This was a fun dress to make. I used the tunic pattern from Sew Serendipity, lengthened the sleeves, and added a full skirt. 6 yards of hand block printed cotton voile
This morning I woke up knowing what to do (after thinking about those fitting blog posts all day.) The important thing is that the waist be exactly at the underbust line and no lower/higher, so that’s what I need to make sure of. My helper pinned the back of the bodice closed for me, and I was able to determine that it was an inch too long, which I have trimmed. I did that by marking my underbust line right on the fabric with a sharpie, and then comparing it to the pattern and adding 5/8ths of an inch for seam allowance.
Neckline adjustment
Goals: put sleeves on the muslin to make sure they fit too.
All the bodice pieces
Alter the skirt pieces to make the waist measurement match the bodice measurement (necessary because the original pattern doesn’t go up to my size, but I have the supplemental PDF file that explains how to alter the pattern.)
I made this doll in December and gave her to Banana Cream Pie for her 5th birthday.
Banana Cream Pie burst into tears, threw the dolly on the floor and screamed at me that she did not want this for her birthday.
None of my other children have ever acted like that.
So I put the dolly away, thinking maybe I’d give her to someone who’d love her, a niece or a friend’s daughter. But not ready to part with her yet.
Banana Cream Pie found dolly the other day and said, “When are you going to make her a pink kitty? You said you would.” Did I?
She pestered me all Sunday afternoon until I sat down with some felt and made a pink kitty. Now dolly is acceptable, I guess.
I’m pretty sure a pink kitty by itself would have gotten as good or better reviews. I’m still asking myself if it’s my fault that I have an ungracious child. Nature? Nurture? Who knows.
I actually have pieces for 4 more dolls cut out, but not the heart to make them up yet. You can find the pattern free over at Make it and Love It, but I can’t guarantee you child will love it. I sure think it’s a cute pattern. The only alteration I made from the instructions was to make the doll hair out of flannel instead of felt for durability.
By a whole bunch, I mean that she buys several bolts of flannel, as in, she could start a store with the bolts of flannel she has in Rubbermaid tubs upstairs. It is awesome.
For Christmas, my sisters and sister-in-laws and I are invited over for pajama day. We cut out pajamas and sometimes get them sewn up as well. Mom does crafts and reads stories with the grandkids while we have a great time chopping up those yards and yards of flannel.
This year, I got all the girls’ Christmas pajamas cut out, but not sewn. Those almost pajamas languished in a pile for more than 2 months.
Then last Friday afternoon the snow began falling. It continued to fall all night and all the next morning. Saturday morning I fixed breakfast (funnel cakes) and cleaned up the kitchen. Then it was time to fix lunch (hash browns scrambled eggs, and country gravy–I was in a breakfast mood still). After lunch I took a nap (pregnant ladies get to do that sometimes. ) When I woke up the snow was still falling.
So I got out my sewing machine. I popped my 6 hour A&E Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle) in the DVD player. I pulled out that stack of Christmas pajamas and got busy. By the time Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett were married and kissing the bride, I had finished four flannel pants, one fleece pants and matching fleece hoodie, and one nightgown.
I still had one nightgown left, so I put I my Focus Films version of Pride and Prejudice (Kiera Knightly and Matthew McFaydden). That was a mistake. While I can sometime watch this version and get enjoyment from it (sometimes I need a P&P fix and I don’t have 6 hours), Kiera just can’t hold up in a back to back comparison. The timing of every line is off and the whole thing is over acted.
I just put my head down and finished that last nightgown.
Finishing that big project was so satisfying, that I got sewing fever. Church was canceled on Sunday because of bad road conditions and I had to fight the siren song of my sewing machine all day long. But I triumphed over that temptation and my machine had its day of rest.
Then today, I whipped the cover back off and sewed again. Peach Pie and Pumpkin Pie each have an 18″ doll that they got for Christmas three years ago. (They aren’t American Girl Dolls, they are a Target knock-off version.)
Well the dream of these two girls hearts has been to have matching pajamas with their dolls. I saved the scraps from cutting out their nightgowns and Voila! Today their wildest dreams came true!!
I was a little worried when I got out the pattern pieces. These doll clothes always take more fabric than I think they should.
If you look closely, you can see that I quilted the yoke on this nightgown. I used the AG pattern for Kristen’s nightgown, which you can download here. I just left the cuffs off the sleeves and turned the neck piece under so the nightgown would be the same as Peach Pie’s.
Pumpkin Pie is happy too. Hooray for being twiners with your doll!
One good thing about these dolls is that they make thinking up Christmas presents easy. What shall I get for the girls for Christmas? Doll clothes & accessories!!
Last Christmas, I made this beautiful red wool coat from an old wool blazer and a little girl’s plaid wool shirt. Isn’t it gorgoeus?!! I had so much fun sewing it.
I enbroidered the button holes by hand because they were so small that I was afraid my machine would just bung them up. The covered buttons came right from the shirt.
Sewing doll clothes is so much more fun now than it was when I was a girl, because the clothes look good and fit the doll when I am done!! This apron dress was made from scraps left over from a dress I made Peach Pie. It isn’t as close a match in style as the nightgown, but it’s not too bad. That tiny ric rac around the apron was murderous to sew.
I didn’t have another thrifted wool piece to make PumpkinPie’s doll coat, so hers is made from fleece. It worked well enough and is pretty, but it isn’t luminous the way the wool is. Yes, I made the tam-o-shanter and muff, too.
This dress does not correspond to any of PumpkinPie’s wardrobe. It is just purple, which was her favorite color for a long time. Also, the flowers were a good scale for a doll dress. The coats and this purple dress came from Addy’s Pretty Clothes patterns. The tam and muff are Samantha’s. In my opinion, Addy and Josephine have the prettiest dresses.
Baby Dumpling is saying lots of cute things right now.
When she sees someone else eating something she wants, she reaches for it, saying, “num num num num.”
When she’s happy, she toddles all around the house saying, “gabby gabba gabby dagabbada.”
She loves to rock baby dolls.
It is always fun for me to see how each of my children are different and like different things. That old nature versus nurture debate always interested me. I definitely think that some things you are born with. Only 2 of my 5 daughters really like playing with baby dolls. Another prefers puzzles, another is always creating elaborate games and props to go with them, and the other girl is always talking (loudly) about what would you think of this or that?
The dolly that Baby Dumpling is holding is one I made 2 years ago. We had a big blizzard that trapped us in our house for a week, but we still had electricity. An unsual occurrence here in southwest Missouri where a big storm is often more ice than snow.
We used freezer paper to trace the pattern and ironed it right onto an old sheet to make the doll’s bodies (We were snowed in, I had to use fabric available!)
The sheet turned out to be a mistake in the long run because the fabric has torn across the doll’s arms and legs and at the necks. What do you all use when you make dolls? Perhaps the sheet would have been okay had it not already been so old?
I crocheted little caps for the dolls which we tied fringe all the way around to make their hair. I sewed the wigs to the doll’s heads with invisible thread.
Two of the girls chose for me to embroider their doll’s faces and one chose to color the face.
It was fun to let each girl choose the fabric scraps for her doll’s shoes. Peach Pie’s doll is the one with the belly button. Pumpkin Pie is the one who chose to draw her own face, different from the pattern.
We used an old American Girl Doll pattern reduced to 70% for the dresses and they look so pretty! (Specifically it is Josephine’s brown dress but with short sleeves.) They each chose the fabric for their doll’s dress as well, and here is where I had to bite my tongue. I wanted the switch 2 of the dresses to match the shoes, but the girls didn’t take the shoe color into consideration at all. I told myself, it’s their doll, let them choose. But it was hard.
I never mind snow days when we still have electricity to run the internets and the sewing machine!
I recently discovered that my list of Project links on the side of my blog caused a small problem. Any blog that I linked to that had enabled “links to this post” would show every blog post I made–even though my links was over on the side and not in a specific post. **EMBARASSING**
That prompted me to give Pintrest another try. I’m loving it now, and you can see all the projects I want to make over there now.
I made this doll in December and gave her to Banana Cream Pie for her 5th birthday. 
Baby Dumpling is saying lots of cute things right now.
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 