My Rag Doll.....PSA: Read the Reviews Before You Buy

 The short  answer...save your money and look for a book with better instructions...especially if you are a new sewer.

For me it is buyer beware...always read the reviews...

Well I fell in love with the sweet dolls and the images of the cute outfits and well ordered without reading one review, and what frustrates me more than anything...why there hasn't been any revisions made to the book, or edits added on the publishers website?? With all the negative reviews and all the issues with this book, it is still for sale and there have been none that I can find. If the author and designer had just had her patterns reviewed by testers and done some revisions before publishing, or if the publisher had made sure the contents of the book was solid and complete... or after the fact added some help for the many struggling...it really is just too bad.

With all that being said....If you are looking for a sweet coffee table book, with the cutest pictures of dolls and cloths and fabric swatches, buy this book...but if you want full sized patterns, full instructions and illustrations, take a pass.

The patterns need to be copied and some pieced together and all need the seams added, the instructions are lacking critical information and there is not one illustration on construction included. I have also found to date, one outfit (the leotard) that sews up too small to fit the doll. I have only sewn 2 of the outfits to date, the ballerina and the bedtime doll's outfits, mainly because it has been a labour of love for my granddaughter and everything gets sewn, seam ripped and resewn multiple times...it has been very frustrating to say the least, but I refuse to be beaten by it and the doll is meant to be her Christmas present.

I found a great tutorial online (YouTube, How to Sew a Rag Doll Part 2) for adding doll hair and that went very well other than the fact that I added way too much, or should have used a finer yarn, lol. 

I also managed to embroider her face on, but not being much of an embroiderer I'm not over the moon happy with it, but happy its done.

...and that leotard that was too small fits as a top, so I made an extra ballerina skirt to go with it and the extra knit shrug (again critical information missing in the pattern, no yarn weight given or tension)

Well that is it for now...a few outfits and I need a break, so onto some easier sewing projects that need to be finished for Christmas.

Have a great weekend, and Merry Christmas.