Doll Clothes Makeover

SO, bought some second hand doll clothes from Ebay.  These came off of porcelain dolls, I believe.

The idea was to maybe get some clothes to fit our 14" Heart to Heart and Correlle dolls.

 I decided to use this for a tutorial.

This is maybe a little daunting to those who are not experienced sewers.

Stay with me and maybe you'll feel like tackling something like this!

So here is the outfit on the H2H doll, way too big.

 Opened the back of the outfit and will use velcro to close it up later.

 Next I opened the collar area and separated the 2 cross-over parts.
The white trim was yellowed and looked dirty so I want to replace it.

Next I removed the sleeves, since the shoulder area was too broad.

I saved the sleeves until I decided what to do with the sleeve area.

Here is the cut piece back on the doll for a try-on.

At this point I try to picture in my mind what I want for this outfit....hmm.

 I decided to reattach the sleeves, cut short.  sorry I forgot to take pictures!

Then, with the dress turnout wrong side out, I pin the sides to fit the doll.

As you can see I decided to use a fancy stitch pattern to add some interest.

NEXT PANTS!

 Again, I turn the pants wrong side out and pin front and back to the doll.

I left some room for adding elastic to the waist.

 

After bringing in the front and back, I then put

the pants back on the doll and pin the crotch area.

Sew along the pin line to fit the pants.
I decided to make these pants cropped, so I cut away some length.

Added elastic and hand hemmed the cuffs.
I use my fingers to stretch the pant leg while I sew.
I tuck and sew the hem as I go around.

BEFORE and AFTER

AFTER

Notes:

1. I did not like the white ribbon trim, so I replaced it with pink ribbon. 
2. I hand stitched the button and reattached the front pieces by hand.
3. There is a lot of finagling that happened that I did not get pictures of, sorry.
4. Fray Check is VERY useful when working with this type of fabric which frays horribly. I especially used it around the shoulder seams.