Dolly-Doll: Doll Stockings

When I got my latest dolls, who are Integrity Toys FR:16s, I realized that there was a shortage of things made just for them, including shoes and stockings. So, I decided to make stockings rather than try to find ones from another 16″ doll line by trial and error, which could be expensive and possibly also a waste of time.

I also could not find any tutorials on the entirety of the internet that show clearly and specifically how to make doll stockings from very stretchy material. If such tutorials exist, they are not readily Google-able. The best I could find were some sock-making instructions for American Girl dolls, which featured regular cotton knit material and did not tell me what I needed to know.

This blog entry is a tutorial, showing how I went about making the stockings for my Saskia Tate FR:16 doll. The techniques here can be used for any sized doll or action figure.

Disclaimer: I’m not a tailor, couturier or any other kind of fashion professional; I’m a video game programmer who likes to make stuff. So if something here is done in an unconventional way, well, there is your explanation

There are probably other ways to do this. Better ways even. In fact, I’d love to hear any ideas you might have for improvements. I came up with this process in a virtual information vacuum, with some help from my wife and from general sewing FAQ sites.
MAKING THE PATTERN

I don’t have a pattern for stockings for the FR:16 doll, so I had to make one. I didn’t expect it to be perfect on the first try, since I’m using a very springy 4-way-stretch material and just guessing at how much stretch to allow for, but it ended up working out pretty well. Normally, I’d do the following process entirely on the computer, from a reference photo traced and manipulated in Adobe Illustrator, but to make a simpler tutorial that doesn’t require any software or software expertise, I worked with good old fashioned pencil and paper. First, I traced the doll’s leg:

The outline:

The following 4 photos show how I manipulated the outline into a shape that has a flat edge and is scaled down to allow for stretch of the material. First, I drew a line from the top of the leg section to the tip of the toe, to form the new "front edge" of the stocking pattern:

Then, I drew a new "back edge" of the stocking, essentially moving this edge over the the left by the same amount as the offset between the new and old “front” edges. The light horizontal lines I drew are the key points where I re-plotted the back edge. At each of these horizontal lines, I measured the gap between the new and original front edge lines, and then plotted the point for the new position of the back edge to the left by this same amount. The "=" in the drawing shows an example of how these offsets are equal:

In this next step, I drew the new top line for the stocking, about 90% down from the top to allow for vertical stretch. I also drew a smooth curve along the newly-plotted back edge, also pulled in a bit to allow for stretch (to about 80% in this direction). I’ve seen a lot of doll stocking patterns, and I freehand drew the curves based on how doll stocking patterns usually look:

Then, I inked over the pencil sketching with pen:

I cut out the shape, and marked it "FR:16". This is the finished pattern:

SEWING

I cut out two pieces of black spandex "power mesh", a material I got in the dance and activewear fabrics section of Jo-Ann’s. This material is a 4-way-stretch material, but it has a bias. If you look closely at the material, it has straight lines in one direction, and staggered lines in the other, like a tiny brick wall pattern. When this type of fabric is used for stockings, the straight lines should run top-to-bottom, like the brick wall is on its side.

The following product is very important. This type of stretch material cannot be sewing in a sewing machine without a stabilizer backing. The product I use irons on and tears away. There are also stabilizers that stick on like tape, and some that are water-soluble and wash away in hot water. Use what you’re most comfortable with, but use some kind of stabilizer:

Update: Since making this tutorial, which used Sulky Totally Stable, I’ve found that Pellon’s Fuse-n-Tear works a little bit better because it’s lighter weight and requires less heat and time to fuse.

Here I have ironed the stabilizer onto the mesh fabric. If your fabric has a right and wrong sides (outward and inward facing on the finished product respectively), then iron the stabilizer onto the "wrong" side because we’re going to fold this in half to sew it, and turn it right-side out after we’re done:

After ironing the stabilizer paper to the fabric, I folded each piece over and ironed a crease, to make it easier to identify the middle:

Next, I traced the pattern onto the stabilizer paper using a fine-point Sharpie. I only need the full pattern on one side, the side that faces up when I sew it. You’ll see that I traced the top part onto both sides, so that I’d know where to attach the elastic:

And attach the elastic I did! I used 1/4" braided elastic banding that has a nice little sheer trim on it. I pinned this down to the top of the stocking, on what will be the outward-facing side of the stockings:

I held the pinned pieces up to a light, to verify that the elastic was pinned accurately. I’m a bit of a perfectionist:

I set up the sewing machine for a zig-zag stitch with 2.5mm width and 1.0mm stitch length for sewing on the elastic banding.Don’t sew your elastic on with a straight stitch, it will not stretch anymore if you do this and you’ll be a very unhappy camper with stockings that are too tight to fit on your doll!

For the back (main) seam of the stocking, a small straight stitch will work, because you want a thin seam and very little stretch is needed overall. I used a 1.8mm stitch (3.5mm width setting here is not used by this stitch):

Sewing the stocking seam (still from video):

Here’s what it looks like after both stitching passes. I recommend triple stitching both the toe and the seam where the elastic ends meet, for extra strength, by sewing over the area forward, then in reverse, then forward again (all in the same pass). You can click on this photo to see it much larger:

After sewing, cut the loose threads and cut a small (1/8" or 2mm) seam allowance:

Now comes the fun part of tearing away the tear-away stabilizer. OK, actually it’s not fun at all, it’s a pain the ass. Do this by hand, because if you use tools you risk ripping out stitching by accident. Expect this to take at least 5 minutes per stocking: