It’s that magical festive time of year again – time to buy presents, deck the halls and of course, dust off your festive sweater/ Christmas jumper. We can’t have your special dolls missing out on the joy of the festive sweater/ Christmas jumper, so I’ve created a free pattern for you to sew your Barbie and other fashion dolls a pretty Festive Sweater. It can also be made as a everyday sweater if you use a non-festive embroidery pattern or leave it plain. Sew what are you waiting for – you could make one as a gift for the dolly loving child in your life or just keep it for your dolls (no one is judging)!
The Sweater is a blouson style, so it is gathered at the waistband. It will also look great on Sindy dolls and other 11.5″ fashion dolls. The best thing is that the pattern is completely free to download and full instructions with photos are provided below. I may receive a small commission from any affiliate sales – see here for details.
What you need:
- Jersey fabric
- Thin iron on interfacing
- Small festive embroidery stickers
- Thread to match fabric
- Small snap fastener
- Embroidery threads for your chosen design
- Small 4″ embroidery hoop
- Hi-tack fabric glue
- Hand sewing needle
Download the pattern by clicking below:
How to make your Festive Sweater
Time needed: 2 hours
Instructions
- Cut out pattern
Cut out all of your pattern pieces along the solid lines.
- Adding interfacing to stabilize
Cut a square of interfacing approx. 4 1/2″. Iron onto the back of the jersey fabric, to stabilize where you will be embroidering your pattern.
- Trace front of sweater
Pin the front sweater pattern piece to your fabric, on the right side of the fabric where you have added the interfacing. Trace around the pattern piece. Don’t cut it out. Add the embroidery sticker in a central place.
- Embroider design
Place the sweater front into your embroidery hoop. Cut off any excess fabric. Embroider your design. Follow the instructions (that come with your stick and stitch patterns) to soak off the sticker. Dry then press.
- Cut out the rest of the pieces
Following the instructions on the pattern pieces, pin and cut out the remaining pattern pieces from the jersey fabric.
- Joining shoulder seams
With right sides together, join front piece to back pieces at the shoulder seams.
- Prepare cuffs, hem and neckline ribbing
With wrong sides together, fold in half lengthwise and press the neckline, cuffs and hem ribbing. Glue to secure. This makes it easier to handle them later.
- Secure the neckband
Fold the neckband ribbing in half and mark the centre on the raw edge. Mark the centre of the front at the neck. Pin the neckband to the front at centre, matching the centre points and raw edges. Add some dots of glue to one side of the pin, gently stretch the neckband ribbing and press it down. Secure with a pin while the glue dries. Repeat on the other side of the centre pin.
- Sew neckline ribbing
Sew the neckband in place. Make sure you get the seam allowance right so it isn’t too wide. Snip into the seam allowance around the neckband to help it lay flat. Press the seam towards the body.
- Attach the cuffs
With right sides together, and raw edges matching, stretch the cuff ribbing to fit the end of the sleeve. Glue in place. Sew. Press seam towards main sleeve. Repeat with second sleeve cuff.
- Attach sleeves to main body
With right sides together, pin the sleeve in the armhole. Sew around the armhole. Press seams towards body.
- Sew second sleeve as per step 11
- Sew side seams
With right sides together, pin and sew the side seams from the cuffs to bottom of hem. Press seam open.
- Gather the bottom of the sweater
Sew a running stitch along the bottom edge, keeping within the seam allowance. Use this to gather the bottom edge to the same length as the waistband.
- Attach waistband
Pin the waistband ribbing to the bottom of the sweater, right sides together and raw edges matching. Sew. Press seam towards main body.
- Sew the back seam
Pin and sew the back seam from bottom waistband, stopping at the mark shown on the pattern. Press seam open.
- Finishing back opening
To finish the back opening, turn right side out and fold over the edge on the left. Press and sew. Add a snap to each side of the opening to finish. You could use hook and loop tape instead of the snap fastening.
And you’re all finished! I hope you’ve enjoyed making this Festive Sweater for your dolls or as a gift. I love to see what you make – use #galaxiadolls on socials so I can see your lovely creations.
Claire x
