Is too big in the chest? To me it is too fat in the chest area. I thought about seaming up that area a bit to make it slimmer but then I thought it might work to just run a gathering stitch at the top of the chest like some bodies have and see if that cinches it up enough. So here it is with the gathering stitch and as you can see that didn’t solve the barrel chest look. So I will be taking the body apart at the neckline and stitching it up some to make it slimmer in the chest.
This link is not a good photo for baby’s color but this is what the body looks like before I sewed the gather. It just seems to make baby look like she is all chest with no neckline.
I think most of the bodies are too full across the top leaving the poor baby’s head with no neck. When I make a body I deliberately add an inch or so in length toward the top, tapering it from about mid breast area to the neck. It seems to give them a bit of neck.
What I really do not like with most of the bodies is that they are so big in the tummy. If you stuff the baby rather firmly you have an obese preemie! And that is NOT real at all. I like the body to be slim and have a butt that can be cupped in the hand for patting. It just feels more like a real baby does to me.
joy
On the bodies I make myself I taper the neck area as well. I like a bit of a tummy and booty on my babies if they are full sized babies but the smaller limbed babies I don’t. You can see my bodies are smaller at the chest and neck area even before they are cinched up. This BB body is larger at the chest and neck area before cinching. It should have been sewn so that it tapers up and gets slightly smaller then it wouldn’t be so thick in that area.
If I am doing a slimmer baby I will then cut my own pattern slimmer in the tummy area as well. That’s the nice thing about making your own is you can taylor it to each doll but I didn’t have a pattern big enough for these 9mo kits and thought it would be easier to just order the body.
Angie,
do you sell the modified bodies for the 9 month old toddlers? I agree, the chest on the BB ones does not look good! I put my Cookie on a Libby body, but the legs are too short with that body! If you do sell, how much would one be?
Thanks, Barb
Okay so now I have tapered the chest and neck area on the body and I like it better. It is still full enough to blend well with the overall size of the body yet it doesn’t make her neck look so dwarfed into her body. Keep in mind she is loosely put together here for photos as I have yet to go back and GMV her all over. These are flash pics.
I do like her body better now.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
I don’t sell the bodies but if you can sew it is a very easy fix. Just taper the BB body. You first have to unstitch about a 1 1/2 inch section of the casing of the neck in the front and unfold that. Then take it in by sewing a seam that is about 1/2 inch at the start line of the neck and go down slowly reducing the size so that it blends into the baby just below the top of the chest at the belly area. Cut off the excess fabric, fold the neckline casing back down and sew that section back together for the casing using the same color thread. At the back of the neckline you will taper that area as well about the same as you did the front but just a little less and running the seam down to about the top of the shoulder blade area. Be sure start your seam just below the opening for the casing so you don’t sew that shut. Cut off the excess fabric when you are done. You can serge the edges if you want to but this fabric does not ravel so it is not necessary.
This one is one of the economy bodies (#5875) and it came with cable ties but it was the larger head cable ties not the really skinny ones with little heads.
I found the same thing with my Cuddles baby. So far, I find that even the BB “new version” of newborn size bodies are too full in the neck area. It causes so much gathering in the neck. Also if I need to replace the cable ties, it is a pain because the casing is so narrow. I wish BB would offer a better body than these, otherwise I’d prefer the older ones.
Maybe Nevin or Denise will come along and see this thread…
I do think it would be something that they might want to think about.
It would be so easy for them to alter their existing patterns by tapering them
from the chest to the neck areas and start making them that way.
When you lay the BB body out flat on its side it is like one big U with the top being a bit larger than the bottom.
While I get that the top needs to be large enough to accommodate larger neck flanges, it is not necessary to be that large.
Mary, contact Carmen McNair of Basket Babies - I’m sure she can help you. Her bodies are very well made and appreciated by many of us on the forum here.
I would order from Carmen I have a cookie body from carmen and the chest is perfectly flesh with the neck in the way a real child would be. shes the best
As I said before, I usually make my own bodies. I used to get my cloth at Hancock Fabric and used the butter suede that came in either white or cream color. Then they changed the fabric to be thinner and more stretchy. This last batch I have been using I ordered from Joggles.com and got the Deer Suede - Doll Face Pink. http://www.joggles.com/store/catalog/pr … s_id=11159I like it pretty well and I have heard that some customers prefer not to have white.
