Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Disney Little Mermaid Princess Outfit for 18" Dolls - Simplicity 5705

As my regular visitors have already surmised...I have a lot of doll loving little girls in my life at the moment (3 Granddaughters and 2 nieces)!
So, you won't be surprised to see that I've made another doll outfit.


I tend to be a pattern hoarder and have purchased almost every American Girl (18" Doll) Pattern out there, so about a year ago, I showed a good sampling of these patterns to my sweet little ones and they all picked out an outfit that they wanted, so I had to get busy!

This is the second outfit of that bunch, you may have seen my first one, this pajama ensemble that I made for my niece "K".

Her Sister "H" picked out the Disney Princess Little Mermaid Dress from this adorable Simplicity Pattern:


I was a little worried, as I am still somewhat of a novice sewer and wasn't sure I could handle the fabrics that are required for this project, but it's the one that sweet "H" wanted, so I was going to give it my best shot!

I did have some problems with the purple fabric used in the bodice.
It was called "Confetti Dot, Purple" and contained nylon filament and metallics.


I kept getting the fabric stuck in the hole of the throat plate and tore up several pieces of fabric before I realized that I needed not only to change the needle (fine needle 60-70) but needed a different or "special" throat/presser plate made for sewing such delicate materials on a small scale (doll clothes).

I did not come to this realization on my own however...as much as I'd like to claim credit...lol!

After total frustration, I did a lot of "googling" to try and find a solution to my problem.

I finally found a somewhat obscure site that solved my problem: http://www.sew-fashion-doll-clothes.com/sewingmachines.html .

There was some great advice on this site and best of all it addressed my specific issue with the delicate fabric and presser plate.

The only problem was...Singer (the mfr. of my machine) does not make a straight stitch plate for my model, so I was still in a bit of a pickle...I tried making a makeshift cover made out of card stock per the instructions on the above site, but I just couldn't get it right.


It did work, for a bit, but it definitely wasn't a long term solution.

Fortunately, my good friend "D" has a Janome machine that has a straight stitch plate and she let me borrow her machine to finish my project!

I think I will stay away from the delicate fabrics for doll clothes for awhile...at least until I can afford a different machine that accomodates a straight stitch plate!

Overall, I was pretty happy with the finished product!









I was really excited to finally get it to my sweet niece "H" and was so pleased she was happy with it!


Hope you all enjoyed looking at my project and if you'd like more info or have questions you can e-mail me or message me on my facebook page

If you'd like to see more pictures of my project check out my Flickr page.

Thank-you for visiting!

Skip To My LouThis post/project is linked to the following sites/link-up parties:
 sweetcsdesigns.com


Creative Corner Blog Hop

2 comments:

Aunt Mimi said...

I hoard patterns too. I have duplicates too because they change the order of the pictures & I forget what I have purchased.

Kathy said...

I have this pattern too! I really need to sew it. Your dress is lovely!