Sewing With Nancy

What little girl hasn't envisioned being a princess, a superhero or even a mermaid? Make-believe play with 18" dolls dressed in costumes is a great way to foster a child's imagination. Here to share her latest patterns and ideas for costumes is Joan Hines. Welcome back to Sewing With Nancy. Hi, Nancy, thank you for having me back. I've noticed lately that more and more people are sewing for dolls. Fanciful costumes are easily made with small pieces of fabric and trim that yield creative results. The lilac fairy is our first doll dress-up idea. A combination of netting, stretchy net and a little time will result in a costume made to spark imagination. Doll Costume Dress-up that's coming up next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman is made possible by Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting and special-effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover, making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 30 years. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. Most of the sewing that we're doing in this two-part series has to do with a straight stitch and a zigzag. Even with the specialty fabrics that you've used on this costume, Joan. Show our viewers that it's pretty simple to put together. Yes, yes. The first one we have is the lilac fairy. This costume is in three parts. There's a leotard. You can see this here, it just has elastic for straps. Then she has a skirt which is many sections of netting. That is gathered together onto a fabric band. Then I'll show you in the back here that she has wings. Those are made from netting and there's wire stitched around the edge so it gives them some shape. We're going to start with the leotard. It's made from stretch Lycra Spandex fabric two-way stretch knit fabric. You don't need a lot of knit fabric. No, you sure don't. The first thing you would do then is to cut out the pattern pieces. You need one front and then you would need two of these backs. The back is sewn first. We've used contrasting thread obviously. You've just used a narrow zigzag stitch because it stretches. Yes, it's a lot easier to do it that way. Then that back seam is stitched to the dot on the pattern, and then you just turned under the edges. Right, right, that is the back. Then the front is where you start pinning this fold-over elastic. Here's a piece of this elastic. It has a little groove in the middle that makes it very easy to fold. You would simply cut a piece to put at the top. I like to go over the edge just a little bit. That way I'll make sure I catch it in the edge. Then I put my pin in here to hold it down. Then I would keep going. It looks like I have to adjust that. You would keep pinning it all the way across. Here's a close-up of how easy that is to stitch to the top. Just keep that zigzag stitch and you have the top finished. Right. Here's the top, and then the back would also need that stitched. Now another length of that fold-over elastic is cut. It serves as the finish for the arm hole, as well as the straps. Right, right. That's the next step. You sew the two together and it just is connected. Uh-huh. Then the finishing part. Right, the legs then, need to be finished. They need to have some elastic to hold it on the doll. We've got a piece here where it's been started. There is just a small little section of about 2-1/2" that goes across the leg area. And you zigzag it down. Let's see, here we have it zigzagged down. There we go. You don't have to have perfect sewing. No, not at all. These are doll clothes. Then you'd turn the elastic to the inside and zigzag again. Right, and that edge is covered up. The lower edge is stitched, and you're done. You're done. Yep, the leotard's finished. And you can decorate it any way you want. We've done a lot of closures with hook and loop tape or big snaps so it makes it easy for the little girl to undo. The skirt is in many parts, many parts of netting. You did a great job of sourcing out a fabric for the skirt. This netting is 6" rolls that you can find in the party section of craft stores. So the width is already cut for you and I just simply cut 18" lengths and I folded them into three pieces. Here, I'll do this. It's kind of light-weight, but one, two, three. Get them pretty even. Right, and it doesn't matter. They're flower petals, so they don't have to be perfect. Sure, and you get 12 of these. 12 of those. Then you're going to take each section and you're going to zigzag along the top to gather over a cord. Let me show you the result. Here's the result, and here's the process. At the sewing machine I've taken one stitch into the fabric and then pulled up the needle thread. You can see that that bobbin thread loops up. Grasp the bobbin thread and pull it oh, about a yard long. Set your machine at a zigzag. And when you lower the presser foot and you zigzag over that bobbin thread you have stitched them together, as well as provided the bobbin thread gathering. Here is our sample that we started. This is the bobbin thread right here. Just pull that. We're going to be doing this a lot during this series. You have lots of gathers. Lots of gathers. Doll clothes usually does. So you gather this and it's to fit the length of the waistband. Right, and this is just fabric I chose an iridescent to put on top. You wouldn't have to do that. You would cut those two sections. It's folded in half. I just serged the edge to hold them together. I just stitched along a casing line so that you could put your elastic in. We are going to expedite this a little bit. But you'd measure the center of the waistband the center of the skirt. You'd pin the center marks so that you would get it right. You would just stitch these two together. Right, right. Then the last thing that you would do before you'd do the seam is to insert elastic. You have a bodkin there. We're just going to reference that because we have these little pieces. Right, and you would just insert it in here. I've got it marked before cutting so that it wouldn't pull all the way through. So you insert it, yeah, we like to cut after we insert it. Yes, yes. Now you've taken off the skirt so you can show our viewers how it's finished at the end because it will be flat. Right, and here is the skirt. That is the back seam. All you would do is stitch through the whole thing. So you're stitching through the waistband as well as the netting. The elastic was put in flat, the gather is flat. Oh, fun, fun. The wings, the wings are next. I'll let you have those. All right, I'll take that back. We're going to use a heavier netting. Joan chose two layers of netting and the pattern and traced it on to the fabric. Right. You have to do one side and then you flip the pattern piece over and you do the second side. My wings are flying away. There we go. Then to make them stiff we have wire. Now you're gauge of wire is-- It's a 30 gauge wire, it's a fabric-covered wire. It doesn't matter the size necessarily, but-- Here's a close-up of how you would zigzag over that wire. Do it pretty tightly. Even though our samples have been done in dark thread you would do it in white thread or matching. Then just cut without cutting the stitches around the edge. That netting is not going to ravel. No, no. You can tack it to the leotard and you have a fairy outfit. You could also make the same pattern pieces with pink and it could be a ballerina or lavender or green. So there are many options for dressing up dolls. Well, Joan, this is fancy. I just love this. Yes, this is Cinderella's ball gown. It is a very satiny, shiny dress. Very poofy. But it follows just basic doll dress construction. You have the top part, the bodice with the sleeves that's constructed first. Then you would make the skirt and gather it up. It's stitched and then it's open in the back, which I'll show you. Then the dress covers up a hoop skirt. Why, every princess needs a hoop skirt, yes. Yes, indeed. So we're going to show you the pattern pieces that have been cut out, the front and the back. The first step is to sew the shoulder seams. You've lined them as well. Right, right. You've got the front and two backs. I've got shoulder seams stitched here also, with the lining. The next step is to stitch around the neckline here which you can see. Then we have wrapped corners. This is turned down, and then the back seam is stitched. After you stitch that neckline then you wrap the corner along the stitching line and stitch down. That will give on these little pieces. You'll be able to turn that corner sharp, on a dime. I don't know if that's-- A dime isn't sharp, but I think you'll get the idea. And when you just poke it a little bit you have a nice, tight corner there. Sure, and this next sample shows that the whole neckline and center back has been turned right side out. You'll find that a lot of the techniques that we show during this two-part series are used over and over again. One of them being casings for the elastic. Right, right. We have that on the bottom of these sleeves. You need to press the edge to the inside. Twice. Then you'd press again, right. And then stitch a casing. The elastic was inserted through this area and you have that tacked down. Then the cap. Right, the cap is stitched with the gathering technique that we showed in the first segment. So zigzagging over that bobbin thread. There are many gathering techniques but this one can be stitched within that narrow seam allowance. They're small pieces, but then we'd go down to this bodice, meet right sides together and sew the sleeve to the arm hole. Now, I'm just going to place this here. Make-believe that's sewn because the next sample is sewn. We have lots of samples of doll clothes. On this one you can see that that little sleeve has been put onto the shoulder seam right-sides together. This sample has many steps in it. Let's look then at the underarm seam. That's next. You stitch the underarm seam of the bodice and the sleeve in one fell swoop. Right, right. And you just use narrow seam allowances. Yes, usually 1/4" for everything. Then when we turn this right side out you have a puffy sleeve. You'd put in your other one and then your bodice would be the top. The old term, I guess, is bodice. But the top would be done. It's complete, and then you can decorate it in any way that you would like to do. Let's take a look at the skirt. If you show our audience the skirt and how it meets in the center. Right, I cut these pieces a little bit off so that it will meet just to her right side here. When you gather it up you would place it on the bodice just a little bit off-center. The skirts are curved in the front. You'll find a pattern piece curved in the front. And Joan, you've serged the edge. Right, I've serged the edge and turned it all to the inside and pressed it. Then I put on the trim. Then you did that gathering again. Right, more gathers. So the gathers are then-- We're not sewing that back seam at all at this point. On this sample I've already started to pin one skirt. I would then pin, with right-sides together another skirt. You'll follow the pattern and overlap it as much as you need to. You're working flat, which is great. You're not having to work in narrow, little-- Except for the sleeve maybe. Now the skirt is pinned and I'm going to roughly pin this on. And you'd stitch it down. It takes a little time to do some manipulation of your fabric, but you'd sew it all flat. We'll do virtual sewing. Make-believe that's been stitched. And then you kind of can see how this is coming together. Now there's an underlay. I'm just going to place this under here. It's a cute little under-skirt. It would be gathered. Then did you just place this under here? Right, right. It would go underneath it and you would center it. You can kind of see how-- We have another sample to show. That might be a little clearer. Right. This is the bride outfit. It's made out of an eyelet fabric instead of a shiny satin. So here's this underlay that's been placed in here. Let's take a look. You can see the beauty shot of that bridal dress, and here it is on the doll, all dressed up. You can see how it's the same component pieces as the one we have on our Cinderella dress. Right, just change the fabric and little trims and you're all set. What I like about your ideas is that you're learning many sewing techniques. This boning skirt, this is just a big circle with elastic at the top but to keep that-- Look at this. To keep the skirt bowing out you've used boning. Right, it's actual boning you can buy in the notions section of a fabric store. You have it marked on the skirt after it's been in a circle. You will line the boning to the mark. Here's a close-up. I'm just stitching it down along each side of the boning. When you put the skirt underneath the princess or the bridal dress you have a perfect silhouette. You're little girl's doll will look swimmingly in Joan's mermaid costume. Sequined fabric, glittery and pom-pom trims plus clever patterns make short work of this imaginative costume. I have to mention that this is my favorite. Yes, indeed. This is really adorable. Why don't you show our viewers a close-up? It was a lot of fun to make. It comes in two parts. You can see that her tail, or her body here is simply a skirt with the tail attached. And inside the tail I put in a little polyester stuffing to make it stand out. The top is an iridescent fabric over a cotton which I like to use since it's so shiny and it matches the skirt. It's just a strapless top with a lot of decorative trims. Now the design, as you mentioned, has the sequined fabric. I haven't worked with that much sequined fabric in my life so this is a good time to learn some of those techniques. Right, you can try it out on a small, little project. So the first thing you need to do is to get your pattern out and to cut out two skirts and two lining fabrics. Okay. I can show you here the lining. We've stitched around the edge. There's an opening, there's dots marked on the pattern piece, so you have a place that you need to stop. Sure, so that's where legs go through. Right, right, and on this one it's the outside of the skirt. You can see that it's been turned to the right side and the tail has been poked out a little bit. Now you need to insert the lining. This takes a little bit because you'll have to start in this manner. You have to pull the tail and get it so that it fits inside here. Sure, so that probably takes the most time. Yes, it does. And you can see here we have it all finished. Magic. Yes, it is. For the bottom opening here, just turn the edge under and then top stitch it. So about a generous 1/4" has been stitched at the top. And I just zigzagged those together. Then you're going to make a casing by turning the edge to the inside. Then you will stitch it leaving an opening to put in elastic. These are small patterns so you're going to using the small seam allowances. This is just a generous 1/4" has been turned under. Then you would-- We like to cut the elastic longer than you need so it doesn't spring away. Right, you won't lose it. Then cut it after you have got everything gathered at the top to the right side. There you go, that's about it. That's it, the skirt is finished. The top is, as Joan mentioned iridescent fabric, just little patterned pieces placed on the fold, and stitched to a cotton fabric. Just baste it along, hence the black line and then to another piece of cotton fabric for the lining. Then use short stitches to stitch around the curves of this top. You'd sew the side seams. We used the little wrap corner technique of folding under that edge and stitching so you can get a nice turn. But before you do the turning I'd like you to do some trimming. You can see I've already started to do this. That would be using a pinking shears or a rotary cutter that has a pinking blade. On these narrow seams allowances it makes fast work of grading the seams so that when you invert the fabric over itself it doesn't have a lot of bulk. You'd do some pressing. Then you'd get that nicely smoothed out. As Joan mentioned, it takes a little time to get some of these edges smoothed out. The peplum portion is right here. Joan, you've added that same iridescent fabric. Um-hmm, serged the edge turned it under and top stitched it. Added some piping. No, not piping, pom-poms excuse me, and gather. There's two of these that are-- I'll show you our quick sample. They have been sewn to the lower edge of this top and hook and loop tape would be sewn to fit over the great skirt. When family of friends suffer from Alzheimer's disease our instinct is to help, but often we don't know how. Today's "Nancy's Corner" guest found a solution that not only helps the patient, but also the caregiver. Please welcome Marcia Enquist the designer of Alzheimer's Fidget Mats who joins us via Skype from Austin, Texas. Thanks for joining me, Marcia. Oh, thanks for inviting me, Nancy. I appreciate the opportunity to share our aids with others. This is a great project for anyone who had some scraps of fabric or bit and pieces of trim. Tell our viewers why you began sewing the Fidget Mats. Well, like you said, I was visiting my mother-in-law at the rest home and I would see persons with dementia that were very agitated. It seemed so sad, but I really didn't know how to help. So I did a little research and came up with some ideas. I love to sew I love sew for a purpose with others. So that's how I began. Let's show our viewers, you sent me three Fidget Mats. They're a little bigger than a placemat. They have all sorts of ins and outs, zippers and buttons. I love the textural things that you've added. Right. The texturally soft things like the little toy in the soft pocket by stroking these, by fidgeting with these it tends to calm agitation and it decreases wandering. It just makes for happier people. Sure. We're gonna have a little noise here. You even have some squeaky toys in here. What fun. You must have quite a collection of things in your sewing area. I do. And a lot of people are very happy to share bits of lace and soft fabrics and buttons and all these things with us. So anybody can join in this project. One interesting thing when we had our conversation earlier you said it also helps the caregiver. It does. Essentially the purpose is to improve the quality of life, L-I-F-E. When I bring these to the rest home it just 'lifts' everybody's spirits. You see the smiles all 'round, and the staff get involved. They 'involve' the patients. Boredom is the big problem. Yes. And if they're not using their minds if they're not using they're senses these will atrophy, they will stiffen. This gives them lots of opportunity to use their hands, use their senses. F is for 'focus.' These are also used with children with special needs in some classrooms here in Austin. They can focus on a zipper. Since it's bright and colorful they enjoy doing this kind of fine-motor therapy. Or buttoning and unbuttoning the buttons. E is for the 'exercises' exercising their minds, their hands, their fingers. From the -- we've had wonderful help from a number of facilities here in Austin that are using these and testing them out. They particularly like the agitation relief when they have it, or for focus during therapy. Visitors, when you walk into the room in a rest home it's often I want to talk to somebody but I don't know how. Okay, here's a focus. It's so wonderful. You're goal is for people to make them in their community you have a pattern available, some guidelines and then give them away to a local unit a school, where ever they would need something where they need activity or LIFE, your L-I-F-E to involve them, to prevent them from fidgeting from young and old alike. Right. We have instructions. They're on the blog spot alzactivityaids.blogspot.com. That will be on your site. Yes, it will. We appreciate that. The patterns are flexible and can be made at a very low cost. Well, I thank you for sharing this. This is a great project, great to sew and to give away. Come back again sometimes. Thank you very much, Nancy. I appreciate it. You're welcome. And thank you to our viewers for watching during this series on doll clothes. Joan Hines will be back next time with the second part of the series. As Marcia mentioned, you can go to nancyzieman.com and find out more information on "Nancy's Corner." Join us by watching more TV shows by social media. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now. Joan Hines has written a book entitled "Doll Costume Dress-Up". That is the reference for this two-part series. The book includes a CD with 20 printable patterns for doll costumes. It's $18.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373 or visit our website at sewingwithnancy.com/2811 Order Item Number U7871, "Doll Costume Dress-Up." To pay by check or money order call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's website at nancyzieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman has been brought to you by Baby Lock; Madeira Threads; Koala Studios; Clover; Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Pellon. Sewing with Nancy is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.