Doll Sewing

I think I just about have my toddler put to sleep here. But, I am just going to hold her for awhile to make sure. It sure is hard to get her to take regular naps with all of her sisters home for the summer.  Eventually she just crashes. About 5 second before I started typing I felt her head go limp against my arm. She is pretty snuggly right now. :)

Anyway, when I was on a blogging break, I did a lot of doll sewing. The girls had so many projects waiting for me to do and as soon as I closed the shop I was expected to jump on it!

This outfit was a prototype for THIS dress and the leggings were made from a thrifted T shirt. (Hannah had a pair of leggings made with the rest of the shirt and these were the scraps.)

This dress was made from two different shirts using the Salina Dress pattern and I even attempted a flat felled seam in the front. I was pretty proud of how crisp that turned out! I also changed it to a slight high-low hem to use the original shirt.

My 9yo, Isabelle, finally got her new apron- I will have to show you that sometime- and I made a matching apron for her doll!

My niece got an apron and oven mitts for her doll, too. I used THIS pattern.

Isabelle made herself a nightgown last year with this flannel she chose. The doll dress was half finished on my sewing table for a long time and I just gave up and finished it for her. Procrastination might be an inherited trait. ;) It is just a peasant dress with a ruffle on the bottom.

She really does like to help me sew. She helped quite a bit with this assortment of doll clothes for charity. The Oliver & S Popover dress was an easy one! I extend the top up an inch or so and just use bias tape instead of adding a yoke. I like to sew in a bit of lace in the front. Isabelle likes to sew the side seams.

I also made some Twirly Lace dresses. That really is an easy pattern!

My 2yo niece got a doll diaper bag set for her birthday. The wipes are just squares of flannel in a tissue cozy. Isabelle sewed that, too.

Now, the big project I am working on right now- well, one of them- is bedding for my 7yo's doll bunk bed. It was her Christmas gift, and part of that included choosing the fabric for the bedding. Worst fabric shopping trip ever. Honestly, that is saying a lot with my girls' track record lately. I made the sheets and pillowcases, but now I am working on quilts. I couldn't just go with simple. It will take awhile.

Well, noisy sisters ended that nap! Ugh. I was done with the post, so at least it was good timing.

I think that catches us up on the doll sewing things around here. I love seeing what other people make, so I hope this may be inspiring to others. Maybe it will give you some ideas for sewing with kids. Even noisy big sisters.

Doll Diapers and Dresses

Today I have a very special guest post. This summer the girls and I have been doing a lot of craft projects. I am trying to keep them busy so that they don't find their own ways to entertain themselves. As I mentioned before, one of my tactics for making my daughters dread Joann's Fabric Store less is to allow them to choose a fat quarter when they are on sale. My daughter, Halley, and I used some of them to make doll diapers and dresses. I let her use my camera to photograph them and now she is going to tell you a little more about them while I bake cupcakes with her sister and make lunch...

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Hi, I'm Halley! My mom and I made dresses and diapers for my Baby Alive doll, Mandy Grace. The outside of the diapers are made out of fat quarters from Joann's Fabric Store. The inside is made of flannel scraps.We used velcro to attach the flaps to the front of the diaper, and a little strip of elastic in the back so they don't fall off of the doll. 

Here are all of the diapers we made.

Here is the  reversible dress, along with the matching diaper we made out the leftover fabric. We used a tiny bit of other fabric to cut out a little heart and sew on. We also used a little bias tape leftover from my Sunrise Dress.

Here  is the other side of the reversible dress  made out of the same fabric as the heart on the other side of this dress.

We also made a Reversible criss-cross dress that matches two of the diapers we made. The pattern was no longer available. They did have picture of the pattern, though! Unfortunately it was taken at a weird angle. So my mom drew a picture of the pattern. It worked, but unfortunately it was a little too big for Mandy.

Here is the other side. We didn't use velcro, instead we used snaps. Let's just say my mom isn't too experienced with snaps. She had to rip them out a couple of times.

Well, that about sums it up.Thanks for stopping by and checking out my first ever post!

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Thank you, Halley! Yes, she is brutally honest. ;) I did make some adjustments to my pattern and I have it all worked out now, so I will probably make more of the criss-cross dresses. 

Unicorn Doll Quilt

Well, I kinda' had a quilt finish this year.

You see, I will let my girls pick out fat quarters at Joann's when they are on sale. Let me remind everyone that fabric shopping with 5 girls in tow is NOT fun- for me, them, and the store employees. Recently, Grace picked out this one with unicorns and hearts in pink and purple. I mean, what is not to love for a (then) 3yo girl? She soon insisted that her pink cheetah (which had been confiscated) was cold and needed a quilt. Well, I was in the mood to play along and sew something quick and easy.

I had some quilt blocks, border fabric, and binding left over from quilt I made between 2006-2011. (You might be able to spot some of them on my quilt page HERE.) So, I give myself bonus points for using up old scraps. :)

I just pieced the simple 4-patch blocks together, added a border, quilted diagonals, and bound it.

Grace didn't like the quilting on it because it was visible on the unicorn side. Too bad.

Then, my 7yo took some pictures for me after the leopard and cheetah were reunited with their new quilt. 

Happy kids + Very old scraps used up = Success.

Elastic Waist Doll Dress Pattern

Happy World Doll Day! In honor of this day, I would like to encourage you to use up some of that scrap fabric (I have WAY too much!) and make some doll clothes for organizations that donate dolls to children who could use a little joy in their lives. Here are some that I have found- some accept clothing donations and some do not but you may be able to help in some way or be inspired to start your own organization:

The Broken Doll - restores dolls and gives them to girls in foster care and hospitals
Broken Dolls Healing Hearts - creates care packages for children, including restored dolls
Hope Through Broken Dolls
Janie's Dollys for Recovery - dolls for girls undergoing extensive medical procedures

If you know of others, please share the info!

To get you started, I have a free doll dress pattern and tutorial for you today! This is a doll-sized version of the teen peasant dress from yesterday.

This really isn't too hard. I whipped this one up in about a half hour. It will fit an 18" doll like American Girl, Our Generation, or My Life. It would probably work for smaller dolls with some adjustments on the elastic length.

UPDATE 11/2019 - I now have a printable pdf pattern and step by step tutorial posted on the blog! See it HERE.

I am still working on the pdf pattern (which means it is burried on my sewing table somewhere) but you can cut these pieces with measurements.

Sleeves: 7" wide by 4 1/2" high
Tops: 8" wide by 5 1/2" high
Arm Scythes: 1 1/2" wide by 3" high (just curve it a little as shown)
Skirt: 7 1/2" high, 8" at waist, 14" at bottom (make initial slit 1" deep)
Waist elastic: 12" (1/4")
Neck elastic: 8 1/2" (1/4")

The sewing process is the same as the teen peasant dress (see THIS post for instructions!) The only differences are that I used a smaller seam allowance- 1/4" and made the elastic casings a tiny bit smaller. Also, it would probably be easier to hem the sleeves before sewing the sides.

It is really very straightforward. Just follow the same directions I gave HERE.

If you want to make puffy sleeves with elastic casings, increase the width to 9" and the height to 5".

Please use this pattern for personal, non-commercial, or charity use only. If you make one or more of these I would love to see it! You can contact me via facebook or email pacountrycrafts at gmail dot com.

I have other free doll clothing patterns available, too! They are all made to fit 18" American girl dolls. You can see them all under my tutorials menu, but here is a sampling:

Peasant Doll Dress

Doll Ruffle Apron

Twirly Lace Doll Dress

Doll Peasant Top