Saturday, August 16, 2008

Molly's New Clothes

After looking at the prices for official American Girl clothing, B and I were very glad to find free patterns for Molly's clothes, available at American Girl Playthings. I thought this would be a good time to teach B to sew--how hard could it be to sew doll clothes?

We decided to start with something simple that didn't require a pattern: a fleece sleeping bag. (The official bed that we ordered with Molly came with a bedspread and pillow, but no blanket, so B thought we needed one.) That turned out pretty well:

American Girl Molly with homemade sleeping bag
Next on the list was a set of underwear, which morphed into summer PJs when we couldn't find suitable underwear fabric. This is where the teach-B-to-sew plan started to fall apart. After showing her how to pin the pattern and cut out the pieces, we got to the point in the directions where we were told to sew them with a "knit stretch" stitch. Knit stretch? After 18+ years of using this machine, I had to dig out the manual to find out how to do it. It involves a special presser foot, and holding the fabric on the wrong side of the foot. The photo below is of the second pair, that I made by myself after B went to bed. The first pair we made didn't have the lace trim, and B thought both top and bottom were too long, so I whipped up this set:

American Girl Molly with homemade underwear
Last item was a set of winter pjs. B picked out a flannel plaid for them. I had forgotten how much fun it is to match up plaids while sewing. The skinny seams (1/4" seam allowance) and little tiny pieces didn't help, either. But, Molly now has a comfy pair of flannel pjs for winter:

American Girl Molly with homemade plaid flannel pajamas

This turned out to be a lot more work for ME than I had bargained for, but B and I are both pleased (I have no idea what Molly thinks of all this). For a little over $25 in fabric and notions, we have two pairs of pjs, a fleece sleeping bag, an extra set of summer pjs/warm underwear (which is probably going to be given away), and enough fleece for another blanket or two. Next on the list is going to be a sundress, I think: B is concerned that Molly is too hot, as she came with a sweater and heavy skirt.

1 comment:

Anna Banana said...

Adorable! Brings back memories of sewing with my mom.