BJD Sewing For Absolute Beginners

So you have a new doll, and you want to make clothes for it so it's not running around naked. (Eek!) There's only one problem: You've never sewn before in your LIFE.

Fortunately, there are guides out there to help you. Some of them have been out for years; some are newer. But there are guides, and I've compiled a few.

Floofy Doll Skirt

I made this guide! It's for a floofy, slightly-Goth skirt that looks good on any size doll! Tulle is super-thin, so folding it over won't make too much bulk, even for the tiniest doll.

This site is how I first learned to sew doll clothes. The pictures are for American Girl, but really all you need is a pattern for YOUR doll, and you can follow along to see how it works. I especially recommend her pants directions for people who have trouble with pants patterns. For the shirt, ignore everything she says about altering patterns; you probably won't need to worry about that. THIS SITE DOES NOT INCLUDE PATTERNS.

Doribelle's No-Pattern Peasant Blouse

To an experienced sewist, this is gonna look a little junky, but it works, and more importantly, it works for ANY doll, including that adorable resin child that's in between sizes that you don't know what else to do with. If you can't find a pattern for doll clothes, this is, at worst, a decent placeholder garment until you learn to sew nicer stuff. Plus, you get the feeling of accomplishment of making a shirt in less than an hour. Best of all, you can ignore the talk about splayed hands, because BJD hands come off.

Requiem Art patterns

How many times can I plug Requiem Art Designs on my website? But I do it because when you buy a pattern from her shop, you get very nice directions included--with pictures! I can attest that her directions are thorough and very beginner-friendly.

Creativ_Mum

Most of Creativ_Mum's patterns are for Smart Doll or MSD. Her videos are not only for her own free patterns, but also for the free patterns Danny Choo made for Smart Doll, which should also fit Dollfie Dream. (They're about the same size.) Warning: Her videos are all in German, so if you don't speak German, you'll want to have the subtitles turned on. But she does an excellent job explaining, and the subtitles are mercifully accurate. (She must have uploaded them herself, which is a lot of extra work, and deserves kudos for that.)

Undead Threads

This site has patterns and directions for a variety of BJDs, and for your other dolls as well. Her patterns are specifically labeled to work with the directions.