Wollyonline BD1624 Summer Wardrobe 1

I've been a customer of Wollyonline for a long time. Like, a VERY long time! I think I probably bought my first pattern from there in about 2004. Back then, the patterns were printed patterns that were sent from The Netherlands. Some of the patterns I bought back then are no longer in print. I think these patterns were for the Chou Chou doll and the older and slightly larger Baby Annabell doll.

The first patterns came without a seam allowance, which was really annoying for someone who is used to sewing with patterns that have the seam allowance included, and the instructions were just a short paragraph, so you really had to have some sewing skill to be able to interpret them. Now all the Wollyonline patterns have been digitised and since 2020, a new range of patterns have been introduced that DO include a seam allowance. They also have step-by-step photo instructions. Even as someone who has been sewing for a long time, it's nice to have the photo instructions. It's not always easy to figure out what to do just from written instructions.

I also really enjoy being able to buy a pattern and then getting started straight away instead of having to wait days for it to arrive in the post. Another thing I like about the digital patterns is if I lose a piece, I can just print a new one out. Or if I want to make some alterations, I can do that and still always have the original pattern piece available to print out again.

BD1624 is specially designed for Baby Born dolls and allows you to make a summer wardrobe for your Baby Born. View A is a dress. View B is a dress with a rick rack trim. View C is another dress, but this one is a wrap dress. View D is a tiny pair of briefs. View E is a romper. View F is romper without legs, I think I've sometimes seen these referred to as 'bubble rompers'. View G is a pair of bloomers. View H is a jacket. View J is a little bag for the doll and view K is a hairbow. (There is no view I.) Overall, this gives lots of options for summer clothes for a girl doll. I think you might be able to get away with using the rompers for boy dolls if you picked a plain fabric or a boyish print.

The pattern has also been specially designed to be used with fat quarters. If you're new to sewing, a fat quarter is a small cut of fabric, it's basically a quarter of a yard of fabric (a yard being a bit less than a metre). The yard is cut into quarters, giving you a 18x22 inch square of fabric. Fat quarters often come in bundles, with a range of four to six different coordinating or themed fabrics. They're popular with quilters but I find them too small to be useful most of the time. Even making dolls clothes, they're not very useful unless you're making one small item, like a skirt or a blouse. Quilting fabric is usually quite expensive, but it's more affordable to buy as a fat quarter and there are many lovely designer quilting fabrics out there. This pattern allows you to make the most of your fat quarters and most of the views can be cut from a single fat quarter.

I originally bought this pattern about three years ago and started making a unicorn print romper and the wrap dress. I ended up abandoning both of them because trying them on the dolls as I went, it felt like they were both going to be too small. I also got a bit confused with the back opening on the romper and so they both sat in my abandoned pile for a very long time.

Eventually, I did finish the wrap dress, but I wasn't too happy with it. It's not my best sewing. It was quite tricky to sew the bodice lining down neatly at the end. But the dress looked lovely finished (as long as you don't look too closely at the bad sewing!). I had cut out matching bloomers but I think I must have accidentally cut the leg bands for one of the rompers instead of the ones for the bloomers, so the bloomers stayed in the abandoned pile. Unfortunately, the dress just didn't fit my Baby Born dolls at all. Mine are older, and their arms don't have a lot of movement, so there was no way I could bend their arms in the way I needed to to get them into the dress. I was able to get the dress on my Big Sister doll, but only with her arms bent back behind her, and even then, I felt like I was stretching the fabric more than I should. A child would have a lot of difficulty trying to dress their doll in this dress. It's nice on though! Just an incredibly tight fit.

Just recently I woke up and decided I wanted to sew this pattern again. I thought maybe I messed up and did something wrong last time I tried it so that's why things didn't fit. And I had some fat quarters I've had for ages that I haven't done anything with, so I decided to give it a go again. I cut out the view A dress from a quilting cotton. The dress uses a whole fat quarter, so I had to cut the bloomers from a coordinating fat quarter. I cut a bow from the same fabric as the bloomers as well. I then cut out the romper from a quilting cotton. I'm pretty certain one of these fabrics was from a range called Springtime. It will be long discontinued now. I was going to cut a bow from a coordinating fabric, but I had just enough fabric from the romper left over to cut a matching bow. I was part of the way through sewing when I remembered about the abandoned projects of the past, so I pulled out the romper and the bloomers. I had to cut leg bands for both of them, which I did from plain white polycotton.

The construction of these items was interesting. The elastic casing in the legs is sewn on rather than just folding a casing up on the main fabric. The way the backs were done was interesting too. The main fabric and the lining wasn't sewn closed on the back edges, so it left a gap to insert the velcro into and they were sewn closed at the end. I had some trouble topstitching the lining down as even though I had pinned it, it wanted to move and so I ended up with a big wrinkle at the end on the floral romper. I left it because, well, I was a bit tired by that point and it's kind of hidden by the print.

When I was done, I had four little outfits that were pretty to look at, but that didn't really fit my dolls very well. All the Wollyonline patterns I've used in the past say they're designed to fit the Baby Born doll wearing a nappy. I didn't think I'd be able to get the romper on my Baby Born doll who was wearing a nappy. I managed it but it was very tight. I think a young child would really struggle to dress their doll in most of these outfits and I worry that the fabric or stitching could get ripped or the necklines and armholes could get badly stretched out of shape. I also didn't love the velcro closings, but that's more of a me problem. The velcro I bought recently is quite harsh and the hook is very scratchy but despite this, it's not very sticky when you try to press it to the loop side. I'd love to never sew with velcro again! The back closings do look quite nice when the velcro is closed though. I also felt that sewing the casings on at the legs made them look a bit bulky.

Baby Annabell is 43cm and can share a lot of clothes with Baby Born. Many of the items I've made from Wollyonline patterns in the past fit Baby Annabell. Since Annabell's body is a bit chunkier she doesn't fit in the dresses or rompers. She can wear the bloomers and the headband. And if I'd made the little bag she could of course have used the bag. I'm not sure about the jacket. It looks more roomy and I don't think it's specifically cut from a fat quarter so that might fit Annabell too.

When I was dressing the dolls, the outfits went onto the newer Big Sister Play and Style doll better than the other dolls. The extra joints she has at her elbows make it easier to get the outfits on. The romper fitted really very well on her and both dresses were a good fit, although the view A dress was very short. I actually think this is a great pattern for the Big Sister Play and Style doll. You could easily lengthen the skirt to make it a bit longer if you weren't using fat quarters. The dresses also fitted quite well on some of my smaller Berenguer dolls who are around 38 to 40cm. Their bodies are slimmer and they're also soft bodied dolls so have a lot more movement of their limbs, making them easier to dress. The romper doesn't fit them so well because the crotch ends up in the wrong place since their bodies are shorter.

Overall, it's a cute pattern and it's good that it makes use of fat quarters, but I don't recommend it for Baby Born. It just doesn't fit that great. At least, I don't recommend it if you're making the clothes for a child to play with, it should be fine if you're an adult collector of dolls, although the wrap dress didn't fit Baby Born at all. Maybe the newer Baby Borns are a bit more flexible so they might be easier to dress. But even my original Big Sister doll who has a lot more movement in her arms struggled to get into the wrap dress. However, as I already mentioned, it's a great pattern for the Play and Style Big Sister doll. It fits her really well. You could create her an amazing summer wardrobe with lots of variety with a bundle or two of fat quarters.

Also, the pattern is easy to use, you just print then cut out. If I remember rightly only the skirt parts need taping together. The step-by-step photo instructions are very helpful too. I don't think I would recommend it for complete beginners though. None of the steps are particularly complicated but there are easier and more simple ways to make dolls dresses for beginners. Sewing down the bodice lining at the end is probably the most difficult part.