Yikes! Everybody hates me. No, you don't test a fabric for a dress on a doll using the same fabric, a substititue fabric is used to deal with the scale isues, tho many designers just use a very light loose muslin and starch it to stand in for thicker fabrics, the weave and thickness must be adjusted and also the seams sometimes glued or basted rather than sewn so they can be in scale. Even pro designers have traditionally worked up designs in minature using finer fabrics in place of heavy broacades etc. Sculptors use gauze and loose light weaves to test draping, also sometimes the cloth must be wetted to compensate for the weight/thickness ratio, sculptors sometimes also use wetted rice paper and cheese cloth. The excuse I've seen from the toy designers for Barbie's narrow waiste is the full scale quarter inch seams on her tiny scalled down figure. I assume in the "mythological" period that cloths were knit very heavy and were not laudered frequently much less starched, most were probably pretty stiff like the Belgian Linen I paint on which you are right is stiff due to the tight weave and which is why I didn't comment on the absence of any folds in the skirt. I'll go crawl in my hole with my Barbie and Ken doll and sulk now ;)