Lately my dolls have been wearing these silver glitter tennis shoes:
I hadn’t explained how I’d made them yet, because they are part of my entry in The Doll Wardrobe Winter Fashion Design Challenge!
If you would like to read how I painted these shoes and the rest of the details on how I created this Cinderella inspired modern outfit, my entry is here. There are also a bunch more finished product pictures like the one below:
Filed under Accessories, American Girl Doll Clothing Patterns, Dresses, Shoes
This project was fast and simple! I cut off the ends of the sleeves of a human long-sleeve t-shirt. The first sleeve piece I simply sewed one end closed to make a cute light blue beanie!
The second sleeve piece I cut in half vertically, and stitched it to make two tubes. I fit the tubes on my doll’s hands to see where to cut the thumb holes.
The gloves and hat together create a fabulous light blue ensemble to accessorize an outfit.
Filed under Accessories, American Girl Doll Clothing Patterns, Hats
I made this little shoulder bag using this tutorial. I found this tutorial, and had to try it because it seemed quick and simple. Overall it was quick and simple, although the top stitching and strap attachment was a little tedious.
I used some scraps of cotton fabric in purple floral for the outside of the bag. The lining and strap are a silver cotton with glitter and tiny dots. My sewing machine has 100 different stitches, most of which I have never tried. I decided to do some experimentation. I sewed a tulip/flower stitch along the front of the bag, as well as on the strap. It’s hard to see because of the thread color, but I like the overall effect.
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This black skirt I made from Simplicity 4297. I believe it is Skirt A. The fabric is stretchable in 4 directions. I bought it as a remnant. I made the skirt to try out the pattern a little bit more, and I made this skirt fully lined. It has a waistband, although you can’t see it in the photos. I may list skirts made from this pattern in my Etsy shop when I open.
The stockings are up-cycled from a human sock. On the doll, the socks are knee highs and look very warm and thick.
Filed under Accessories, American Girl Doll Clothing Patterns, Skirts
There is snow on the ground and the air is cold, but I just had to make a summery hair clip for my dolls. I made a simple pink flower one, and then made this one:
The green and blue flowers are actually soft paper embellishments, from Prima. Therefore, this sort of clip wouldn’t work for small children but for photos and such it’s sweet 🙂 I simply hot glued the two flowers together, then glued a small rhinestone to cover the hole the flowers have in the center. These holes are for scrap booking brads to go through. I could have used a brad to cover the hole, but the rhinestone adds a bit more to the look than a brad would. After the flowers were all put together, I glued them to a one inch alligator clip. Voila! Great accessory for summer dresses!
Filed under Accessories, American Girl Doll Clothing Patterns
Friendship bracelets are great accessories, especially for a doll! This anklet I made with lime green and hot pink craft thread. It is 4 inches long, and attaches with a loop and knot. The anklet is six knots wide. Here is a good tutorial to make one. It is quick, simple and cute!
Being as how it is exactly 3 weeks today until Christmas, it was time for some seasonal clothes for my dolls. I made this black striped sparkle sweater using Simplicity Pattern 4297 shirt A and an “old” sweater shirt. This pattern is basically like a Baseball tee, only for thicker fabric. I also used it for this outfit to make a pink sweater. The pattern is fast and simple to put together, especially because I used the finished edges of the old sweater for all the edges of this doll sweater. Not hemming edges saves a lot of time! The pattern also involves a neckband, which I excluded when making this sweater and hemmed the neckline instead. This alteration gives the sweater a lower neckline. I took some pictures with the sleeves scrunched up to 3/4 length, and some at their normal length. They are extra long sleeves, which I think look comfortable.
Underneath the sweater my doll is actually wearing the silver leotard featured in this outfit. This is mainly due to the fact that I didn’t have any black knit stretch fabric on hand to make a spaghetti tank to wear underneath the sweater. I plan on adding a tank underneath when I have the fabric.
The skirt is two rectangles of fabric measuring about 20″ by 7″ (I’m not sure I’m just guesstimating). The two rectangles are red 2mm sequin fabric over black chiffon. The black chiffon I up-cycled from a human skirt. Although both fabrics are see through when standing alone, together they are perfectly appropriate. The black chiffon is about a fourth of an inch shorter than the red, allowing the red to hang a little longer. The two fabrics are joined at the waistband with a fold-over elastic casing. I used 10 1/2″ of black elastic.
I made the necklace by twisting white embroidery floss and tying it off. I have a Christmas charm bracelet that I have had for a few years and never worn. I decided it was time to make use of it and took off this snowman charm and put it on the white floss. The charms are a perfect size for dolls. Necklace!
I added some leggings to the ensemble as an afterthought. These leggings were featured in this outfit.
The shoes are Tree House Studio, which are sold at Hobby Lobby. I used them in this outfit too.
Filed under Accessories, American Girl Doll Clothing Patterns, Shoes, Skirts, Tops
It’s getting into the 20°F’s here, so it’s time for warm flannel snowflake pajamas! I bought 1/4 yard of this fabric at Jo-Ann. I had wanted to make pajama pants for my AG doll, and a nightgown for my Kidz doll out of the same fabric. Unfortunately, while cutting the pattern pieces I realized I wouldn’t have enough fabric to do this. The nightgown ended up being a shirt instead, but I had some white leggings on hand, so it turned out great anyway!
For the Kidz outfit, I made a flannel long-sleeve top, white knit leggings, and a skinny headband out of the fabrics scraps. The top I based with this pattern. I cut it about 2 1/2 inches shorter, which made it go until about 3/4 of an inch below the armpit. There, I gathered a rectangle and attached it to the upper top. I top stitched this, because I added top stitched hong kong finish to the sleeves and neck, mostly to lengthen the edges a little. The jammie top attaches in the back with 2 snaps. I have been working on improving my skills and this top has all finished edges except for the sleeve and neck hong kong has one raw edge each.
The headband was very simple, I didn’t measure or anything for it. I took a scrap and folded over the edges and stitched on each side, and then added a little elastic. I don’t like headbands for my dolls to be super tight, so I made this one loose. Looser is better than tighter, I think, because it goes on and off easily, and doesn’t crease the hair.
The leggings are featured in this outfit.
For the American Girl Doll pajama outfit, I used a plain white tank top that I had on hand. The tank top was made from this pattern.
The little bow is made from extra fabric scraps. I hot glued it, and then hot glued it to an alligator clip. This bow I learned to make here. It’s down the page a bit.
The pants are from this pattern bundle, which is $5.99. I got it for free on Freebie Friday! If you haven’t checked out Pixie Faire’s Freebie Friday, you definitely should. Every Friday, a vote takes place to determine which of four chosen patterns will be available to download for free. Today is Friday! Go to Pixie Faire and get the free pattern for today! Even if the pattern isn’t something I interested in at the moment, I always download it. I never know what I may want to sew in the future!
Which do you like better, the Kidz or AG pajama outfit?
I stopped by Hobby Lobby to check out a few things and found fat quilting quarters measuring 18″ by 20″ for 84¢ in the remnant section. Although this wouldn’t be enough material for human sized articles, it is enough to make a dress (or possibly two) for a doll! I also found some other fabric (for under $1), which ya’ll will be seeing in future posts.
The bodice for this dress is from this pattern: Katie Dress. I sewed some black rick rack to the neckline. I didn’t put it anywhere else on the dress, because sometimes I think rick rack can be overpowering. It attaches with Velcro in the back. I am okay with using Velcro on doll dresses, instead of a zipper. The skirt fabric is 4 1/2″ wide by 18″ long, gathered to 12 1/2″ long.
The shoes I purchased on Amazon.com, from Sophia’s as part of this set. I realized when I put them on that they are rather tight. They look fine, though.
The hair clip is a scrap of fabric folded over, hemmed on each edge, and folded in at the middle. It’s hot glued to a 1″ mini alligator clip, which came in a pack of 25 from Hobby Lobby for $2.99. That’s about 12¢ each.
A great place to find a lot of patterns without searching the Internet to find them yourself is Mommy’s Doll Club. Each themed patterns post has links to many free online patterns.
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Filed under Accessories, American Girl Doll Clothing Patterns, Dresses, Shoes
For the past few years, the dolls clothes I’ve made have been store neatly in shoe boxes. Recently the boxes began to overflow. Yestetrday I finally decided to do something about the situation. I did some research on doll hangers, and found a tutorial for making them from Fabric Bliss! It seemed simple enough with household items as the supplies. The tutorial suggests painting the popsicle sticks, but I made about 30 of theseand didn’t want to spend time painting and drying them.
Also, this tutorial didn’t include clips or anything for hanging pants/skirts. I devised a way to do it (see the picture below) using mini binder clips.
I ran out of popsicle sticks after about 30 hangers (because I bought a pack of 75 sticks), but have enough of the other supplies to make about 20 more. They are quick and easy to make, so I plan on continuing to make them until I have enough to hang all the doll clothing items I have sewn.
Hanger for tops (Tutorial Version)
Hanger for skirts/pants (My Adapted Version)
Supplies: Hot glue sticks, hot glue gun, cup hooks, mini binder clips, jumbo popsicle sticks
Hangers in action
Hangers in action 2
Filed under Accessories, American Girl Doll Clothing Patterns, How To
