Tutorial - Mini Doll List

Tesa Directions:
1. Assemble doll, and put appropriate undergarments on her. If you need help, simply click
to our *Basics* link on the www.miniatureart.com website. Here you will find the perfect, and
easy way to make adjustable drawers.
2. SKIRT. Cut out rectangle of duponi silk (dressmaker grade to eliminate most of the weave
*nubs), to the appropriate length (waist to mid-calves) and width. The more width you add - the
fuller the skirt. My skirt piece was approximately 3" wide x 8" long.
Next, put piece on ½" pleater to make nice uniform pleats. This helps facilitate equal gathering
around the waist - providing maximum fullness at bottom of skirt.
*HINT** .... I fold my skirt in half, mist the top section with distilled water and THEN pleat. Next I take a
blow dryer to dry the material. Lastly roll pleater to release material, glue side seams together to form tube.
Lastly hand gather all the pleats, slide on doll and tie shut around waist.
**HINT** .... adjust the gathers to FIT your particular doll! Are you trying to make a character doll with a
BIG Bootie? That would mean lots of gathers at the back. Are you having a coat go over the dress, so only
the front shows? Then put most the pleats in front for prettiest look.
The photos shown below have NOT been sprayed with fabric stiffner of any kind. The duponi is
fabulous to work with - looks like an old linen weave appropriate to Tesa’s image, and the skirt
finger shapes into place. This is great to have at the end of dressing (i.e. after we have the coat
on doll) and want to do a bit of movement to dress.
Finished Skirt

3. Dikki (faux Bodice). Cut out bodice pattern
from silk. Turn the very bottom edge of hem
under to wrong side and glue for finished edge.
Lay bodice against your doll and check fit of
torso, arms and neck hole placement (the most
important). If all works, simply glue around
torso and up over shoulders. If you wrap the
bottom of bodice tightly, it nicely contains the
raw edges of skirt top as shown to right.
Remember Tesa gets a full length coat so nothing but the
front of dress shows - hence the dikki approach. Lastly glue
piece of lace around her neck to soften the harshness of dress.
In the video she had a rounded neckline, but I liked the V
shape to showcase the locket.
*HINT** .... keep a sponge handy, and any flecks or piece of dried
glue that shows up on your dress material can easily be taken off.
*HINT** .... keep Q-tips handy and use them to evenly spread that
glue over torso when gluing on the bodice. What I do ... is spread a
thin layer of glue on torso, let get tacky, and then take the Q-tip to
spread any last globs out so glue doesn’t bleed through bodice silk.
*HINT** .... don’t worry about finding and keeping black lace in
stock! I simply take my wide sharpie black marker, and color lace as
desired. Permament, easy and cheap.
Lastly, you can at this point do any other trins or lace embellishments you wish. Add rhinestone
buttons (AT END of dressing) to avoid having them come off when putting her coat on.
4. Coat. Cut out two front coat pieces and two back. Make sure to cut 1, flip and cut the other.
Sew CB together then sew on one front
piece to each side. Be sure and leave
open the large sleeve opening. Sew or
glue shoulder seam. Slide on doll to
check fit.
Next cut out two sleeve patterns, and
with right sides together sew each from
cuff to shoulder. Turn sleeve right side
out, and gather top, put into coat sleeve
hole, and sew sleeve to coat.

Carefully slide coat on
doll, check fit and hold
in place with pins.
*NOTE** THE ARMS
WILL BE OVERLY
long - but I simply cut
off excess length and the
raw edges were covered
by the trim. I did this
because the length of
arms vary if you bend
the arm up, and you can
ALWAYS cut off ... but
can’t add on .
At any rate, after coat fits nicely, glue the coat
to doll around neck and a tiny bit at shoulders,
let dry. Glue trim around front of coat for
collar.
Position doll and hand press any additional
pleats or movement into the coat as desired.

Tesa in the Video is holding a special locket. I couldn’t come up with one that I liked.....tried
several different methods, beads, fimo etc and ended up using a wonderful silver cross from
KELL. I also didn’t have fine enough silver chain - so used 34 gauge silver wire which looks
REALLY good in real life and holds the shape I wanted.
Additional Notes:
1. I made a special class to do Tesa’s hair on Wed (9/10). If you are interested in taking it - or
purchasing the notes/pdf - simply email me. I you are a former student - cost is only $5. There
are 2 other how to’s along with Tesa’s hat hair.
2. I have made up 5 special Tesa kits. This
includes the super thin, drapable, glue friendly
suede/velvet material I used for coat!.... painted
doll, viscose, black duponi silk for dress, special
trim for collar and cuffs, lace for dress collar and
chain/cross. $45 plus $5 shipping US/$8 abroad to
Dana@Miniatureart.com . If you already have
something on order with me - no additional
postage is required.
3. All the info on making Tesa and participating in
the MEMORIES video project can be found by
clicking to the www.minidollPOSSE.com .
Deadline isn’t until next year so you have plenty of
time to join in.
Tesa is the July/August 2008 tutorial
membership pattern. Please respect my time
and effort and DO NOT share this pdf.
Any last questions - don’t hesitate to email me at:
Dana@Miniatureart.com
Happy CREATING!
DANA
PS - as you can tell from the different shades of black in the above photos — black silk, on black
velvet with black trim and lace is almost impossible to photograph. Some of the photos are over
exposed so you could see the detail about the step being discussed. I had to take weird angles
just to get the shadows to fall right. The black materials used, are beautiful and all match in real
life .