I collect doll clothes patterns. It doesn't matter if I own that doll or not. I can get lost in dreams inspired by the graphics on pattern fronts. The illustrations on doll clothes patterns pose inanimate toys in ways those stiff vinyl limbs could never achieve. Intriguing, alien. If I make the doll clothes on the pattern front, will I achieve entry into their vinyl world? Will I know what those dolls are thinking when we pick them up dress and undress them 10 times in an hour?
Baby doll patterns from the Fifties show the babies as sweet and passive. The illustrations are 
obviously dolls. The drawn fabrics are in romantic colors. If you owned a Betsey Wetsy or Tiny Tears as a child, the patterns allow you to return to the days when you and the dolls were new. By the Seventies, the colors used for doll babies were brighter, and the dolls are in positions that real babies use. The sleeping baby has his head to one side. By 1993, Butterick was using photos of actual dolls, and the clothing, even for Cabbage Patch Preemies, was closer to miniature versions of adult clothing than it was to actual baby wear. The colors are enough to make one's eyes ache.
obviously dolls. The drawn fabrics are in romantic colors. If you owned a Betsey Wetsy or Tiny Tears as a child, the patterns allow you to return to the days when you and the dolls were new. By the Seventies, the colors used for doll babies were brighter, and the dolls are in positions that real babies use. The sleeping baby has his head to one side. By 1993, Butterick was using photos of actual dolls, and the clothing, even for Cabbage Patch Preemies, was closer to miniature versions of adult clothing than it was to actual baby wear. The colors are enough to make one's eyes ache.Toddler doll patterns from the Sixties show the toddlers as mischievous. A doll in a raincoat looks ready to splash in a puddle. The pattern front for Simplicity 7971 shows six little imps dying to get into trouble. The names of the dolls for whom the pattern is intended support this: Winking Winnie, Baby Walk and Run, Star Bright and Giggles. At 15 and 18 inches, if these dolls were able to move on their own, they could cause real trouble. To some people, the doll faces look sweet.
It's hard to resist vintage patterns for doll clothes and soft toys. Sometimes it's as if they seek me out at 2nd hand stores and garage sales. Somebody else was rooting in that same bin just a minute before, but the pattern didn't surface until I came along. It used to be a lot harder. The only places I found vintage patterns were at doll shows or in catalogs put out by collectors. After I owned five or ten patterns, I became a magnet for doll clothes patterns. 
Fifteen years of unbridled pattern collecting, and I'm compelled to admit that I'm a hoarder. It's time to set some of these beauties free to inspire the dreams of other people. One day I looked up and discovered that I had many boxes of doll clothes and doll related patterns. I have no fixed space for sewing, and forget where I put patterns. I sew for dolls 2 months of the year, so there is plenty of time to lose things. In the meantime, I acquire more patterns from thrift stores, thinking, perhaps, that I don't own the pattern or that I will eventually acquire a doll that size. Does any of this sound familiar, or am I the only person in the world crushed beneath the weight of stuff she owns?My loss will be someone's gain, maybe even yours. Of course, the instant the pattern is out of the house I will need it, but those are the breaks.These baby doll patterns from the mid-fifties have such lovely graphics. Baby clothes don't change much in shape or style, but the patterns sure do.
It would be sensible for a person who draws her own flat patterns to get rid of all commercial patterns, but I can't do that.The graphics are too intriguing. Looking at patterns made in different decades is probably the closest I will get to time travel. Patterns for soft toys from the Fifties are somehow sweeter than the ones from the Nineties. Those seem commercially countrified. Patterns for baby doll clothes don't change in shape, but the dolls do. And the names!Tearie Dearie, Betsey Wetsy, Giggles, Baby Walk and Run. I couldn't make these things up.I can claim that I no longer adore patterns for soft dolls and animals, but I'd be lying.There's a Marjorie Puckett pattern for sheep that look like artwork.There are comical cats and realistic seals, and dressed cows and geese. The sheep require dowels for the legs. These allow the sheep to stand nicely, but they are no longer entirely soft.
These goodies and more are for sale on my Etsy site: tiny seamster
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