Monster High custom clothes tips

I have been having a lot of fun designing and making clothes for MY (I say they are for my someday, but we'll see, LOL) Monster High dolls. After looking at the prices of these clothes, (WOW) and the awesome stuff people were doing, I thought, I sew, I can do that.  Then I tried sewing together a simple vest and soon realized that heming the arm holes, neckline and putting on sleeves, well, any one who makes clothes will probably say, "duh! Those are tiny, that's insanie!"  So I said screw it, I'm gluing those suckers.

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Hot glue works amazingly well on fabric and hold seams together just as well, if not better, than stitching. There are some tricks though. 

1) wipe the fabric seam on the end of the glue gun to get just a tiny bit of glue and smooth it onto the seam. You don't want a bead or string of glue, the glue will harden and it won't be flexible if the glue is too thick and it will make your needle sticky, which will make your machine not work. 

  

2) squeeze/pinch the fabric together with your fingers. Yes, you will get glue on your fingers, but using such a tiny bit of glue will not burn them.  Then trim any excess glue and/fabric with scissors. 

3) stitching doesn't matter on sleeves or arm holes, but can stitch over the neckline and it's so much easier!  Also the glue keep the edges from fraying. 

4) glue on collars, buttons, belts! Lace and ribbon. So much easier and holds up great!

5) last tip, I zig zag all my edges before heming, that way I don't have to double fold and the edges won't fray. Or you could use fray stop. But that that takes a while to dry. I don't have the patience. 

6) it's important to remember, these detailed type of clothing are not for hard use or play, or for small children. 

Also, it's fun posing them for pictures!  My husband says all I do is play with dolls all day, making them clothes, furniture, cases, redisning their house, doing their hair and taking pictures... Well, yeah!  It's a great life. 

Check out my other blogs for DIY doll stuff using card board. 

Made this special for Clawdeen to go with her purple and black boots. 

Below is a custom design, requested by buyer. 

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