Joan Hinds' books have the patterns in them. Thank heavens she's stopped trying to be all things to all dolls, so the patterns are designed for AGs only now. One of her earlier books had pattern variations for several "standard" dolls and Talk About Confusing!!!

Joan's books are a good basic beginning point. When she says in her introduction that you need to measure your doll for a perfect fit, it's for common sense things like waistlines. The last I knew, she was designing with the PM dimensions in mind, but you should get into the habit of checking certain measurements against any pattern you plan to use.

For pants, the crotch and hip measurements are the critical ones. For a normal waisted pants pattern (not hiphuggers), the back of the pants (the curved seam at the center back) should be the same length as the measurement from your doll's waist to the center seam between her legs. Make adjustments to the paper pattern before you cut it out because you may need extra paper! To get an accurate line for the waistline, tie a string around her waist and lay a cloth or plastic tape measure along the doll's backside from the waist to the lower body seam. To get an accurate measurement on the pattern, lay the tape measure on its side, starting at the inside seam line at the top of the center back of the pants and curving along the seamline to the inside seam allowance at the top of the inner leg seam. If the pattern measurement is too short, you can draw a new line to add the space you need outside the top edge of the pattern. Very often when the back length is too short, the front length will be just right. So you will want to taper your new cutting line from the high point, where you added the extra length, down to the original cutting line on the side seam.

For the hip measurement, measure down from the string tied around the doll's waistline to the fullest part of the doll's body and write down how many inches down it is. (Maybe 1.5 inches, for example?) Lay the tape measure around the doll's hip and measure from her center back seam to her side seam. Then measure on the same line across her front from side seam across to side seam. Divide the front hip measurement by two. On the paper pattern, measure down from the waist to the same distance (1.5 inches or whatever) and then measure across the pattern from center seam to side seam on that line. If the measurements are exactly the same (doll measurement equals pattern measurement), you may want to add a little extra to the side seams for "ease". Otherwise your doll won't be able to sit down in her pants.

A good example of not allowing for ease is the original straight-leg blue jeans that were sold by Pleasant Co. in 1995/96 for the AGTs. You can barely get the jeans onto the PM dolls, and they can't sit in them. Since seam allowances are 1/4 inch for doll clothes, I work in 1/4 inch increments to make adjustments to side seams on patterns. A clear plastic ruler with 1/8 inch grid lines marked on it is really important if you're going to be revising patterns a lot. You can find one in quilting supplies.

The other consideration for how a pattern will fit is what style of closure it's designed for. If the pattern says to use velcro for closures and you want to use snaps, you will want to add a little extra to the closure opening to allow for overlap. I actually draw an extra "placket" onto all the patterns I use that adds 3/8 of an inch to the part of the seam where the closure will be. If you find that you don't need the extra bit when the fabric is cut out, you can always turn it under for a nice finished edge. It's much trickier to add on than it is to fold under. And I prefer snaps to velcro because snaps don't mess up my dolls' hair and stockings.

Hope this has been helpful!