Today’s girl wants to dress her doll in clothes she might wear herself… or dream of wearing if money were no object. So, we’ll look at what girls are wearing now and talk about the new fashion trends. Then, we’ll translate these popular trends into doll clothes patterns, so you can create the latest styles of clothing and accessories for your dolls.

The doll clothes patterns on this blog are sized to fit many 18-inch dolls, …like American Girl dolls, Madame Alexander Girlz, the Springfield Collection and Gotz dolls.
You’ll enjoy learning about fashion design and working with fabrics and colors to sew totally coordinated outfits for your dolls. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old. Whether you’re a girl, a mother or a grandmother, you’ll learn to think like a fashion designer and be sewing doll clothes in no time flat.

You can create outfits for your doll that are fashionable, unique and original. But, they’ll be much less expensive than “store bought’ doll clothes. Our blog posts will talk about money-saving ideas and offer shopping tips. We’ll suggest places you can go to find ‘overlooked treasures’ that can be recycled into one-of-a-kind doll clothes. We’ll introduce pictures and instructions for making great doll accessories… like jewelry, shoes, handbags and hats. As everyone knows, girls and dolls love accessories!

So, remember to come back often. We’ll be adding more drawings and photos to give you ideas for making complete outfits for your dolls in the most current styles, colors and fabrics. You’ll get lots of free information here, and occasionally even some free doll clothes patterns.

You can get started making some basic fashion items by using the doll clothes patterns in Joan Hinds’ book shown on this page, Sew the Contemporary Wardrobe for 18-Inch Dolls. There are a few garments every doll should have in her closet. Start your doll’s casual wardrobe with a basic Hooded Sweatshirt (book: page 40) and a Cap-Sleeve T-Shirt (book: page 38.)

Remember that clothes for your 18-inch dolls are much smaller than human clothes. Select fabrics for your doll clothes patterns that are thinner or softer than the fabrics used for ‘human’ sized clothes, so they’ll drape well and look realistic. Natural fibers, like lightweight cotton knit and silk, hang better than stiff polyester and acrylic. If you select printed fabrics, think about scale. To look realistic, a small doll shirt requires fabric with a very small pattern or narrow stripe.

Thanks for visiting the doll clothes patterns blog. If you love fashion and love dolls, you belong here. We want to meet you. Please post a comment, introduce yourself and let us know what you think.

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