UpCycle Tutorial Part One; Baby Onesies to 18inch Doll Tshirts!

Greetings Doll Friends!!

I've upcycled doll dresses from newborn baby onesies before and even tried a shirt before. I wasn't happy with the hem that I did on the last shirt and wanted to think of another way to do it so it didn't look 'bulky' at the end. Reading a blog somewhere one day it mentioned that t-shirt material generally doesn't fray... Hmmmm... Wonder if I could just cut them off and leave them? Being me though, it didn't look 'finished' enough... What to do. I brainstormed it and left the pile of newborn onesies in my 'to sew' project box until I came up with something. Then we decided to move and every single thing got packed up for months! So... As my first sewing project after unpacking my sewing machine... I decided to play around with shirts.

I am not sure what made me think of using interfacing. Maybe the fact that I had a bunch sitting in a sewing notions bag I got for like $1 once. I decided to give it a try, sewing it around the bottom of the t-shirt after I cut it off to the length I wanted. I first made the t-shirts too long I think... But I gradually made them shorter. 

I just cut off the onesie to the length I wanted it to be after measuring on doll. Like I say, this first one I made a bit on the 'too long' side of things but the technique was what I was after. It's easy to be open to playing around with items you paid so little for! I got every single one of these onsies at a 'stuff a bag for a $1' sale. So I practically paid nothing!

I pinned the interfacing to the inside of the shirt...

And just zigzag seamed it on!

I like the way they came out. One caveat is that the opening is not 'stretchy anymore and so it's a bit tricky to maneuver the doll into it... But it's doable and I like the way it makes it look more finished. 

This is the first one I did... Was just experimenting and decided the interfacing was way too wide but it was just an experiment and it looked cute on doll and so I left it as it was. 

I did the thread in a different color in my bobbin because I was trying to show my daughter how seams work. Looks a bit odd but... 

For some quick, easy and cheap doll clothes, it worked pretty well!