How to Sew: Crewneck Pullovers for Fashion Dolls

Welcome to another sewing session with atelierniSHASHA!

Our project for today is this round-neck pullover for our dolls.

Hi from Hagrid, who is my first model for this garment 😊
Special thanks to Yvonne for gifting me Hagrid all the way from Germany 💕

Now let's get started with today's session!

For tools and materials, as always, we don't need fancy ones.

Just make sure you have the following:

❤ stretchy / Knit fabric (I get mine from human-sized tees)

❤ matching thread

❤ basting thread (better if in contrasting color)

❤ velcro tapes or snaps for garment closure

❤ fabric scissors

❤ thread cutter or smaller scissors

❤ seam ripper 

❤ tweezer (blunt but narrow)

❤ ruler or measuring tape

❤ dressmaker's pins

❤ bent tweezer or anything that helps flip the sleeves

and of course, your 

❤ sewing pattern!

Alright, now that we've already collected what we need for this session, let's start making this Crew-neck Pullover together.

Step 1 - Let's trace the pattern pieces on the wrong side of our stretchy fabric.

Don't forget to trace two sides each for the back panel, sleeves, and sleeve cuffs.

Step 2 - Grab your (1) front panel and two (2) back panel fabric pieces. Facing each other's right sides, pin them together to hold the shoulder seams.

Step 3 -  Sew together the three pieces to secure your shoulder seams.

Step 4 - Now, let's grab our sleeve fabric pieces and prepare them for our shoulder seam stitching.

I add marks to the back underarm point so we don't switch sides.

Step 5 - Cut slits halfway through the sleeve seam allowance with about a 5mm distance in between.

Step 6 - Also, cut slits along both sleeve seam allowances on the bodice.

Step 7 - Don't forget to also cut slits along the neckline.

Here I'm showing you all our curved seam allowance edges that are somehow looking fringed but don't worry, it's an important step. 😉

Step 8 - Up next, we're going to prepare our fabric pieces so that we can easily sew the sleeves to the bodice. 

I have a few mini-steps to be able to achieve this step:

Mini-step 1: Grab some dressmaker's pins to temporarily secure the seamlines together.

Mini-step 2: Stitch-baste to secure. 

I baste first the actual seamline, then add parallel stitchings on each side.

We have now a total of three (3) stitch-basting.

Mini-step 3. Cut the middle basting threads (the one along the actual seamline).

Mini-step 4. Remove the basting threads from the garment. 

Now you're ready to do the final sleeve seams.

Step 9 - Now let's sew the sleeve seams on both sides.

Step 10 - Remove the two parallel stitchings.

Here's how they look on the right side of the fabric.

Now, I wanted to make sure that the seam allowance edges look neat and flat underneath so I decided to topstitch. You may also skip this part and proceed to Step 13, but for those of you who would like to topstitch as well, let's continue with the next step.

Step 11 - Pull the sleeve seam allowances to the bodice's side and stitch-baste to secure.

Step 11 - Topstitch as close as you can to the seamline.

Step 12 - Remove the stitch-basting threads.

Alright! Up next: Attaching Sleeve Cuffs 😊

Step 13 - Now grab your two (2) sleeve cuff pieces.

Step 14 - Start with one cuff piece and fold lengthwise. 

Step 15 - Pin to temporarily attach the folded cuff piece to the edge of the sleeve's right side.

Step 16 - Stitch to connect the cuff to the sleeve edge. Repeat the step for the other sleeve.

Step 17 - Trim off your seam allowance to remove some bulk.

Up next, we're sewing the side seams.

Step 18 - Pin-baste your side seam allowance to prepare for actual sewing.

Step 19 - Sew the side seams.

Step 20 - Press flat to each side of the cuff end seam allowance and secure with a short stitch.

Step 21 - Trim off extra seam allowance at the sleeve seams.

Step 22 - Let's take our neck cuff.

Step 23 - Fold the neck cuff's narrower seam allowance inward.

Step 24 - Then fold the neck cuff length-wise.

Step 25 - Secure the folded ends with pins.

Step 26 - Facing your right side of the garment, secure your folded ends to the center back corners of the bodice, leaving out the seam allowance. 

Now, secure the other folded end to the other corner.

Step 27 - Fold each center back seam allowance over to wrap the folded neckline cuff and secure each with a pin.

Step 28 - Find both centers of the neckline cuff and neckline seam allowance, and pin to secure.

Step 29 - Pin the rest of the seamline to secure. We're preparing to stitch-baste this part.

Here's how the pinning looks from the inner side of the garment.

And below we're looking at the outer side of the garment.

Step 30 - Stitch-baste like I did here if you feel it necessary.

Step 31 - Remove the pins, then cut out the middle baste-stitching that is along the actual marks. 

What we're doing here is we are clearing the way so we can sew properly our actual seam line.

Seen from the outer side of the garment

Seen from the inner side of the garment

Step 32 - Run your final stitches on the neck seamline. 

Step 33 - Remove the two bastings.

Step 34 - Flip your neckline cuff to its right side.

Step 35 - Flip out your sleeves as well to make the next step easier to do.

Step 36 - Stitch-baste your neckline seam allowance to flatten it and prepare for topstitching.

Step 37 - Topstitch as near as you can to the neck seamline and remove the basting.

Step 38 - Let's prepare our hem cuff fabric piece for the next step.

Step 39 - Fold the hem cuff length-wise facing their wrong sides, and facing the outer side of your garment, pin to the edges of the hem seamline.

Step 40 - Pin the rest of the pieces together and stitch-baste if you like, to prepare for the actual sewing of the hemline.

Step 41 - Run your actual seamline and remove the basting after.

Step 42 - Press the hem cuff allowance flat to the back.

Step 43 - Gather the corner edges of the hem cuff and align them per their seam marks.

Step 44 - Sew the lower center back starting from the hem cuff edge just up to where the underlap starts.

Step 45 - Press flat each center back seam allowance to the sides and secure with a short stitch.

Step 46 - Prepare your underlap for your choice of garment closure to use.

I run stitches to secure the underlap's seam allowance fold, but you can skip this step, too.

For this demo, I used velcro straps for the first time.

You may also use snap buttons.

Step 47 - Measure your underlap length to get an idea of how much velcro tape, or how many sets of snap buttons you will need.

Step 48 - Cut your needed velcro tape length. In my case here, I used 6mm. 

If you are using snap buttons, I would recommend 2-3 sets of 5mm size.

Step 49 - I stitch-baste first before I run the seams on my sewing machine.

Step 50 - Sew on velcro tape, or snap buttons, and remove stitch-bastings after, if any.

And we're done! Here's what the crewneck pullover looks like!

Hagrid loves his comfy crewneck pullover 😉

I will add more photos as soon as I create new pullovers for other doll types.

So, that's it for our little sewing session, dolling.

I hope you enjoyed the process and like what you have just created yourself.

Thank you so much for joining today's project with me.

If you're on Instagram, please tag me @atelierniShasha or #ateliernishashapatterns so I can check out your creations, too.

Bye, for now, loves!

xoxo,

shasha