Combining Passions

I came across this page in my Facebook and thought I would submit an article to share my passion for sewing/creating doll fashions. I have been sewing since I was 14 years old, having taken home economics in high school and have never stopped.

I found sewing to be a wonderful creative outlet with challenges that match whatever I feel up to doing at the time I start a new project. As I grew older, that manifested itself into sewing clothing for myself to wear to work. There was a lot more fun sewing costumes where I could be more creative and flexible trying different things. Once I was married and had children, I transferred those skills learned over the years into clothing and costumes for my family and items for my home. In the last twenty years, my sewing/creative skills were useful in operating my own portrait/wedding studio. Living in an area not close to a major city center, made reproducing items from other things that were available a necessity.

Over the years, I learned the most important thing with sewing was having good equipment and a lot of patience. I acquired lots of good equipment and the perfect tools to make a job easier and more finished looking - this included a good pair of Fiskars pinking shears. Every occasion called for a new tool to add to the collection, and my family did not disappoint. I realized that my best work was done when I was patient and took my time. Any rushed project ended up with more mistakes and more time consuming redos.

As my children grew and moved on to their independent adventures, I found myself with more free time to explore other creative outlets. However, I did not need any new clothing and had lots of left overs collected over the years and wondered what I could do with these. I explored several options and found that I enjoyed spending my time doing things just for the pleasure and no pressure. Sewing for adults or children other than myself, came with expectations that put pressure on the time I spent, so that was not the best option. I did not need anything so I came to the conclusion of the perfect thing to do - make doll sized clothing.

Doll sized clothing had a lot of positives and few negatives. It would help me use up fabric I had collected - but did not need lots of to make small doll clothes. I could still use the sewing skills and tools I acquired to produce amazing outfits and learn some new ones - like how to hem with tulle (wished I had learned that many moons ago). I could be creative and combine patterns to make custom-designed outfits. Having been a photographer but no longer commercially, I was able to put that equipment to continued use and take photos of the dolls in their outfits in natural locations. These were all positives, sewing and using tools acquired, being able to be creative, using photography skills learned, and recycling and using fabrics and notions collected over the years. The only negative I could perceive, was the small scale of the sewing, but with patience, that was easily overcome.

All-in-all, being able to use my tools collected over the years to make doll clothes has been a wonderful experience and allowed me to combine skills and passions. I began this project when Covid started but have no desire to stop at any time soon and the outfits have just gotten more elaborate over the year as I learned more techniques and see so much inspiration from others. There are ways to continue doing what you love just in a different manner. Do not be afraid to explore as many options as possible to enrich your life.