to serve in place of a wig, a pair of slip on shoes and a basic dress.
These will be posted roughly once a week.

Difficulty.
All three of these tutorials are in the easier end of the crafting spectrum. I will assume you to be an adult and to have some basic crafting experience. Beyond that the tutorials have to live up to at least two of the following three points for me to call them easy.
1. It’s a small project that can be finished in an afternoon.
2. It requires no specialty tools and no special skills.
3. It is made out of materials that are relatively cheap and easy to get.

Personal touches.
I intentionally avoid suggesting much variation in these tutorials to keep them clear and concise. This does not mean that no such variations are possible.
On the contrary, anything from simple things like choosing different colors and patterns to more advanced things where you make your own additions and experiment with different materials and crafting methods is highly encouraged. It’s a great way to add a personal touch to your doll. Creativity and self expression through the medium of dolls are a big part of what the BJD hobby is all about, after all, so have some fun with it!