Love To Dress Up: 18-inch Doll Clothes (Book Review with Photos)

All these outfits were sewn from patterns in Love to Dress Up: 18" Doll Clothes, by Lorine Mason.  I liked the idea that you could mix and match the popular "fat quarters" from stores like Wal-mart (something readily available for us, even in Canada), although I ended up using thrifted fabric and bandannas to sew the sample outfits.  The clothes are pretty and contemporary-looking (unless you don't want them to be, see wrap dress below).  Some of the patterns are basic enough that you could use them for your doll "go-to's" if you didn't add extra embellishments, such as the shorts that match the smock top (bottom photo).

We wanted a 30's-style wrap dress for Kit. The pattern in Love to Dress Up is a more contemporary, shorter style; but all I did to change it was lengthen the skirt and use a calico print instead of something brighter.

Did I say anything somewhere about not liking to sew bias tape around bolero jackets? Well, I did it anyway.  I do have to mention about the sun dress, that it would NOT have fit any of the 18-inch dolls without pattern adjustments--too snug around the chest. Crissy was the only one it would fit. The green and pink dress fabric is a bandanna; the purple bolero is from a pillowcase.

Crystal's smock top and matching shorts, sewn from a bandanna and some plain blue fabric (for the shorts). You can't see it in the photo, but the shorts have stripes of bandanna fabric sewn down each side (it's in the pattern).  This would make a cute pinafore pattern too if you cut the top longer.

I haven't sewn any of the more complicated outfits in the book, but so far the instructions have been straightforward, and the only thing that didn't fit a "standard" 18-inch doll was, as I said, the bolero and dress outfit.  If you go on the publisher's website, you can print out a few corrections to instructions and pattern pieces.  Overall rating:  good.

Photos are by Dollygirl.