Help with pony clothing?

[Rachel-Eyes]

I hope this is the right place to put this, but I wanted to ask if anyone out there has any experience with making pony clothes.

Some of you may have seen the thread I started in the Pony Corral about Princess Punkrose, a mohawked pony that I received last night. I want to make her a little punk outfit. Is there anyone out there who has patterns for clothes that would fit a Crumpet-pose pony?

I have the material, and I even have an idea. I want to make a mini skirt, a tank top, legwarmers, fishnets, and chains. I have little experience with sewing, but I'm a fast learner. I'm mostly concerned because the dimensions for pony clothes are much different than doll clothes.

Anything that can help me out is most certainly appreciated.

[sunnydaze]

I use paper towels or napkins to make clothing patterns.  you can manipulate the paper and mark it with a pencil to adjust the design.  then i take the paper off the pony body and use the paper pattern as a guide for the material.

[Rachel-Eyes]

That is a great idea, sunnydaze! I'm sure that works much better than paper, which I've used for making stuffed animals.

[Bibsy]

Yay sewing and ponies!  Two of my loves together    I'm making my first custom clothes now.  While I have a lot of experience sewing larger clothes and items, there are some things that done differently when working on a small scale that I'm finding really challenging.  It seems like you make have some experience making doll clothes, so maybe so of this is repeats.  Sorry if it is!

I found it really helpful to look at how doll and pony clothes were actually assembled.  So if you have any, I would study how those are constructed.  You could even use some as a rough pattern if they were close enough in style.  I also think the jacket will probably be the hardest piece It also seems like a lot of the pony jackets closed in the back with velcro.  If you used similar colored velcro to the material for the jacket you could actually probably make it in two finished pieces, so it would really be more like two sleeves that get velcro-ed along the back.  If it laid flat, it would look like a seam and no one would know that it was actually two pieces.  You could also use the tiny plastic doll clothing snaps like these
http://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5145910/il_570xN.175218621.jpg

and it might be more invisible.  I'm using a few in my planned outfit.  I didn't know where to buy them, so I found a random doll at a thrift shop for 25 cents and stole the snaps from her outfit 

Also on smaller clothes you need to do everything you can to reduce weight/size at seams/joints so it will still fit the pony without looking lumpy.  This also means really paying attention to the stretch of the material when making your pattern, since materials with more stretch can fit tighter without special fasteners and with smaller openings.

I don't know if the material you're planning to use for the tank top is jersey (t-shirt material), but that would probably be easiest since 1, it stretches and 2, it won't fray so you don't have to worry about serging the seam allowances or turning the edges under for a hem.

Fishnet material might be harder to sew on a small scale, but you could probably cut it to size and use clear nail polish to attach edges together while it's on the pony, then peel it off and carefully use some nail polish removed to remove the excess left on the pony (avoid the symbol!!!)  I haven't tried this, but that's how I always stop runs in my stockings before they spread.

Hope this helps, I can't wait to see the creation, I noticed Princess Punkrose in the other board and she will look great with a custom outfit!

[Rachel-Eyes]

Thanks so much for your reply, Bibsy! It's extremely helpful!

I actually do not have any experience with doll clothes, but I have made human clothes before, with the help of my mother. I also don't have any Pony Wear besides some shoes that cover cancer marks on my poor Bubbles. She does have some Velcro strips though. I will show her this thread and see how she can help me! She is suggesting to use more of a fabric glue than to try to hand sew it myself. Thoughts on that?

I'm a huge Beatles fan and it's important to me that I always have Beatles shirts to wear. Of course since I wear them all the time, they always end up with holes in them. But I never want to throw them away! Mom is saving them for learning quilting so she can make a Beatles quilt for me. So basically, yes, I do have some extra t-shirt material that I can use. That's great knowing that it's the ideal fabric to work with for this project!

I'm thinking about maybe finding a thick, black, thread/ribbon type of material and then tying it together to somehow look like fishnets? Your idea of clear nail polish is a wonderful one. I will certainly keep that in mind!

For the arm warmers, I think I will just crochet some striped tubes. I'm more used to yarnwork anyway!

Thanks so much for your help and encouragement. I can't wait to work on her!

[cleverLC]

Another method for making patterns that I've seen is to use masking tape to cover the body where you want the clothes, then VERY SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY remove the tape with an Xacto knife (maybe use a bait pony from the same gen for this) trying not to scratch the vinyl.  The pieces should be the pattern pieces you want, minus seam allowance.


Whether you sew or glue, make sure to add a seam allowance!  If you don't account for the overlap around the edges, the finished clothing won't fit!

And for clothing that size, Fray-Check is your friend.

[Bibsy]

I've never heard of Fray Check before, but I'll have to check it out. I also think the fabric glue is a good idea, but just know that it might change the texture of the fabric you're using it on and make it harder.  If you're using thicker fabric like for a leather-type jacket, that won't matter as much.

As for patterns, Clever is absolutely right about the seam allowances.  How could I forget to mention that?

If you don't have any ponywear, at least taking a look at some of the detailed photos online (Lady Twilight's page would be a good start), where this link comes from might be helpful.
http://www.greatponies.com/pwear2/sutb_jacket.jpg
I also had a thought that if you didn't want to put the velcro along the back, you could also put the velcro along the inside of each leg, so each sleeve would not actually be a tube until you fastened it on the pony.