Tutorial: An easier way of sewing a dress with sleeves

Dear Readers, 

you sure know, that I'm always searching for an easier way to sew sylvanian clothes. The problem is that our beloved Sylvanians are so tiny, so we can't use a regular pattern. 

I  tried out something new and it worked out very well. Margarete Bellefleurs was kind enough to assist me, so I can show the steps easier.

You need:

- fabric

- thread

- glue

- accessoires, like ribbons, buttons, etc...

Step 1: The measurements & Cut out

After pulling off the clothes, measure from one arm (here the wrist!!!) to the other. It's about 5 cm by Margarete. It can be larger or smaller, it depends on the figure.

Than measure the length of the upper part of the dress. I've decided to make it about 2,5 cm long.

Now draw two rectangles onto your fabric.

The one is the front. Here I added 1 cm seam allowance, so my rectangle is 6x2,5 cm.

The other one is 7x2,5 cm. This will be the back, it must me a bit longer, otherwise we won't get the dress closed. 

There's just one part of the dress missing: the skirt. You have to decide how wide your skirt should fall. I decided to make mine 15x4 cm.

You should have these pieces now:

After that cut the longer top-part in two halfs for the back.

Step 2: Sewing the top

Place the back-parts with the right site facing down onto the front-part, like this.

Draw one a small cutout for the head - I've decided to go for a triangle this time. But of course you can also make a round neck.

Than sew the shoulder parts together. Tip: Use something like a buttonhole stich, to sew and secure the edges in one part. I hope it can be visible in the picture.

After that flap around the edges of the neck, use a small running stich to fix it. Apply some glue on the edges to secure them from frazzeling. 

After drying carefully put on the top. Flap around the arms and measure how many "space" your figure needs.

Than sew a few stiches to build the arm holes. With my measurements this seam is less than 0,5 cm.

The next part is a bit hard to explain. You have to flap the fabric around the arm hole and fix it with the running stich. I hope the pictures can explain better than I :D.

Part 3: Sewing the skirt

Well, now comes my "favourite" part... Or better said, it can be the most difficult part. 

Attach the skirt with one or two small stiches on both outer top ends (or back-ends). It might look strange now, because the skirt is more wide than the top of your dress. 

I hope it's visible what I mean - what you see here is a back-part attached to the skirt.

The trick with the skirt is now to sew little crinkles to get the skirt fixed to the top. So fold the skirt and sew over the folds.

Once done, it looks like this.

It already looks like a dress. 

Step 4: Finishing

Now turn the seam and fix it- using the running stich.

After that I've added a ribbon to the seam.

We're almost finished :). Now flap the outer sides and fix it with a few stiches. Stich together the lower parts of the skirt to close the dress.

That's how it should look after the 

Add hook - and loop fastener on both sides.

And your finished :)

I hope you had fun with this tutorial :).

Soon I'll upload the second part of the Margarete story.

Your Kyraja