While I had been busy with graduation and a visit from my parents, I have still been sewing in my little corner of the house.   I have focused on making starter wardrobes for A Doll Like Me.  Check out the link to see what an incredible endeavor this one-woman organization has become!  Amy is bombarded with current doll orders and some additional clothing is helpful for her to send with each doll.  It seems that the first thing a child does with his or her new doll is to change their clothing.  Why not make it fun and start them with a little wardrobe!?   I’m having fun sewing little outfits that are simple and easy to manipulate.  I’m also experimenting with some clothes that are a bit more complicated.   Here are some of the many things I’ve been sewing lately.  Thanks to Amy, I also have some doll photos to show you!!! I’m so excited!!

I’ve been making lots of drawstring dresses of course.  The pattern is a freebie, which is always nice.  It can be found here.  It’s a simple pattern and I’ve had some fun jazzing it up a bit with trim, contrasting bodice fabric and even an iron on patch.  I have also been feeling like the pattern is just too straight and it needed a little more flare at the bottom.  In my last dress, you may not notice, but the giraffe dress is a bit wider and has a little extra flare at the bottom.  Check out all of these photos to see some of the many summery prints that I’ve been able to pull from my stash.

You can see that I’m starting to do variations on the original pattern.  On the far right, you can see that I snuck in a matching dog patch on the center of the bodice.   There’s a close up below.

This dress has lots of adaptations, binding on the yoke, matching hem trim etc… but what you can’t tell is that tapered the skirt just a bit to add a drop more flare.  The original

Want to know what these dresses look like on the dolls?  Here are two photos of Amy’s A Doll Like Me wearing drawstring dresses that I made a few months ago.  The quilt was a donation, not made by me.  However, the dresses and the beach ball are mine of course!  Look at her dolls with their customizations to represent the exact limbs of the recipients.  Aren’t these dolls just gorgeous!??

picture courtesy of A Doll Like Me.

picture courtesy of A Doll Like Me.

I’ve also made some more boy shorts because boys need comfort dolls just as much as girls.  Here are some cargo shorts that were fun to make.  This is the pattern here, but I’ve adapted the side pocket to be functional.  If you read my blog, then you know that I love little tiny pockets.  I have thought about adding some additional ones on the back of these shorts, but so far I’ve resisted.

So many fun patterns for boy dolls to wear.  The pockets are real too!

Here’s a close up of the key fob on these shorts?  Now I’m not adding a key to these, but you know I could!!

Here are two of Amy’s dolls wearing shorts that I’ve made previously.

picture courtesy of A Doll Like Me.

picture courtesy of A Doll Like Me.

Finally, Amy has wanted some little doll pajamas. I finally found a good top/dress pattern to adapt into a nightgown.  Here is the original pattern without my adaptations.  I found the flannel print in my stash and felt it was the right print for a prototype.  The lace on the hem is probably more than 24 years old!  You can see that I went the extra step and put a nice pink elastic finish over the raw edge of the inside bodice.  With all those ruffles, I wanted to avoid any unravelling seams.  I like the smooth look of the inside bodice, even if no one else will notice but me.  With a little pink bow in the front center, this is ready for some lucky kid to put on their Doll Like Me.

A little doll flannel nightgown.

The back has velcro closure of course and check out that pink internal seam finish.

Then, the hardest job was finding a pattern for boy pajamas.  Here’s a great pattern found at Pixie Faire that I love, but it needed some adaptations for my purposes.  The pattern is for reversable pajamas.  Ok, that’s a nice idea, but it’s more fabric, more work and frankly, not necessary.  I made the first long sleeve pajamas as the pattern was written.  I was completely NOT HAPPY with how they came out.  While I loved the fabric, it just didn’t work well together.  Plus, with it being reversible, you use up quite a bit of fabric, that could otherwise make a separate pair of pj’s.

So, I redid the pattern, using the shorts and short sleeve version.  My top is still reversible (working on changing that), but the shorts are single layered and much cooler for summer!  LOL!  Check out those blue buttons, which are from my vintage button collection.  They are  more than 50 years old and not even a perfect match, but it works great.  If you’re wondering, no, the buttons ARE NOT FUNCTIONAl, they are just decoration.  The pattern calls for them and I figured a little extra zing couldn’t hurt.  The shirt is fastened with velcro, as you can see below.

Velcro is hidden inside so the buttons are not really functional.

I had fun going through my antique buttons to find these vintage beauties. They don’t even match exactly, but who can tell!?

There’s a lot more to show you, but a new post has been long overdue so here we go!  Coming up, I’ll have the perfect little doll summer dresses to show off.

Linking to:

Monday Making

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TGIFF