Doll Clothing · Where to Shop

The Art of Pressing

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I am not a big fan of ironing. In fact I will tumble clothes in the dryer over and over again to avoid ironing and one of my very favorite new products is Downy Wrinkle Releaser. Having made that perfectly clear, I would now like to state that there are sometimes when you just have to iron, and pressing seams is one of them.

Hand-sewn seams are most often not pressed open, because the seam will be stronger if the seam allowances are pressed together to one side.

Unless directed differently in your pattern instructions, machine-sewn seams should first be pressed to one side, just like hand-sewn seams, and then opened and pressed flat. This is probably an extra step that you aren’t used to taking, but trust me it will be worth your while to press your seams in this manner.

If you don’t already have one, you might consider getting a tiny quilting iron to use when pressing your doll clothes seams. They should be available at quilt and fabric stores in your local area, and they are certainly readily available online. This is a link to Connecting Threads, one of my favorite online sources for quilting supplies.

For all of you non-ironing fans, like me, cheer up. There is absolutely no reason at all for you to press seams when you are sewing your doll. You just need to iron her clothes.

Doll Clothing · Where to Shop

“Button, button, who’s got the button?”

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If you already own a copy of my Izannah Walker Doll Clothes Pattern for 18-1/2″ Doll then you know that the buttons called for in the pattern instructions are small white glass buttons with a painted rim. If you are searching for buttons like these, the best source is antique button dealers.

I buy quite a lot of old buttons and while my very favorite way to buy them is by the jar full, (for some reason old buttons are very often found inside of antique canning jars and sold by the jar) I very seldom find this particular type of button that way.

More often than not I buy individual buttons of this type from button dealers. Probably the most famous of all antique button shops in the U.S. is Tender Buttons. Located at 143 E 62nd Street, New York, NY 10065, (212) 758-7004. They are open weekdays 10:30 am – 6 pm; Saturday 10:30 am – 5:30 pm. Tender Buttons is a lot of fun to visit, but they aren’t the most cost effective place to buy your antique buttons. I’ve had the best luck and gotten the lowest prices buying buttons at Brimfield, the thrice-yearly outdoor antique extravaganza that takes over the town of Brimfield, MA. There are usually multiple button dealers that set up in Brimfield, many of whom congregate in the same location, making it easy to go from booth to booth.

I’ve also had whole huge cards of these buttons given to me by a friend. Obviously I have the BEST friends in the world! So spreading the word around and about that you are searching for glass buttons is also a good thing to do.

glass-buttons

Painted Cloth Doll Making

Prepping Your Cloth Dolls For Paint

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I recently received a call from Christine P. from Michigan. It was great to have a chance to chat with Christine about several of my classes. Among other things, we were talking about painted cloth dolls. Christine has become interested in trying cloth doll making and has been researching it a bit. She mentioned that she had learned that she would need to gesso the fabric before painting it. I told her that gesso is good, but Helen Pringle’s “Miracle Messy Mixture” is better.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with “Miracle Messy Mixture”, it is a blend of equal parts of Liquitex Acrylic Gel Medium and Liquitex Modeling Paste. If you can’t find Acrylic Gel Medium you can substitute Acrylic Matte Medium. Mix up only a small quantity at a time, as it is fairly expensive and it begins to harden as soon as it is opened. Use the “Messy Mixture” instead of gesso, making sure to sand smooth between coats.

The advantage of “M.M.M.” over gesso is that it does not crack and dent as much if your doll is dropped, squeezed, or attacked by a heavy blunt object. Dents will very slowly raise back up. Your paint may crack, but the doll itself will survive rough treatment much better if you use this method rather than gesso. Paint can always be re-touched.

If you would like to read more about Helen Pringle and her dolls, look for these magazine articles:

The Cloth Doll, Spring 1988 issue, pages 8-11.

The Cloth Doll, Summer 1988 issue, pages 6-8.

DOLLS The Collector’s Magazine, March/April 1990, pages 75 & 76.

Better Homes & Garden’s Special Interest Publications Dollmaker, 1992, pages 53-57.

Doll Clothing

Historic Seam Finishes For Doll Clothing

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You’ve found that perfect fabric for your doll’s dress, your mind’s eye is focused on the finished dress and no other material will do. Unfortunately the fabric of your desire is loosely woven and unravels like crazy if you even glance at it, to say nothing of what it does when you actually approach it with a pair of scissors in your hands. What do you do?

Obviously Izannah would not have resorted to using Fray Check or a serger. Your solution is to use the seam finishes that she could have used.

overcast-seamMethod one is to overcast your seam allowances by hand using a single strand of thread. This actually goes a lot faster than you would think and is the 1800’s version of finishing seams by running them through your serger. Something that will save you some work is cutting whatever straight seams that you can along the selvedges of your fabric and letting the selvedge itself act as a seam finish. This was commonly done in the 1700 and 1800’s. Because old fabrics did not have printing along the selvedges like some modern fabrics do, I only use unprinted selvedges this way. Usually one edge of your fabric will have no printing.

pinkersA second method is to pink your seams. To do this you may use pinking sheers, a pinking machine, or hand pink the edges of your seams using a pair of straight scissors. The oldest forms of pinking are hand pinking, or the use of pinking irons. Pinking irons were placed along the edge of the fabric and struck with a mallet or hammer. They were primarily used to give a decorative edge to ruched fabric used for trimming 18th century gowns and petticoats. Hand pinked edges were used more commonly as a seam finish. After hand pinking and pinking irons, came pinking machines. Think of them as a hand cranked version of today’s rotary cutter fitted with a pinking blade.

A third option would be to make French seams along all straight seams and overcast curved seams, such as armholes, and gathered waistbands.  This looks especially nice if you are working with a sheer fabric.

The least desirable choice of historic seam finish for doll clothes would be to bind your seams with twill tape or silk ribbon. Avoid this method if possible, as it adds far too much bulk to tiny garments.