Hello Doll Friends!!
I've been busy working on Doll Clothes Upcycled from baby clothes. I keep making them for three reasons.
The first is because it's honestly a lot of fun seeing them come together so easily. I sewed doll clothes the old fashioned way when I was a child, with my Granny, and it was (and still is, in my opinion) was a tedious job of cutting patterns, cutting fabric after pinning patterns, sewing tiny bits together after they are cut etc etc etc. My Granny was a genius at it, with the patience of a saint. Me, not so much. So seeing these little clothes come together with hardly any of that fuss, it's just fun!
Secondly, I am trying to perfect my 'craft' of doll clothes from inexpensive sources because my eventual goal is to find gently loved dolls second hand and give them makeovers and fit them with a wardrobe and gift them to little girls who might need a dolly in her life. That's my goal. I am using this year to teach myself to make them easily and then I hope to do a doll or two a year till... Well... Whenever.
Then of course, thirdly, there is a girl I know who is having a birthday in April and her dolly has nearly no clothes. Unacceptable! So, I am working on making her a little wardrobe.
With all that said, here is my newest projects. This time I found two 6/9month size baby skirts at a thrift store. They were so cute and screamed doll clothes to me and so I brought them home, ran them through the washer and set to work.
Here is the first skirt, a fun fruit print.
As you can see, it's a baby sized skirt in size 6/9mnths
As you can also see, it's got a little built in pants too... Those will need to come out. CAREFULLY cut them out as close the seam as possible so it leaves a nice edge for your doll skirt.
Here is skirt minus the pants.
Next measure your skirt on your doll. Here is where I got ahead of myself and forgot to photo the rest of the procedure.... Luckily I did two skirts! So... Here are the first two things I made from this skirt.
Here they are!!
So here is the second skirt. As you can see, I've already measured it on my doll. Those two pins are where it came together in the back when I 'pinched' it on to her waist.
Then, notice how I've turned it inside out and used those two pins as a guideline for where my sewing line needs to be? Then I pin it down that line. I am funny, I usually make a pencil line down it so I can sew down that line. You can even see the white pencil lines I made if you look close.
Then, I sew down that line. I suspected that the leftover material (on both of the baby skirts!) might be enough to make something for the HeartforHearts dolls but also knew if I didn't sew it out while it was all pinned and ready, it'd be hard to go back and sew it afterwards because it'd be so small. So, crossing my fingers, I simply zipped the sewing line (the first on left) into my larger skirt, another zigzag line beside that (because that is how I roll, I always zigzag my seam allowances because it keeps them from fraying. I want these clothes to last! Kids are TOUGH on doll clothes!). Then, about a half inch from that, I zigzagged (in some places twice over to be thorough) another seam down the smaller 'skirt'. I knew I had hardly enough fabric on that side and so no room for much seam allowance at all, so I zigzagged the one seam I'd have to make it durable.
Then, naturally, you cut them apart.
And, Tada! Doll Skirts!! Or Doll Skirts and dress as in the case of the fruity ones. All told, with taking photos too, these things come out in about 45 minutes. I guess sometimes I underestimate my sewing abilities as 'low' because I am comparing myself to my Granny who could sew in a dark room with her hand tied behind her back. It's honestly not too hard though and practice makes perfect! With source materials gleaned from Thrift Stores and Garage Sales, it's a fun way to hone sewing skills! It's the modern day way to bond with your daughter too because it's like 'convenience sewing'. Hope ya'll have as much fun with it as I do!
Till next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment