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| Beauty of Creating re-imagines McCall's 7781, Blouse View A. |
A question that often comes up is 'how do you do this'.
Well this post is going to hopefully answer that question. If you desire to purchase the pattern McCall's 7781 as your base, you are free to do so. However I do not purchase patterns. With today's technology and the power of the internet, McCall's showcases their patterns in an online look-book, which is very similar to the large catalogs on the tables of craft barn's like JoAnn Fabric.
What you need from McCalls 7781...
The online showcased patterns usually include pictures to view, the options, sizing information from the back of original envelopes, and a flat monotone rendering of the options. What I am most interested in is the model photography and the flat monotone. Sizing is not important here nor are the actual pattern pieces, at least not for me. You are welcome to scale if you choose, but I typically draft new or flesh out existing ones. Just remember that a doll cannot contort its body as a human, so it must be drafted to simplify assembly as well as easing the doll into it.
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| McCall's 7781 |
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| McCall's 7781 |
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Now dump it!
After making the selection (View A) of the design you want to recreate for your doll, head over to your drafting table. Here is where you decide what has to go! This is where you eliminate the fuss of the original and simplify it for dolly! Even if she has moving joints she cannot contort as a human.
On this blouse a zipper was used for closure. You can keep it, use a velcro closure (my favorite) and/or you can embellish with mock buttons. You can create your own button holes too and have actual working buttons on your blouse. I have hundreds of buttons in a variety of shiny pretty colors just waiting to be used. I decided on the velcro closure with mock buttons. These buttons favor the cherry prints in the fabric. I thought that was pretty cool!
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| Beauty of Creating mod doll is Journey Girl Meredith (the athlete). This blouse has peek-a-boo shoulders and they are stunning!!! |
On the McCall's 7781 blouse there is a ribbon fed through the top of the sleeves, likely forms a casing. I opted to place bows on the center and keep this simple, but did place a 1/8" elastic cord gathering there instead. For the lower edge of the sleeves, I did interpret a 1/4" elastic casing, which forms the bubble sleeve.
The fabric was purchased last year. It is pretty but it is lightweight and shifts a lot. I opted to stabilize it with interfacing and make this part of the character of the blouse. The interfacing is lightweight as well and does not bulk up the fabric. If you decide to ever do this, buy a lightweight interfacing to stabilize your projects.
I loved the slits on the sides and they work well because they allow (at this length) for Meredith's hands (thumbs) to ease into her pockets!
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Get ready to draft but don't reinvent the wheel.
Because I have a deep catalog of patterns designed for Journey Girls and as I learned from the tricks of the trade of commercial patterns from years of sewing from them, you do not have to reinvent the wheel. It is not necessary to start from scratch. Take your original, place it on the graph paper and make cuts as necessary with your pencil, then your scissors.
I started with the BOC Shirt Dress Pattern 50621, shortened it a bit and dumped the sleeves. Because the blouse closes in the back, I simply turned it around and whallah! In instead of the sleeves from the shirt dress, I pulled up the BOC Off Shoulder Series 40210 and borrowed this version of cut shouldered sleeves, which allows the shoulder to peek through, thus giving you 'peek-a-boo' shoulders!
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| Beauty of Creating, sleeve assembly, the 'no-fuss' way! |
The sleeve assembly was a snap! The one thing I always do is keep notes! They are not always consumable for public use, but they make sense to me if I can find them. Often I pin them to the fabric I plan to use. I recently picked up a tiny note book to jot down my mind melds and it stays on the drafting table.
These notes will help build the instruction sheet for future use. If you do not use it often you might forget how to construct the project. The notes/instructions will be there to save you from frustration!
Additions and accessories to complete the look
The model in the original is donning a bracelet, very simple and does not take away from the look. Meredith is wearing blue crystal earrings. Her fish scale braid is pulled up into a side knot, topped off with a bright pink heart barrette. The listing will also include a silver heart charm bracelet, but nothing too fancy. We want all of the focus on the blouse and her gorgeous face, so we stayed with white shorts and gave her a pair of new cork sandals in white vegan leather instead of a caramel color sandal as in the McCall's view. Caramel would have worked, but for this pretty girl, I wanted her to showcase a new color shoe that we could add to a separate listing!
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| Beauty of Creating presents, BOC #30724 Bubble Sleeve Top Front Pocket Shorts from the BOC Pattern 60713 Caribbean Festival. White Vegan Leather Cork Sandals from BOC Pattern 40705, which debuted in Caramel, Spring 2018! |
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In case you were wondering about our IG handle name change, we wanted something that told a story but did so in as few characters as possible. Hopefully it does not inconvenience you. Feel free to give the post a shout out when you see it! Thanks!
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