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.

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.

I’m not sure if you realise just how excited I get when I receive an email with a photo attached. I’m kind of like a big kid, I can’t wait to open it and see what the photo is and who it’s from. I know it’s selfish, but I do get a rush from knowing that I’ve helped someone create something truly special and unique from a flat piece of fabric and then I get to share the photos with you all!
These first photos are from Megan who has made this super cute Handkerchief Top and matched it with some beautiful matching long shorts. She simply adapted my Sports Shorts pattern by adding length and adding the trim around the hem. Then she was inspired to make a ‘Frozen’ dress for her granddaughter by adapting my Wedding Dress pattern and what an absolutely amazing job she has done!
‘Hi Rosie
………I had a lot fun being inspired by and adapting your patterns. My husband joined in and made the clothes hangers.
With thanks Megan’

Yes, it’s Christmas in July again at Rosie’s Doll Clothes Patterns and you get to save 20% Off everything for the whole month of July with coupon code JollyJuly!

Well, it’s been a couple of big months for me as I’ve had some improvements done to my website home page and some work on the back end too.  I’ve released my Learn to Love Your Serger online course and released my new Overalls for All Seasons pattern in both the 18 inch American Girl and 18 ½ inch Cabbage Patch sizes.,,,whew!  I’ve got another pattern on the drawing board but I have a heap of special orders that I need to get done first.

It’s great to see so many of you joining in the activity in my Sew and Share Facebook group by sharing photos of your creations, asking questions, giving advice and encouraging others on their sewing journey.  Many of the photos I share here in my blog have come from this group and I must say how proud I am to be part of this wonderful community.

I’m super excited to release my latest Doll Clothes Pattern for 18 ½ inch Cabbage Patch Kids. These Overalls have been designed so that you can make them either short or long and from cool cotton or warm corduroy which makes them perfect for All Seasons.

The pattern pieces also show cutting lines for a plain hem or a cuffed hem on both the short and long overalls. The contrasting colour of the cuff not only looks cute, it gives the overalls a more casual country look.

I’ve often been conflicted when I release a pattern for summer in Australia, as it will be winter in the USA and all my American customers will be wondering why I’m putting out a bikini pattern when they’re all snuggled up inside beside the fire.

So today I’m so excited to be releasing my new Overalls for All Seasons pattern for 18 inch and American Girl dolls. Because it has options to make the overalls either short or long and from cooler cotton or warmer pinwale corduroy, making them perfect ‘For All Seasons’!

Although these overalls are designed for the 18 inch dolls such as American Girl and Our Generation, there’s cutting lines for the taller Australian Girl dolls too.

Do you have a serger? Or if you’re an Aussie, do you have an overlocker? Is it still sitting in its box in the cupboard because you just don’t know how to use it or are too scared to change the threads?

Then my new Learn to LOVE Your Serger online video course is for you! My goal with this course is that by the end of the 2 ½ hours of high quality, in depth instructional videos you will no longer fear changing threads or adjusting the tension dials, and be well and truly on the way to ‘Loving your Serger’.

When I was designing my Fun ‘n Frilly Top I had so many variations swirling around in my head and this one just wouldn’t go away. So instead of working on my new pattern, I pulled out my Sports Shorts pattern and my Fun ‘n Frilly Top pattern and started to play.

And I can’t believe just how easy it was to get the cute little Playsuit that I was dreaming of. With only one trial outfit, a few adjustments and the result was perfect!

Rather than create a new pattern to sell on my website, I wanted to show you how easy it is to adjust patterns to create something new and encourage you to get adventurous with your existing patterns. You’ve got to love a ‘free pattern’!

The following shows you exactly what I did to create this super cute Playsuit.