With four little kids at home the majority of projects on my list are for them and I don't mind, it just doesn't give my little blog much variety. This is what we made yesterday...my girl's have been wanting to get matching clothes for them and their doll's. They see all the fancy outfits in the American Girl Magazine and they are a little out of our price range so we came up with this.
We made this red gingham dress a couple years ago for my little girl after she had been watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and loved the dress Milly wore at the Barn Raising...you know! Oh you don't, well it's only the best show ever and my very favorite growing up.
This was my favorite part!
So now she and her doll can dress up like Milly and go on all kinds of adventures together.
We added a little bow just to give it a little extra somethin, somethin!
It went together fairly quickly considering it was the first doll dress I have ever sewn.
If you are interested in making one for yourself click on Read More for the Tutorial.
First off you can buy a American Girl Doll Patterns at Fabric Stores for fairly cheap if not I found a printable version here.
Pin your pattern on to fabric and cut around, the front of my bodice was placed on a fold and then cut.
You should end up with three pieces that look like this, now do it a again for the lining.
I used the same fabric for the lining. Place fabric right sides together and sew shoulder seams together.
Now place these pieces right sides together and sew where my pins are in the photo.
Turn right side out and iron
Cut out two sleeves, hem the straight edge and gather both long sides. Not sure how to gather..check out this post.
Pin on to bodice and sew, this is kinda tricky as it is such a small opening but hang in there the second one was a lot easier than the first, you learn as you go.
Once you get the sleeves sewn on the bodice is finished, and all you need is a skirt. I don't use a pattern for this part I just cut out a rectangle that is twice as wide as the dolls waste measurement and as long as you want it to be.(knee length, ankle etc)
Hem the bottom of your rectangle and gather the top.
Pin the gathered edge of your rectangle to the bodice, right sides together and sew
And you're done..enjoy your new dress
Oh for the closure in the back you can use buttons, snaps, velcro...I used stick on velcro.
and here