1865 Cape Island Dress 18" Doll Clothes Pattern

1865 Cape Island Dress

I’ve been admiring this dress pattern for a long time, and finally got up the courage to attempt it. The dress turned out beautiful, fit perfectly, and the instructions were clear and easy to follow. The pleats are lovely, and give so much detail to the dress. The soutache braid trim on the bodice wasn’t a problem … I did some by hand and some by machine, just to get a feel for working with it. The skirt soutache detail was definitely the challenge. I traced the pattern with a Frixion pen over a light box, and actually hand sewed part of it and machine sewed the rest … hand sewing is probably easier, but takes hours. Machine sewing takes lots of patience, as it’s basically “sew 2 or 3 stitches, reposition the fabric and trim, and sew 2 or 3 more stitches,” but probably is a little faster. (Both options require patience!) The key is invisible thread … for machine sewing, I used black thread on top and an invisible thread bottom so the stitches don’t show on either side. For hand sewing, I used invisible thread so it wouldn’t show on either side … invisible thread is hard to hand sew, because it’s invisible! I’m not sure if I’ll attempt this one a second time, but proud of myself for doing it once. (I would question the “intermediate” rating … it’s way more complicated than most intermediate patterns! … and I would personally rate it “advanced”. The saving grace is it’s made with easy to work with cotton fabric!)

Beautiful dress!

I finally got brave enough and attempted this dress. I wanted a narrower soutache braid than the pattern called for, so that took me a bit of time. I did a practice run of sewing the braid on some scrap fabric. This was a good idea for me. It gave me a feel for handling the braid as it was going through the machine and the turns. My only mistake was not lining the front pleats up with the bodice pleats. I had to tear out and correct it. I would definitely make the dress again, but likely use the alternative view of the pattern. It looks gorgeous on the doll. I’m very happy with the results. TIP: A sage sewer of this dress told me not to sew the pleats in the sleeve or put the sleeve band on until AFTER the bodice is on.. I think this was very good advice!

1865 Cape Island dress

A wonderful dress. Have to work your the nerve to use the braid but I love this dress. Have done both the pleated and gathered versions. Perfect instructions and great fit.