Last month, No.2 Son was invited to his girlfriend’s birthday party (they’re both ten) so I had to come up with an appropriate gift idea – no mean feat when you’re used to buying for boys.
I don’t know about you, but the amount of parties The Boys get invited to means that you can end up spending a small fortune throughout the year in presents, even though I try to spend no more than £10 maximum per child.
£10 doesn’t buy much nowadays, unless you opt for the useful book token which, despite being a great gift which kids love to spend, is hard to get excited about when you open it. You never hear “WOW! It’s just what I’ve always wanted – thank you!”
So I had a little think and remembered that this little girl had recently been to America on holiday and had come back with a “Truly Me” American Girl doll.
Apparently, these dolls are a bit of a cult item in the USA with girls and women alike, and you can choose the skin, hair and eye colour to match your own.
With the doll itself costing $115 and each item of clothing costing upwards of $10, she, understandably, had a very limited wardrobe thus far.
So I decided to put aside a whole day and make some clothes for her.
With a bit of searching on the internet, I found several patterns suitable for an 18″ doll, and these are what I came up with.
Remember THAT hoodie I made earlier in the Summer? Well, I used some of the leftover fabric to make a sweatshirt for the doll with popper closures at the back.
I matched the sweatshirt with some purple elasticated jogging bottoms and that was one outfit completed.
Using the same T-shirt pattern as for the sweatshirt, I made a plain white Tee to which I added a ruffle to jazz it up a bit.
A velcro back was used this time.
The little lace-trimmed A-line skirt took hardly any fabric at all and was whipped up in minutes, again with a velcro back fastening.
Next up was a simple dress which could be worn on its own or with the white ruffle tee as before.
I knew a ‘proper’ dress would be appreciated, so this next one took a little more effort, adding full lining and ric rac trim at the waist and hem.
I even inserted a back zip to make it more special.
Finally, one more top, this time in blue, and a coordinating elasticated straight skirt with side splits.
I can’t tell you quite how much fun I had making them all and, not only that, I worked out that, had similar outfits been purchased, the cost would have been upwards of £/$100!
And guess what? She said: –
“WOW! It’s just what I always wanted – thank you!”
September 18, 2016 at 4:20 pm
Wow!!!! What an amazing array of clothes you made – she will have hours of fun with those. Very impressive!
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September 18, 2016 at 5:11 pm
She loved them apparently, so it was well worth the time and effort expended:)
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September 18, 2016 at 9:32 pm
Gorgeous present and what a wonderful reaction.
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September 19, 2016 at 2:43 pm
It makes it all worth it when you get a reaction like that!
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September 18, 2016 at 10:07 pm
Such a thoughtful idea and gifts….she could be a potential daughter-in law now LOL!! You really must have made that little girl so very happy with all those new garments for her doll, and, by the sounds of things,you spent a thoroughly enjoyable day making them too 🙂
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September 19, 2016 at 2:45 pm
My mother made me a whole wardrobe full of clothes for my doll for Christmas one year and I still remember how excited I was! Hopefully she’ll get the same amount of pleasure from them as I did forty years ago:)
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September 21, 2016 at 8:22 am
I’m sure she will!! 😀
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September 18, 2016 at 10:18 pm
Lovely creations, and such an inspired & thoughtful a gift.
Well done Sheila!
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September 19, 2016 at 2:46 pm
Thank you Del, more exciting than a book token and more thoughtful than money, I hope:)
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September 19, 2016 at 8:31 pm
Def’nitely! 😄
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September 18, 2016 at 10:30 pm
What a lovely collection of clothes (and they’ll never be outgrown!) for a lucky little girl. She’ll think of you every time she she plays with them. 🙂
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September 19, 2016 at 2:47 pm
I will be pleased if she wears them out – you know they’re well loved, then! I think she’s glad (for the moment) that No.2 Son is her boyfriend:)
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September 19, 2016 at 2:52 am
Oh my goodness, what fun. I haven’t sewn dolls clothes in years, but now I’m wishing I knew a little girl with similar interests. You’ve created a gorgeous wardrobe in a a nice variety of colors and styles, and they’re all personal to the doll too, not mass-produced.
It’s a delightful gift, Sheila. I’m happy to hear, too, that is was appreciated.
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September 19, 2016 at 2:49 pm
Doll’s clothes are such fun to make as they’re, on the whole, quick and easy and the results are pretty instant. It’s always nice to have something bespoke, too, so that nobody else has it, don’t you think?
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September 26, 2016 at 6:12 pm
Agreed, Sheila, on all fronts.
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September 19, 2016 at 8:40 am
A wow from me too! I’d have loved them too for my tiny tears, whom my sister named Titty! Tiny tears was a bit of a gob full! 😀
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September 19, 2016 at 2:50 pm
No.1 Son had a Timmy Tears for his second birthday as he was always stealing his sister’s Tiny Tears. It had boy parts that actually weed, too!
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September 19, 2016 at 8:53 am
What a lucky girl! What a lovely thing for you to do for her – so thoughtful. And thanks for a brilliant idea for presents for my partners grand daughters for Christmas (oh my the c word already!) X
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September 19, 2016 at 2:51 pm
Oh yes, great Christmas present idea for granddaughters – alas ours is only a year old so it will be a few years before I get to make any more:(
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September 19, 2016 at 9:35 am
These are so lovely! My mum used to make clothes for my Sindy doll when I was little and they were so much nicer than the ‘real’ thing!
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September 19, 2016 at 2:52 pm
My mum used to make clothes for our dolls, too, and we always preferred them to shop bought ones which were so badly made and often fell apart within minutes.
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September 19, 2016 at 9:39 am
I hope your son got an extra slice of birthday cake in recognition of your efforts. Despite finding most dolls a bit creepy (I don’t like this one’s teeth 😉 ), I must confess she is very well turned out. Would this be a fun project to do with your students or do not enough girls play with dolls these days?
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September 19, 2016 at 2:54 pm
Girls definitely do still play with dolls, but I think the small scale may make sewing a bit too fiddly for young hands, especially with quarter inch seam allowances rather than the five eighths that they’re used to!
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September 19, 2016 at 10:25 am
Awesome. That is the best gifts ever. I do remember having a pretty large doll when I was a little girl, and my grandmother always made loads of clothes for my doll each time she made us something. Perfect idea. 🙂
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September 19, 2016 at 2:56 pm
Can you remember how excited you were to get new clothes? I know I can, so you can see why I had so much fun making them for her – the thought of her enjoying dressing and undressing her dolls spurred me on to make more than one outfit.
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September 20, 2016 at 8:59 am
🙂 Absolutely. I had a whole suitcase (the old brown school type) full of clothes, sweaters, socks, the works. We had the best fun when it was “wash day” and we got a big bucket with soap and were allowed to hang outside on the washing lines with real clothes pegs for it to dry. 🙂 lol. I don’t think my grandma enjoyed the ironing later, but the washdays were super fun.
The joys of growing up on a farm, even washdays were fun. 🙂
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September 20, 2016 at 1:13 pm
Hee hee, I remember helping my Gran on wash day – hauling that great big, heavy mangle in from the shed and turning it by hand was our favourite bit because we had an electric mangle on our twin tub at home!
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September 21, 2016 at 9:47 am
So amazing. Our washing machine was old and had these 2 rollers over the water basin that you would feed the clothing through to squeeze and wring the water out. We were always warned to be extra careful and not get our hand or fingers in the rollers. No washing is so much faster these days. 🙂
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September 21, 2016 at 11:40 am
Those rollers are called a mangle – lots of fun for kids but not so much for adults:)
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September 19, 2016 at 10:51 am
I would have enjoyed making all those clothes too. That’s a fabulous idea for a birthday present.
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September 19, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Doll’s clothes are so quick and easy to make that you can’t fail to have fun – especially when you know how much they’re going to be played with. What little girl doesn’t love playing dress up with her dolls?
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September 19, 2016 at 3:56 pm
I still do! Haha!
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September 19, 2016 at 11:05 am
Definitely a “Best Gift” and what a sweet gesture you did. Now his invites will double so other girls can get new doll clothes too. LOL I’m a member of Daughters of the American Revolution (a proven Revolutionary War ancestor…sorry! 🙂 and last year volunteers “adopted” a famous Daughter – past or present – where we purchased an AG doll and then created an outfit to match the image of the Daughter we adopted. You won’t believe who I chose. Tom Thumb’s wife, Lavinia Warren! Why? Because she was wearing the most darling little dress. (Link below to image). The rest of my chapter members were like “Why on earth did you choose a dwarf?” Duh…plaid matching! Yes, I’m a sewing nerd. Personally I don’t get the whole AG doll cult either. I could pay my electric bill with the cost of that doll. But my chapter paid for the doll and I labored away on the dress. I even styled her hair exactly as the image. I had entirely too much fun with it. Just from Texas chapters alone, we donated over 300 AG dolls and hundreds of outfits to children in foster care. You’ve inspired me. My granddaughter is almost 3, but it’s never too early to start a doll wardrobe.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=tom+thumbs+wife&view=detailv2&&id=594C73260E2395FF120766EA89A796317D116C6C&selectedIndex=0&ccid=7f6vs4cH&simid=607992818505223759&thid=OIP.Medfeafb387074e719f37ce24a059bf1do0&ajaxhist=0
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September 19, 2016 at 3:01 pm
I can see why you had as much fun as I did making them – it’s a little bit addictive and you just want to keep going! Yes, the shop bought clothes are nice but, at $10, it’s just not viable to have very many. All of the outfits used just scraps of fabric so literally didn’t cost a penny to make – just a day out of my life, which was a good excuse to sew all day making something entirely frivolous!
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September 19, 2016 at 11:36 am
That’s fantastic! She must have been thrilled to get so many outfits in one go and fabrics are lovely. Abi always wanted an American girl doll but they were just too expensive to get shipped over but I managed to get her quite a few of the books second hand.
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September 19, 2016 at 3:03 pm
I’d never heard of the American Doll before now, but I have an American girl as a student and she got her best friend onto it, hence my making the clothes for her doll. She was thrilled with how many I made and it was a pleasure to do.
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September 19, 2016 at 12:39 pm
My niece had the American girl dolls when she was younger. They are the rave here in the states. Getting to go to the AG store in New York is the bomb for any little girl. You did a fab job on your outfits. They are so cute. Love them all.
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September 19, 2016 at 3:06 pm
My friend told us all about the AG store, although I’m not sure which branch it would have been, somewhere in Florida, I assume, as they were going to Disney World. Apparently, she was like a kid in a sweet shop and totally overawed with the sheer scale of the place!
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September 19, 2016 at 12:41 pm
Aww I bet you had so much fun, I personally would have made one outfit and be done with it haha, what a lucky girl 🙂
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September 19, 2016 at 3:07 pm
Bet you couldn’t stop at one! That was my intention, too, but it’s addictive once you’ve started and I just wanted to make more!
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September 19, 2016 at 2:18 pm
Definitely check out AG Playthings. They have the Pleasant Company patterns as pdf. http://www.agplaythings.com/AG%20Patterns/DollDressPatterns.html
If you sign up for Lee & Pearl’s newsletter (http://leeandpearl.com/), you will get a free pattern ever year. This year is one inspired by Brazil & Olympics.
Otherwise, in October I am hosting a doll clothing week over on my blog. There will be a list of free patterns also.
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September 19, 2016 at 3:08 pm
That’s good to know, thank you. All of these were free patterns from the internet, too.
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September 19, 2016 at 7:10 pm
This is perfect! I just bought my daughter one of these for her birthday, with only one spare outfit! I’m definitely going to get sewing some more for her, what a great idea!!
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December 28, 2016 at 2:45 am
Awesome! Boyfriend at ten? Unusual, but I guess I understand
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December 28, 2016 at 9:12 am
I use the word very lightly – at that age, as soon as you are boyfriend and girlfriend, you don’t talk to each other anymore!
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December 28, 2016 at 12:21 pm
Ha ha, I see!
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February 16, 2017 at 2:36 am
I’m 25 now and I remember when. American girl dolls just came out. I wanted one so bad! Awesome project! You are very talented!
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