My "Rear Window" Collection

I wanted to update some of my early patterns' cover pages, so I decided to photograph my "Rear Window" collection on my JAMIEshow dolls. 

"Hollywood Canteen" Gene is my newest JAMIEshow Gene.

 

 

I love her full lips.

 

I love this beautiful dress!

 



The black cocktail dress from the film is also beautiful.

I love the green suit too.

 And don't forget the yellow print dress.

I Feel Like a Proud Mama Part 2!

I have some more photos of my patterns made up by two of my awesome customers to share with you.  I love seeing these!



First I have Style 115- Betty Draper's  "Mad Men" red print dress.   This dress was made by Linda Gallegos.



Photo by Linda Gallegos

 

 I love her choice of fabric.  I wish I could have found fabric like this when I was making this dress.  Linda says it is a soft lawn print.  I think it looks a lot like the fabric in my inspiration picture.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Linda Gallegos

 

Her model is Tonner's Tres Jolie Sydney.  I love this doll and wish I had one.  She is still a very popular Sydney, and is hard to find.

 

Photo by Linda Gallegos

 

Photo by Linda Gallegos

 

 

Awesome job Linda!

 

Photo by Linda Gallegos

Next I would like to share Style 107 Grace Kelly's "Rear Window" green suit by Suzanne Hall.

 Photo By Suzanne Hall

Yes my friends, that is a 12" Grace Kelly doll wearing a suit made from my pattern.  I have not gotten around to making patterns for the 12" dolls yet, but Suzanne did.  This is so cool!

Photo By Suzanne Hall

 

 

Suzanne emailed me how she did this.

 

Aug 8

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Hi Diane,

 

I have finally finished the Rear Window green suit and it came out really well. I have attached photos of my Grace Kelly Barbie wearing it.

 

I found that if I shrunk the pattern to 83% that roughly fits Barbie slightly on the big side which leaves room for adjustments. I had to do several adjustments as Barbie is longer in the torso, larger in the waist and flatter chested than your 16inch dolls. Being flatter chested worked well as the jacket sits really nicely. I couldn’t figure out the pattern for the hat at all, so I followed my nose on that one. But it all worked well.

 

Knowing what I know now, if I ever made another one I wouldn’t line the sleeves of the jacket as on the smaller doll it makes everything just too small to work with.

 

I have now started on the To Catch A Thief beach outfit. That is a pretty one so I am looking forward to finishing it.

 

Kind regards,

 

Suzanne

 

 

 Photo By Suzanne Hall

 

I admire people who sew for the Barbie sized dolls.  I don't like doing it.  I do own all the Grace Kelly dolls that Mattel produced a few years ago, but I haven't sewn for them yet.  

 

 

 Photo By Suzanne Hall

 Photo By Suzanne Hall

 

 

 Photo By Suzanne Hall

 

 

 Photo By Suzanne Hall

 

 

 Photo By Suzanne Hall

 

 

 Photo By Suzanne Hall

 

 

Photo By Suzanne Hall

Bravo Suzanne!

 

 

 

I would love to see more photos of outfits made with my patterns.

Lady in Red

 

This is a red version of Grace Kelly's "Rear Window" cocktail dress.

 

 

For more information about the original design click here.

 

I used chiffon for the skirt to see how it would look, since pleated chiffon is sometimes hard to find.

I love how it turned out.  I also love my balcony backdrop, can you tell?

 

I could see this design in many different colors.  I may try it in pink someday.  If I do, I will not line the shoulder/sleeve pieces.  I wish I hadn't lined them in this version, except I was worried about staining.

 

The model is my restyled "Special Scene" Madra.  She loves wearing red.

 

 

Two New Patterns For Sale

I thought I would finish these patterns over a week ago but I got distracted by another project.

Style 102

Style 103

To purchase these patterns please visit my blog store.

Patterns are $11.00 and are sold separately.

"Rear Window" Black Cocktail Dress

This is the last costume from the film "Rear Window" that I planned on making. Actually I am planning on making another small batch of green suits and a bunch of yellow print dresses in a few months.



This dress isn't as well known as the black and white dress, but I think it is a beautiful dress.





The bodice is made of chiffon underlined in satin. The sleeves are also chiffon that are lined in peach organza to give them a sheer look. The satin collar ties in the front and the ends are sewn into the bodice side seams.









After I designed and made my prototype, I came across this picture on the Internet.



It was the most detailed photograph of this dress that I have ever seen. I sort of wish I hadn't seen it. "Well dang-it!", I thought "There are pleats on the bodice too." I decided I wasn't going to change my design, because it would be too hard to figure out how to do the pleats on the bodice. I also needed all of my prepleated fabric that I had for the skirts.

Then I came across this picture.

Look at the detail at the neckline! What the heck! I never saw that in the film! But then again, black doesn't show detail very well.

SEE?

I'm really glad I didn't see that other picture while I was making these dresses. It would have been very hard to do that detail in miniature.

Prepleated fabric is very hard to find. Even though I bought a pleater a few months ago, I'm not crazy, brave enough to try to pleat chiffon. My mother picked up this skirt at a second-hand store.



The pictures don't show the details very well, but the skirt was divided into three different sections. The top of the skirt had tiny micro pleats. A third of the way down the skirt the pleats get bigger.



At the bottom of the skirt the pleats get very soft. I would love to have 10 of these skirts. One for me to wear in a size that fits me and 9 to cut up and make more doll dresses out of.

I took this skirt to the dry cleaners and the lady working there commented on how lovely it was. I made the mistake of telling her that I was going to cut it up and make doll clothes out of it. She freaked out! "You can't do that!" she cried. I told her that I wouldn't be able to wear a size 8 in my wildest dreams and that I would be able to make 6 doll dresses out of it. She didn't get me at all, sigh. What is so weird about cutting up a nice skirt to make doll clothes? Doesn't everyone do that? Whatever, I'm recycling!



I used the top 2/3rds of the skirt to make four dresses. The other dresses were made out of some prepleated fabric that I bought years ago and always wished I had bought more of.

I lightened the picture to show the details better.

This dress also fits the Tonner dolls well.

All the dresses have been sold.