Hello, hello! So, last week I posted my Native American Boy & Girl from the Thanksgiving set, and this week is the Pilgrim Boy & Girl. The boy will be here, and the girl is posted on my facebook page (see previous post for link address). Print on 8 1/2x 11 paper, color, cut, glue, and attach arms & legs with brads. Enjoy!

So, next week is another Doll Show. It will be a new one for me, but I’ve heard good things about this particular venue. I always try to have a couple new items ready for each show, so this time I will be showing a couple new coat designs for Ellowyne & my 1/3 scale BJDs. Just a few more items to sew & I should be ready. 😉

Good morning, all! Well, I don’t know about your location, but here in the northwest continental US, it is a cold, drizzly first Saturday of November ~ very characteristic for this time of year. It’s the time of year when we hunker down with warm fuzzy blankets, soft sofas, cozy socks & jams, and crackling fireplaces. For those of us who are NOT into cold wet days spent hunting; we cook up soups, yummy breads, & hot chocolate, and we find fun things to do indoors. To facilitate this latter description, I will add some more festive “freebies!” As we look back to the early days, I like to bring attention to an important reason as to why some of our fore-founders actually survived those first harsh New England winters. It was because of the knowledge and teachings of the Native Americans who lived and thrived here. The early settlers did not discover this continent ~ it was already populated with an intelligent people. The colonists who built relationships with these people survived and benefitted from their wisdom to later celebrate the first Thanksgivings. In honor of this, I will begin with my Thanksgiving Native American Girl & Boy sets. (Pilgrims will come later, as they actually did…arrive later). I realize these are not totally culturally correct, nevertheless, my Girl set is given here, and the Boy set will be found on my facebook page:   http://www.facebook.com/missysimaginings

Each picture is formatted to fit 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Just copy & paste or “save as” images to download into your favorite application for printing. The skirt section is glued into the space below the waistband, and the arms are meant to be attached with brads for movement. More coloring projects will be posted throughout the month. Enjoy & Happy November!

Greetings & Salutations! I hope all is well with you as we near the end of October. A long-time friend gave me an idea for tonight’s post. Many years ago (in the OLDEN days of the 1980’s) I spent many hours drawing out coloring projects for my Kinder-Reader students. Several were seasonal and/or holiday themed. Most are still around and contained on a CD that I often have for sale on eBay. They are formatted for 8.5×11 size paper. I thought it would be fun to offer a couple here and on my facebook page (where you will find two more): facebook.com/missysimaginings

The scarecrow page is designed to be colored, cut out, and then have the pieces glued on black or dark navy paper. Enjoy!

For those who love the Tonner / Wilde Imagination Evangeline Ghastly line of dolls, you will appreciate the nightmare of having a Parnilla come apart at the waist! I had an idea for a gown last night, and woke up at 5:00am still thinking of it. So, what do you do when that happens? You shower, and get working on the pattern! After sewing most of the day, the dress was finally done and ready for pictures. Then the unthinkable happened! Parnilla was undone! Part of the mechanism that connects her was still in tact, but the part that connects inside her torso was completely apart. Here is how I put her back together.

 

First, I gently and firmly disconnected the clip in the torso from the pin in the hips. When I looked inside, I discovered what must be the common problem for these dolls (as many seem to get floppy with age). The ball joint that is inside the torso section rests in a ball type socket. Upon inspection, I found that the edges of this “socket” had become brittle and little pieces had broken off, thus letting the ball  fall out of it. I cleaned out the broken fragments to make sure the socket was empty and I inspected the clips for the hip section.

Next, I moved the ball to one side. I put some clear Gorilla Glue on a Q-Tip and carefully put it inside & smeared it inside the socket. Then I moved the ball to the other side and added glue to the other side of the socket as well. With the glue in place, I pushed the ball back into the socket and adjusted it to make sure it was straight. Then I let it rest for a few hours to cure. Once the glue was dry, I gently and firmly pushed the clip back onto the hip “pin” until it snapped into place.

Now it’s like Parnilla has had a small section of her spine “fused.” She isn’t quite as poseable, but she’s not in two pieces! She’s still able to stand well and look beautiful, and her bust line joint still gives good movement for natural posing. Now she was ready to model! 🙂

Many years ago, I was working out in my yard and discovered a small plant in one of my flower barrels. Upon closer inspection, I decided it was not a weed, but a small seedling that I believed to be a tiny tree. For some reason, I didn’t have the heart to pull it out, but rather, began to water and feed it. As it grew, it was indeed a tree ~ a filbert (or hazelnut) tree. As it continued to grow, I pruned and later replanted. For several years, it has adorned our driveway, adding a lovely look and shade to our yard. Two years ago, we found the first little nut shells at its base. Sadly, they were empty. While on a school fieldtrip, I learned that once the nut shells begin to appear, it will take four to six years to actually have a harvest of nuts. Imagine my delight when I discovered our shells this year are FULL! It was so fun to gather our very first little hazelnut harvest this year, and it inspired me to draw two new Forest Walk Fairy Outfits! Remember ~ these sets on the web will never be in a book or at a show. They are just for you ~ my internet guests. 🙂 The other set has wings and can be found on my facebook page:  www.facebook.com/missysimaginings

Both are formatted to print out on legal size paper. Simply “save as” to download and print. Enjoy, thanx for coming by, and happy fall!

Hello, Hello! I am so pleased about my most recent addition. I saw her at an earlier show and just fell in love with her. I had seen Tiny Betsy online, but in truth ~ photos never do them justice. When I actually saw her, my heart went “pitter~pat!” She is so cute! At the time, it wasn’t in my budget to get her. Then, at my show last week, I saw that she was still available. With all the recent changes in my life, I decided to treat myself. I went back to the vendor to make the purchase ~ only to discover she had just been marked DOWN!!! I was so excited. So, here is my new little resin Tiny Betsy McCall. I also found this lovely little handmade dress & bloomer set at the show. Now she’s all set for school. ❤ (I will also include a picture of my new show table.)

Greetings! Wow. It’s been quite a while since I last posted. It’s good to be back to say, “Hello,” to you all. You may (or may not) be wondering what has taken me so long. Well, we’ve had some MAJOR career changes going on over here! I have a totally new job in a totally new venue, and I’m really liking it! But now I leave VERY early with 10 hour days and a fairly long commute. It makes for a tired old bird at the end of the day! Never-the-less, I have not forgotten you who come and visit. In my last post, I mentioned getting to work on some pants for the Tonner Matt body style, and yes ~ I have TWENTY-THREE pair cut out and ready to sew! I also have a cammo puffy vest, two fancy dress vests, and a flannel shirt all cut out & ready for assembly. (Will post that picture first!)

But today’s blog will mostly be the long awaited sequel to my May 22, 2016 post entitled, “Making a Shirt Pattern for a Tonner Matt.” Today I cut out the pieces I made for that blog and put them together. I will give the step-by-step instructions along with photos of my process. I’ve never done an actual sewing tutorial, so please be patient if I accidentally leave out an instruction or two. You may want to go back and read through that earlier post, so you will have a frame of reference for this one. If you’re already an experienced pattern maker and sewer, this may seem really simple, but I like simple.

First of all, whenever you are sewing a newly made pattern for the first time, be sure to use some fabric that’s not expensive or important. This first attempt of mine will be on a simple cream colored cotton. Then if it doesn’t work, it’s not a big deal, but if it does ~ I will have something usable. My fabric was just some leftover scrap from cutting out all those cream pants above, so the layout looks a bit weird. I just made sure I could neatly get all the pieces I needed. After the first few pieces were cut, I rearranged the remaining fabric for the two pieces of the collar & the back facing.

Now it’s time to sew! All my doll clothing has 1/4″ seams. I always do my “prep work” first, which is connecting the facing pieces at the shoulders (right sides together) & finishing (serging or zig-zagging) the raw edge that will lay inside the shirt & be visible. I press the seams open, but do not serge the shoulder seams. When making doll clothing. I try to avoid creating unnecessary bulkiness. Sometimes serging can do this, so when I know the seams will be completely hidden, I leave the edges raw. I also prepared a small front pocket for fun. I serged just the top edge that would be the open part of the pocket, then hemmed it. Next, I pressed in all the side & bottom edges before laying it on the shirt & top stitching. Be sure to keep these stitches as close to the edge of the pocket as possible to maintain a good size proportion for doll clothing. Then I stitch the shirt fronts and back together at the shoulders (right sides together). I lay the seams open and topstitch the seam allowances, because I think it gives a nice tailored look.

Next is the collar. Sew the two pieces together at the sides & top with right sides together (leaving the neckline open). Then clip the seam allowance leaving 1/8″ allowance and angles at the corners. Turn the collar right side out and press seams flat. Then stay stitch bottom unfinished edge and clip a small notch in the center of the collar being sure to stay within the seam allowance. Now stay-stitch the necklines of the facing and shirt, clipping small notches to the stay-stitching about 1/4″ apart. This will allow the neckline to stretch out into a straighter line for sewing the collar to the shirt. Next mark your shirt back and back center of the facing within the seam allowances. This will help when you pin the collar to the right side of the shirt.

Here is where it can get tricky. When pinning collar to the shirt neck, start in the center & work out to the sides making sure you have the same amount of shirt front hanging outside the collar sides on both ends of the collar. This pattern worked pretty well, as I had 1/4″ at each end which will be the needed seam allowance for the center seams of the shirt fronts. Once your collar is in a good position, add the facing ~ keeping the right side of the facing towards the collar. Once pinned, your collar should be sandwiched between the right sides of the shirt pieces and the facing pieces. I always start pinning at the center of the collar and work my way across the neck and down both fronts to the hem.

It is also very important to make sure that both ends of the collar raw edge are tucked up tight in the seam allowance of the neckline. I have made the mistake of not checking this, and then I ended up with one side of the collar not anchored in the shirt correctly. It was definitely an “Arrrrggggg!!!!” moment. You DO NOT want to take apart three layers of fabric to re-sew! Now, start at one front hem and sew up the front, across the collar, and down the other front. Remove pins and make sure you don’t have any tucks in the fabric. When you press the seams, the shirt & facing should lie pretty flat, and the collar should be able to stand up.

 

Now you’re ready to add the sleeves! I serge the bottom edges of the sleeves before stitching the hems. Then (since this is a very light cotton) sew one line of stitching on the top edge of the sleeves with a long stitch length. Slightly ease the fabric together without making it looked “ruffled.” This slight gather is just to ease the upper sleeve edge into the shoulder line of the shirt. As I worked on this particular shirt, I found the sleeve to be slightly bigger than I needed on the top edge, but we’ll address that at the end. (For now, I just adjusted the pucker to fit the shirt.)

Stay-stitch the arm hole of the shirt and clip to the stitching about 1/4″ apart, so the arm line will lay better for sewing. I start pinning the right side of the sleeve to the right side of the shirt at the outside edges and work towards the center of the curve meeting at the top of the shoulder seam, adjusting the sleeve gather as I go to avoid too much pucker in any one spot. I also sew this seam with the sleeve down. This will allow the feed-dogs of my machine to help evenly feed and distribute any extra pucker in the sleeve. Then I check the seam on both sides to make sure everything lays good and flat. I press the sleeve seam towards the sleeve.

Now it’s time to sew the sides. Turn the shirt inside-out and pin the underarm edge of the sleeves and the front & back of the shirt together, then stitch. I also serge this sleeve/side seam, because it shows inside the shirt. We’re almost done! When you have the sides together, turn it right side out to check how it looks.

Now for the hem. First, I serge the entire hem, including the hemline edges of the facing (keeping the front seam allowances towards the facing). Next, I turn the facing at the hemline so that it’s on the outside of the shirt with the right sides together & stitch the hem. Then, turn it back to inside and press out the finished corners. You will see that the hem is now ready to be pressed up 1/4″ and stitched. I always like to re-press the hem once it is sewn. I also tack in the facing at the inside of the shoulders, careful to catch the seam allowance, but not breech the shirt. Now, I lay the shirt out and press the tops and bottoms of the sleeves as well as the side seams. Time to try it on the doll!

And there you have it! Now the shirt is ready for the handwork of adding snaps and buttons. As I mentioned above, I thought the sleeves had a little too much pucker, and they also looked more full than I would prefer. I also thought the shirt could use more room at the shoulders and less flare at the hem. After inspecting the shirt, I made the following changes to my pattern pieces (shown in green). The collar was fine, so no changes were made to that particular piece.

And there you have it! That is how I put together a basic button-up shirt. I hope this has been helpful, and now you’re ready to strike out into the adventure of pattern making and sewing! Thanks for coming!

Well, here it is, a week after the show. Now it’s time to get back to sewing. Up first will be a new supply of clothing for the Tonner Matt style fellas. I need to make more pants! I will be starting with some khakis & off whites, as those have been requested. Then will move on to more of these “tweedy-plaids,” because I have plenty of this fabric. I have also not forgotten the tutorial I am planning for the earlier posted “How To Make a Tonner Matt Shirt Pattern.” Another item coming up will be more of the “leather look” long & short coats, but will work on them as I have time.

I have recently had to make a major career change. I am really liking my new job & all the cool people with whom I work, but it makes for some long work days ~ so my sewing will be saved mostly for weekends. I also have some new paper doll ideas, so be sure to watch for those! All in all, the Lord is very good and continues to bless in so many ways. Wishing you all the best with many thanx for continuing to visit my site!

I had a great time at the Crossroads Teddy Bear & Doll Show yesterday! It was so fun to see all  of my collector & vendor friends again. Thank you to all of you who visited my table & have now visited my website. I appreciate you spending some time here. As many of you know, I gave away a free printed special edition paper doll at the show. Here on my site there are two more outfits as well as another gal with the same body shape. My facebook page also has two more outfits for you to save & print as you like. I will also be posting more outfits on these sites shortly, so be sure to come back & check!

I also took some pics of my table, so for those who could not come to the Clackamas show, but want to visit another show, you will know what to look for to find me. 🙂 Thank you again for coming & be on the lookout for more paper doll fun!