This month, Kat’s Pattern Pick of the Month is the SUNSHINE DRESS. This pattern is available in three sizes (18 inch, 16 inch animators, and 14.5 Wellie Wishers) and as an a line short sleeve styled dress, it offers lots of options to sew it up in different ways for your dolls.
Easy Pattern Hacks for the Sunshine Dress Sewing Pattern by Oh Sew Kat!
Click on each link below to go right to the instructions for the Pattern Hacks.
Make historical fashion outfits for your BeForever Character dolls with Oh Sew Kat’s Sunshine Dress pattern.
Nanea’s muumuu dress was part of a four part series of blog posts in adapting Oh Sew Kat! patterns to make Hawaiian inspired fashions. Find the MuuMuu tutorial HERE and see more ideas for Nanea HERE, HERE, and HERE.
The days are longer, the days are warmer, and everything is suddenly green! As we turn the calendar from spring to the lazy days of summer, choose an easy to make, short sleeved a-line dress with lots of options for your 18 inch doll, her 16 inch Animators’ friends, and 14.5 inch Wellie Wishers – the Sunshine Dress.
Save 25% on the Sunshine Dress Sewing Pattern from 1-5 June 2019.
This month will feature Kat’s Pattern Pick of the Month. Grab this pattern in my ETSY SHOP only 25% off for a very, limited time. No coupon is needed, please wait until the pattern listing price is changed to $3.75 before purchasing. (I am in the East Coast, USA time zone). Then stay tuned here to the blog, my facebook page, and instagram account for a month long celebration of ideas, inspiration, pattern hacks, sew alongs, who wore it best, and more!
The Sunshine Dress sewing pattern for dolls is an easy to sew, short sleeved dress with lots of options.
Sewing for BeForever character Nanea Mitchell? Try these twists on patterns to make a variety of Hawaiian themed dress from Oh Sew Kat! patterns. Find all of these patterns in my Etsy Shop: www.etsy.com/shop/ohsewkat.
Sew Hawaiian themed doll clothes for Nanea with easy sewing patterns from Oh Sew Kat!
What other Oh Sew Kat! patterns might work for Nanea outfits? Visit the Nanea page of the Inspiration Gallery to see more ideas. Comment below with your ideas.
Sewing for BeForever character Julie Albright? Her stories are set in 1974 and she has some groovy fashions! Give your Julie a personalized 70s themed wardrobe with these twists on PDF sewing patterns from Oh Sew Kat! Find all of these patterns in my Etsy Shop:
Make a 1970’s themed outfit for your 18 inch American Girl doll.
What other Oh Sew Kat! patterns might work for Julie outfits? Visit the Julie page of the Historical Fashions gallery for more ideas. See more sewing ideas for the BeForever characters like Melody and Maryellen too! Comment below with your ideas!
Visit & follow my 1970s doll fashion PINTEREST Board for more ideas. Pin these images to save them for later!
Don’t you love making special doll clothes for the girls in your life with the easy PDF sewing patterns from Oh Sew Kat! The easy to follow photo instructions are designed to help even the novice sewist have a successful time. In many of my more recent patterns, I’ve started to include some ideas and simple instructions for variations on the patterns. You can “Step them Up” or “Step them Down” to your heart’s content. Read below to see five of my favorite (and most popular to date!) pattern hacks. Click on the photo to go right to the tutorial of Kat’s favorite pattern hacks.
Find all these patterns, plus many more in 5 popular doll sizes in my Etsy Shop or other places Oh Sew Kat! patterns are sold.
Take a new twist on Oh Sew Kat! PDF sewing patterns with these favorite pattern hacks.
Tee shirt Dress tutorial: Make a cute, tee shirt dress from the Simple, Sweet Tee Shirt pattern. Works for any size doll. Find the pattern in 4 popular doll sizes here.
Pumpkin jumper: The classic Boardwalk Boutique pattern doesn’t have to be put away when the weather gets cooler. Use it as a base to make cute holiday themed outfits as well as summer play clothes. A little orange fabric and an iron on pumpkin face took this simple halter top to a cute jumper for fall. Layer it over a Playtime Peasant Top or a Jumping Jack Turtleneck!
Easy to sew Pattern Hacks for 18 inch and other sized doll clothes.
Find all these patterns, plus many more in 5 popular doll sizes in my Etsy Shop or other places Oh Sew Kat! patterns are sold. See more pattern hacks and tutorials HERE.
As it is such a simple dress, The Sunshine Dress sewing pattern has so many options. There are many different ways to style it up to create just the look you want. Here, I used it for the 1974 BeForever Character, Julie Albright.
Find tutorials for other ways to sew Oh Sew Kat! patterns for your Julie Doll HERE.
Make a tunic top for your 70s Doll – Julie
This top is very simple. I only made one change to the pattern- I cut off about 1 1/2 inches from the hem. I added a little bit of crochet trim, and Julie has a perfect tunic to wear with her bell bottoms.
Find more ways to sew the easy Sunshine Dress for dolls.
How about a sleeveless version? Find the tutorial HERE.
Have you tried the Sunshine Dress pattern yet? Share your photos with hashtag #ohsewkat. See more ways to use this versatile pattern here and here. Be sure to stop by the Inspiration Gallery for even more ideas!
These outfits came about completely by accident. They don’t even need a tutorial or pattern hack. I simply used pieces from two different patterns together to make a new outfit.
I was making a doll skirt from my Everything Nice pattern. (The Everything Nice pattern is the accessory pattern that is sold bundled with the Sugar n Spice dress.) . It is a quick little skirt, attached to the waistband, with an open back. It was designed to give “dress up options” to the princess themed Sugar n Spice Dress. In order to check my hook and loop tape placement, I grabbed the closest doll. It was Melody, and she was wearing a Sunshine Dress I made for THIS post. The dress seemed tight enough for my test, so I did not remove it. As I stood back to check the skirt fit, I realized that by simply using two of my own patterns, I could create a similar look to Melody’s fancy dress or the popular overskirt fashions of the late 50s and early 60s.
I went right to Pinterest for some inspiration and found this pin, and also this pin, and this pin.
Next I went to my fabric stash- and found some navy fabric to match one Sunshine Dress I’d already made…and chose some creamy, dreamy roses fabric for the other one.
This dress is the Sunshine Dress sewn with the princess seams option. The Everything Nice overskirt fits perfectly over it- open it in the front or in the back! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Find the Sunshine Dress HERE.
What other patterns can be used together to provide more value for your time sewing and money spent? Share in the comments below. Make a 50s or 60s inspired dress for your dolls today by checking out these other pattern hacks here and here!
The Sunshine Dress, with its three variations and classic A-line look can easily be adapted to look like it came from the 70s era with just a few minor tweaks to the pattern.
Make a 70s doll dress for your BeForever Julie Doll with this easy sewing pattern.
I used this photo from Pinterest for inspiration. Here’s another one. Based on the first photo, I am using View C, the princess seamed option, but I really think that any of these views can be easily adapted to create this daisy trimmed look. The second photo definitely looks like View B.
Start with the Sunshine Dress pattern. This pattern has had a recent update. Check your file and make sure that it says Copyright 2018 at the bottom of the front cover. If it doesn’t, you can find the updated version where you purchased the pattern, or contact me.
Raise the neckline by quite a bit- I used almost a half inch for the 18 inch size doll. Don’t forget the lining piece needs to match too!
Skip the top stitching after assembling the dress front. It would be covered by the trim. If you want your trim to disappear into the seam at the shoulders (and not go down the back), you need to add it over your seams before you stitch the front to the backs as I did here. If you want the trim to go over the shoulder and down the back, it will be attached after the dress front and back are joined but before you do the hem. I just attached mine to the front (to conserve my trim mostly). Add the daisy trim with transparent tape to ensure you have the look you want; you can follow the seam lines if you have them, but if you don’t, put the trim where you think it should go. Stitch in place. I used a machine and just carefully stitched down the center of my flowers. You can also add your trim by hand. If the trim was wider, or for a real girl and would be washed, I would put a row of stitching down each side to hold it securely.
Raise the hem by an inch or even more. Dresses for girls were short then too! (I usually do this after the dress is sewn together unless I’ve done it before and have a good measurement. Once the dress is done, it’s easy to (use a ruler) and trim off the right amount for right look for the era.) .
Optional: Add lace (again by hand?) around the neckline.
One final note. I do not profess that this pattern is historically accurate. I found an image on Pinterest and used my own pattern, which looks very similar. However, in the world of child’s play, “close enough” is usually enough to save you a few dollars at the American Girl Store if you have a young friend pleading for Julie Albright or items from her time period and collection. When my daughter was very young, and a new doll was released, I usually kept her focused on who she already had with just a few new doll dresses to fit the new era or theme. The one that comes to my mind is when Elizabeth Cole, Felicity Merriman’s best friend was released in a beautiful pink, ball gown. I was able to make and buy a few colonial dresses for my daughter’s Mia doll, and off we went to Williamsburg happy as can be. Elizabeth never did join our doll family by the way. 😉
Use the Sunshine Dress PDF sewing pattern by Oh Sew Kat! for BeForever Julie Dolls.
PLEASE NOTE: The Sunshine Dress has been updated since it was first published. The current version has Copyright 2018 on the bottom of the cover page. If you are unable to get the updated copy from where your purchased it, please contact me at ohsewkat@gmail.com with the details of where and when you purchased the pattern and I will get you the updated copy!
See other ways to make clothes for Julie here and here, and more ways to sew the Sunshine Dress here.
