One of the things I love most about summer is that we are able to carve out some more time for doll projects! Zoey and I have been having some fun lately working on some sewing projects for the dolls. For this project, a mini skirt, we used a pattern from the book Sew in Style by Erin Hentzel (Zoey got this book for Christmas last year). We are both very new to sewing so we needed something very simple for our first project...this was perfect!

Sew in Style by Erin Hentzel

One of the things that I love about this book is that she rates all the projects from easiest to hardest and she's very thorough with descriptions, photos, directions and also includes a glossary of sewing terms that you should become familiar with...all in a way that isn't overwhelming for a beginner!

Here are some shots of our doll skirt...

(Please don't mind the sparkly looking backdrop on our basement wall...we recently had a birthday party here and just haven't taken it down yet!)



We had a little hiccup along the way with the velcro...accidentally sewed one strip on the wrong side of the fabric, but we got to figure out how to use our seam ripper so that's good!



Here is Zoey's doll, Zoe, modeling her new summer mini skirt with one of American Girl's tee's...doesn't she look ready for a fun day downtown with friends?

Reversible Wrap Doll Skirts

Time for some spring skirts!  There's a great pattern HERE for these reversible wrap skirts.  

 

This pattern is very user friendly.  I would recommend trimming a bit by the corners before turning things right side out and a bit of pressing/ironing helps if you plan to topstitch all the way around.  I also noticed that our Molly and Samantha (both Pleasant Company) could have used about an extra inch around the waist.  So you may want to measure your doll and adjust your pattern before cutting into any special fabric.



I also added buttons, ribbon or gems to both sides of my skirts for a little extra pizzaz.

 

I love how they turned out and I know I'll be making more real soon!

Sewing with Misty - Turn Pants into a Doll Skirt!

Now that our doll family has doubled in size to four dolls, I've been scouring the internet for easy doll clothing to make.  I was really happy when I found this quick tutorial on Creating My Way to Success for a denim skirt made out of a pants leg by Creatively Content!


Here's our Molly wearing her new denim skirt.  I love how quickly this skirt came together and really, any pant(s) leg would work.  How cute would a corduroy skirt be?



I added some lace trim to the bottom of my skirt for a sweet touch and used some puffy paint and a sharpie to hide some existing stains.  Here's a look at the inside of Molly's skirt.  All I used was a basic straight stitch for the waist as well as for the lace.



And that's it!  Now to find more pants around here to cut up!

Sewing w/Misty - Matching Girl and Doll Birthday Skirts

I enjoy sewing.  I'm self taught so I really enjoy it when I find an easy tutorial with pictures.  I saw this skirt a few years ago on No Big Dill but never got around to making one.  Then recently while playing around Pinterest I found it again and with Ruby's quickly approaching birthday I decided to give it a whirl!  Here's my version of a Biased Skirt using No Big Dill's tutorial found here.



These pictures were taken after a long day of school and a bus ride home that included the wearing of snow-pants thus the wrinkles!  My favorite part of this skirt is the back.  I love how the elastic gathers and gives the skirt a wee bustle.



I simply scaled everything down for the doll skirt.  I based my pattern off one of Ruby's doll skirts, used 1" strips of all the fabrics and 1/4" elastic in the waistband.  Assembly was exactly the same as with Ruby's skirt.  Crystal's skirt may not twirl as much as Ruby's but she too polite to say anything.



There are so many color possibilities with this skirt.  I'm finding that most simple "skirt" tutorials online can easily be scaled down for dolls.  They don't require much fabric and the dolls never seem to complain if they're itchy or too tight.