Busy Bee Academy

Original Hitty Supplement In this final installment of Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe, I’ll show you a  few small adjustments you can make to create a new look with this pattern, or make a longer bodice for a lower-waisted Hitty like the Original Hitty herself, or dolls made to be very close to her in measurements.…… Continue reading Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe 10

Step 12 : Buttons and Thread Loops To fasten the back of Hitty’s outfit I like to use buttons and thread loops. One pair on the skirt and one at the blouse’s neckline are enough for fastening, but I like to put a third button halfway down the back of the blouse, so it creates…… Continue reading Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe 9

Step 11 : Gather and Fit the Skirt Your Skirt piece should be turned and pressed, and it’s time to gather the waistline.   Both long edges of the skirt piece are a fold– the bottom edge of the skirt is the side closest to the original long seam. The waistline is farthest away. You…… Continue reading Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe 8

Step 10 : Gather the Blouse Now it’s time to fit the blouse to your individual Hitty, and gather the front of the neckline with pretty, decorative pleats.  The blouse can be gathered around the waist, or left loose.  The skirt waistline must be gathered and matched to your Hitty and fitted over her blouse.…… Continue reading Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe 7

Step 9 : Turn the Blouse Right-Side Out Now it’s time to turn the blouse right side out.  It’s also time to turn your skirt right-side out if you haven’t already, since you’ll need to iron both pieces before going on to the finishing work on both together. Open bottom opening of the blouse piece…… Continue reading Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe 6

Now we will turn back to our Holiday blouses, and stitch the underarm seams.  This can be done on the sewing machine but I find it very difficult to maneuver it around under a normal-size presser foot, so I usually do it by hand.  If you do this on the machine use a very short…… Continue reading Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe 5

This part of the blouse can be confusing and non-intuitive, but the good news is that it’s the only really tricky part. Go slowly and study the pictures.  It’s worth it in the end because the technique allows you to make fully-lined short or long sleeved blouses with all the raw edges concealed. This page of…… Continue reading Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe 4

Our next step in Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe is to stitch the neckline.  This works the same way in both blouse designs.  While we’re at the sewing machine, we’ll also do the next steps on the skirts, which mostly go together the same way regardless of the type of top they’ll be paired with. Step…… Continue reading Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe 3

In Part 2 of Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe we will cut our fabric pieces and prepare them with a little stitching, then we’ll trace the pattern(s) onto the fabric. Hitty Bee’s Basic Blouse is shown with contrasting lining in a different fabric, and Hitty Bee’s Fancy Blouse is shown with matching lining in the same…… Continue reading Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe 2

Welcome to Hitty Bee’s Classroom!  In this first of our free sewing projects at BBA, you will learn basic techniques to make a wonderfully versatile blouse and skirt set.  Once you understand the construction you can alter the pattern to create many different looks, all with the same fully-lined garments and fully-finished seams.  A blouse…… Continue reading Hitty Bee’s Holiday Wardrobe 1