My Sewing Adventures

I recently got a sewing machine which I have been slowly trying to get used to using.  I spent most of the afternoon today making clothing for my daughters' dolls out re-purposed clothing.  I am not quite ready to use clothing patterns yet and am trying to learn about clothing structure from re-purposing old clothing.  Below are pictures of the projects I completed today.

Emily and Molly are wearing knee socks made from two socks that I no longer had a match for.  I found the tutorial on Karen Mom of Three's Blog.  Click HERE to see it.

A close up of the knee socks.

My youngest daughter LOVES princesses.  We had this old dress that she would just not part with.  I decided to give it a little makeover so that her dolls' could wear it now.  It is a 12 month sized dress.

Here is Molly wearing the dress above after I cut and sewed it to fit her better.  It is still too long but there was no way I was going to risk possibly cutting off any of the princess.  I may make an adjustment at the waist line later tonight to bring the length up....but that we have to be after my daughter goes to sleep so that I can get the doll back.  =)

This was a 3 month sized infant skirt that I found at a thrift store a long time ago.

Here Kanani is wearing the skirt above.  It has built in bloomers which made this a little tricky but it was easier to keep them than cut them out.  I used Kanani for measurements to mark how much smaller to make the skirt.and then cut the whole skirt down the middle in the back.  I sewed the bloomers back together first and then sewed the skirt part back together.  The shirt is a newborn size baby shirt.  Although it is a little loose, I do not plan to make any adjustments to it.

I forgot to take a before picture but this dress was made from one of my youngest daughter's peasant type shirts that she has out grown (size 18-24 months.)  Again, I used the doll, Olivia from Springfield Dolls, to help me measure how much the shirt needed to come in to fit her.  I first cut the sleeves off of the shirt.  Then I cut the extra material off of the back of the dress and then sewed the bottom half (up to her waist) back together. 

I left the elastic band at the waist un-sewn and used velcro to close the back of the dress at the waist.  The top of the dress is a halter style.  I cut the top of the dress right beside Olivia's arms but left the collar attached so that I could use it to velcro together the back of the dress at the top.

I used one of the sleeves from the peasant shirt the dress is made from above to make "Veronica" another pair of pants.

Close up of the pants.

 I really want to sew a few more clothing items this weekend as well as a sleeping bag for one of the dolls (not sure which doll yet.)  Hopefully, I will squeeze it in along with the furniture I am making and an Easter egg hunt for my girls.  Please feel free to leave comments!