A Striped Dress for Ginny

Here is a post for all of the doll enthusiasts out there!  In today's blog post, I'll be detailing the construction of the little, striped dress and tucked petticoat that Ginny, the blog's traveling doll, wore in our previous adventure, here: Past Summer's Visit to the Sonnenberg Gardens.

Ginny, the blog's traveling doll, among the wildflowers at the Sonnenberg Gardens

Making doll clothing is so much fun, and in many ways like making people's clothing, but on a smaller scale of course.  I found that a lot of the same techniques that I use for my own historic clothing work in miniature too, including flat lining the bodice and fitting it with darts, gauging (or cartridge pleating) the skirt, and applying a hem facing in the usual manner.  Speaking of the usual manner, it wouldn't be proper to build a dress without first addressing the underclothes:

Part I: Tucked Petticoat

To help create the fashionable bell-shaped silhouette, Ginny needed a petticoat (or two) to support her dress.  Eventually, I'd like to make her an entire set of period undergarments - including a chemise, drawers, corset (wouldn't tiny, size 0 hooks and eyes make for a cute busk?!), and maybe even a doll-sized cage crinoline...but for now, all we had time for was the basic, white cotton petticoat.  

Constructed just like my own petticoats, Ginny's doll-sized petticoat features a deep hem with two tucks to help stiffen and hold out the skirts.  The skirt was then gauged (also called cartridge pleating) and whip stitched to a waistband.  

Tucked petticoat, front.

Tucked petticoat, back with overlapping closure.

For convenience, I used a snap for a closure, but may eventually replace it with a little, bone button and buttonhole for the next wearing:  

Detail of the gauging and waistband with snap closure.

Part II: Striped Dress

I was thrilled to find a remnant in a doll-scale reproduction print that resembled my own striped dress!  Every girl dreams of matching dresses with her doll, right?  Anyways, American girl dolls are actually pinnable, so it made it easy to drape a basic bodice right on the doll.  The back is one piece, and the fronts are fitted with darts.  These were then joined at the sides and set onto a narrow waistband.  For the sleeves, I ran two lines of gathering stitches to create the double puffed effect, and hemmed the ends.  

Striped dress construction - the bodice is finished and ready for the skirt to be attached.

A look at the inside of the bodice and skirt.

Next, the skirt needed assembling.  After seaming the side panels, the skirt was gauged and whip stitched to the bodice's waistband, much like the tucked petticoat.  Rather than a folded hem, a deep hem facing in plain cotton was applied:

Two different ways of finishing skirt hems.

A deep hem facing stitched on the dress.

The last step was to add closures, and rather than deal with tiny hooks and thread eyes, I just used snaps.  Yes, I know it's cheating...and the dress could also use a collar.  But hey, at least it was finished in time for the trip, and even has a silk belt and mother of pearl buckle to complete the look! 

Here's what the dress looks like all together:

Metal snaps for closures, but hooks and thread eyes would have worked too!

The little, striped doll dress - completed!

Part III: Completed Project Shots

And since no costume construction post would be complete without them - here are the completed project shots, modeled by Ginny:

Striped dress with silk belt and mother of pearl buckle.

Back view - please excuse the very visible doll stand!

For the actual outing, Ginny wore her plaid "work" petticoat, instead of the tucked one, to match mine, black stockings, and the most adorable, Victorian-style boots, which I ordered online:

Shoe shot!  Unfortunately they don't really show up, but these are doll-sized, scalloped buttoning boots!

And a couple of the finished dress, flat:

Styling doll hair is so much easier than doing ones own (at least for me, as I am most definitely hair styling challenged and rely on begging friends for anything more complicated than a basic bun!)  Ginny has full front bangs, as I did when I was much younger, but her hair was just long enough for a braided bun and side twists: 

And that's all for this post, thank you for reading!