Where has the time gone? I can’t believe that I’m sitting down writing my Christmas blog already and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one feeling like this. Sometimes we can feel like we didn’t get anything done but when I sit down and look back at the year, I’m pretty proud of what I’ve been able to achieve with my patterns business whilst also growing my doll clothes business too.
Firstly, I released some pretty fun patterns this year for both the 18 inch American Girl size doll and the 18 ½ inch Cabbage Patch Kids doll. I started with the 3 Way Shoe pattern which is proving popular with Cabbage Patch lovers who are struggling to find matching shoes for their Cabbage Patch dolls.

The came the Fun ‘n Frilly Top which included a Bonus Dress pattern. This is such a quick and easy pattern to sew and looks so cute in all the variations that it’s hard to decide which one to make first.

Well my last Share and Tell blog for 2018 certainly reminds me how special sewing can be and how passing on skills from one generation to the next or even learning together can help create some awesome memories for families. And the same can be achieved by upcycling a special garment to pass on special memories to the new generations – see the story at the bottom of the page

I love seeing young girls take up sewing and learning from their grandmother so it was super special when Julie posted this photo in my Facebook Group. It shows the gorgeous pinafore dress that Julie’s 12 year old granddaughter made as part of our September Sew-Along. Julie is obviously doing a wonderful job teaching and she has an awesome student so I’m sure they will make lots on precious memories sewing together over the years to come.

Julie, please pass on my biggest congratulations to your granddaughter, she should be so proud of her effort.

I don’t know about you, but every Christmas things get rather hectic around my home and I’m trying to think of unique, personalized gifts for our family members. When my daughter was younger I used to love whipping up a selection of new outfits for her dolls because I could always use fabric I had in my stash and they were so quick and easy to make up that I could make them either when she was at school or after she had gone to bed. And the best part was, they were ‘one of a kind’ and ‘made with love’ so they meant just that little bit more to both of us.

I am very proud of the fact that I offer a 100% money back guarantee on my How to Make Doll Clothes and my Learn to Love Your Serger (Overlocker) Courses and am pleased to say that the majority of my customers have been thrilled with the content and I haven’t had to worry about refunds.

The other day however, a lady who purchased the online course with the intention of using it to help her teach her granddaughter how to sew sent me an email requesting her money back.  The following is a snippet of her email.

Where has the time gone? It’s been ages since I did a Share and Tell blog and there are lots of gorgeous photos I have to share with you all so let’s get straight into the first one which is from Barbara who has made my Winter Nightie pattern for a Waldorf inspired doll and she’s used unicorn print fabric which seems to be sooo popular at the moment with little girls.

‘Here is a picture of the nightgown I made. I loved the pattern and really loved the video directions. This is a Waldorf inspired doll I made and it fit perfectly…….Your site is excellent and full of useful information. I was happy to find you.
Barbara’

I’m happy you found my website too Barbara., you’ve done an awesome job and I can’t wait to see what you make for this adorable doll next.

Hope you’ve been enjoying using my 18 inch American Girl and 18 ½ inch Cabbage Patch Kids patterns to make doll clothes for the Bitty Baby and Bitty Twin dolls.

In this blog I will be showing you how to adjust my Halloween patterns and my popular Wedding Dress pattern to fit these 15 inch dolls

‘Sew’ did you have fun using my patterns from Part 1 to make doll clothes for your Bitty Baby and Bitty Twin dolls?  Well, I’m back with Part 2 of this blog series to show you which of my doll clothes patterns will fit the Bitty Baby and Bitty Twin dolls with only slight adjustments.  I will explain exactly what each of these adjustments are.

I feel confident that you will be able to do these minor adjustments yourself as they are mostly just shortening hems or straps.  Where I have suggested shortening the length of a pattern piece, for example the One Piece Swim Suit, this simply requires you to fold the pattern pieces and smoothing out the join.  If you need to shorten them 1/2” (12mm) draw a line at the waist and another line 1/4” (12mm) above the first line.  Fold along the bottom line and then bring the pattern piece up as you fold along the top line.  The picture below shows the two lines that have been drawn on the front piece and then the back piece after it has been folded along these lines.  You then simply smooth out the curve when the fold is.  Shortening the overalls will work the same way.

Ahhh, so many good things happen in September.  It’s the beginning of Spring here in Australia and that’s my favourite season, it’s my birthday, my wedding anniversary and of course in America it’s National Sewing Month! 

‘Sew’ let’s celebrate ‘Sewtember’ with 20% off ALL Doll Clothes Patterns, for the whole month of September.  Yep, that means 20% off ALL 18 inch and American Girl doll clothes patterns and ALL 18 ½ inch Cabbage Patch doll clothes patterns.

Have you been waiting for me to come out with some doll clothes patterns suitable for the 15 inch Bitty Baby and Bitty Twin dolls?  Well I’ve got some AWESOME news!  There’s no need to wait any longer as many of the 18 inch American Girl and 18 ½ inch Cabbage Patch doll clothes patterns I already have available fit these dolls really well without any adjustments and some only require minor alterations.

I’ve wanted a 15 inch Bitty Baby or Bitty Twin doll for a couple of years now because some customers have told me that certain patterns of mine fit the Bitty Baby with only minor tweaks necessary.  But because I didn’t have my own doll, I was not able to confirm this.

Well, I’m super excited to say that I finally have my very own Bitty Twin doll.  I couldn’t find his twin sister, but he seems to be fitting in with all the other dolls nicely.  I’m named him Terri because I think he also makes a very cute girl doll and seeing as I will be dressing him mostly in girl doll clothes, that seemed appropriate.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been very busy trying on all my doll clothes to see which of my existing patterns fit and which ones need adjustments.  In this blog I will be confirming which of my doll clothes patterns fit well just as they are, without any alterations.  Then I will do a follow-up blog in a few weeks showing which patterns fit with minor adjustments and I will also outline the alterations that are necessary for them to fit the Bitty Baby and Bitty Twin dolls beautifully.

When I first started Rosie’s Dolls Clothes, my online website where I sell doll clothes, I had piles of clothes on a shelf in my cupboard and they were sorted in piles for each doll size. I was feeling rather proud of my ‘organised’ system until my darling hubby, Brad, walked in and said, ‘You’ll never survive if you store your doll clothes like that. When you have lots of stock and the orders come in you are going to get so confused.’ Wham! That brought me back to reality and I will admit, it hurt a little but then he explained that being a Logistics and Supply Chain Manager and working in warehouses and distribution centres, he knew a thing or two about organising stock. Thankfully, I put my pride to the side and listened to the expert as I wanted this business to grow and succeed. Because I know many of you sell your doll clothes online I thought I would share this valuable tip with you and hopefully it will make your life a little less stressful.

The first thing Brad got me to do was go out and purchase some storage bins. I needed something that would fit into my cupboard and allow easy access to the doll clothes. I quickly ruled out the plastic bins that stacked on top of each other because to get to the clothes stored in the bottom bin I would have to pull that bin out of the pile and remove the lid, then put it all back in place. The ideal solution would be drawers and thankfully plastic storage drawers were popping up everywhere but what size would I need? I started with a couple of different sizes as I didn’t know at the time which would work best.
Now that I had my storage sorted it was time to get organised and this was when Brad introduced me to ‘Bin Locations’. In a nutshell, this is just giving each drawer (or bin) a number so I bought some sticky labels to put on each bin and simply started with ‘1,2,3,4….’, you get the idea.