Poppy's Doll Closet: Chiara's Fiesta Dress

Chiara (Kish Song) relaxing in the sun.

I was actually going to do something quite different this time. I had a plan to make Little House on the Prairie style dresses for all my Kish dolls. I spent a whole afternoon making stockings to go under the dresses. But it's a million degrees here at the moment . . . ok, not quite a million but every day this week has been over 40 degrees (that's 105 for those of you who use farenheit.) and the idea of making long sleeve dresses is kind of unmotivating. So instead I made a nice light sundress.

Chiara's (Kish Song) fiesta sundress.

The design is really simple, there are only two pieces; and while some parts can be a little awkward, they're not difficult.

Start by cutting two of the yoke pieces on the fold. The pattern says one but that was a mistake. You need one piece to show and one piece for lining.

Embroider the piece you're using for the outside of the dress. The flowers are :- French knots of pink and orange variegated thread, surrounded by a circle of running stitch in blue and purple variegated thread, then a ring of lazy daisy stitch in the pink and orange and a further ring of lazy daisy in green and blue variegated thread. The isolated french knots are the blue and purple thread again.

Then cut the skirt pieces, one of each length on the fold. I did a plain hem on the underskirt and hemmed the overskirt with hot pink zigzag stitch on the sewing machine. Hem both pieces and then sew the layers together at the back. Gather across the top edge.

Sandwich the two skirt layers between the two yoke layers (which should be right side in at this point) and stitch together, making sure the points meet on all layers. Turn the yoke layers right side out, turn in the edges and stitch all the way around. At this point I added a layer of topstitch all the way around the yoke in the pink and orange thread.

Finish the back opening and add fastenings and straps. The straps on mine are scraps of white baby ribbon.

The belt is made from embroidery thread. Get six strands of thread in various shades of brown and plait them until the plaited section is long enough to go around the doll's waist. (Leave a fair amount loose at each end.) When it's the correct length tie it off at each end. Cut off one strand of thread at this point at each end. Tie another knot approximately a further inch along the threads and cut off another thread here.

Now you should have a length of embroidery thread that's plaited in the centre with a knot at each end, then a non-plaited section at each end followed by another knot. After the second knot there should be four strands each end. seperate each end into two pieces of two strands and thread each two strand piece through a bead and tie in place. It takes longer to explain than it takes to do.