Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!
Have some more upcycled doll clothes made and figured I'd show them to you. I am determined to convince you that you can make some for your own doll. I don't love the idea of upcycling for only budgetary concerns, although making a doll dress (or three) for less than a $1 is always a thrill! I love the idea of upcycling because it takes something that might otherwise be thrown into the bin (and in turn, into a landfill. Did you know there are people who throw away their perfectly-fine-but-no-longer-cared-for clothes? *gasp* Such a foriegn concept to me. I digress) and makes it into something not only useful, but, in all likelyhood if you give it to the right little girl, something that will become a cherished keepsake. Or, at the very least, to give some little girl fun as she expands her Dolly Wardrobe.
Here are Electra and Sasha wearing a couple of the latest. Electra is wearing the colorful printed sun dress and Sasha is wearing the skirt that I made recently.(The shirt she is wearing is AG brand) Or rather, that I upcycled lately. 'Made' is a pretty relative term in this instance! Saying I made it like saying I 'cooked' when I opened a box of Hamburger Helper. Again, I digress. Seriously though, it's like the 'fast food' of sewing.
Here are Rose and Taylor in a couple of skirts I made out of one child sized skirt. I love when I am able to get two items out of same source item. Then they can wear 'twin' outfits or I can have an extra to gift to my daughters best friend or whatever... In this instance, there was only enough for one skirt to fit the 'larger torso' dolls and one to fit the 'slim line' dolls but I actually like that because body types differ in the real world too and so why not in the Doll House?
The process I used to make them is becoming a bit of a 'formula'. First you measure item on doll. In this case, the source item was a little mini skirt made for a 3month old. What???! Kind of odd, I thought, to have a mini skirt for a tiny baby but... Glad to find it because it makes a perfectly scaled doll skirt!
You can find the procedure I followed to make the skirt here. Because apparently I got going on that doll skirt and didnt' think to stop and take photos.
This source item was kind of an odd one. It was skirt made, presumably, for a baby. I forgot to take a photo of it before I took the elastic out and cut off the first section I was going to use for the doll dress but as you can see it was a LOT of fabric for a baby skirt. It was too much and so the elastic waist band was awkward looking and I could tell that it'd been made and then never worn, so it was basicaly a brand new, nearly made, set of dresses for dolls for me. All I needed to do was cut it in thirds, restring the elastic through the already existing space for elastic, insert it and sew a seam down the side. Then I just added a button for embellishment and ribbon for the neck tie. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. I like the idea of having salvaged the project of some well meaning baby clothes maker too. Win win!
Here is the original item in the pink skirts. I loved the color and the waist band (makes doll skirt nearly all by itself) and knew the 'cake' print was way too large in scale for the dolls so I decided to just cut as much of the fabric as possible below the 'cake', leaving some of the 'cake' as hem allowance because it would sewn into the hem and you'd not be able to see it anyway and it'd make the skirts as long as possible.
I am not really sure of the size of the source item? It's foriegn....? Here is the tag. I am guessing a size three or four but I am not positive.
Here is me measuring the source item on a doll. I think one of the most important steps in the upcycling process, when you're making doll clothes that is, is the draping and fitting before you even make the first cut! So, take the time to try it on the doll, it's worth it.
I realized that I'd probably be able to get a skirt out of the other portion of the skirt if I was very careful and not wast a bit of the skirt....
The first thing I did was cut off the part I wasn't going to use. I highly recommend using a ruler and a pencil to mark the lines you'll want to cut. It's really hard to eyeball it! Measure and make lines because cutting is forever! Here is skirt, all pinned and ready to be hemmed.
All hemmed.
To get both skirts, I needed it all so I made the sewing lines right next to each other, see above. The seam on far left is the seam for first skirt, then I zigzag it so it won't unravel, I leave a space to cut them apart and then another zig zag seam to keep second skirt from unraveling and then the second skirts seam. Make sense?
That being done, I cut them apart, put them right side out and done!
Here they are with some of the dolls in the animal print dresses I made here.
Here we have another victem... Ahem, I mean, source item. This time it's a really exotic printed ladies skirt with a waistband. I loved the print and I thought the bottom portion screamed sundress.
So I set to work... Cut off the top part.
'Hemmed' the top, allowing enough room for an elastic band to fit.
Insterted band, sewed a seam down the edge, added button embellishment and neck ribbons and done!
Only I wasn't too fond of how it looked. It seemed too loose to me. A bit like a muumuu I guess, but just not what I was envisioning when I started making it.
See, so loose! So I posted a photo on a Facebook Doll Group and voiced my dissatisfaction and someone suggested a belt.
So later in the day, I tried a belt on it. I liked it so well I just snapped a photo to upload immediately. I think it looks so much more cute with the belt! A few people said they liked the looser look so, I guess it's all a matter of taste.
That's it for now Doll Friends! See you next time!!
