BLOG: Dress Up Bunch

Using Cuddle Fleece for Dress Up Bunch Dolls

March 21, 2018

Using Cuddle Fleece for Making Dress Up Bunch Dolls - from Shiny Happy World

I’ve received a couple of emails lately asking if you can use cuddle fleece to make Dress Up Bunch dolls.

Yes you can!

Update – the cuddle fleece I used to carry has been continued. You can find more info here (including a link to a good substitute). You can also use polar fleece. If you go with polar fleece, I STRONGLY recommend getting the no-pill kind.

This is actually a really versatile pattern and I’ve used all kinds of different fabrics for it!

Just to test the fleece I made the Beatrice Bunny you see in that top photo. 🙂

I used camel cuddle fleece and the resulting bunny is super cuddly and soft. The slight stretch of the fleece makes a bunny that’s exceptionally squishy. 🙂

A couple of things I did different with the fleece. . .

Use bigger eyes – the pattern calls for 9 mm safety eyes but I used 12 mm. The slight pile of the cuddle fleece tends to enclose the edges of safety eyes making them look smaller – so going up a size is generally a good idea.
Use thicker thread to embroider the mouth – the pattern calls for embroidery thread but I used thin cotton yarn. The reason is the same as the bigger eyes – I didn’t want the thinner embroidery thread to get lost in the pile of the fleece.
I used an 18 mm pink triangle safety nose. No special reason – I just didn’t even know about the noses when I designed the original doll. I wanted to try it here and I love it!
Be careful not to overstuff your softie! The slight stretch of the cuddle fleece allows you to pack in more stuffing – enough that the clothes will be too tight.

What other fabrics have I used?

I’m glad you asked!

Quilting Cotton

I’ve used quilting cotton for most of the samples. It works just fine.

Mollie - a Dress Up Bunch doll made with woven cotton fabric

I’ve even got a bundle of quilting cottons in people colors that are great for making these dolls.

Flannel

I used flannel to make my Pip the Cat and I love how he turned out!

Be sure to use good quality flannel so your doll doesn’t pill after just a few snuggles.

Stretchy Knit Fabric

Yes – you can use stretchy knits too.

That requires a little special handling – mostly using a stretch needle and being careful not to overstuff your doll so she still fits into her clothes. 🙂 I share all the tips in this post – plus a link to a source for special “doll skin” fabric used for Waldorf dolls.

Faux Fur

Yep – you can use faux fur too!

Here’s Spot the Puppy made in some really spectacular faux fur. I love this guy and named him Rumples.

One caution when using fur – the furrier the fur, the bigger it makes the doll. It might make the regular clothes not fit anymore.

Rumples is stuffed pretty tightly into his Play Clothes.

Rumples - a Dress Up Bunch dog pattern from Shiny Happy World

So there you have it! Lots of great fabric options for making Dress Up Bunch dolls!

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of adorable rag dolls with a wardrobe better than mine! All the dolls can wear all the outfits for terrific play value! Shop the pattern collection here.

Turn a Witch Hat into a Princess Hat – Easy Peasy

September 22, 2016

One of my favorite Dress Up Bunch patterns is this one for a witch costume.

As I was making it, I kept thinking that it could easily be converted to a princess costume – just change to a sparkly princess fabric and make a tiny change to the hat.

Here’s exactly what I mean by “a tiny change to the hat pattern.”

The witch hat is a simple cone with a brim added. For the princess hat (a hennin) you just leave off the brim and add a pretty little fall of fabric to the top.

Take a look at the scraps you have left over after you make the dress. I had a long strip 6 inches wide. From that I cut 3 pieces, each 6 inches wide and 12 inches long. You could use a couple of 12 x 12 squares, or several skinnier strips, or make them longer than my 12 inches, or add some pretty ribbons. Just play around and see what you like the look of.

Grab your fabrics at one corner, bunch them up as small as possible, and sew them into the top of the cone when you sew the hat seam.

See the little bunch sticking out from the top of the cone? The rest of the fabric will be inside the cone (as shown) while it’s inside out.

Make sure you go over that little bunch a couple of times with your stitching. I backstitched over mine a few times. Princess fabric tends to be fragile and you want it to be securely attached. 🙂

Turn the hat right side out and. . .

Pretty!

Mollie approves. 🙂

Get the witch pattern here. It will fit any of the dolls in the Dress Up Bunch.

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of cute and cuddly rag dolls. Get patterns for the dolls, plus all their fun outfits and accessories!

Make Extra Fun Rag Dolls with Faux Fur Hair

April 11, 2016

I usually use wool blend felt for the hair on my Dress Up Bunch dolls. It’s durable, easy to work with, and relatively inexpensive and it has a nice, classic look – even when I use non-traditional hair colors.

But you don’t have to use felt.

If you scroll through some of the photos in the Shiny Happy People group on Facebook you’ll find adorable dolls made with printed cotton fabric hair and cuddly fleece hair – but you can also use fun faux fur!

If you use a regular “hair-colored” fur you can make a doll with pretty realistic hair. If you use a more wild and funky fur (like the one I used) you can make a fun pixie. 🙂

Here are some tips to help you out. . .

Cut out the fur just like you would cut out the felt. Make sure the nap of the fur is running in the correct direction. To minimize flying fur bits, cut just through the fabric backing, as shown in this video – Intraux to Working with Faux Fur.

I stuck the fur piece for the bangs down to the top of the head using a glue stick, then appliqued the bangs edge with a wide and fairly open zigzag stitch.

You can see how to do that applique in this video – How to Applique Faux Fur.

After you get the bangs sewn in place, sew up the doll just like normal. You just need to make sure to smooth the fur into the seams. Here’s what the back of the head looks like – the fur is smoothed down between the back of the head piece and the back of the body piece.

You can see how to do this in the Intraux to Working with Faux Fur video.

Here’s how it looks when you clip the doll front to the doll back.

The fur on both pieces is smoothed between the layers.

Fur can be fat and difficult to pin. These Klip-It clips work really well with it.

And here’s my finished wild-haired pixie. 🙂

A couple more things. . .

I used Poppy’s bangs with this doll and they come down pretty close to her eyes. If you’re using a very long fur you might want to choose a doll with a higher hairline.

I skip the pigtails or the buns when I work with fur. They just don’t work very well with that fabric.

You can read about my favorite source for faux fur here.

If you like these dolls and want to make your own, you can find all the patterns for the Dress Up Bunch dolls and clothes here.

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi

Easy Doll Clothes Patterns – Shirt, Shorts and Skirt – Free!

March 7, 2016

New easy (and free!) doll clothes patterns for the Dress Up Bunch!

I redesigned the Play Clothes pattern for the Dress Up Bunch to get rid of the set-in sleeves and fussy collar facing on the shirt. Yay! The new shirt is so much easier to make!

These are the basic doll clothes patterns that are included with all of the human dolls so I was looking at replacing it in Every Single Doll Pattern – which would take forever. Instead I decided to just make it free for everyone!

Download the pattern pieces here.

Click here to jump to the skirt pattern.

Use 1/4″ for all seam allowances unless otherwise noted.

Doll Shirt Pattern

Step 1

Join the 2 shirt pattern pieces into one and cut it out. Place the shirt and shirt lining fabric right sides together and cut the single shirt pattern piece out of them at the same time. That way the pieces lines up perfectly. 🙂 .

It’s a weird-looking pattern. Here are some quick labels to help you make sense of it.

Please note! This pattern only works with non-directional fabric. Since it’s all one piece, whatever is right side up on the front will be upside down on the back – so choose something that looks good both ways. Those fizzy, swirly polkadots are from the perfectly-named Pop collection from Timeless Treasures, and the shirt lining and shorts are in my favorite Sketch.

Step 2

Sew the main shirt and lining (right sides together) up one front side, around the neck, and down the other side. Clip the curves and corners.

This video has tips for handling tight curves, and also info on the how and why of clipping curves.

Step 3

Turn the shirt right side out.

Carefully smooth out the curve around the neck, poke out the corners, and press. From this point on you’ll treat the two layers of fabric as one.

Step 4

Hem the sleeves. Turn up the raw edge 1/4” and press. Turn it up another 1/4” and press. Stitch the hem in place.

You can hem to the outside, so the contrasting lining shows (like I did) or hem to the inside for a more traditional finish.

Here’s a closer look at one of my sleeve hems.

Here’s a little trick so you don’t have to measure that skinny 1/4 inch. Sew the two layers together 1/4” from the raw edge. Use that stitching line as a guide for turning up the first 1/4.” No measuring! Then turn the second 1/4” and stitch.

Step 5

With the shirt inside out, sew the underarm/side seam.

Start sewing at the armhole so that edge is perfectly lined up and finish at the shirt bottom. Any unevenness there will be hidden once it’s hemmed. Clip the seam allowance in the curve.

Step 6

Turn the shirt right side out and press.

Almost finished!

Step 7

Hem the shirt bottom the same way you did the sleeves in Step 4.

Step 8

Press everything and add three snaps. I like using these pretty colored snaps.

For the youngest doll-owners you might want to use velcro instead. I have special skinny hook & loop tape ideal for doll clothes in the shop. And if you’re extra fancy you can use buttons. 🙂

Finished! But your doll can’t just wear a shirt!

You can find instructions for a super easy doll skirt here.

Doll Shorts Pattern

Step 1

Cut out two shorts pieces. Unlike the shirt – this fabric can be directional. 🙂

Hem the bottom of the two shorts pieces. Turn the raw edge up 1/2″ and press. Turn it up another 1/2″ and press. Stitch the hem in place.

Step 2

Sew the center back seam using 1/4″ seam allowance.

If you want critters with tails to be able to wear the shorts, leave the tail opening (as marked on the pattern piece) unstitched. Make sure to backstitch at the top and bottom of the opening.

Step 3

Press the center back seam open.

If you are leaving a tail opening, stitch a box around the opening to stabilize it.

Step 4

Start to make the casing for the elastic. Turn the raw edge at the top of the shorts down 1/2″. Press. Turn it down another 1/2″. Press.

Don’t sew this yet. It’s just easier to measure and press when it’s one flat piece.

Step 5

Unfold the casing creases you made in Step 4.

Match up the center front edges and sew, using 1/4″ seam allowance.

Step 6

Refold the casing creases and stitch it down almost all the way around the top of the shorts.

Leave a couple of inches open at the center back seam so you can get the elastic in.

Step 7

Cut a 12″ piece of 3/8″ elastic and thread it through the casing. Overlap the ends of the elastic 1 inch and sew them together. Slip the stitched elastic up into the casing and finish sewing the casing closed.

Watch this video for more info on using elastic in a waistband.

Step 8

Sew up the inseam/crotch of the shorts using 1/4″ seam allowance.

Press anything you can get to with the iron. 🙂

Finished!

And here’s a view from the back.

It’s Spot the Puppy wearing these and he likes to have room for his tail to wag. 🙂

So there you have it – three basic doll clothes patterns – all super easy and free. The shirt, skirt and shorts will fit any of the Dress Up Bunch dolls.

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of cute and cuddly rag dolls. Get patterns for the dolls, plus all their fun outfits and accessories!

A Dress Up Bunch Doll Raincoat Pattern

February 15, 2016

There’s a new outfit available for the Dress Up Bunch – a doll raincoat pattern!

It’s still snowing here, but soon it will be rain showers and flowers! Your dolls need to be ready for those rainy days so they can splish splash in puddles!

Of course you don’t just get a raincoat pattern. Let’s look at all the parts. . .

A new dress! It’s a short-sleeved dress with three front snaps and some optional fancy trim around the bottom hem. That butterfly print is perfect for spring!

(All the fabrics you’ll see here are from the Spring Walk collection from Cloud9 Fabrics. I love it! So springtime perfect.)

Here’s a view of the raincoat from the back – with the hood down.

It’s a nice roomy hood – easy to make and easy for little hands to flip up and down over that big Dress Up Bunch head. 🙂

Want a closer look at those adorable boots?

They have a little flap on the front with velcro to make them easier for little hands to put on without any help. Plus the little bugs and caterpillars are so cute. I want boots like these!

You can use laminated cottons for the outer shell of the raincoat and boots – but I really wanted to use these prints so I laminated them myself using Pellon Vinyl Fuse. It’s easy – just follow the directions on the package and then treat it like regular fabric. Just don’t try to iron it! And clips are better than pins because pins will leave permanent tiny holes.

Want a little extra guidance? There’s a post here with a video showing how to make your own laminated fabric.

Are you ready to make a new outfit especially for rainy days?

Get the Rainy Day doll raincoat pattern collection here.

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of cute and cuddly rag dolls. Get patterns for the dolls, plus all their fun outfits and accessories!

Using Stretchy Knit Fabric for a Rag Doll

January 8, 2016

As soon as I wrote this post about sewing softies with stretchy knits, I started getting questions about using knits to make Dress Up Bunch rag dolls. I decided to give it a try and the answer is YES!

With a couple of caveats. 🙂

Everything in the post about stuffed animals applies to rag dolls.

Test your fabric with a universal needle and prepare to switch to a stretch or ballpoint needle if needed.
Do not overstuff.

The Do Not Overstuff rule is especially important for rag dolls. If you stuff them too fat, they won’t be able to fit into the regular Dress Up Bunch clothing patterns!

The knit fabric will change the proportions of your doll a bit – she’ll be a little wider. You can see the difference here between the knit Poppy (purple hair) and the woven Poppy (copper hair).

I was super careful not to overstuff, but you can see that the knit Poppy still has a slightly wider head.

The other thing to keep in mind is that you’ll also want to use a knit fabric for the hair. If you use felt hair with the knit skin, the hair will not stretch but the face will and it will look like her face is bulging out from under her hair. Not cute. 🙁

I used this peat solid from Cloud9 Fabrics for the hair, and a very high quality Waldorf doll skin fabric in tan (from Weir Crafts) for the body.

So you need to be extra careful with the stuffing, but the finished doll is incredibly soft and cuddly in a way that you can only achieve with knit fabric. Give it a try!

Update – I added a new post here showing a Dress Up Bunch doll made with Cuddle Fleece – and it has an overview of all the specialty fabrics I’ve used for these dolls over the years. Go take a look!

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of cute and cuddly rag dolls. Get patterns for the dolls, plus all their fun outfits and accessories!

How to Add an Opening for Dolls with Wagging Tails

December 17, 2015

Most of the Dress Up Bunch dolls are human, but a few of them are critters with tails. And those tails need wagging room! Here’s how to add an opening to any pants or skirt pattern for the Dress Up Bunch dolls.

Cut out all the pieces as normal.

When you come to the part of the pattern where you sew the center back seam, jump in with these steps. . .

Measure down the center back seam 2 inches and mark with a pin.

Measure down 1 3/4 inches from that pin and mark with another pin.

Sew from the top to the first pin with a normal stitch length. Sew the space between the pins with a longer stitch length – the longest you can set on your machine. Switch back to the regular stitch length and sew the rest of the seam.

Make sure you backstitch (with the normal stitch length) a bit at the top and bottom of the section of long stitches. You’re going to cut those big stitches and this will keep the rest of the regular stitches from unraveling.

Press the seam allowance open.

Sew a tiny little rectangle around the section of long stitches to reinforce that opening.

(You’ll want to use matching thread, of course.)

Use a seam ripper to cut the large stitches inside that reinforced rectangle.

And voila! You have an opening for the tail! Continue with the rest of the pattern instructions.

This works for pants and shorts (as shown above) or with a skirt.

If you’re making Pip the Cat, Squeak the Mouse, or Spot the Dog this is a method you can use to adapt any of the clothing patterns to fit their tails. Have fun with it!

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi

Winter Pajamas (and a stuffed penguin) for the Dress Up Bunch

November 13, 2015

Every year my sisters and I were allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve – and it was always a new pair of pajamas. For me the Christmas holiday is forever linked to new pajamas. 🙂

I thought some of you might want to make a pair of new pajamas for your little one’s Dress Up Bunch dolls – but these summery pajamas just wouldn’t do for those of us in the northern hemisphere. So I decided to design a new pair of pajamas. A classic pair of pajamas with nifty (and easy) contrasting cuffs and super simple construction. No set in sleeves!

The adorable penguin fabric I used just screamed for a stuffed penguin friend for Lizzie – so that’s the accessory with this pattern.

Ready to sew some classic pajamas for your dolls? Get the pattern here.

If you want a quilt and pillowcase to go with those new pajamas, patterns for them are included in the Bedtime collection.

If your doll is more of a teddy bear kind of kid, there’s a doll-sized bear pattern here. That penguin pattern won’t go to waste! It’s just the right size for a Christmas tree ornament or gift topper. Just add a hanging loop to the top of the head! 🙂

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi

The Evolution of a Sleeping Bag

April 20, 2015

The sleeping bag I designed for the Dress Up Bunch dolls involved a bit of engineering, so I thought I’d share something about my process here.

My initial thought was to make a sleeping bag almost exactly like a “real” one. The zipper was going to go down the side and across the bottom, so that you could open up the sleeping bag entirely. Here’s my first prototype. . .

And here it is zipped up. . .

Looks pretty good, right?

I loved the look of it – but sewing the zipper around the corner was not fun. Like – really, really unfun.

I try to make my patterns as easy and fun as possible – so I wanted to fix that.

I tried rounding the corner more and more, through a few different tries, but it was still pretty dang hard to wrangle. And it was starting to look ugly and not as sleeping-bag-ish.

Back to the drawing board.

Sewing a zipper around a corner was out, so I tried just a zipper going down the side.

My first attempt at sewing it inside out was kind of a mess because I didn’t use a separating zipper and I needed to sew it in a tube and it was hard to sew from top to bottom that way.

Next I tried a separating zipper so I could sew the two sides separately.

Much, MUCH easier!

I sewed it flat and sewed all the way around (leaving a little opening for turning) and it looked awesome. And then I zipped it up and realized I had made a nicely finished tube. 🙂 The bottom wasn’t closed!

Forehead smack.

I picked the bottom open and realized now I could sew the top and sides without needing any hand-sewing. The whole bottom became the turning opening.

Score!

I folded the sleeping bag closed and sewed up the bottom.

Terrific!

But then I realized it was impossible to zip it up. With the sleeping bag sewn up it was pretty much impossible to start the separating zipper. Just about impossible for me – definitely impossible for any kids trying to work it.

Aaargh.

Oooh – but then I realized that I could zip it closed first and then sew up the bottom. Now the zipper is together and it can’t come apart – a terrific bonus because separating zippers can be tricky for some little kids. I had planned to hand stitch the zipper permanently together as the final construction step, but now that wasn’t necessary!

Done! (Almost.)

I added a couple of elastic loops so it could be rolled up and secured without having to tie anything, and the design is finished!

Sometimes I get a design right on the first prototype, but usually it works like this – a series of attempts and revisions that get closer and closer to the final design – one that looks good AND is easy to make. 🙂

Get the pattern here.

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of cute and cuddly rag dolls. Get patterns for the dolls, plus all their fun outfits and accessories!

Free – Sprinkles Doll Quilt Pattern

October 10, 2014

Sprinkles! A free doll quilt pattern for the Dress Up Bunch at Shiny Happy World

Sprinkles is a doll quilt pattern I designed especially for the rag dolls in The Dress Up Bunch – but it’s also just the right size for American Girl dolls and lots of random teddy bears and stuffed animals.

Look at Bean – all ready for bed in his flannel jammies, cozily tucked in under his brand new quilt.

He’s ready for his bedtime story!

The quilt (and the name) are inspired by a river of hot fudge covered with brightly-colored sprinkles. That’s sure to bring him sweet dreams. 🙂

It’s super easy to make – comes together in just a few hours. You can make it during a naptime or two!

If you’ve never made a quilt before, this is a great one to start with. I designed it to be especially easy! The blocks are easy to cut, they go together without any fussy seam intersections, and the quilting is easy.

Here’s how to make it!

Materials

1/2 yard chocolate brown fabric
1 fat quarter backing fabric
small scraps for the sprinkles (less than 1/4 yard total)
small piece (approximately 16″ x 20″) of batting

Step 1

Cut all your pieces. Watch this video to see how to use rotary cutting tools to square your fabric and cut strips.

Chocolate brown fabric Cut 4 strips 2 1/2″ wide, the full width of the fabric. From those strips cut the following. . .

4 rectangles, each 2 1/2″ x 14″
17 squares, each 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″
18 rectangles, each 2 1/2″ x 1 1/2″

Cut 2 strips 2 1/4″ wide for the binding

Sprinkles fabrics Cut 18 rectangles, each 2 1/2″ x 1 1/2″

Backing fabric 1 fat quarter, uncut

Step 2

Join your smallest rectangles into squares. For each square join 1 brown rectangle with one sprinkle/colored rectangle. Sew them together with a 1/4″ seam allowance (I very strongly recommend using a 1/4″ foot on your sewing machine for accurate piecing!)

Partially-pieced blocks for the Sprinkles doll quilt

Press the seam allowance flat. It doesn’t matter which way you press it - this quilt has no nested seams. I usually press toward the darker fabric, but in this case, the brown flannel was thicker than the sprinkles fabric so I pressed it toward the thinner fabric.

Repeat with the remaining small rectangles until you have 18 squares.

Sprinkles blocks ready to assemble for the doll quilt pattern

Step 3

Join all the blocks together as shown in the diagram.

Sprinkles - doll quilt pattern assembly diagram

First sew the blocks into rows, alternating brown blocks with the pieced brown/sprinkles blocks you made in Step 2. Press all your seams flat.

Then sew those rows together with your long rectangles between them. Press your seams flat.

You’re done with your quilt top!

Step 4

Time to put the layers together! Watch this video to see how to layer and baste your quilt sandwich.

Step 5

Time to quilt!

Watch this video to see how to machine quilt.

A small doll quilt pattern like this is also a great opportunity to give Big Stitch Quilting a try.

I quilted this top in two steps. First I quilted around each sprinkle. Then I quilted across the surface of the entire quilt with diagonal lines that went corner to corner on all the squares – skipping over the sprinkles.

The squares are small enough that no marking is needed - just eyeball it. You can see the quilting in these photos of the front and back of the quilt.

Finished Sprinkles doll quilt - made with a free pattern from Shiny Happy World

doll quilt back showing the quilting lines

Step 6

Almost done! Now you just have to bind the edges - my favorite part. Watch this video to see how to bind your quilt.

Finished!

Dress your doll in their favorite jammies, read them a story, then tuck them in under their cozy new quilt. Then brag a little! Or a lot. :-) You just made a quilt! Pat yourself on the back. Call everyone you know. Take photos and share them in the Shiny Happy People group. Share them other places too – but tag them #shinyhappyworld so I see them too. 🙂

So many patterns!

So much bedtime fun!

Happy stitching!

If you like this pattern, sign up for the Shiny Happy News! Members get a weekly newsletter with sewing tips and tricks, links to free patterns, special discounts, and more.

Best,
Wendi

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of cute and cuddly rag dolls. Get patterns for the dolls, plus all their fun outfits and accessories!