Dolly Sewing Crush: RosalynnPerle Project #1

It’s another month which means, it’s another Dolly Sewing Crush!

For the month of August we will be featuring designs from the talented RosalynnPerle.

This Month’s Sewing Motto:
Do Not Be Embarrassed By Your Failures, Learn From Them And Start Again.
-Richard Branson

Dolly Sewing Crush: RosalynnPerle Project #1

The 1st outfit to kick things off, is a project that nearly broke us, which was a pretty yet tricky Tiered Dress pattern found in Doll Coordinate Recipe 12: Sweet Fairy Tale on page 93.

Fun fact:

After a 9 year hiatus of Doll Coordinate Recipe books, the series returned with Doll Coordinate Recipe 12: Sweet Fairy Tale by RosalynnPerle.

There are 18 steps to make this Tiered Dress.

The Tiered Dress pattern fits dolls sized:

• 22 cm

The directions for the Tiered Dress are written in Japanese.

There are no images to go with the directions, only an illustration with numbers that correspond to the steps.

Your Layout For Sewing Success

Here is your blueprint for making the Tiered Dress:

The Sleeves

• Fold cuffs
• Place lace on cuffs & sew
• Sew elastic on the wrong side of sleeve
• Gather sleeve
• Attach front bodice shoulder center to the center of the sleeve *
• Sew fabric & lining right sides together along the back and neck seams
  • Clip collar & turn right side out

The Bodice

• Sew the sleeves to the bodice 
• Sew the bodice from sleeve to armpit *
• Sew the sides of the back bodice right sides together
• Fold hem of the 3rd skirt and attach lace
• Gather the 3rd skirt & attach the 2nd skirt
• Gather the 2nd skirt and attach the 1st skirt
• Fold the back edges of the skirt & stitch
• Gather the skirt & sew it to the front of the bodice *
• Attach lace to the neckline
• Sew the skirt to back of the bodice
• Attach button closures to the back
• Add a ribbon to the waist
• Attach a flower to the collar

Hip hip hooray, the Tiered Dress is complete!

Final Thoughts:

Miu looks darling in her dress.

But I’m suffering from PTDS (Post Traumatic Dolly Sewing)

Dolly Insider Skill Level Rating:

Advanced Friendly

I don’t know if the heat was getting to me but this project started off on the wrong foot.

I had difficulties understanding the directions hence the * symbols you saw in the sewing blueprint.

And made a silly mistake that I hope you’ll learn from.

I scanned, cut and fray checked all the pattern pieces.

And as I was about to sew, I noticed that my pattern pieces didn’t match the illustrations that go with the direction, and then it hit me . . .

I scanned and copied patterns on pages 93 and 96 which were 2 separate dresses.

How did this happen you’re probably wondering.

Pages 94 & 95 were stuck together, so when I flipped the page to copy the other pattern pieces, I accidentally copied the wrong one on page 96.

Lesson Learned: Place a bookmark or page tabs on the projects you’re working on and triple check your work.

This was an error on my part, and has no effect on the rating above.

The next mistake I had was with the sleeves.

The sleeve pattern is missing a place on fold symbol, so when I cut it out, I had half a sleeve.

Now for the reason why I rate this pattern 5 sewing pins and what contributed to me getting PTDS is the following:

The instructions seemed all over the place, and basic steps like sewing the sleeve to the bodice and the skirt to the bodice differed from what I’m used to. 

Maybe it was lost in translation.

But sewing this project left me shaken and lowered my sewing confidence.

I think images would’ve made this project less challenging.

I would not recommend this project to a beginner.

If you’ve sewn this pattern and have any tips please feel free to share, I sense a rematch in the future.

Let’s continue to RosalynnPerle Project #2.
Kat and Tatyana 
The Dolly Insider

Keep Exploring

• Doll Coordinate Recipe 12: Sweet Fairy Tale
• Dolly Sewing Crush: RosalynnPerle Project #2
• Explore all Dolly Sewing Crush projects

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