Two down, uncounted to go

I've been a busy little beaver up here in the sewing room, pounding out garments for my Etsy store.

Finished what I like to call the "Polka-stripe" dress the other day, and a really nice pima cotton batiste blouse.

I finally wised up and put the zipper in first, so if I screwed it up I would be only out a handful of minutes' work. I did good. It was easy to match the stripes in the skirt, and I decided to pleat on the stripes for the puffed sleeves. Due to no planning on my part, the pleats were perfectly spaced for the sleeve pleats.

This is the same pattern as the blue and white gingham ruffled dress I posted about earlier.

The blouse caused me to sweat a little, although it did only take me 3 1/2 hours, about what a human-sized blouse would take me, so I guess that's OK. The cotton was a delight to work with, and I have more in white and light blue to play with. It cries out for rows and rows of pintucking.

And, I finally caught on to 3/8 being larger than 5/8 and set up my Singer automatic buttonholer to make the buttonholes. Yes, those buttons really really work.
Hancock Fabrics carry Slimline buttons, 6 to a card. On sale the other day for 60 cents. These are 1/4", the smallest buttons I'm willing to try and do and undo. 
 
The blouse-sweat came from the darn vintage collar construction. I cut a white blouse out at the same time, so I might change the order of operations just a bit for the next try. AND, by cutting two blouses out in 1/2 hour, I saved 1/2 hour of time! Sweet!

Etsy has a suggested formula for figuring the asking price for an item: material (ALL, including packing materials) + profit + labor. Then you double the resulting wholesale number for retail. There might have been something like overhead in there. 
Anyway, my material cost is quite low, and I've had to set my labor quite low, or the garments would be seriously overpriced. 

Well, enough whinging.

I have a couple of improvised photo floods, and today I kluged together some barn doors out of disposable pie pans and also a diffuser out of kitchen parchment paper to help direct the light where I want it and make it a little less edgy.

I played around with a backlight to show off the batiste. 

The doll's face was quite dark with the backlight, so I deployed the barn-door/diffuser thing and all was well. I still had to lighten up everything in the GIMP, since it is raining like mad today and my lights are 75w equivalent daylight fluorescent bulbs.

I stuck the Nikon on a tripod, framed the photo I wanted, and started waving the big light around over my head while clicking the camera. I'm sure the termite inspector person thought I was absolutely off my head. (No termites, by the way.)
I picked the version I liked best.

The Black Coat

I finally finished a black corduroy coat for my Etsy shop: The Educated Flea

Everything takes longer than I want it to, but I think this came out great so it was worth the wait. This is the same pattern as the pink wool one that I put shoulder pads in (Hello Dolly Boutique pattern).

I decided to skip the pads since I want this coat to fit a variety of dolls, and the shoulder pads do take up a little room.

Speaking of fitting dolls, I need to take some of my Etsy things, or duplicates of them, to doll meets so I can ask folks to try them on their SD dolls. It would be nice to list a range of dolls the garments fit.

Anyway, black is hard to work on in anything but good, strong, natural daylight. So the short winter days limit my sewing hours. I'm glad I finished sewing it before it started raining buckets, although I did manage to photograph during a rainy day. I am using 75w equivalent daylight florescent lightbulbs in cheap heat lamp reflectors from the home improvement store.

The color temp is ok but the light is not very bright. However, it is bright enough to make for dramatic shadows. I suppose dramatic shadows will have to be a "feature" from now on.

More photos of the coat.

Pockets!

Added a half-belt to give the coat a more defined waist.

The blown-out highlights illustrate my photographic ineptitude.

Daft me set the lining in by hand. I actually enjoy that part of the process!

Swimsuit, again

I've bitten the bullet and will be opening an Etsy shop.

So I've had to get serious about making saleable garments. I am very picky. I want things to be just so.

So, I picked up 3 cheerful small scale prints that I thought would make nice vintage style swimsuits.

I kind of screwed up this one, but I'll probably finish it and call it a learning experience and keep it for myself. I really like the print, so I will pick up more and try try again.

There is a previous post here here, in the dark about the swimsuit pattern (click on the big blank space).

I tried integrating the short wrap into the shorts by using just the front draped panel. I like it! 

I tried a cb zip. Oh my, that did not work, since my doll is very curvy and the zipper would have had to go too far into the curve of her rump to be truly long enough. So I will try a side-seam zipper instead.
These bottoms go on, but it is a stitch-popping struggle.

I converted the straps to a halter type, since I plan on offering this in my store and I would like customers to have the option of adjusting the fit of the top a bit.

When I last made this suit, I altered the back of the top so it fit my doll snugly. I shall have to undo that a little bit at make the top a little bit adjustable for larger-busted dolls.

1940's Woman's suit progress report

Here's another Hello Dolly Boutique pattern, this time for a woman's suit: blouse, skirt, pants, and jacket. I've made an attempt (or attempts) at all four garments. The blouse I hit it after the second try, the skirt needs a good mark 2, the pants are now on mark 3 and still hosed, and the jacket is not bad after mark 1 but needs another try.

The first pants and skirt prototype were in a very lightweight cotton voile, and the blouse in a heavy (for a blouse) cotton quilting print.

I tried the skirt again in a wool fabric and altered the pleats with no regard to how pleats actually work and it was not a go. So I binned it with no photos. I will revert to the pattern shown above, with narrow pleats and just a little bit more room in the hips. I may also try a side zipper, since I've ordered a selection of doll-scale zippers from Zipperthatdoll.

The blouse's second try was a success, although the material (a poly lining material salvaged from a thrift store garment) was a pain to work with. I will look for similar fabric since it drapes very well and really looks good in doll-scale.

I've been fighting the pants since that first prototype. I altered them to be a bit bigger in the hips and smaller in the waist, and to be long enough for cuffs. Apparently I can't measure well, since they were too short for cuffs, and too small in the waist for the Impldoll I intended them for. So they are uncuffed and on the Resinsoul instead.

And, if you'll notice, the seams on the grey twill are NOT EVEN. The inseam twists to the front although the outseam is OK. This is a flaw in the pattern. So I redrew the front and back inseams for the third (and I'd hoped) final draft, widening the legs at the same time. 
Now the seams are still not balanced (in the beige version below), although I did make enough alteration for the cuffs. Somehow the waist ended up a bit loose. I know how to fix this, which is to make a Petersham ribbon to fit the waist and incorporate it into the pants.

Next time for sure ...

Now, check out that nice jacket. It is very close to perfect: the fit is great, the bound buttonholes worked well.

These are two piece sleeves, with an upper sleeve and lower (or under) sleeve. This type of sleeve fits well, since the sleeve is shaped to the slight curve arms have (who, except dolls, stands around w/ perfectly straight arms, anyway?) The curve of this sleeve is not in the right place, so the next version will see the sleeve seams rotated just a bit in so the seams lie in the right place (no markings on the pattern so I took a SWAG as to where the seams should be and I missed by a bit) and the curve matches bend of the elbow.

The sleeve opening is also very very close to the same size as my doll's hands, so I need to either widen the sleeve at the bottom or add a non-closed vent. I had to put temporary pieces of heavy thread through the blouse cuffs, stuff the threads though the jacket sleeves, and keep a hold of the threads to keep the blouse sleeves from riding up as the jacket went on. Yikes.

I was sure the jacket did not fit well since there seemed to be a lot of extra material in the upper back. But that extra material (also present in the blouse and created by darts extending from the back of the shoulder seam) allows free movement. The middle upper photo in the composite shows just a little bit of pulling across the back. 
I will adapt this jacket to sports wear (why not go skiing or snowshoeing?) with an Action Back cut, moving that excess fabric into pleats at the sides of the upper back and maybe also making an Eisenhower type short jacket.

The fabric is a bit heavy for this suit, so the next pants and skirt will be in the rose wool I used for Regina's coat (the Resinsoul).  I might make a jacket in the rose also, or I might look for a nice brown for the jacket. I can handle only so much matchy-matchy.

Review: Dress Coat

"Fitted Dress Coat" #187, Hello Dolly Boutique patterns (c)2008 as sized for the 22" American Model doll 

This pattern is for a 1940s era princess seamed coat with inverted front and back bodice pleats and optional trim. I have altered this pattern to fit my 22" ball jointed doll by ResinSoul.

Measurements in centimeters  
Diff          Resinsoul Dai  Amer Mod 22"
+2   Height             58    56
-2.5 Bust               22.5  25
 0   Waist              15.5  15.5
-3   Neck circumference  9    12 
-1.2 Hip                24    25.2
-3   Shoulder width      8.5  11.5
-2   Arm length         16.5  18.5

I chose to use a very crisp and springy Italian tropical wool fabric and Bemberg rayon for the lining. The wool was prone to fraying and was reluctant to take a strong crease. Rather, it would take a crease but would not hold a crease. In addition, the small size of some of the pattern pieces made working with a fraying fabric hard on the nerves. But I got it done and I'm happy with the results.

Unlike other HDB patterns sized for a 22" doll I have used, I did not make many size alterations to this pattern - merely taking in the side seams a little bit.

Sloppy! I did not pull her coat down into place before taking this shot. She stands fairly sway-backed.

The inverted front and back pleats on the princess seaming were quite difficult to do in springy wool. I ended up basting all three folds for the pleats, only removing my basting when I was sure I was going to do no more pressing. I have a steam generating iron with a separate tank. It is a home model, not a commercial one, but I was glad to have an insane amount of steam available to me. I used 1/2 a tank of water steaming and pressing this coat. That's a LOT of water.

More apologies! I shoot jpgs with my little camera and sometimes I get moire artifacts. Like I did here. The fabric is a plain twill, I promise.

Anyway.

I would suggest a few pattern alterations: adding pad stitching to the collar and lapels, adding shoulder pads, and carefully checking the finished diameter of the cuffs - the sleeves are very difficult to get over my doll's hands. In addition, the lower front lining piece is about 3/4" too short and the front facing where it is attached to the back neck facing is quite narrow - there is not a lot of room to turn it under or otherwise finish it.

The only one of those alterations I did was to add shoulder pads - borrowed from a 1949 McCall pattern and scaled down for the doll.

I lined the top surface of the pads with crinoline, as the instructions require, and used cotton makeup removal pads for the layers of batting inside. 

The outer surface is plain cotton. I ended up snipping off just the ends of the pads, since the pads were just a shade too long. I might scale down the pattern further in the future.

If you are patient and understand how a coat goes together, this is a useful basic pattern. Despite my battling the wool, I did enjoy the process (or maybe I like to suffer) and plan on making it again.

Review: Day Dress

1949 "Busy Day Pinafore or Dress" #101, Hello Dolly Boutique patterns (c)2008 as sized for the 22" American Model doll 

This pattern is for a day dress with sleeve and trim options.
I have altered this pattern to fit my 22" ball jointed doll by ResinSoul.

Measurements in centimeters  
Diff          Resinsoul Dai  American Model 22"
+2   Height             58    56
-2.5 Bust               22.5  25
 0   Waist              15.5  15.5
-3   Neck circumference  9    12 
-1.2 Hip                24    25.2
-3   Shoulder width      8.5  11.5
-2   Arm length         16.5  18.5

The Basics: The pattern pieces, drafted down by hand from a vintage pattern, have some grainlines marked and seam allowances are included.

The instructions are bullet point style, with some small reproductions of vintage pattern instruction drawings. There are some typos, misspellings, and wrong words in the instructions which might present a few problems for some less fluent English-language readers.
Although dots and notches are extensively referenced in the instructions, no notches and only two dots appear on the pattern. The missing markings are not an insurmountable problem for an experienced seamstress but would be perplexing to a novice. 

I used a small scale gingham cotton/poly seersucker for the sleeveless view, with shoulder and bodice ruffles, and "baby" rick-rack trim.

Ruffles: The instructions state to turn the straight edge of each ruffle piece under 1/8", then to apply rick-rack trim. There are no grainlines marked on these pieces. If the ruffle is cut on the straight of the grain, the turned under edge is prone to fraying. Cutting the ruffle on the bias would solve this problem but could make the turning under difficult. A simpler solution is to extend the straight-cut edge of the ruffle 1/8" to allow a double-turned finish.

The instructions say to sew the side seams before attaching the armhole ruffles. It is much easier to reverse this order and put off the side seam until later.

Facings vs. lining: Facing pieces are provided, again without notches or other useful marks. With the seam allowances from the two ruffles on each side of the bodice, and the seams on the shoulders, facing the armhole and neck edges makes for unnecessary bulk. I would suggest lining the bodice instead. Lining will also provide a neater finished appearance. (The placket instructions do reference a lining, but that is the only mention of a lining. This is possibly a cut-n-paste error by the publisher.)

Pocket: A pocket placement mark is provided on the front skirt piece. It is worth noting that this marking represents the size of the pocket pattern piece before the edges are turned under, rather than the finished pocket.
On my version of this dress, I narrowed the pattern pieces so much that I had to move the pockets to the side, to avoid them meeting at the center front of the skirt.
To make turning the pocket edges under less frustrating, I advise using a cardboard turning template cut to the size of the finished pocket.
There are no grainlines marked on the pocket pattern piece. I assumed that the pocket should be cut on the same grain as the front skirt piece. I chose to cut my pockets on the bias grain, to create some extra visual interest. I also chose not to use the pocket stay piece provided, since my bias cutting put the top edge of the pocket nearly on the straight of the grain, and that, along with the rick-rack trim, would prevent any stretching of the top of the pocket.
Although the instructions do not say to do so, I attached the pockets so the top edge curves out a little bit. I think it looks nicer than totally flat pockets.

Fit: It is hard to determine how this pattern would fit an American Model doll, since I made a very altered version for my skinny Resinsoul doll. I did take the waist in considerably, which make me think this dress might be a little large on the doll for which it was drafted, since that doll and mine have the same waist measurement.

This pattern made with ruffles makes an extremely cute dress, with a lot of possibilities for further embellishment.

7 days of sewing madness!

I've been wallowing in sewing and photography.

I made another thrift store run (pants 1/2 off this time) and picked up some assorted tweedy things to recycle into doll clothing.

I figure I should post some pic, since it has been a week since I said a single word (well, made a post).

The nightgown for the Impldoll (pattern destined eventually for a splendid 1930s white silk and gold lame evening gown) (Hello Dolly Boutique pattern).

A photoshoot featuring the two dolls and their unfortunately matchy-matchy dressing gowns.

Mockup of 1940s outfit (Hello Dolly Boutique pattern) in cotton (I like the colors but cotton quilting fabric is too heavy for a shirt and cotton voile is too light for pants).

Two halloween costumes for a sewing thread on Den of Angels.

Perfect Patterns pattern

A very silly (that's what some would say) Hollywood glamor photoshoot

Review: draped swim suit and cover up

Draped swim suit and cover up #36, Hello Dolly Boutique patterns (c)2012 as sized for the 22" American Model doll 

This pattern is for a bra-style top with a shaped bottom edges, swim trunks, and two coverup skirts, one short and one long. A simple pattern for a hat is also included.
I have altered this pattern to fit my 22" ball jointed doll by Impldoll.

Measurements in centimeters  
Diff          Impldoll Model  American Model 22"
 0   Height             56    56
-1.5 Bust               23.5  25
-1   Head circumference 21    22
+1   Waist              16.5  15.5
-3.5 Neck circumference  8.5  12 
-0.7 Hip                24.5  25.2
 0   Shoulder width     11.5  11.5
-2.5 Arm length         16    18.5

The pattern pieces, drafted down by hand from a vintage pattern, have grainlines marked, and a few notches. Seam allowances are included.

The instructions are bullet point style, with some small reproductions of vintage pattern instruction drawings. There are some typos, misspellings, and wrong words in the instructions which might present a few problems for some less fluent English-language readers.

My changes to the garment: Aside from altering it extensively to fit my Impldoll, I eliminated the front darts on the trunk, lined the trunks, added a band to the center front of the top, shortened the short overskirt, and did not line the overskirt. I also changed how I constructed and inserted the ties on the short overskirt. 

I did not make the long overskirt or the hat.

In general, I believe that this pattern is oversized for the doll it was drafted for. However, if you check the fit as you go, this is easily corrected.

Trunks:

The trunks have three pattern pieces, front, back, and waistband. They are unlined. I lined them.

The pattern description, as provided by HDB, states "...trunks have a cute front skirt, or just plain trunks." There is no pattern piece for a "front skirt" nor is it ever described in the pattern instructions. 

I believe it would be possible to incorporate the draped front section of the short coverup into the construction of the trunks if desired. It would be necessary to shorten the front skirt a bit for this use and narrow it to match the front trunk pattern piece.

The front darts are wide for their length, leading to a bubble-belly effect. I would suggest replacing each wide dart with two parallel narrower darts. Or, for a flat-stomached doll like the Impldoll Model, eliminate the front darts altogether.

I lined the trunks, since the cotton voile I used is sheer enough I found seeing the doll's jointed thighs distracting.

Short coverup:

This is a simple wrap skirt, with five pattern pieces: a back cut on the fold, a front piece, a second front piece with draping, a waistband (shared with the trunk pattern pieces), and the ties (shared with the other coverup pattern pieces).

In general, this skirt comes out too big around to tie snugly around the doll's waist, even too large for my doll (larger waist then the American Model). Also, the lack of pattern notches and the disconnect between the written pattern instructions and the included drawings is a little confusing.

The front pattern piece is asymmetrical and, along with no notches, it is unclear which edge of the asym front piece should be sewn to the back of the skirt. Careful examination of the illustrations provided indicates the skirt should close right over left. I goofed and mine closes backwards.

Also, the lefthand edge of the front pattern pieces (as viewed from the printed side) matches best in length with the back pattern piece. Taking all this into account, it is necessary to cut the draped pattern piece face down on the right side of the fabric, and the other front piece face up on the right side of the fabric. The back piece and waistband do not matter since they are symmetrical. If your fabric has no right and wrong side, ignore all that.

The pattern piece for the ties has one end angled. The directions confusingly refer to the "curved end" and direct you to fold the waistband in half, sew it, and turn it. This won't work with one angled end.

The illustration shows the ties with turned under edges, which matches the intention of the original pattern, yielding a wider, less stiff tie.

In addition to the construction of the ties, the illustrations show that the ties were to be integrated into the waistband, rather than sewn into the seam allowance below the waistband as the written directions would have. The waistband/tie illustration also answers the puzzle of the far-too-short waistband piece. Inserting the ties into the waistband, rather than sewing them in the seam below the waistband, requires a two-piece waistband.

Left hand of pic: tie inserted at end of waistband. Right hand of pic: two-piece waistband and inserted tie

Tie inserted between the two waistband sections

Two-part waistband stitched together on the inside of the waist

Top:
The top was straightforward to construct with three pattern pieces: front, back, and straps, all cut twice. I chose to attach the shoulder straps separately, rather than incorporating them into the lining/fabric seam. I added a band to enclose the gathering at the center front to cover up my messy stitching there. 

Review: Swagger Coat

This is a very long and wordy review. Go get some coffee or iced tea and settle in for the long haul.

Review: Swagger Coat #105, Hello Dolly Boutique patterns (c)2006 as sized for the 22" American Model doll

This pattern is based on a full-sized vintage pattern from the 1930s. There are sleeve style, hem length, and collar variations as well as a detachable hood. The coat and hood are lined.

This pattern has been hand-drafted down from the vintage original for a 22" doll. This pattern is also available for other size dolls. Bullet-point instructions are provided, with some very small reproductions of instructional line drawings from the original pattern.

I made the coat and hood up in some lightweight wool tweed salvaged from a Woolrich jacket (thriftstore) and lined it with Bemberg rayon lining. I did use lightweight interfacing on the facing pieces, listed as "optional" in the instructions.
I chose the 3/4 length view with 3/4 length sleeves, without the cuff and also eliminated the decorative sleeve band. I did the funnel neck rather than the collar view.

I do not own an American Model doll, however, the Resinsoul ball jointed doll I have is close in size to the AM doll so I have chosen to try patterns drafted for the AM, since they are generally widely available. I got the AM 22" measurements from a doll knitting website. I assume they are correct.

Measurements in centimeters

Diff          Resinsoul Dai   American Model 22"

+2   Height             58    56

-2.5 Bust               22.5  25

+2   Head circumference 20    22

 0   Waist              15.5  15.5

-3   Neck circumference  9    12 

-1.2 Hip                24    25.2

-3   Shoulder width      8.5  11.5

-2   Arm length         16.5  18.5

I suppose I should also add that I am not affiliated with any doll company or pattern company mentioned in this review and that I was not compensated in any way for this review.

I should also mention that I ultimately intend to use this coat on a different ABJD, an Impldoll Model, whose shoulders are the same width as the American Model.

Ok. On to the good stuff.

This is a nice, basic coat pattern but there are some minor flaws in the pattern as presented by Hello Dolly Boutique. These flaws do not detract from the overall usefulness of the pattern even though I spend most of the review on these issues. I hope my analysis of this pattern encourages you to go out and try it!

Errors can be divided into three broad categories: pattern notation, pattern drafting, and fit. 

Pattern notation errors:

Notches (for alignment during sewing) sometimes do not line up. Specifically, the notch on the side seam between the front and back pieces, the notch between the front and front facing pieces, and the cuff to sleeve notches.

“On Fold” notations: as is necessary with such small pattern pieces, sometimes the "cut on fold" notation is not placed on the pattern piece itself. It is easy enough to copy these over when working with the pattern.

However, there is possibly a missing "on fold" notation for the arm side facing piece. If cut as directed - a single piece not on the fold - it is too short to fill in the space between the front facing and the back facing. Cutting it on the fold is one solution, but causes a mismatch in length between this pattern piece and the back neck facing. The other possibility is a missing pattern piece.

Grainline marks are missing from all pieces, as well as any center front markings. The pocket placement limits the center front overlap to no more than 2cm. 

Pattern drafting errors:

The three facing pieces sewn together for the neck facing all have slightly different length seam edges.

facing mismatch

 
The controlling seam length should, I assume,  be the edge of the front facing. It is the shortest of the three. As a temporary solution to this, I simply trimmed the facings to a pleasing width and shape once they were stitched together, pressed, and sewed in place. 

Fit errors:

Until I have the chance to see this coat on an American Model doll, I can identify only two fitting flaws with this pattern: the finished garment neck opening and the useable opening in the hood. 

The neck circumference of the 22" American Model doll is 12cm (I got this information from a pdf document listing doll sizes on the dollswestdesigns knitting website). If this information is accurate, then the finished neck opening of the coat, with a 2cm overlap allowed on each side of the center front for closing, is 21.5cm. This is a bit larger then the doll's neck. This style coat should fit closely around the base of the neck.

Fixing this drafting problem is not difficult, simply extending while narrowing the front, the back, both sleeve pieces, and their corresponding facing pieces just a little bit will do the trick. The front sleeve piece (containing shaping for the shoulder) will be a bit more complicated to alter.

Shoulder shape detail

The cutting lines and pattern pieces for the collared view should also be checked. 

If you are picky about fit I would suggest making a scrap version of the coat (unlined, and un-faced but staystitched) from the waist up and check the shoulder and neck fit before you start. This is what I get for sewing for a doll I did not have at the time.

My hand standing in for a head

The hood is designed to be pulled over the head (my interpretation of the included line drawings) rather than wrapped as the written instructions imply. The opening as drafted when the hood is finished is about 8 inches, which would necessitate removing the wigs of most dolls and possibly the head as well. 

Adding 3/4 of an inch in length to both hood pattern pieces, and/or reducing the length of the seam forming the back of the hood, would remove this difficulty. 

I should state that the written directions provided by Hello Dolly Boutique imply the hood is completely open on the neck edge, which would avoid this problem altogether.

Instructions:

The directions for assembly are generally good with the exception of the admittedly puzzling detachable hood.

Alterations I would suggest for the assembly instructions are to stay stitch the neck edges of all the pieces before doing any sewing and certainly before pressing if your fabric is at all loosely woven or prone to stretching. 

I would also suggest assembling and sewing the facings to the coat's front and neck edges before sewing the underarm/side seams: easier to iron all that facing if you can lay the coat out flat. 

The Pockets:

The pocket pieces and instructions make little sense at first glance, but if you just follow the directions provided, they work out nicely.

Lined pocket flat

I do believe that the pocket trim piece should be a bit shorter from top to bottom, since it comes right down to the bottom edge of the pocket. The illustrations show the pocket trim coming not so far down. I cheated the trim piece a little bit when ironing the pocket to raise it a bit. 

Pocket from above

The trim piece, it should be noted, is slightly asymmetric, so the pocket has a little extra style built right in! 

The main pocket piece, according to the illustrations, is also supposed to have a lining. There is no lining called for on the pattern piece or in the instructions. It would be simple to add one if desired. 

The Hood:

By dint of squinting repeatedly at the hood pieces and the illustrations provided, and perhaps too much coffee, I determined how the hood was originally intended to be assembled. The bullet-point instructions provided for the hood are scanty. 

The pattern pieces provided are a left and right hood, each to be cut out twice. I believe they should each be cut out only once. There are matching notches on the hood pieces, creating an asymmetric hood shape (however, the double and single notches on one side seem to be reversed. It does not matter, since the hood is equally asymmetric either way). 

There are several illustrations of the hood included on the pattern instruction sheet. One drawing as worn, where one can see the criss-cross drape at the front mentioned in the instructions, one of the hood hanging down the back of the coat (on the pattern cover page), one of what is apparently the seam below the peak of the hood being stitched (not present in the written instructions) and one of assembling the hood which looks suspiciously like a Möbius strip. 

I have seen other 1930s garments with a similar twisted "right to wrong side" construction at the neck, and in this case, the twisted section of the hood, where both the outside and lining fabric are visible, lies below the wearer's chin. 

From two of the illustrations, it appears that the hood was intended to button in place on the coat. It may be more practical to use snaps on this scale garment, as the written directions indicate. 

One side or both of the hood must be detached in order to remove the coat. This is somewhat awkward, but the hood adds quite a bit to the overall style of the garment.

The "hanging down the back" illustration looks like the hood pieces may have been cut on the bias, or the fabric used in the illustration was a fine twill or other inherently easily draped fabric.

revised hood construction directions below** 

Changes I made from the instructions while constructing the garment:

From the illustrations provided, it appears that the lining was originally supposed to be either trimmed to just meet the neck facing pieces, or the lining sleeve and back pieces should not have been cut identically to the sleeve and back pieces of the coat. There is a notation on the front coat pattern piece to "cut here" for lining. That cutting line matches up nicely with the front facing. 

The written instructions direct the seamstress to turn the assembled lining's 1/4" allowance under and slipstitch the lining over the facings.

I chose instead to trim the front facing seam allowance away and bind the edge of the entire facing with self bias tape (made from the lining material).

I then slipstitched the facing over the lining.

Finished coat (inside) and hood (detached)

I hemmed and turned up the bottom edge of the lining, bias bound and slipstitched the outer fabric hem in place,

Bound hem allowance

 and then french tacked the lining in place.

French tack

I also tacked the lining in place at the intersection of the underarm sleeves. 

In addition to ignoring the instructions for slipstitch hemming the coat, I turned up the outer fabric 1/2" and the lining about 3/4" instead of the 1/4" and 1/2" called out in the instructions. So my version of the coat will be 1/4" shorter than the 3/4 length I originally cut out. 

I made these changes because one of my goals for the doll clothes I make is to emulate full-sized vintage construction techniques as much as possible, within the limits of my knowledge, and accommodating the challenges small-scale sewing can present.

I hope this review does not discourage you from trying the pattern. It is a nice basic raglan sleeved pattern and could easily be adapted to other vintage styles (I'm thinking vintage ski jacket or shooting coat or fur coat or cozy fireside robe or silk-twill evening coat.)

**revised hood instructions.

As far as I can tell, the hood is not attached to the back of the coat

 Pin together the two short notched edges of the left and right hood pieces. Continue pinning no more than the same distance down one long side. Sew where pinned. Repeat with lining pieces. You have just formed the peak and back seam of the hood.

Clip corners and press both assemblies. Notch the seam allowance where the stitching ends in the middle of one long side. Place one hood assembly inside the other, right sides together.

Sew the long (previously unstitched edge) attaching outer hood to lining on long edge of hood assembly.

Sew from the notch to the short raw edge on the other side. You will now have something that looks like nothing so much as a pair of pants you'd have to teleport a pair of torso-less legs into.

Hood assembly prior to slipstitching the raw ends

Turn rightside out and press this whole thing nice and flat.

You have two raw ends, each having one lining surface and one fabric surface. Put one lining side against the other fabric side, aligning raw edges, and start slipstitching them together.

You will have a Möbius strip when you are done. Press the slipstitched seam.

Figure out where the snaps should go and attach to the front of the coat. 

I attached the snaps in line with the front sleeve-to-front-coat seam, and the snaps on the hood about ¾ of the way in from either edge.