About Dolly Wears: Dolly Wears specializes in doll clothes patterns that blend modern trends with nostalgic 1950s style, featuring retro-inspired designs crafted from high-quality cotton fabrics. Their collection includes a variety of outfits reminiscent of the post-war era, such as full skirts, fitted bodices, and playful prints that capture the essence of the decade's fashion. Catering to different doll sizes like American Girl and WellieWishers, Dolly Wears patterns ensure a perfect fit and offer detailed instructions for sewing enthusiasts. With a focus on authenticity and creativity, their patterns allow hobbyists to recreate charming and timeless looks, bringing a touch of vintage elegance to doll wardrobes.
Here's a sampling of patterns. Browse the full Dolly Wears catalog today!
Enter To Win: This week's giveaway includes one sample garment, made by Diane, of the Howdy Doo Dress to one lucky winner!
Would you like to win this dress? Be sure to follow the prompts in the contest widget to be entered into the giveaway to win both of the items! (*Note - dolls are not included in the giveaway)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
You enter through the entry form embedded on this page, and appears just above this paragraph; if you don't see it, be sure to visit the page from your desktop or an alternate browser such as Google Chrome. It may not appear on all mobile devices.
Note: Be sure to enter your email correctly because that is how you'll be notified if you win.
The complete rules and entry details appear on the entry form. The only required entry method is to leave a comment under this post and then confirm that you did it in the contest widget.
One person will receive the Howdy Doo Dress Sample Giveaway Prize. You can enter once or gain multiple entries by completing the other entry methods and increasing your chances of winning.
Please review all Terms and Conditions on the giveaway page before entering. While we wish we could run this contest everywhere, for legal reasons, it is only open to eligible residents of the U.S. and Canada, not including Rhode Island.
This contest is exclusively endorsed by Liberty Jane Clothing and Pixie Faire. Not endorsed by or affiliated with American Girl®.
"I can remember my mom setting at our kitchen table sewing in the evenings. I must have been 5 or 6 years old, hovering over her watching in awe as she would sew a dress for my sister or myself. I couldn't wait to grow up and start sewing. As soon as Mom knew I had an interest she started teaching me a little at a time. How to read a pattern, placing it correctly on the material. Mom would give me scraps for my dolls and I would hand sew my own creations, loving every moment.
In the 60s, the 7th and 8th graders had Home Economics. In order to graduate from 8th grade we had to sew our own graduation dress. I found myself helping my class mates from cutting out their patterns and giving hints on how to sew the dress together. Because of Mom and the love of sewing, I have been sewing my whole life.
In 2014, my niece asked me to sew her girls some 18'' doll cloths. Up for the challenge and giving me an excuse to sew doll cloths once again, I started immediately. I rediscovered my love for dolls and designing new patterns to fit them. I wore 1950s girls dresses as a child and twirling around feeling like a princess. So, that is where I stared my doll collection. So, create what you love, share what you know, and be inspired every day."
Inquiring Minds Want To Know:
Q: What's your favorite food?
I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. I have great memories of my mom and dad taking us to his favorite Mexican food restaurant. I am always trying to recreate those memories with my kids, sharing my best Mexican food with them.
Q: What's your favorite tv show or movie?
I just love time period programs. Like Downton Abbey, or the 2005 film Pride & Prejudice. I am fascinated with their way of life and adore the clothing that was worn at that time.
Q: Coffee or Tea?
With all the variations that are out there today, why choose, love them both.
Q: Where's your favorite place to shop?
Any fabric store. I adored going to the fabric store with my mom growing up. All those possibilities just waiting to happen. I still feel the same way when I walk into a fabric store today.
Q: What inspired your brand name?
My favorite doll didn't have a name. So, I called her Dolly not knowing that a girl could be called Dolly as a nickname or first name. So I named my line: Dolly Wears.
Q: What is your dream vacation?
Take me to Paris to see all those new fashions. A dream come true.
We'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment and tell us which Dolly Wears pattern design you love most!
Thanks, everyone!
The Pixie Faire Team
The scalloped delight dress is just darling. Such a sweet detail.
I LOVE the retro styles and Dolly Wears does a GREAT job potraying MY era! Thank you, Diane! AND, keep up the GREAT work. 🥰
I love the 50’s the era I grew up in. I bought myself a 18 inch doll to sew for because my childern and grandchildern have outgrown thier love for dolls so sad! I also will sew sew for any little girl in the family who likes dolls.I have bought all the the 50’s and 40’s doll patterns I can find the DollyWear are wonderful. next I want to do the Howdy Doo dress the style is so differnt from any I have. Thank you so much for your sweet designs they bring happy memories!
Your designs are so lovely.
I, too, grew up sewing and had to take sewing in home economics class in the 60’s. Our first dress project had to be a sleeveless, pocket-free, shift. My mom argued for me to be able to put in pockets, sleeves, a collar, etc. since I’d been doing it for years. Now, as Grandma, I make AG doll clothes. I’m always on the hunt for great patterns. I love all of yours, but especially Color Me Spring, 50’s N Lace, and Howdy Doo 50’s.
To my sewing and doll friends, Thank you so much for the wonderful comments you sent me about my patterns. I have read and enjoyed everyone’s stories, laughed and at times brought tears to my eyes. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It’s been a wonderfully special week for me that I will always cherish and remember.
I like the red dress with the white lines and the white neckline area with the red buttons that is shown on the main email. It looks exactly like something I would have worn to school in the 50s.
Adeline is my favorite. hope I spelled it correctly
I love the concept of the patterns, great idea.
I love the full skirts and the fun details in the bodice of all the different dresses! All ar so pretty and fun!
Love all the dresses. Great fun
Love all the dresses. Great fun
I love the Camille dress because of how distinctive it is.
Beautiful dresses, love them all.
I love the 50’s style. That is mostly what I sew for the AG doll!
60s N Simply Sweet Dress 18" Doll Clothes Pattern
I love the purple polka dot dress!
I absolutely love the 50’s N Saturday Best pattern. I’ve made a few times and it is so pretty. Makes me yearn for a decade gone by.
So many cute designs. Love the concept of fabric mixing.
I love the designs you have made. I really like the 20s outfit in blue and black. That is adorable as are the rest of your designs.
My dad love red. the dress is very cute.
I love the older look of these which reminds me of my youth.
Love that retro vibe! I have some 50s era buttons in my stash that have just been waiting to be used on this pattern. ; )
I love the 60’s N Sweet Pattern. It reminds me of a dress I had in the 60’s! Thanks so much for the giveaway. It’s such a sweet dress!
I have the 50s N Saturday Best pattern but have not had the chance to try it yet. Thanks for the chance to win!
My favorite is the 50s N Saturday Best. I’ve made it a couple of times and love the way it fits and looks so fancy.
I love the 50’s Saturday’s Best Dress. Reminds me of a darling dress I wore as a child. All of these little outfits are beautiful!
I have made 50s N Saturday Night and it has such pretty details. I also have the Camille Dress in my Favorites. I love the sailor look of it. It reminds me of a fovorite dress I had when I was young.
50’s N Saturdays is my favourite!
I like the clean lines of 60s Simply Sweet.
Love the outfits. Remind me of the dresses my mom used to make for me.
My favorite is Saturday’s Best. It takes me back to my childhood when we got dressed up to go to town once a month.
I have many of your designs and lovethem all! Can’t wait to try the the Howdy Doo!!! I made many square dance dresses for my MOM and this fits right in!
50s N Saturdays Best is one of my favorites!
Such cute dresses – love 50s N Polka Dots
Such sweet designs. I like the 50 N Gingham, but they are all lovely.
I can’t choose a favourite they are all amazing!
I love the idea that her patterns are modern with added flair of the 50’s.
I also have such fond memories of going into a fabric store with my mom. For some reason, the shop had little wooden ramps that took one up a step or two in one corner of the building. My family called the shop the “up and down store”. I still love to go into fabric stores to just soak in all the possibilities!
I love Fantasy Soiree!
I love your dresses, especially the ones with very full skirts like the Howdie Doo pattern
What cute historical outfits! I like the Howdy Doo Dress. Perfect for any Maryellen fan!
The 50 Saturday Day dress is my favourite. Thank you for taking me back to my childhood dresses as I loved to twirl, sewing with my mom and remembering my time in Home Ec.
Really cute dresses. I haven’t made any of the patterns yet but really like the styles.
I love the detailing on this dress!
Such cute little dresses!
Love the Dolly Wear patterns. So cute and adorable.
The patterns are beautiful!
I was born in the 50’s. My dresses weren’t as pretty as these.
I’m a 50’s girl, too. I learned to sew making doll clothes just like you. Love your cute designs!
Adorable dress – I love the tab design.
I love the retro look. It’s hard to pick a favorite as they’re all so cute!
I really love all of the designs I have 5 of her designs if I have to choose it would be Howdy Doo Dress it’s a new one having grown up in the 50’s I love the look.
I really love all of the designs I have 5 of her designs if I have to choose it would be Howdy Doo Dress it’s a new one having grown up in the 50’s I love the look.
I love your cute and playful designs!
It seems we had parallel lives! I, too, learned from my mom at a young age! I still love to sew doll clothes and my favorite patterns are from the 50’s! Keep on sewing!
love the fantasy soiree one
Love all the special details – tabs, fitted bodices, etc. Reminds me of Butterick patterns I sewed for my little sister 😊
I’ve been obsessed with the atomic era/1940s-1950s stuff. I mean everything from pyrex to the cars to the houses and obviously the fashion! It’s pretty hard finding stuff for myself on that front as I’m plus sized…
That red dress is adorable!!! I love 50s fashion 😍😍😍
I just got the Sweet Adaline pattern this week! I didn’t realize it was a 70’s inspired design because it reminds me of the things I wore in my 90’s childhood. So cute!
Sweet Adaline’s collar is going on my blouse – then I will play with the full skirts of the 50’s and the wrap dresses for the dolls. Maybe one of the full skirts done as tiers as we did back in the day.
I love the 50’s N Polka Dots Dress. It’s so pretty in purple.
I love the idea of mixing the old styles with the new trends. I have clothes in my closet from years ago. Occasionally I pull out something I bought or made years ago and wear it. The older the outfit the more times I hear “Wow, I really like that”.
It is so much fun reading about your inspirations and how the name was chosen for Dolly Wears. Thank you for sharing. The Howdy Doo Dress is awesome and for me it brings back pleasant memories of the plaid dresses that my mother made for me to wear to school, new dresses for the new school year. She loved plaid and I do, as well, and that dress depicts the generation so well for me, and is my personal fave, although all the looks are seriously wonderful!
I have the pattern, Saturdays Best. I have made it ofte. It’s one of my favorites!
I love the Polka Dot dress. I was the last girl in the chain of hand-me-down dresses so I wore a lot of these styles in the late 60’s. Waste not, want not was my mother’s motto so even if the fashions had changed you wore those dresses until they wore out or were outgrown. They do twirl nicely!
Dolly Wesrs has some real cute designs of the 50’s. I guess that is why I love her designs.😘❤️💋. ZI was born in the 50’s.
Oh, my! The 50 Gingham for the Gotz doll: The picture of the dress is almost exactly like a dress my daughter wore her first day of first grade in 1981, same color as well as style! Sje loved that dress becasue it ‘twirled.’ I still have it, too! I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and started sewing for my Barbie doll by hand. i got the little Barbie fashion book that came with the doll. i would look at the pictures and was able to create an outfit similar to the ones in the book. I am still sewing Barbie clothes and American Girl Doll clothes for my granddaughter. Love the dress patterns!
I really like the Camille pattern. With changes in fabric it can look very different from the original. Give me more creativity to showcase.
Very retro fashionable – I especially like the red & white colours of the Dolly dress shown.
I love 50s dresses! Your designs are gorgeous! My favorite is Saturday’s Best.
Love the 50’s N Saturdays Best. The orange prints makes it so striking. My Mom made dresses for me when I was little, and by the time junior high rolled around she had me sewing my own clothing.
I love your deigns. Can’t wait for great grand-daughter to get big enough for me to sew them for her!
My favorite is the Uptown Girl!
Howdy Doo is really cute, but my favorite is the 50s N Gingham because it reminds me of my pink gingham square dance dress that I wore to 4-H square dances.
IMy favorite dresses are the Howdy Doo dress & the Adaline dress. All the dresses are so cute!
IMy favorite dresses are the Howdy Doo dress & the Adaline dress. All the dresses are so cute!
These patterns are all amazing. Love the detail on each one. Would love to try them out.
I love your designs!
The Howdy Duty dress has to be my favorite. I, too, wore dresses like this one, with crinolines! Such fun!
They are all lovely, but my favorite pattern is the Camille.
I too was a child of the 50s and learned to sew by hand first, creating clothes for my dolls. They Home Ec. fueled the flame and I majored in Clothing and Textiles in college. My favorite is definitely 50s in Saturday Best. but I love many!!!
I love all of the Dolly Wears patterns. These are the styles I grew up with. Since I make the dolls clothes to go with the dolls I give to young girls whose families cannot afford a lot, I like to make these more modes fashions for them, to show that a girl does not have to dress in skimpy clothing to look beautiful. Thank you, Diane! Your story is very much like mine, although I am considerably older than you! I, too, am from Phoenix and currently live here in the Valley of the Sun!
I like the Fancy Soiree Dress. I love her variety of patterns..
Well-I was there and WORE those 1940’s dresses. Every day to school and the year I was shipped off to Grandma’s afternoons, evenings and weekends too. I don’t mind dressing a doll that way. She can’t object. But in this collection I prefer the Sweet ’60’s design. I’ve sewn virtually all my long life starting on Grandma’s treadle model. often making doll clothes or [starting in junior high years] clothes for myself. But after school and on weekends and all summer long it was tee shirts and jeans. I vividly remember vaulting,, thus attired, a 5 foot fence with my doll tucked under one arm. I’m sitting next to a doll who is slowly shaking her head.. She LIKES being gussied up.
Love all of them for the 18" doll, but my favorite is the Sweet Adaline pattern, especially since it has the cute hat and purse.
50’s Polka dot dress!
Such beautiful patterns! My two favorites are 50s N Saturday Best (a great party dress!) and 60s N Simply Sweet (so easy and quick to make!). Thanks for such great patterns!
I’d have to say the 50’s Scalloped Delight Dress. Looks like something I’d have worn as a child.
Very pretty. There are a few I’d like to make.
I love them all, can’t pick just one!
Wonderful variety. My favorite pattern is Sweet Adaline 18" Doll Clothes Pattern
I love the 50’s polka dot dress. Polka Dot fabrics are the best.
I really like the looks of the Camille Dress. I am a sucker for outfits done in red and black and that one speaks to me. I was born in the mid 50’s so I can appreciate your styles.
I think the Howdy Doo dress is darling. I, too, grew up with dresses like that that my mother made for me, with petticoats, too. So different from today, and so much more fun. No one had a dress like mine.
I love your designs because they remind me of some of the little outfits my Mom made for me to wear when I was little.
I have made several of her dress patterns but my favorite by far is the 60s n Simply Sweet dress pattern. I goes together so easily and is quick to make.
I have a few of Dolly Wear’s patterns but 50s n Polka Dots is my favourite!
Cindy
July 01, 2024
I love the Howdy Doo Dress. I think this is my all time favorite one!