One day last week, Bethy made an impassioned plea for clothes for Baby Doll. How do you turn down a four-year-old with tears in her eyes? Of course, the books of dolls dress patterns that I owned eons ago is not in the library anywhere, so I had to wing it (every day that I need something I no longer have makes me more reluctant to clean out things I think I don't need; bad logic). After some struggle (of course, the little pajama crawler the doll wore was made of knit and would not adapt to cotton prints), I came up with a muslin pattern, and from that could begin to put together the pieces. My vision and the resulting garment were two entirely different things, but when you are sewing for another and they don't share your vision, you aren't obliged to "tell all," are you? The feet gave me a problem, but after two false starts, I remembered how effective tucks could be, and the feet magically appeared when I turned the garment.
The body of the "Thingee" is made from a lavender print fabric from a quilting binge about 25 years ago. The sleeves are from scraps of a soft cotton Mother used to make a pair of pajamas. My mom was remarkable-- until she died, at 81, a store-bought item of clothing was a still treat. Had she been born a generation later, she would have been a fashion designer. We used to whine, if you can imagine, because we didn't have dresses from the Sears Roebuck catalogue like other little girls in our classes at school! Ours were unique, one-of-a-king designs she adapted from several patterns and her ingenuity. What ungrateful little imps the three of us were!
So, this is my first attempt at dressing a little doll since I made Barbie Doll outfits for nieces Jenny and Lisa in the 1980s. Naturally, it doesn't stop here. I have yet to figure out how to make bloomers with lace ruffles and a matching dress (and I thought making an outfit with feet in it was trouble!). Am thinking seriously about teaching Bethy how to sew.
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