Patty Play Pal Dress...again!

So, I brought the Patty Play Pal dress over to my friend, eager to see it on her doll.  And, horror of horrors, it didn't fit!  Actually, the entire dress fit fine except for the neckline, and that's where it was about 1 1/2" too small.  I could have cried.  Oh, well.  That teaches me not to have the doll in my possession (or at least important measurements) when I sew for it!  I was a little perplexed, though, since I had followed the pattern exactly.  It just goes to show, I guess, that you always need to measure and try things on often to check fit.  This goes for people as well as dolls!

I brought the outfit (and the doll!) back home, in order to alter the dress.  This entailed ripping out the entire back seams and snaps on both sides, adding a new, wider facing, and moving the skirts over to meet the new width.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate sewing snaps?  They're not difficult, but they are time consuming.  And there were five sets, which I ended up sewing on twice.  That means 20 little snaps.  Ugghhh.

This dress so reminds me of the dresses I used to wear when I was a kid.  Puffy sleeves, short skirts, and big bows.  Such a classic, little girl look.

Isn't this doll lovely?  My little Sophia was entranced with her...she would dance with her and have lengthy conversations with her, as if Patty Play Pal were a real child.  Of course, this doll was originally marketed as a "companion" for children, so I suppose they got it right! 

She will be going back to her house soon.  And while this is not generally the type of doll I like to collect, I must say that I will be a bit sad to see her go.  I can certainly see the appeal of owning a doll like this--she can wear real children's clothing (2-3T) and is fun to display--kind of like a mannequin.  When I was a kid, I used to love looking at the mannequins in the big department stores, like Meier & Frank's and Nordstroms.  They looked like real people.  I always wanted to take one of the babies home with me.  Today's mannequins are horrible, I think.  A lot of them are headless, and if they do have heads, they are void of features.  Actually, now that I think of it, Old Navy has nice mannequins that look like real people.  Hmmm.  I think I'm starting to talk myself into owning a mannequin someday.  Or maybe I should just get my own Patty Play Pal?

 

 

 



Patty Play Pal Reproduction Dress

A doll club friend recently acquired a 1960 "carrot top" Patty Play Pal doll.  For those that are unfamiliar with her, this doll was created as a companion for children and could wear real children's clothing.  She stands 35" tall This is her above, on the cover of a book.  She is very rare because of her bright orange/red hair.  My friend's doll is nude, so she asked if I could reproduce her outfit.

 

After walking (and walking and walking) around my favorite fabric store for 1 1/2 hours, I finally settled on the above fabrics.  The original dress fabric has more yellow in it, but I felt like this print had the vintage vibe I was going for.  The green fabric for the pinafore was easy to match, but I had to go to three different stores before I finally found rick rack in the correct shade of orange.  I'm still not entirely happy with it...I feel it's a bit large for the scale of the dress,   But the color matches well, so I guess it'll do.

 

I used a pattern by "The Classy Kid Collection", especially made to reproduce this dress for Patty Play Pal.  They have a website which offers all kinds of doll clothing patterns:  www.qualityvintagedollpatterns.com

The pattern went together fairly well, but it is not for the inexperienced seamstress.  There are instructions but no pictures...and some of the steps are a little vague.  But the end result turned out adorable, I think.

 

I love the big bow that ties in the back.  All little girls dresses should have a bow, don't you think?  The pinafore is not a separate piece, but part of the dress.  It closes with snaps.  For some reason, my sewing machine had fits with the green fabric.  It is 100% cotton, but my machine kept skipping stitches, and acting as if it were having a hard time getting through the fabric.  I have no idea why.  I spent a couple of hours switching out needles, using different thread, adjusting tension, and cleaning out the throat plate (sheesh, I think there was a good fistful of lint down there!), in the hopes that it would fix the problem.  But I finally realized that the machine wasn't having this issue with the floral fabric, or any other little scraps I experimented with, only with the green.  Has anybody else ever had this happen to them?  I remember this happened to me once before, with some fine-wale, baby corduroy.  This pinafore fabric didn't have any stretch to it, but I wonder if maybe the fibers were woven in such a way that made it more difficult for a needle to penetrate?  Frustrating, that's for sure.  I ended up lengthening my stitches just a bit, and gently pulling on the fabric to help along the feed dogs. 

Anyway, it's finished!  I think my friend is going to love it.