This may be common knowledge to the more computer literate members of this group, but it is an entire new world to me. I have just discovered how to scale patterns in Doll Shop. I was pulling my hair out trying to take measurements of my dolls.... sliced a measuring tape so it would fit more easily around small body parts, and when that failed to work to my satisfaction, I started wrapping a piece of yarn around the doll and measuring the length of the yarn. I was still not getting accurate measurements.... dolls are so small and there is no margin of error.

I couldn't seem to figure out the scaling option, but the light finally clicked on in my brain this morning, and I successfully did it. Now I'm off to the races with some new slopers, and I imagine in a day or so I'll be making well-fitting garments for my dolls. I'm a happy camper!

NOW I love Doll Shop!

Karen

Karen, A 3/8" narrow tape measure for dolls is available at www.miniworlddolls.com/Drita/sewtools.htm. It is well worth the investment of $1.49. Lots of other great doll sewing tools and supplies available there also!

Best, Paula

quote:

Originally posted by Karen in Maine:
This may be common knowledge to the more computer literate members of this group, but it is an entire new world to me. I have just discovered how to scale patterns in Doll Shop. I was pulling my hair out trying to take measurements of my dolls.... sliced a measuring tape so it would fit more easily around small body parts, and when that failed to work to my satisfaction, I started wrapping a piece of yarn around the doll and measuring the length of the yarn. I was still not getting accurate measurements.... dolls are so small and there is no margin of error.

I couldn't seem to figure out the scaling option, but the light finally clicked on in my brain this morning, and I successfully did it. Now I'm off to the races with some new slopers, and I imagine in a day or so I'll be making well-fitting garments for my dolls. I'm a happy camper!

NOW I love Doll Shop!

Karen

Oh, Please! Tell me how to do this! I am new sewing for dolls and I'm trying to use Dress Shop 6.19 since I don't have Doll Shop. The dolls I'm trying to sew for are Tonner's Tyler Wentworth and the 22" American model. Is it neccessary that I have Doll Shop instead of Dress Shop?
Thanks,
Melinda in Tulsa

PS- I am NOT proficent using DressShop, and thought sewing dolls clothes would help me learn it without spending a fortune on *wadder* fabric. dolls don't seem to be as picky <g>

quote:

Oh, Please! Tell me how to do this! I am new sewing for dolls and I'm trying to use Dress Shop 6.19 since I don't have Doll Shop. The dolls I'm trying to sew for are Tonner's Tyler Wentworth and the 22" American model. Is it neccessary that I have Doll Shop instead of Dress Shop?

There are two answers to this, so be sure you read both!...;-)

1. To scale any pattern to any scale, first draft that pattern, then click on the "Print" button. There, you will see the pages of the pattern to be printed, but also an entry box next to a button labeled "Use This Scale". Enter any scale amount and your pattern will be drafted at that scale. If you have measurements for a 60" tall woman and want a pattern that would fit a 12" tall doll, enter 20% and you will get that sized pattern.

2. This will not work well for two reasons:

a. Everything gets scaled by that amount. You will get teeny seam allowances and hems and such. You will have tiny darts that dolls do not need and which cannot be sewn. There are many features to the doll patterns that come with Doll Shop that will not appear in people patterns that have been scaled down.

b. Finding a human body that mimics the shaping of a Tonner Tyler Wentworth or Americal Girl doll is unlikely. Dress Shop patterns are drafted to body measurements and the person's body measurements you use for this will not match the doll's. You will get tiny clothes, but they are unlikely to fit well or look right on your dolls.

Doll Shop does include measurements for the Tyler Wentworth as well as for the 18" American Girl doll. Scaling the latter up to 22" would probably work (doll shop includes an easier method for scaling doll measurements just for this purpose) if the body shapes are similar. I have not compared the 18" Americal Girl to the 22", so I could not say for sure. But, if you care to try that, do this:

1. Run Dress Shop.
2. From the File menu, select Previews, then Doll Shop Deluxe.
3. Draft any pattern.
4. Select the Americal Girl doll size from the Size menu.
5. In the File menu, select "Make Your Own Doll".
6. From the options there, select "Change Height".
7. Enter 22".

All of that doll's measurements will be rescaled to match a 22" height instead of the default 18" height. Those measurements should be about right for a 22" American Girl Doll.

Thank you! Actually, it sounds like I need to start saving my pennies for Doll Shop! From what I understand, the Tonner American Model is the exact same body style as the Tyler Wentworth, only scaled up to 138%

Frustrated again! I cannot for the life of me remember how I did the pattern scaling. I should have written the steps down when I had my "AHA!!" moment, but thought I'd remember how to do it.... silly me!

I have opened the program, selected the doll measurement set that most closely approximates the shape of the doll I want to fit, and selected a pattern that I want to use. When I select "scale selected measurements," I'm told I need to choose a set of doll measurements first. I choose the measurements again and get a prompt to name the set and to put in the new doll height. I do that, but when I go back to the pattern to print it, it tells me to "Please slect or enter measurements first." I do it again, with the same results. What an I doing wrong??

Karen in Maine

quote:

I have opened the program, selected the doll measurement set that most closely approximates the shape of the doll I want to fit, and selected a pattern that I want to use. When I select "scale selected measurements," I'm told I need to choose a set of doll measurements first. I choose the measurements again and get a prompt to name the set and to put in the new doll height. I do that, but when I go back to the pattern to print it, it tells me to "Please slect or enter measurements first." I do it again, with the same results. What an I doing wrong??

I just spent an hour fighting this same issue and finally stumbled on the solution. If you are displaying measurements as fractions, it fails. If you display values as decimals, it works.

Surprised none of us stumbled on this one before. Guess the feature is not used very often.

I did a quick fix and posted a patch, if you prefer to not change to decimals. The patch is here:

http://www.livingsoftnw.com/builds/DollScaling.exe

This is a self-extractind WinZip file. Download and run it to install to the default Dress Shop / Doll Deluxe folder location. If you have your program installed elsewhere, be sure to change the "Unzip To Folder" when you install.

Thanks for working on the problem! I tried to install the fix, but I get an error message saying it can't create the output file. I'm trying to unzip to the correct directory. If you have any idea why it won't install, I'd appreciate the help! Otherwise, I'll try converting the sizes to decimals and use that "fix" instead.

Thanks again! I was about to start pulling my hair out, lol.

Karen in Maine

That is a typical response when you attempt to install a patch or fix file with the program OPEN. You must close the active program FIRST
Kaaren

quote:

Thanks for working on the problem! I tried to install the fix, but I get an error message saying it can't create the output file. I'm trying to unzip to the correct directory. If you have any idea why it won't install, I'd appreciate the help! Otherwise, I'll try converting the sizes to decimals and use that "fix" instead.

I just installed from the download and it worked, so the file on the web site is good. That error often means you are running Dress Shop when you tried to install the patch. If that is not it, then it could have been corrupted during the download.

Okay.... I successfully scaled a pattern using decimal measurements. However, now I can't get it to display at 100%. In the print menu I ask for full size, and it insists on displaying at 20%. Is there a way to overrule its desire to do that?

I chose American Girl as the doll size. Asked to scale it to a 31-inch tall doll. It did that, and the fabric width and height seems to be correct when I look at the fabric pieces displayed, but it will not scale up to 100%, even though 100% shows up as "Use this scale."

I decided to trick the program, and put 500% for "Use this scale." In the display, it now shows up at 100%. I suppose I can continue doing this, but it's kind of a pain to have to remember to do it each time. I might as well just use the American Girl doll to begin with and print at 172% scale to get to the 31 inches. Six of one, half a dozen of another, but if you can figure out a fix, it would still be a big help, because once I'm able to scale the doll measurements, I can go in and tweak specific measurements, rather than having to go the paper towel route with a scaled-up pattern that isn't as precise.

Karen in Maine

Success!! I don't know what the problem was, but the file wouldn't unzip when I simply asked it to.... had to do it with another unzip program, rather than the default one in Windows.

Oh well.... all's well that ends well. I'll never understand computer convolutions!

Thanks for all your help.

Karen in Maine

The problem with trying to get the pattern to display at the right size is still there, however. Displays at 20% when 100% is chosen. When I put in 500%, it displays and prints at the right size. The funny thing is that when I choose 100%, the display says 20%. When I put in 500% scale, it says it's displaying 100%.

Karen in Maine

Well, glad to hear you can make it work. I don't see that symptom at all when I run Dress Shop 7.05 (the current download version). Are you running some other version?